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|| -------- -- ----- 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 113--9/21/96 <------- || OsoaWeek || Issues || Book 9 || -------> (Cup OWis113, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [[BEGIN113OW]] [[01131CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 1 1 3 * * * September 21, 1996 "The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!" by Frank Edward Nora CONTENTS 01 113 CV--Cover 02 113 LA--Lord of Obliviana 03 113 LM--Life Mysteries 04 113 ZP--Zope 05 113 SU--Superior 06 113 SR--Severe Repair OsoaWeek113, September 21, 1996 Ninth 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* [[02113LA]] Lord of Obliviana 2/9/97 * 3:28 AM It's 209 Day! Hooray! I just spent about an hour with the Walt Disney World Explorer CD-ROM, while smoking a pipe. I've been doing this a lot recently, doing the CD-ROM and smoking a pipe. Walt Disney World has been very important to me since I first went there as a child. I identify strongly with Walt Disney and his vision. The CD-ROM is very well produced, and provides a massive amount of information of WDW. This, combined with my own experienced there, are an inspiration to me in this time, when I am developing something that is akin to WDW and Disney's vision in some ways. WDW is a unique endeavor set in motion by the will of one man--Walt Disney. The structure he established has been going strong, though it has been in the hands of others since his death in December of 1966, almost five years before the park would open. But make no mistake--without this single person, nothing like WDW would exist today. Let this stand as one example of the importance of the individual. Yes, WDW constructed by the efforts of thousands of people, but it was Disney who CREATED it. Even now, as new ideas are developed and made into reality, Disney's influence is strong. Yet if Walt had lived--he would be 95 now--WDW would have become something quite different. Specifically, EPCOT would have built as he originally conceived it--a real city where 20,000 people would live, using the most advanced technologies before they went into general use. It would have been a place where industries could have tested their wildest and most innovative designs before releasing them for general use. It would have been an amazing thing. But it was such an untraditional idea, it failed to become a reality in the hands of others. This is a shame because this idea was the reason Disney bought all that land, and created his own government (the Reedy Creek Improvement District), in Florida in the first place. I feel that I am like Disney in that I have very untraditional ideas, ideas that will not see reality unless I MAKE them real. This is the challenge of Obliviana for me. If I do not build Obliviana, no one else will. And not only that--no one will even make anything LIKE Obliviana. This gives me a lot of responsibility. I do believe that Obliviana is that wonderful and that important. I've been working on Obliviana for 13 years now. And I'm finally starting to see some results. The blueprint for Obliviana that I have now is the right one. ------------------- Fonosta 209 Primitive Little World of Racetracks Severe Repair Zope Obliviana Radio OsoaWeek ----------- This blueprint is far more than a bunch of words. I realize that it might seem pretty meaningless if you're not familiar with my work. But to me, in these words, I see the seed of something that will be truly amazing. There are many ideas in Obliviana, but I have to define it in a simple way. First of all, people live their lives. Obliviana will be a part of people's lives. Just as Disney is part of many lives, perhaps almost everyone in America, maybe everyone in the world. Or like The Beatles. Or like Star Wars. The point I'm making is that an entertainment product, or "Revolver" as I call it, becomes part of people's lives. I have been deeply affected by the works of others, and indeed, such works are a part of my life. But Obliviana goes beyond being entertainment. Obliviana can change the way a person lives his life for the better. This aspect of Obliviana is most evident in Fonosta and 209. Fonosta is a way to encode achievements in your life, as well as a guide to the sort of achievements you might want to pursue. 209 is a means of exploring reality through the reorganization of mundane activities. So Fonosta and 209 are both ways to redirect the energies you are already expending in better ways. Obliviana also addresses computer and networks and how they figure in our lives. In Primitive and Little World of Racetracks, Obliviana establishes a new interface and a new sort of online world. Primitive is defined in large part by what it DOESN'T include. More than anything, I am against any kind of computerized interactive 3-D worlds. I'm also not too wild about video, or color photographs. This may seem insane--to shun technologies that are on the cutting edge, that are what everyone else is focusing on. But let me defend my position with two words--video phone. The technology for the video phone has been around for over 30 years. But people just don't want it. Voice communications is PREFERABLE over voice and video communication. So using the same reasoning, I believe that interactive 3-D is too much for the task as hand. Regarding Little World of Racetracks, this is an aspect of Obliviana that I have to do a lot of work on. But consider this--any sort of computer interface is a world, all the more so if it is online. So even if you don't conceive of it as a place, it still is a