|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- OSOAWEEK--ISSUE 106--8/3/96 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 9  ||  -------> (Cup OWis106, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [[BEGIN106OW]] [[01106CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 1 0 6 * * * August 3, 1996 "The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!" by Frank Edward Nora CONTENTS 01 106 CV--Cover 02 106 LA--Lord of Obliviana 03 106 LM--Life Mysteries 04 106 ZP--Zope 05 106 SU--Superior 06 106 SR--Severe Repair OsoaWeek106, August 3, 1996 Second issue of OsoaWeek Book Nine Written by Frank Edward Nora Published weekly by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement obliviana@aol.com http://www.obliviana.com/~osoa 1-800-OBLIVIANA All contents copyright 1996 Frank Edward Nora Regarding this file, you are free to make digital copies, so long as they're not altered or sold. All other forms of reproduction require permission from Frank Edward Nora. *OW* [[02106LA]] Lord of Obliviana ***WEEKLY RESULTS*** Week Two, 8/3/96 thru 8/9/96 Week One saw the beginning of Obliviana Primal, with four Fonostas established. Right now, I'm working hard on making this all work, so please bear with me! Here are the results for Week Two... Week Two Diggers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 2 SP: 156/Route22Day, 109/Morristown Week One Diggers: 0 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 157/SaskatchewanRun *WR* Mon 11/4/96 * 10:01 PM * Home * Tarb 4986 Election Day tomorrow. Dole is catching up in the polls. I hold a slight hope that Dole might win in an upset, but I know Clinton will probably make it. It's the House of Representatives where the real excitement will be tomorrow. If the Republicans can hold onto the House, it'll be a massive victory. The Senate looks pretty good to be held by the GOP, but nothing is certain. In Obliviana, I'm still working on OsoaWeek Book Nine here. I'm doing some really cool things in this Book. For one, I'm instituting the new hypertext format for Severe Repair. All new writing in SR will be done in this format, and eventually, all existing SR material will be converted. Another thing I'm doing in this Book is establishing my major features as Severe Repair, Zope, and Superior. After doing a lot of thinking, I came to realize that these three features make up the vast majority of my creative work. I've decided that these three features will be included in every issue of OsoaWeek from now on. As far as track records go, Superior has been in every single one of the 104 issues of OsoaWeek so far. Severe Repair has been in 69 issues. And Zope and/or Classic Zope has been in only 35 issues. I definitely want to develop Zope more, since he is my premier character. Of course, I have more central Revolvers than Severe Repair, Zope, and Superior. A Revolver, remember, is a core work which can take on a huge variety of forms. 209, my occult system, is key to the future of Obliviana, but has remained relatively undeveloped. Along with 209 is Obliviana Primal, the interface and organizational system which supports 209. These two Revolvers are concerned with the "Super Occult Amusement" aspect of Obliviana, and may indeed be a single Revolver. The idea of 209/Obliviana Primal is that players establish a Fonosta to keep track of their progress in using 209 to explore reality in new ways. This is the foundation of Obliviana; it is what Obliviana IS. I have always been concerned with ordering my Revolvers in a coherent way. At this point, I am wont to put some Revolvers into other Revolvers to reduce my set of Revolvers so that they represent my major areas of endeavor. For example, I think that Super Objects might fit into 209, but I'm not sure yet. Also, Halfevil Times could fit into Zope, but again, I'm still working on it. Thinking about it, 209 and Obliviana Primal should be separate, because I don't want to make exploring the occult a prerequisite for becoming part of Obliviana. Indeed, Obliviana is, at its core, the SPIRIT of being a wild pioneer on the new frontier of Obliviana, not the exploration itself. This is a distinction that's taken me a long, long time to arrive at. So... Severe Repair, Zope, Superior, Obliviana Primal, 209. What else do I have as core Revolvers? Well, there's Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall and Anything But Monday. These two Revolvers are related. For one thing, they both involve the talents of other people, whereas my central Revolvers do not. Weasel Village covers all my audio and video works, with my video series Beublin A. Richardson (starring Peter Litkey) as one of its most promising aspects. Anything But Monday is the massive print/audio/video Revolver I created with Mike Massotto. Lately I've been thinking of developing ABM with Massotto as an audio Revolver using all my audio assets, including audio from video. So it's unclear where this incarnation of ABM would end and Weasel Village