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singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora
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OSOAWEEK--ISSUE 107--8/10/96
<-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 9  ||  ------->
(Cup OWis107, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999)

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[[BEGIN107OW]]



[[01107CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 1 0 7 * * * August 10, 1996
"The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!"
by Frank Edward Nora

CONTENTS

01 107 CV--Cover
02 107 LA--Lord of Obliviana
03 107 LM--Life Mysteries
04 107 ZP--Zope
05 107 SU--Superior
06 107 SR--Severe Repair

OsoaWeek107, August 10, 1996
Third 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*



[[02107LA]] Lord of Obliviana

***WEEKLY RESULTS***

WEEK THREE, Sat 8/10/96 thru Fri 8/16/96

What the hell is going on? I've been trying to work on Obliviana Primal all week, but I did a lot of overtime at work and I was all stressed out. Also, I got a new Internet connection with Netscape and stuff and I've been quite enthralled by it. So a lot of things I wanted to get done for this week are indeed not done.

For now, let me announce that registered players can begin placing bets on StormLustLuck! Here are the rules... Bets can be placed on rows and columns, individual Storms, odd/even, and ranges. But for the sake of simplicity, for this week, only odd/even bets will be accepted. You can bet as many FCs as you wish on odd, even, or both. E-mail Obliviana primal at obliviana@aol.com with your bet before midnight Friday to be in the game! I will post FC total for each player soon. For now, figure it out like this--you started off with 13, if you are a driver, add 3 to that. If you're a digger, add 1 (see below). It's that easy!

Well, it's just about 2:09 AM, and I have to go to work in a few hours, so I better get some sleep!

--Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana

Week Three
Diggers: 0 FC
StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 55/Foam
Fonostas Registered: Register yours now!!!

Week Two
Diggers: 1 FC
StormLustLuck!: 2 SP: 156/Route22Day, 109/Morristown
Fonostas Registered: 0005 Mandrake

Week One
Diggers: 0 FC
StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 157/SaskatchewanRun
Fonostas Registered: 0001 Lord, 0002 Phantasmagoria, 0003 Zoanthropy, 0004 Darkness

*WR*

Sun 12/1/96 * 5:17 PM * Home * Tarb 5146

Made a Tarb calculator in a ClarisWorks spreadsheet. It's not totally automatic, but it's massively better than the system I had been using.

You can see that OsoaWeek has gotten laughably late. Yeah. Recently I've been reviewing Severe Repair, and occasionally reading other stuff in those back issues of OsoaWeek, and it's funny how I'm flipping out over an issue being a few days late and stuff. I mean, right now things have gotten so far behind it's not even worth keeping track of anymore.

But I have to be careful. I have to keep OsoaWeek alive. It is only OsoaWeek that allows me to COMPLETE things. Once an issue of OsoaWeek is "closed", its contents are considered etched in stone. And being able to FINISH a piece of writing is the key, for me, to get writing done. Otherwise, I'd have a whole lot of unfinished, disorganized writing lying around.

Oh well.

If I were on schedule, I'd be working on issue 124 right now. 17 issues from "this" issue. Wow.

I only went outside today in the rain to get a New York Times to look for a new job cuz the one I got sucks and I got a parking ticket.

Writing all day long. Working on Severe Repair mostly. I tellya, SR is bigger than I thought it was. It's a wonderful, massive thing, and I mean to make it the next big thing is sci-fi! A hypertext novel... for real... really hypertext, really awesome...

It's like I'm drunkenly stumbling toward making Obliviana a reality, but it's a really labyrinthine path, man.

Overall, where am I?

Ah... Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story... haha... I had forgotten that I had that in my humidor... cigar pleasure!

Anyway.

I am at the threshold. Obliviana is near manifestation. Things are making a lot more sense these days. Let me describe to you where my ideas are at right now...

First, the overall idea. Obliviana is a game. Here is something I wrote recently:

(((
11/30/96 * 1:41 PM

Obliviana Super Occult Amusement

is a game

join the game and become a

209er

and get a

Fonosta

you will be playing with reality

the results of this playing are put in your Fonosta

the more you play, the greater your Fonosta gets

you can become the greatest 209er ever!