place. Something like America Online is a place, but it's a terrible, confusing, unpleasant place. So I have decided to make the online world of Obliviana into a coherent place. It is a Little World of Racetracks. Each Racetrack is themed, and is imagined as a real place. Each Fonosta resides in a Racetrack. Little World of Racetracks is accessed via the Primitive Interface, and vice versa, the Primitive Interface displays only the Little World of Racetracks. So the Little World is presented in the colored squares (Magdivalc (CLAssic VIDeo GAMes, backwards) and grayscale (Yargo) images of the Primitive Interface. I would like to present these Racetracks in Yargo as scale models built physically, with no 3-D computer work. The Primitive Interface can contain all of the content that I will be creating, but there comes the question of storing Fonostas of other people, which would require that all formats for data be embraced, and therefore all formats be displayable in some kind of interface. This is indeed a problem, and I will sleep on it. 2/9/97 * 11:58 PM Still 209 Day, for another minute or so. I think the answer to the above question is that perhaps Fonosta storage and the online world of Obliviana should be separated. Obliviana has limitations which define it. I see people making Obliviana a part of their daily routine. And the limitations are important in this. Obliviana needs to be as comfortable as a familiar fireplace. 2/10/97 * 12:00 AM Huh. Just enough time left on 209 Day to get that paragraph in. So maybe it's a special paragraph. Let me consider this. 12:10 AM Soles of my feet dry and chapped, no lotion, had to put lip balm on them, helping somewhat. Okay. I'm getting into weird territory here. The idea of media. Books are a media, so is TV. The Primitive Interface as I have defined it is a media. There seems to be this idea that a computer interface has to jam as many forms of presentation into it as can possibly be done. But there can be too many submedia. That is why Obliviana is limited. Or perhaps you could say "severely limited". Well, yes--the Primitive interface is severely limited. And it will continue to be this way. There may or may not be other interfaces in Obliviana, but the Primitive Interface will remain limited. This is the place I am starting at in this matter of media. In Obliviana, the main interface is Primitive, and it is severely limited. No video, no 3-D, no color photos, and NO ASCII TEXT! This last exclusion is the most shocking. I would not have believed it a few months ago. But now I know it is possible. The idea of Fonostas being universal, and then Fonostas being used in a very limited way in Obliviana. How does this jibe? It jibes because it is an important philosophy of Obliviana that it is better to do more with less than do less with more. Good night. 2/10/97 * 11:58 PM 11:58 again. Wow. I checked my E-mail from work and got a message from Bryan Cassidy. I called him, and rushed to meet him and his wife to go see a movie. Bryan is the guy who had the 209 dorm number way back in 1985 (America's 209th year). He wrote yesterday, 209 day. Here's an idea--the idea of Obliviana as a universal thing, or as providing a storage service, or anything like that--that is for a later phase of Obliviana. That right now, Obliviana is a very focused entertainment medium, with a small group of creators. What of Fonostas? Will everyone have one? Not to begin with--just creators will have them to begin with. But eventually, everyone will have one. But even this level is advanced. At first, there will just be a small core of creators, with no outside Fonostas at all. Obliviana has to develop in stages. It has to be scalable. But Fonosta will be a part of things from the beginning. Here's a question--if Magdivalc squares will represent Little World of Racetracks, and the same squares represent Cups, what is the relationship and distinction between these? Or is LWOR one big Fonosta? Hmm... Something else to sleep on. Get all Obliviana. *OW* [[03113LM]] Life Mysteries LIFE MYSTERY 22 "Thinking About Roads" by John Nora I was trying to think about how amazing roads and highways are, how they're all laid flat onto, or into, the terrain, and all interconnect so as tires can fluidly roll wherever they need to go on them. Maybe, you know, they're not so amazing. I suppose one should once in a while drive on over an unasked, grassy field, if roads aren't that good enough... *OW* [[04113ZP]] Zope ZOPE 040: "Zope's Punchline" 2/22/97 MASTER JOE Emily, sit down over here. Now tell me, what's the last thing you remember? EMILY I... I don't know. I mean... I think I remember hearing that Vulcocksie had been released... but it was just a rumor... it was a weird day... like, people were going wild... like they thought it was the end of the world or something... MASTER JOE It was. EMILY What do you mean? MASTER JOE The world... Chaire... it was destroyed. But I escaped. EMILY Oh? MASTER JOE Yeah. And... and I found out later about you and Henret. That's why... why... why I never... ZOPE Seriousness. MASTER JOE (looking over at Zope) What? ZOPE Seriousness. I was just saying. Seriousness. MASTER JOE What about it? ZOPE It's just weird, that's all. We're usually having fun and being sarcastic and stuff. And then there's a moment of catharthsis, either me saying something or you saying something. Or Weasel. Or Atrov. Or Tin Alley Rascal. Or at 17. Or whoever. EMILY (shaking her head) Where are we, exactly. MASTER JOE On a spaceship. EMILY And HOW exactly did I get here? MASTER JOE Zope... my friend... he has a power... a wishing