begin. This is an issue still under development. On the fringes I have Super Objects, Antebellum, and games such as Vamershee, Blamnoom, and Deluge of Primacy. These are all important parts of Obliviana, I just don't know how to organize them. Maybe the new vision of Obliviana, as the spirit and culture of an occult frontier "town" can help me to organize all these Revolvers. Think about movies, TV, radio, book, magazines, newspapers, comic books, music, video games, etc. Thu 11/7/96 * 12:54 AM * Home * Tarb 4998 Hey! The new Tarb Millennium begins at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning! Hooray! Worked 14 hours today, as in real, paying work. Tiring. CONSOLIDATION is the word I couldn't remember when I wrote the previous segment. The idea of Obliviana is that it is the place on the frontier where all the exciting stuff is happening, with a Wild West kind of spirit. Fri 11/8/96 * 8:09 PM * Home * Tarb 5011 Yeah, so I have another idea. Haha! I know I said that Primitive Obliviana Primal was THE idea, and maybe it still is, maybe this new idea is just a refinement of Primitive OP. The basic idea is to create Obliviana as a PLACE on the Internet, an environment in which all the various branches of Obliviana can thrive. But I'm not getting across what I really mean here. See, my inspiration for this place I'm trying to create is an idealized version of my years at Drew University, 1985, 1986, 1987. Check out Superior 625: SUPERIOR 625 * 11/7/96 More. Lip. Liken me or her to variable here. Having a bad time in high school is such a cliche, but I had to fucking live through it. The developing theme, and I'm talking about something real and current here, it is the recreation of my idealized remembrance of college. At Drew University, there was something... sometimes palpable... supernatural and sexual... mythical and technological... mischievous and brilliant... unfettered young minds getting a glimpse of Wonder... all about dreams of power, dreams of utopias... with computers and magic as tools... seeking the dream behind the drab... well I want to recreate it, digitally on the Internet... I need to be in the right place in order to make Obliviana work... that place does not exist anymore, I can construct the place. Got this idea in the rain in Manhattan less than two hours ago. Sharp focus on something that's always been with me blurry. This Superior won't be officially released till OsoaWeek118, but since it deals with this issue, I think it's relevant. So I've been thinking of creating an online college of some sort, but my initial reaction to that idea is mixed. I mean, it seems so cliche and all... but I think some sort of school slash research facility is in the right direction, and maybe IS the right idea. The idea of an online college... I had a few not-quite-there ideas for a name, but I'll tell them to you for fun "The College of Interdimensional Travel of the United States" (COITUS) "The College of Interdimensional Travel and Reindeer of the United States" (CITRUS) (I'd probably try and come up with a better R word here.) Like I said, not quite there... Regarding the presentation of the interdimensional travel ideas of 209, structuring the whole thing as a college where you learn about it is a good idea. My 209 ideas are quite complex, and presenting them as something cool to LEARN is pretty awesome. The school idea also reinforces the Fonosta concept, in terms of having this thing that you constantly strive to make more powerful and accomplished. Think credits and semesters and graduation and all that. I've been developing the new Anything But Monday idea as a digital radio station, so it fits right in with the Obliviana Campus idea--it would be the school radio station. The technology is here... I could build a 24-hour RealAudio Internet "radio station", combining live broadcasts and recorded material on a server. It's just a matter of money, that thing I don't have much of. So... what about the Primitive Obliviana Primal idea? Think about it... Primal is an interface, a world... and Obliviana Campus NEEDS an interface. So there you go. That's it. Another idea I like about running a cool fake college is having faculty members and stuff... as in the people I've always had in mind to be involved in Obliviana... This whole college thing will be presented in a tongue-in-cheek manner; the idea of a "College of Interdimensional Travel" is cool and funny and stuff. I do like "College of Interdimensional Travel of the United States", but what about the COITUS acronym? It definitely has a good sophomoric ring to it. The CITRUS acronym is probably better, more in line with standard Obliviana weirdness. (Standard Obliviana weirdness?) Tue 11/19/96 * 11:09 PM * Home * Tarb 5078 I know some Tarbs above are wrong, but you figure it out. 5078 is right, though, I'm pretty sure. OsoaWeek has drifted from what it was originally intended to be... it was intended to be read the week it was released... but no one has been