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Entry tags:
Morse code, incognito, lolitas, squee, and lie detecting.
I've been reading House of Leaves and loving it to bits, both the plot and the form. You can read it pretty much straight through if you'd like and I think it would still be excellent, but I'm really enjoying trying to decipher everything and find hidden messages. If you'd rather find out this stuff for yourself, skip this part.
Anyway. The first thing that got me into the decoding was a letter Johnny's mom sent to him. The actual words were mostly gibberish - the intention was to piece together the first letter of every word to get her true message. I found I was able to read it pretty easily without any writing, but it was more fun to mindlessly punch in all the letters and then look up at my screen to see a creepy note my own fingers had unwittingly typed. The resulting letter reads thus:
May 8, 1987
Dearest Johnny,
They have found a way to break me. Rape a fifty-six year old bag of bones. There is no worse and don't believe otherwise.
The attendants do it. Others do it. Not every day, not every week, maybe not even every month. But they do it. Someone I don't know always comes. When it's dark. Late. I've learned not to scream, screaming gave me hope and unanswered hope is shattered hope. Think of your Haitian. It is far saner to choose rape than shattered hope. So I submit and I drift.
I let caprice and a certain degree of free-association take me away. Sometimes I'm still away long after it's done, after he's gone--the stranger, the attendant, the custodian, the janitor, cleaning man, waiting man, dirty MAN--the night tidying up after him.
I'm in hell giving in to heaven where I sometimes think of your beautiful father with his dreamy wings and only then do I allow myself to cry. Not because your mother was raped (again) but because she loved so much what she could never have been allowed to keep. Such a silly girl.
You must save me Johnny. In the name of your father. I must escape this place or I will die.
I love you so much.
You are all I have.
P.
Unsettling, no? The only other part I've put real effort into is the footnotes from the SOS chapter. The lengths of the passages between the spots can be translated into dots from short bits and dashes from long ones, resulting in morse code messages. Johnny's first footnote, which incidentally discusses Zampano's use of the word "fuck", spells out FUCK. The second one says BUTTONS. At first I boggled and kind of giggled at finding that in there. After people's jackets started falling apart and Johnny mentioned multiple times his buttons being popped off or just disappearing, I wasn't laughing anymore. I'm still smiling, though, despite being jumpy and freaked out and a character I had a soft spot for biting it. I'm still smiling. I love this book.
I also love this: #adamincognito. The basic gist is that Adam Savage from Mythbusters attended ComicCon today in full costume and no one managed to figure out it was him. He's been giving hints as to what he's dressed as, and he'll be doing it again tomorrow to give everyone another chance. I'm betting he's a Rorschach. We'll find out tomorrow, I suppose.
One of the best things about becoming obsessed with Boosh (in my eyes, at least) is that I've gained a lot of confidence when it comes to fashion. I figure, if Noel can wear all those crazy clothes well and with pride, why can't I? Being a girl, I should have it even easier than him! So. Yeah. It's led to me looking at sites like this one a lot (which happens to have a companion cosplay site that includes this dress. Fuck. YES.). The blouses! They call to me! I figure I'll either save so I can buy custom fitted ones that'll last a long time or work on my sewing skills until I can fabricate such goodies with my own hands. Then maybe I could develop the necessary construction chops to make vests and jackets as well. The possibilities are endless, I say! Endless!
Speaking of Booooosh, I am SUCH a happy fangirl. While I'm at it, these two older interviews are also excellent, and whether you're a Boosh fan or not, Sweet is always worth a watch. Earlier today, I was musing on the presence of slashy hints in everything Julian and Noel do together. Jaime tried to present Nathan Barley as a counter-example, but I went into full-on slash goggles mode and cited evidence. He actually said, "Yeah, I guess you're right about that." For the record, there is one exception that has no shipping fodder I can find - AD/BC. (Un)natural Acts is a bit on the sparse side as well, but there are a couple fonts of love that keep it from being barren.
Can you tell how much joy those guys bring me? The funny and the love, it's all delicious. Mmm.
Jaime and I caught up on Bullshit! tonight. The Mayan calendar episode felt like it was spooled right out of our conjoined mind, so needless to say, we greatly enjoyed it. The lie detectors one was excellent as well. I now know a trick to beat a lie detector. Not sure when that'll come in handy, and I'm kind of hoping I never have the chance to test it, but I do know. So I got that goin' for me, which is nice. Aaaaanyway, after the episode ended, I proceeded to grill Jaime polygraph-style on his past "encounters". It got weird. Observe:
Me: Alright, Jaime; time for your polygraph.
Jaime: Go.
Me: Have you ever stalked and killed a unicorn?
Jaime: No.
Me: ... We're having some problems with that one. Is it possible you've ever harmed a unicorn in some way? Tracked one and cut off its horn? Spurred it too hard?
Jaime: No. I've never seen a unicorn.
Me: ... Okay. Moving on. Have you ever raped a Keebler elf?
Jaime: No.
Me: Uh huh... Have you ever had any inappropriate sexual contact with a Keebler elf?
Jaime: That depends. Are you a Keebler elf?
Me: Oh, you're asking for it.
Jaime: I mean, you're small, and you bake cookies.
Me: *Attacks ferociously. Not at all like an elf would. Nope.*
Jaime: Okay, okay, now it's your turn.
Me: Bring it.
Jaime: Have you ever lived in a tree?
Me: Nope.
Jaime: Do you have a pointy green hat?
Me: No. I wish i did.
Jaime: Hmmm. Have you ever baked cookies for money?
Me: Um... no? I don't think so?
Jaime: Having some trouble with that one, are we?