2:17 PM

To play Obliviana... to be a 209er... this is what it's all about.

The Obliviana Entertainment Division... it makes sense, entertainment for the sort of people who are into Obliviana, 209ers can play Obliviana and drink cool cups of infostimulation/entertainment in the same place!
)))

Obliviana has been a game from its very beginning, as a game referred to by Tanner Loblolly in early Severe Repair. (The name of that game was changed to "Distantwind House" to avoid confusion.)

So Obliviana is definitely a game, with the occult system of 209 at its heart.

Playing Obliviana involves going on Storms and doing Friction Enhancers, and trying to get Blivs, or effects without a direct cause. That is, when you do 209, weird stuff happens to you which is not directly caused by the weird stuff you do.

Then there's the Obliviana Entertainment Division, so to speak, which produces entertainment that appeals to the sort of people who are into Obliviana. This idea has always been difficult for me, because I've always wanted to incorporate the entertainment INTO the game, using the entertainment product in conjunction with 209ing.

Well, by separating the entertainment from the game, the whole thing becomes a lot more workable. I'm sure people will still 209 with entertainment elements, but there's not that pressure there.

So far, I've described the game and the entertainment aspect. Beyond these two is the interface aspect, which sets forth a computer interface using an 11 X 19 grid, which I call Primitive Obliviana Primal (as opposed to the current Obliviana Primal on the WWW). This idea is beyond the game and the entertainment--it is an interface that will accommodate both game and entertainment, as well as possibly being applicable to a wider audience. As in becoming the new Windows, whatever. Just musing.

So we have the game, entertainment, and interface aspect. The fourth aspect is the cultural aspect. Bringing people together, both in reality and in cyberspace. The idea is to encourage people to form an Obliviana community, getting together with each other, sharing their ideas, 209ing together, etc.

So there you have it, the four aspects of Obliviana. This is the first time I codified these ideas, in writing AND in my mind.

Of course, these aspects are absolutely intertwined. Let us look at the six combinations of two aspects:

GAME-ENTERTAINMENT
This is the interaction I refer to above. In the past I wanted to combine these totally, with entertainment products being used to 209. But now I see that the two can remain separate, with some overlap of course possible. For example, people could listen to Obliviana audio content while 209ing, act out scenes from Severe Repair, draw Zope all over the place, etc. But in the final analysis, Game and Entertainment are separate things.

GAME-INTERFACE
Playing Obliviana involves effectively managing a large amount of information. Every time someone goes on a 209 Storm, the results have to be placed in the central Obliviana database, as well as added to the participants' Fonostas. Therefore, the computer interface will be the primary means of keeping up with the overall state of the game.

GAME-CULTURE
Clearly, the Game is at the heart of the culture. People will get together primarily to do 209 together.

ENTERTAINMENT-INTERFACE
Obliviana Entertainment will be predominantly digital, so it follows that 209ers will access the Entertainment via the Primitive OP interface.

ENTERTAINMENT-CULTURE
The Entertainment will serve as a common experience to bind the Obliviana community together, as well as provide the grist for healthy competition, in addition to the varied approaches to doing 209.

INTERFACE-CULTURE
Primitive OP will be a common experience, just like Entertainment, and it will also be a way for 209ers to communicate with other 209ers, see who is doing what in Obliviana, etc.

Okay. This little analysis is helping me get a much better picture of Obliviana. I've never seen things in quite this way before.

In terms of entertainment, it is my intention to have a small group of core creators who will be focused on as individuals. That is, I want those behind Obliviana Entertainment to be made into celebrities of a sort.

As well, I want to do profiles on 209ers on a regular basis. Kind of like an Obliviana version of "People".

As regards entertainment, by limiting the number of creators, and being very selective when it comes to allowing someone new as an Obliviana Creator, I hope to create a very focused, very sharp body of work.