reading it, so the focus shifts to the archival nature... looking back... I do think that OsoaWeek will eventually get back to being weekly... having timely information... but for now OsoaWeek is a means for me to organize my creative work. In Book Nine, as I have previously noted, I have established Zope, Severe Repair, and Superior as my core creative works. I still have this list of 8+2 though, from organizations past. I've always been trying to organize my work, to come to grips with everything... Obliviana Primal, Zope, Severe Repair, Superior, 209, Super Object, New Jersey, Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall Anything But Monday, Classictronica Ten things. And always trying to bind them together. Let me reminisce... living in Iselin, walking to the train... 1992, 1993, 1994... Fernwood high school trip... wrote about it elsewhere also... night, a toga party, real memory intermingled with a dream of it... Julie Clapp in her toga... sitting in bleachers with other miserable nerds... in the lunchroom, coming up with the character "Scarf Ace"... Drifting... thinking about 1990 thru 1996... six years being nowhere in a great way... The answer to all of this is to establish an audience, based in the practice of 209. The medium of the presentation... in person... printed... WWW... audio/video... Having a bad cigar. Listening to The Song Remains the Same. Woman... woman... Exploration of reality. Having an adventure. Feel like a kid again. Doing something that matters. Being a part of something. Developing your Fonosta. I was so lost in high school. I can see that now. But... Maybe it sounds bitter, but what's so great about acting like a boring adult as a kid? Sexual innuendo, "coolness", etc. It was better to just BE a child. The late nineties will begin in exactly six weeks. 1997, 1998, 1999. Obliviana Video Games, Obliviana Radio, Obliviana TV, Obliviana Newspaper, Obliviana Magazine, Obliviana Sci-Fi, Obliviana Comics, Obliviana Poetry, Obliviana Magic, Obliviana Science... A whole little world. Or maybe more like a whole little culture. Like the culture at a college, like the college idea I had recently. And Obliviana IS like a college... and like a research institute... it is to be a close-knit community... centered on the exploration of reality using 209... and the culture that exists around that central purpose. Thu 11/21/96 * 8:42 PM * Home * Tarb 5089 9:16 PM Had to go drive Mike Massotto to a gas station to retrieve his car. 9:42 PM I want to go on record here to say that I am quite sure the Apollo Moon landings were faked. 9:57 PM The reason I wrote that last statement is that more and more, whenever I hear references to space missions or the Apollo program or anything like that I view them from a new perspective--total doubt. This is somewhat disturbing to me, since I was a total space junkie as a kid, and spent many wonderful hours meandering mentally through possible space missions. I think that the idea of space travel is absolutely wonderful. I wish that space travel was real. But it's not. Space travel is a lie, and I believe that the lie will be revealed within a few years. And the day NASA tells the truth will be one of the worst days ever. This writing I'm doing now, I don't know how many people will ever read it. If I thought it would reach a wide audience, I probably wouldn't write it, because I wouldn't want to contribute to the pressure to make NASA tell the truth. But I don't think that many people will read these words, so I don't think that I am contributing to the pressure. I'm in a weird situation here. I believe that space travel is a lie, and I feel like talking about it, but I don't want the truth to be revealed. Such a revelation might open up a new realm of exploration as to what's REALLY out there (such as Obliviana, perhaps?), but the shattering of so many dreams would make it hard to even the thing out with the promise of a new frontier. I don't know. I'm writing this without having thought it out too well. Plus, I'm under the dazing effects of Contact Severe Cold & Flu, a medicine that packs a mean whollop. So what am I saying? I guess part of my motivation for going on record on this matter is that I want to be able to say that I knew after the truth comes out. That's vanity. But maybe it's also about the nature of Obliviana. Obliviana is about exploring what's REALLY out there. So maybe after NASA admits that space travel is not real, Obliviana will be elevated to a new position. Huh, kinda megalomaniacal. I don't know. I don't like this whole subject. I grew up with the warm, wonderful hope that someday I might go into space, to Luna, to Mars. And so many others in my generation and a few generations before mine had the same hope. I wonder if kids today have that hope. It's becoming quite clear that the space program, taken at face value, is running in neutral. There's talk of a Mars mission now and again, but now the focus is on robots and remote probes, much cheaper