Me: ... I might have.
And then there was babble about being raped by elves. Or raping elves. I dunno. I told you it got weird. We've been eating little candy bars and it's late. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.
Anyway. The first thing that got me into the decoding was a letter Johnny's mom sent to him. The actual words were mostly gibberish - the intention was to piece together the first letter of every word to get her true message. I found I was able to read it pretty easily without any writing, but it was more fun to mindlessly punch in all the letters and then look up at my screen to see a creepy note my own fingers had unwittingly typed. The resulting letter reads thus:
May 8, 1987
Dearest Johnny,
They have found a way to break me. Rape a fifty-six year old bag of bones. There is no worse and don't believe otherwise.
The attendants do it. Others do it. Not every day, not every week, maybe not even every month. But they do it. Someone I don't know always comes. When it's dark. Late. I've learned not to scream, screaming gave me hope and unanswered hope is shattered hope. Think of your Haitian. It is far saner to choose rape than shattered hope. So I submit and I drift.
I let caprice and a certain degree of free-association take me away. Sometimes I'm still away long after it's done, after he's gone--the stranger, the attendant, the custodian, the janitor, cleaning man, waiting man, dirty MAN--the night tidying up after him.
I'm in hell giving in to heaven where I sometimes think of your beautiful father with his dreamy wings and only then do I allow myself to cry. Not because your mother was raped (again) but because she loved so much what she could never have been allowed to keep. Such a silly girl.
You must save me Johnny. In the name of your father. I must escape this place or I will die.
I love you so much.
You are all I have.
P.
Unsettling, no? The only other part I've put real effort into is the footnotes from the SOS chapter. The lengths of the passages between the spots can be translated into dots from short bits and dashes from long ones, resulting in morse code messages. Johnny's first footnote, which incidentally discusses Zampano's use of the word "fuck", spells out FUCK. The second one says BUTTONS. At first I boggled and kind of giggled at finding that in there. After people's jackets started falling apart and Johnny mentioned multiple times his buttons being popped off or just disappearing, I wasn't laughing anymore. I'm still smiling, though, despite being jumpy and freaked out and a character I had a soft spot for biting it. I'm still smiling. I love this book.
I also love this: #adamincognito. The basic gist is that Adam Savage from Mythbusters attended ComicCon today in full costume and no one managed to figure out it was him. He's been giving hints as to what he's dressed as, and he'll be doing it again tomorrow to give everyone another chance. I'm betting he's a Rorschach. We'll find out tomorrow, I suppose.
One of the best things about becoming obsessed with Boosh (in my eyes, at least) is that I've gained a lot of confidence when it comes to fashion. I figure, if Noel can wear all those crazy clothes well and with pride, why can't I? Being a girl, I should have it even easier than him! So. Yeah. It's led to me looking at sites like this one a lot (which happens to have a companion cosplay site that includes this dress. Fuck. YES.). The blouses! They call to me! I figure I'll either save so I can buy custom fitted ones that'll last a long time or work on my sewing skills until I can fabricate such goodies with my own hands. Then maybe I could develop the necessary construction chops to make vests and jackets as well. The possibilities are endless, I say! Endless!
Speaking of Booooosh, I am SUCH a happy fangirl. While I'm at it, these two older interviews are also excellent, and whether you're a Boosh fan or not, Sweet is always worth a watch. Earlier today, I was musing on the presence of slashy hints in everything Julian and Noel do together. Jaime tried to present Nathan Barley as a counter-example, but I went into full-on slash goggles mode and cited evidence. He actually said, "Yeah, I guess you're right about that." For the record, there is one exception that has no shipping fodder I can find - AD/BC. (Un)natural Acts is a bit on the sparse side as well, but there are a couple fonts of love that keep it from being barren.
Can you tell how much joy those guys bring me? The funny and the love, it's all delicious. Mmm.
Jaime and I caught up on Bullshit! tonight. The Mayan calendar episode felt like it was spooled right out of our conjoined mind, so needless to say, we greatly enjoyed it. The lie detectors one was excellent as well. I now know a trick to beat a lie detector. Not sure when that'll come in handy, and I'm kind of hoping I never have the chance to test it, but I do know. So I got that goin' for me, which is nice. Aaaaanyway, after the episode ended, I proceeded to grill Jaime polygraph-style on his past "encounters". It got weird. Observe:
Me: Alright, Jaime; time for your polygraph.
Jaime: Go.
Me: Have you ever stalked and killed a unicorn?
Jaime: No.
Me: ... We're having some problems with that one. Is it possible you've ever harmed a unicorn in some way? Tracked one and cut off its horn? Spurred it too hard?
Jaime: No. I've never seen a unicorn.
Me: ... Okay. Moving on. Have you ever raped a Keebler elf?
Jaime: No.
Me: Uh huh... Have you ever had any inappropriate sexual contact with a Keebler elf?
Jaime: That depends. Are you a Keebler elf?
Me: Oh, you're asking for it.
Jaime: I mean, you're small, and you bake cookies.
Me: *Attacks ferociously. Not at all like an elf would. Nope.*
Jaime: Okay, okay, now it's your turn.
Me: Bring it.
Jaime: Have you ever lived in a tree?
Me: Nope.
Jaime: Do you have a pointy green hat?
Me: No. I wish i did.
Jaime: Hmmm. Have you ever baked cookies for money?
Me: Um... no? I don't think so?
Jaime: Having some trouble with that one, are we?
Me: ... I might have.
And then there was babble about being raped by elves. Or raping elves. I dunno. I told you it got weird. We've been eating little candy bars and it's late. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.
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