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Forum index » Archive » Archive: Chasing the Wish » CTW: Interaction

Hollow Needle Email re nothing in particular

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AbuAmaal
Veteran

Joined: 05 Mar 2003
Posts: 87
Location: 85 Turkey Buzzard Bridge Road

Hollow Needle Email re nothing in particular

Quote:

From: hollowneedleSPLATaglauranj.org
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 16:35:03 -0400
To: Abu Amaal <abuamaal @ earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Catalog/information

Dear Dr. Amaal,
Thank you so much for your continued interest. I've been so overwhelmed by

sorting through the contents of the old trunk and preparing for the
Library
auction that I've fallen woefully behind in my correspondence. And, I
haven't
gotten around to making out that list of books either. Our little shop has
been
overwhelmed by visitors recently and it has left me slight chance for
cataloging my inventory. At times there have been so many strangers
browsing
that I dared not take my eyes off of them; one cannot be too trusting
these
days, you know. For all I know you were among them and failed to introduce

yourself. I cannot say that I have met your Mr. Fox Logan. Do you think it
is
in my best interest to do so?

I'll be posting our next newsletter dedicated to our lock and key
collection as
soon as I can get the attention of our town's scatter-brained webmaster.

Sincerely,
Phyllis Willingham, Proprietor

Nothing remarkable, but there it is just for the record.
I'm keeping up my side of the correspondence, but I don't really have anything on my mind.

- AA

Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 1:41 am

AbuAmaal
Veteran

Joined: 05 Mar 2003
Posts: 87
Location: 85 Turkey Buzzard Bridge Road

Hollow Needle Email re: l'Aiguille Creuse

Quote:

Subject: Old Books
Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 10:24:16 -0400
From: hollowneedleSPLATaglauranj.org
To: Abu Amaal <abuamaal@earthlink.net>
References: 1

Dear Dr. Amaal,

Now that I have caught up on my pressing back-log of email correspondence, I
feel as though a great cloud of confusion has been lifted from my mind. I
really must laugh at myself for not recognizing your reference to Micawber
Books. Even though you transposed the owner's name, I should have remembered
going into his store last summer. Perhaps, I should imitate his practice and
place little signs around my shop asking my customers to keep an eye on each
other for me. The increased activity in my shop has indeed resulted in an
increase in sales but this has been off-set by the disappearance of smaller
items. I suppose people look at me and think, "She's obviously wealthy, so I
feel justified in stealing from her." It never ceases to amaze me that
people
offer more respect to beggars on the street than they do to those of us who
have attained a degree of success.

Be that as it may, I do so love browsing through old book stores. My love of
old books goes back to my early childhood when I briefly had a French nanny
named Marie Claire. She had an old book that she would read to me at
bedtime.
It was in French but she translated it for me and it was quite an adventure
story. I have never learned to read or write French but I learned enough
verbally to navigate my way through Paris without offending its touchy
natives.
When she left my parents' employ, she gave me the book as a farewell present
and I have it to this day. For a time, I would hold it to my bosom like a
teddy
bear and recite the story to myself to evoke her presence by my bedside. I
could not, and still can't, read a word of it; it might as well be in code.
But, just placing my hand upon it gives me a feeling of peace and security.
Perhaps, you are familiar with it even though it is a decidedly obscure
book.
It is titled, L'Aiguille creuse, and was written by Maurice Leblanc in 1909.
The story, as I remember it, is about a famous French burglar and art thief
who
had a secret hideaway in a cave in Etretat, France. There he hoarded such
treasures as the original Mona Lisa and relics of the Kings of France.
Indeed,
I named my shop after that cave � the Hollow Needle -- and meant it to imply
that it holds a treasure throve of rare collectibles with a hint of mystery
and
hidden secrets. Alas, my allusion is as obscure as the book and no one "gets
it."

Your comments about the manuscript page are very interesting. In my years of
dealing in antiques, I have learned that when I customer believes an item to
be
older and more valuable than I do, it is wise to indulge their fancies. Upon
such misconceptions are windfall profits made...

About the looming investigation, I really have no comment. And this is not
just
because my husband told me to reply this way to reporters. I honestly have
no
knowledge of the "wheeling and dealing" that goes on. My husband, Douglas,
revels in this kind of thing but I find it all rather distasteful. I am sure
you can believe me when I say *those* people aren't my kind. They have
wealth
but they lack class.

Yours truly,
Phyllis

Now this seems interesting.

In fact I located that book immediately, in French, on seeing the name
of the antique shop, and read through enough of it to get the story,
particularly the ending as detailed above. Now I feel that I should perhaps
go back to it.

The thief in question is the notorious Arsene Lupin.
The story involves an old, secret document long believed lost. There is some simple
substitution cipher involving "l'Aiguille Creuse" (the Hollow Needle)
which leads to a hidden hideout in a rock off the coast of France
(specifically, "l'Aiguille d'Etretat").

After a great deal of meaningless event, most of which I skipped,
a treasury of old and extremely valuable objects is discovered within
the Needle itself (which the outside world does not reallize is hollow -
a secret kept over the centuries by the French monarchy, and later
by Arsene Lupin himself).

My question: does Wes also know of this book? Is there something
hidden in here?

Well, I speed-read the book online back at the beginning of March,
skipping most of it till the plot heated up. I suppose I should go
back and look at the original code.

I suspect I've been sent a bit of a red herring here, but on the other
hand this could somehow be the book Wes discovered, I suppose.
Only I do not recall seeing any dead eyes or "yeux morts" or for that matter any of our favorite themes other than extremely rudimentary cryptography. While on the subject, I should add that "yeux morts"
sounds a bit more reasonable in French than in English - Victor
Hugo uses it in les Miserables, I think, as does Voltaire in Candide.