than humans. With today's imaging technology, it would be easy to fake the grainy video from a probe. But it wouldn't be easy to fake a manned mission again. Circumstantial evidence. A lot of people believe that the Apollo Program was a hoax. I even heard that it's taught as fact in Cuban schools. But most of those who believe in the hoax theory believe that it's still POSSIBLE to visit Luna, just that the U.S. Government lied. Few believe, as I do, that space travel is inherently impossible. I am in a very small minority. These days. Those who persecuted Galileo, they believed more along the lines that I do. And that's scary. See, I told you I didn't think this out before writing it. The whole thing with these people being imprisoned and tortured for expressing heliocentrism and all that... I remember being outraged at these stories, wildly enraged at the ignorance of religion, all that. But now... maybe the church was right... maybe these people, like Galileo, were leading us all into a very destructive fantasy. A destructive fantasy whose deleterious effect will be unleashed only when the truth is revealed. What would it do to society for the U.S. Government to admit that the Apollo missions were faked? It depends. They could just admit to the faking, or they COULD go all the way and admit it was faked because it's IMPOSSIBLE. If the full truth is revealed, I believe it would have an enormous impact on society. The church will be vindicated, science will be in disrepute. The church (Catholic and all the others) will grow much more powerful. Evolution (another sham) will stop being taught in schools. The separation of church and state will weaken. I've started to think about reality in terms of the STATE or the SITUATION that you are in. That is, where you are depends entirely on a STATE that you and in, with physical and mental and emotional realities caused by the state, and not the other way around. With this in mind, and I know I'm being awfully vague here, the declaration of the fakeness of space travel would massively change the state that everyone is in, and thus massively change the world. Maybe... maybe Obliviana is about... is about making the spacefake revelation easier for people to take. Obliviana provides an alternative that is as (or more) Wonderful than space travel. Oh well. This flu of mine is bearing down on me hard, I gotta go to bed. I talked about some pretty big things this evening here. You might think this is just crazy rambling. But look to my motive. I see a problem coming, and I'm trying to make things better, trying to prepare somewhat, trying to do good. Usually mad rantings are negative and open ended. Not that I'm an expert on insane rambling. Oh well. For better or for worse, here I am, Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. In the coming year of 1997, I will begin in earnest to introduce Obliviana to the people of America and the world. And it's founded on a very simple and massively Wonderful idea--Adventure is all around you, so there's no reason not to be an adventurer. To quote Willie Wonka--"If you want to view paradise, open up your eyes and view it." Oh, and I didn't even get to the UFO part of the whole space travel thing. Lucky you. Next time. Get all Obliviana. *OW* [[03106LM]] Life Mysteries LIFE MYSTERY 15 "Suburbia" by John Nora The whitish doe standing in the tall grass behind my woods, at 7:45 pm post-daylight-savings time, still light, a passion that is achingly, bleached, beautiful. Every time I shift my twisted-around-neck-sweatshirt-hunkered-on-a-log form, the deer goes like a wet-vac Huuueeeffffhhh! and dandies around and away more. The deer and its leg-concealing grass are all like fine hair, as I turn back around to smoke my cigarette: Ten of eight, toddlers in, sunset all staged and sound. *OW* [[04106ZP]] Zope ZOPE 033: "Drug Zope" ZOPE What are drugs? WEASEL I don't know! Why don't we look it up on the Internet? ZOPE Good idea! Fire up the old 128K Mac and let's surf on over to Alta Vista! WEASEL Do we have to use that old piece of shit computer, Zope? ZOPE Of course! That "piece of shit" as you call it is why 1984 wasn't like 1984! WEASEL *Sigh* LATER... ZOPE Huh! Interesting! Drugs are chemical substances that alter brain chemistry to produce euphoric and mind-altering states of mind! WEASEL Really? ZOPE Yeah! We gotta try 'em sometime. They sound cool. WEASEL They do. They do. ZOPE detaches a Walkman-like device from his belt and turns it off. ZOPE See Weasel, I told you that my new product, the Pocket Limited Dementia Generator, is a real gas! Wasn't that great how we didn't know what drugs were? WEASEL I guess. ZOPE What do you mean "I guess"? WEASEL I mean... I don't know... it kind of made me feel like an idiot. Not knowing that. ZOPE You dumb fucker! That's the whole point of it! Learning things for the first time all over again! WEASEL I don't know... ZOPE reaches under his desk and pulls out another of the devices, and switches it off. ZOPE