Let me make a list of people whose writing has appeared in OsoaWeek along with mine:

John Nora (my brother, author of the excellent "Life Mysteries")

Frank Panucci (author of many intriguing letters)

Mike Massotto (writer of much ABM material in OsoaWeek)

Peter Litkey ("Assignment: Mystery Box" and improvised dialogue in the "Beublin A. Richardson" transcripts)

These are four people who I definitely have in mind to become Obliviana Creators.

Get all Obliviana.

*OW*



[[03107LM]] Life Mysteries

LIFE MYSTERY 16
"Snow in a Pinch"
by John Nora

In 6th grade music class with pretty Mrs. Richards (meant nothing to me then, prettiness), we were to draw an album cover for one of our favorite bands or write a short essay on a pop song. Now, you'd think that would be a dream assignment for a junior high class.

And it sure was, for everyone but me! All I knew was Star Wars music: Complete non-familiarity with any pop songs or pop groups. At that point in my life, all I had actually listened to were Star Wars soundtracks.

Looking over I saw my friend drawing an Eagles album cover, depicting an eagle emblazoned over a sportscar, and I remember noting in my mind, as my desperation began emitting, "Hm. 'The Eagles,' huh? That's a pretty good name for a band." If that's what 'The Eagles' even were. I didn't know for sure. I was really in a pinch. I didn't know who the Beatles or the Allman Brothers Band or Cindi Lauper were. Or maybe I did, but if I did I certainly wanted nothing to do with it. (Actually this may have taken place just pre-MTV, at least in my own particular household.)

Star Wars music wasn't something Kasey Kasem often spoke of. Mrs. Richards saw me sitting there frozen with loss and beginning to clammily wilt. I was a bewildered, young jukebox with all the menu slots blank.

That evening fell, awash with childhood terror that was total and rationality-free. Then, curled up and wrinkling into my bedspread I remembered an 8-track my dad liked. It had an old-time locomotive on the front speeding toward you through the night, and it was by a person called Hank Snow.

Hank Snow!

Without doubt, it must have been truly agonizing for me to decide to go forth with the Hank Snow idea. But it was really that or nothing. I was partially saved, but still in for a good scraping.

Another one of my friends got up the next day in class and played 'Centerfold' by Peter Wolf for us. It went quite smoothly. Tim Kanagawa got up and played the Manhattan Transfer. Huh. The weird things 6th graders like to bring in and share...

Then I got up there, and started confusedly reporting about god-damn Hank Snow! I myself barely knew who I was talking about, let alone the rest of the school. I might as well have been in some Soviet court of Cold Humiliation. My report seemed to give Hank Snow the import and immediacy of a peripheral, white-washed smear floating in the fourth dimension that happened to sing Country & Western songs.

It meant as much to any of us, even Mrs. Richards, as a kleenex's own on-the-side sneezing. Certainly I added some eclecticism to the classroom that day, but not in a hundred miles of knowing I'd done so, or anyone missing a beat.

Hank Snow!

It was nice of him though to get me out of that terrible situation.

*OW*



[[04107ZP]] Zope

ZOPE 034: "Mug Zope"

ZOPE
Hey, I just realized something Weasel! Today is the first day of the rest of my life!

WEASEL
Uh, I think someone else already had that idea, Zope.

ZOPE
Nonsense! It's my idea, I came up with it!

WEASEL
But I know I've heard it somewhere else.

ZOPE
You are quite mistaken, my friend.

WEASEL
Whatever.

ZOPE
"Whatever"? Asshole! Don't you see? This idea is gonna make us rich! I can see it now... posters, buttons, paperweights, mugs--mugs are the fucking best!--gotta have mugs... all with MY phrase "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." emblazoned on them!

WEASEL
But what does it MEAN?

ZOPE
Eh?

WEASEL
Do not words have meaning?

ZOPE
You know buddy, for a guy who used to be a barbarian, you're pretty smart. Asking questions like that. Yup. Weasel the Barbarian. Remember that? Haha, that was such a long time ago.

WEASEL
Zope... you're just trying to change the subject...

ZOPE
Nope! No way. See? I got your answer, fucker. Listen. If today were the last day of your life up till now, it would suck, cuz everyone's life sucks. But if today is the FIRST day of the REST of your life... see?