power... and he wished you back to life... Vulcocksie must have hit your area so fast that you never knew it. EMILY No... no, I remember it now. I saw everything burning and whipping around... but before I could even understand what happened... MASTER JOE You died. EMILY (staring into Joe's eyes) And you... and you guys brought me back? ZOPE Yes. MASTER JOE I realized that I still love you. EMILY But you... you... you found out about... MASTER JOE There was a file on you, on the spaceship, the other spaceship, the ship I used to escape. That stupid Tomacula Spheres Cult. I never thought it was any big thing, but the government sure took it seriously. There were orders to kill you if you tried to access any classified files. ZOPE laughs heartily. MASTER JOE WHAT? WHAT IS IT, MAN?!? ZOPE You. All this seriousness is coming from you. Chaire was a serious place. Halfevil... Halfevil is not a serious planet. It's a funny planet, a comic planet. And... and all the killing and destruction and stuff we did on Halfevil... if it were on Chaire, it would have been horrible, monstrous. But... MASTER JOE But what? ZOPE I don't know. I'm reaching for a punchline, but there's nothing there. *OW* [[05113SU]] Superior SUPERIOR 605 * 10/26/96 Itself? Poor dull bastards. Questing after the nature of oils. All things considered, oils are fun liquids. The first person to knock over dominos. TV shows in my youth in the seventies featuring the world's largest domino layout. You know? And they show it all being knocked over. Something like that can fire a kid's imagination real good. SUPERIOR 606 * 10/26/96 Gamtard the hated fashion designer. Identify yourself with celebrities, look for similarities, empathy engages. Dead of night in a strange apartment as gummy. Felmdalvno the typecast gun chick. Punk. All about sire. SUPERIOR 607 * 10/26/96 O passion of the Jukewand. SUPERIOR 608 * 10/26/96 Roman Kinsolving, a name, glop glop, talk about the field of puppet birds. Used bookstore attitude. Commuter railroad attitude. College video game room attitude. The CDs in your apartment are scattered like autumn leaves. Stampglintotch. Bet that the first time those 14 letters were sequenced that way. Over 64 quintillion possible 14-letter words, after all. *OW* [[06113SR]] Severe Repair $~RIT004 "Clean" ~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora Storyline "A Rather Interesting Tale" Packet 004 00015 * 3.070K * New 12/1/96 * OW113 Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~ "Got it, chief!" said a female voice over a crackly intercom. "Thank you, Clarice." Harvey responded into the microphone. Then he continued, "So you can see Dave, this name change of mine is going to... going to... uh... going to..." Harvey was distracted, staring wide-eyed out of his office window. Dave looked over and saw that the Underground Empire had changed. It was clean. "Ubba... ubba... ubba..." Harvey was muttering as he glared down at the cleanness. Dave got up and walked over to the office window, next to Harvey. "What happened?" Dave asked softly. But Harvey just kept muttering. Then Dave spotted something moving near the base of the mountain, an area that was still dirty. It looked like a light-blue devil in white overalls and hat, wielding a massive red broom. "Cleandaemon." Harvey said through clenched teeth. "Huh?" "It's a Cleandaemon, Dave." Then Harvey rushed over to his desk, rummaged through the drawers, and produced a loaded crossbow. He used the blowtorch to light the tip of the bolt, which burst into flame, and rushed out the door of his office. Dave followed him. "It's the Flaming Crossbow of the Bamburgers for you, fiend!" Harvey shrieked as he shot the fiery projectile at the Cleandaemon, who deflected it easily with his broom. "Bastard!" Harvey yelled. "Dave! Dave! Go in my drawer and get more bolts for me!" Dave ran into the office as Harvey kicked over a huge dirty printing press, which tumbled thunderously down the mountain toward the Cleandaemon, which batted it aside with his mighty broom, cleaning it in the process. In the office Dave searched through Harvey's desk drawers for the bolts, when he saw the cover of a magazine, reading "TV View Weekly". He reached for it, but Harvey yelled at him. "Dave! The bolts! The bolts, Dave!" "I can't find them!" Harvey cursed and bounded back into the office, shoving Dave aside and ransacking his desk. "Son of a ruzgo!" Harvey screamed. "Gotta find those bolt!" Then the two heard someone clearing his throat by the door, and they both looked up to see the Cleandaemon smiling in the doorway. "Haha, I cleaned everything, haha." the Cleandaemon said. "Punk!" Harvey yelled as he hurled a cash register at the Cleandaemon, but he deflected it (and cleaned it) with his broom. "You'll never clean my office!" The demon raised an eyebrow and held his broom tightly. Harvey looked over at Dave in panic. Dave took a deep breath and unzipped a little zipper on his sleeve. Instantly, he began transforming into a comet. Shooting forward, he wrapped his arms around the Cleandaemon as his transformation was completing. With the demon firmly in his grasp, he transformed fully into a raging fireball and blasted through the roof of the Underground Empire and out into the open sky. "What are you up to?" demanded the Cleandaemon. "Where's all the dirt?" Dave bellowed in his thundering comet voice. "You must have put it somewhere!" "Never! I'll never tell! Cleaning Harvey Rattt's Underground Empire is the greatest cleaning job ever done!" ~$RIT004 *OW* [[END113OW]] -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- ----- |