Hahaha! WEASEL Huh? ZOPE See pal? I tricked ya! I had another wunna these babies pointed at you, making you ignorant of the fact that the Pocket Limited Dementia Generator is the coolest product ever! That's why you didn't like it! WEASEL *Sigh* *OW* [[05106SU]] Superior SUPERIOR 577 * 10/20/96 Tome, he called it, and they all referred to it, a book, and it was big and old and there was something magical about it. They talked about Tome at the bowling alley/video arcade/skating rink, and then I asked about Tome. Young and loose and comedic. Obsession. Chances. Up on rocky hills, she wants to dance naked and her friends might follow suit. Let me go Mom, I can clean my room later. SUPERIOR 578 * 10/20/96 Too true, being vaulting human interwender, hapless and dwindle. Sophomore. Jake the faux marble, Jake the young wet hunger, computer illustration program, alarm clock patternjake. Book of Matches World memories, then today, know me super gum. SUPERIOR 579 * 10/20/96 Through ice thrice. Car blink market fallingcrumb the doll, lensing dingbats and coffee people. Laughing pleasure no jealousy, woodlog architecture real dreams. Go beverage, way away to a cold city night, and very tired but a refreshing space station morning. That is the morning, working at amusement park, meeting sexy daughter of famous rich guy, not a good time to be a dork, but you have that space station alternate reality. SUPERIOR 580 * 10/20/96 If you hoo-hoo got shears, try a cinnamon see-girl. And am walln. *OW* [[06106SR]] Severe Repair $~PQM004 "Fun" ~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora Storyline "Perspective Quartz Mahoney" Packet 004 00004 * 3.209K * New '96 * OW106 Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~ The three men had been a little apprehensive at how powerful the girls had become. They were like goddesses or witches, able to make things happen in the blink of an eye... and they felt weak and insecure in their comparatively powerless state, and the girls made light of it and made fun of the situation and pushed it. Almost toying with them. The huge hulk of a man Pearce Monancahol was shrunken to doll-size by his girl Challen-67. Oily Duncer-Haxun was turned into a monkey by his girl Prefer Joanie Hugging. And Perspective Quartz Mahoney was turned into a giant floating head by Darnalt Knocking Salt. These were just some of the games the girls would play when their power and playfulness were at their peak. And the guys couldn't blame them, because they were wild adventurers with the central mission of HAVING FUN. But Omothopberg changed all that. The girls were still giddy with power and fun when the six found the dimensional warp in the Omothopberg swinging ladders of transport, and they were back to their own world of May Canada. And then the girls found out that their magic was no more, and that they were stuck as belt, lighter, and sunglasses. At first it was fun. Like, the boys making fun of the girls like, the shoe is on the other foot and all that. But soon the horror of it sunk in, and it all lost its fun, and they realized things wouldn't work out in a fun way as usual. "Darnalt..." Mahoney said softly. "I think we could have stopped the nature lovers, if we had stayed in May Canada and not gone off adventuring on all those alternate worlds." And Darnalt squirmed in his hands. "FUCK NATURE!" Mahoney bellowed, and he was stunned to hear a hearty echo. He grabbed his right ear and opened it like a door. Inside was a little room, with six tiny people, who were the six adventurers, looking with fright and amazement out of the ear-doorway, the girls fully human. Darnalt Knocking Salt leapt into the air with a start. Mahoney giggled insanely and mumbled "Backup copies... backup copies... memory BURIED in the deepest darkest weirdest corners of my mind... memory set loose... by the start OF THE FINISH!" Everything around him began to shake... the slides and the backdrops and the walls and everything... "Darnalt... die, Darnalt... die and make a dimensional doorway... we have no hope... but these backup copies... I made them in a wild dimension two years ago... before Omothopberg and before all of that... become a doorway my love, that I may rip off my head and toss it into a new world, that we all might live again, like it once was, like when it was FUN!" Darnalt Knocking Salt snapped in two and blurred into a pulsating black disk. Mahoney let out a chaotic groan as he ripped off his head and threw it through the circular dimensional portal. He did that just in time. Right after the head passed through the portal, the portal closed and the entire world of May Canada was shredded as the final equations of physics were scrambled by nature, bent on annihilating mankind even if it meant annihilating herself as well. And May Canada was gone, but the six adventurers had escaped, escaped as they always knew they would, to have more FUN. ~$PQM004 *OW* [[END106OW]] -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----