WEASEL
But if life sucks, then today is the first day of the rest of your life which will suck just as bad as your life up till now!

ZOPE frowns.

WEASEL
Haha! There, I gotcha!

ZOPE continues frowning, imagining a set of "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." mugs.

WEASEL
Aren't you gonna admit defeat?

In ZOPE's imagination, the mugs explode. ZOPE begins crying.

ZOPE
You killed my mugs. You're a bad man! You're a very bad man!

WEASEL sighs.

*OW*



[[05107SU]] Superior

SUPERIOR 581 * 10/20/96
Dream, Disney World taken over by Warner Brothers or something, the ride perverted and ruined. Ride like a ski lift, cheanged for the worse. Talk about ribbon. Fault candleward sputter. Alias, alas drynight and trynight.

SUPERIOR 582 * 10/20/96
Fire of mind, all kids have it, a genetic human, ready for anything, is shaped and adapts to his surroundings, that much is clear. The same man, barely out of childhood, might go off to war or play D&D and watch TV, depending on the circumstances. As kids we like lugers as the coolest guns.

SUPERIOR 583 * 10/20/96
Talk about snowdrive. Coral ice cream cat dream. About the TV mushroom alone, pine movies, treasure and creation, two mundane cigars, here. My storage in Iselin. Pasta dinner please. Grumpy, trying.

SUPERIOR 584 * 10/20/96
Moose day, crow summer brunch, tadpole video friend, the normal. Venus and meaning. War Scott the doll. Impressions knowing impressions. Tubular. Antihero. High school teachers... guys... how the fuck, to be blunt, do they keep from cracking up, all that fine young pussy...

*OW*



[[06107SR]] Severe Repair

$~PQM005 "Head"
~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora
Storyline "Perspective Quartz Mahoney" Packet 005
00005 * 2.354K * New '96 * OW107
Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~

The head landed with a thud in some mud and luckily the ear was facing a good direction.

Perspective Quartz Mahoney carefully pushed open the ear, which had shut with the impact of landing. He peered out and saw a forest, and it looked like it had just finished raining hard.

"Okay guys," Mahoney said, "don't worry. I know what's happening."

He turned around and saw that the five others were shaking in the fright of a realization.

"Yes," Mahoney continued, "It's true. I made a backup of us--to me, it seems like I just did it--but that's because I'm the backup I made of myself..."

"Look what are you talking about Mahoney?" Darnalt Knocking Salt said in a shrill tone.

"I mean... it was supposed to be a secret... and I guess it was... who knows how much time has passed since I did it?"

Duncer-Haxun spoke up.

"I remember I was just in a museum... a museum on Alternate World #3... and I remember that YOU were talking to a weird BLUE guy!"

"That's right, that's right!" Mahoney said in a conciliatory tone, his hands held out. "That blue guy, Noze-Euming, he offered me a great deal! He told me, see, that he could take a 'snapshot' of all six of us, and imprint it upon my head."

"What?" Challen-67 exclaimed.

"That's right!" Mahoney said. "He said that he knew, see, that we were WILD. That we liked to have FUN, and that we were in a lot of danger sometimes. SO... Okay, he made the offer and I accepted. He said that anytime we all got killed or something, the backup of us would kick in..."

He pointed to his head.

"A kick in my head, if you see what I mean, and bring us all back, exactly as we were that nice day at the museum."

"So..." Prefer Joanie Hugging said, "...so we don't get to know, um, like what happened to us after that?"

"No we don't!" Mahoney said. "All we KNOW is, see here, we KNOW that we all DIED. And who knows how long it has been. But I think that since we are in my head, we might be able to tell something from my face or something..."

Pearce Monancahol shook his head.

"So what are we then, Mahoney?"

"We are ourselves, ALIVE, see Pearce?"

"I SEE that I am inside a giant version of your HEAD, Mahoney. And I also SEE that it's your doing." said Pearce.

"But I saved your life! All of our lives!"

"How do you know that?" Challen-67 asked.

"Because I'm the best there is!" Mahoney responded.

~$PQM005

*OW*



[[END107OW]]



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