- AA

Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 11:51 am

Sunny du Pree
Unfettered

Joined: 01 Jan 2003
Posts: 636
Location: Push, Nevada

Phyllis and Marie Claire

Hello wishers

This is prolly a red herring but I looked up ze french laidee Marie Claire and beside coming up with a million references to a woman magazine.
I came up with a remotely interesting site about a french tarot card reader.

http://marie-claire.home.mindspring.com/

well dont slap me too hard with that fish.
/me prepares to duck

****I need to clairify that this woman Maire Claire has nothing to do with the magazine.. she is an independent tarot reader*****

_________________
Grace and Peace
Sunny Du Pree
I dreamed a dream and now that dream has come for me

Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 1:12 pm
Last edited by Sunny du Pree on Fri May 09, 2003 7:37 pm; edited 1 time in total

AbuAmaal
Veteran

Joined: 05 Mar 2003
Posts: 87
Location: 85 Turkey Buzzard Bridge Road

INFO ref for "The Hollow Needle" online

Went hunting for the version I read. My recollection was unreliable - there doesn't seem to be a French version online, so I think it
was the version in English at
at Project Gutenberg (here) that I read.

It's just got the phrase
"l'aiguille creuse" in it in French at the crucial decoding phase,
since the text wouldn't work in English at that point.

An interesting point is that the original form of the symbols
in the cipher is not included in that text. We ought to find them.

I have other things to do at the moment, but there ought
to be a picture of that cipher (of "dots and figures") around
somewhere.

Note: The Marie-Claire tarot reader is nice, but it is kind of a generic first name. I was wondering if one could get past
the magazine and see what else is out there.

Irrelevant note, while we're googling: Try "botharin".

- AA

Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 1:40 pm

Caterpillar
Unfictologist

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 1887
Location: cem's otherbody

Re: INFO ref for "The Hollow Needle" online

AbuAmaal wrote:

An interesting point is that the original form of the symbolsin the cipher is not included in that text. We ought to find them.

A few pages of the "letters/dot/symbols" referred to, found in The Hollow Needle...I don't think it's what we're looking for, but I didn't get through the last couple of chapters, so who knows.

http://durendal.org/mlhn/mlhn082.html
http://durendal.org/mlhn/mlhn109.html
http://durendal.org/mlhn/mlhn270.html

Posted: Fri May 09, 2003 2:33 pm

AbuAmaal
Veteran

Joined: 05 Mar 2003
Posts: 87
Location: 85 Turkey Buzzard Bridge Road

TRIVIA Hollow Needle text, the French version

Quote:

A few pages of the "letters/dot/symbols" referred to, found in The Hollow Needle...

That first one has the picture I was wondering about.
I for one am glad to see it.
It's good to know the code type, and the symbols, in case it turns up
again some time. Other than that, I can't see what this apparently
broad hint from Mrs. Willingham could be good for.

Meanwhile I found the French text in pdf, but it's inaccurate -
they put in the wrong picture at this precise point.
That file is at
http://ca.geocities.com/corpusmortuum/Lupin/
in 06-Aiguille_creuse.pdf
If you try to access it directly, geocities says it isn't there - but it is.

- AA

Posted: Sun May 11, 2003 12:28 am

AbuAmaal
Veteran

Joined: 05 Mar 2003
Posts: 87
Location: 85 Turkey Buzzard Bridge Road

EMAIL Phyllis Willingham Lupin, the king of the Fairies

Dear Dr. Amaal,

Memory is odd, is it not? For me, the story was all about the cleverness
and
daring of the schoolboy, Isidore. And, of course, the wonder of his
climbing up
inside the hollow cone of the Needle, one door after another, each room
containing more fabulous treasures than the next. It troubles me that I
cannot
recall a particularly dramatic "unmasking" scene. It seems to me Lupin wore
disguises through-out and, even at the end, there was no certainty of his
true
identity. I do recall most clearly the effect of the writer's art, how he
seemingly transformed Lupin from a villian to an admirable adventurer. How
I
laughed when Lupin declared, "I am the King of Fairyland!" At least, that's
the
way Marie Claire translated it. And then, how I wept when Lupin's beloved
gave
her life for him at the end. The villian to me was the one who shot her and
his
name was Holmlock Shears. It took many years for me to realize that this
was a
purposeful allusion to Sherlock Holmes. At the time, he just seemed like a
very
bad man. Well, it goes to show, does it not, that often those we think are
good
and true can sometimes be evil and the reverse, of course.

Yours truly,
Phyllis

She refers to this:

Quote:

What is sadder still is that I must abandon that, all that! How
beautiful it is! The boundless sea--the sky.--On either side, the
cliffs of Etretat with their three natural archways: the Porte
d'Armont, the Porte d'Aval, the Manneporte--so many triumphal arches
for the master. And the master was I! I was the king of the story,
the king of fairyland, the king of the Hollow Needle! A strange and
supernatural kingdom! From Caesar to Lupin: what a destiny!" He
burst out laughing. "King of fairyland! Why not say King of Yvetot
at once? What nonsense! King of the world, yes, that's more like it!
From this topmost point of the Needle, I ruled the globe! I held it
in my claws like a prey

Original:

Et le ma�tre c'�tait moi! Roi de l'aventure!
Roi de l'Aiguille creuse! Royaume �trange et surnaturel!

As it happens the most striking phrase is not in the original. The translator
has read a good deal into the word "aventure".

Anyway, though there are some artful allusions to our favorite themes
here, this really seems to be for the sheer pleasure of it. The Arsene
Lupin story is not at all about such matters, and he is indulging in pure
metaphor at this point.

- AA

Posted: Sun May 11, 2003 11:23 pm

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