|
|| -------- -- ----- 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 145--5/3/97 <------- || OsoaWeek || Issues || Book 12 || -------> (Cup OWis145, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = OsoaWeek Book Twelve 2 "OsoaWeek145" by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana, Tarb 6067 (5/3/97), copyright 1997 OBLIVIANA REGISTRY NEW REVOLVERS Revolver 0005: Zope (ZP) NEW CUPLINES ZOPE Cupline 0008-ZP0001: Zopekeep (ZPZK) Cupline 0009-ZP0002: Classic Zope (ZPCZ) *OW* LORD OF OBLIVIANA 4/28/07 * 1:07 AM Well, the new Obliviana is up and running. Now I have three months to get this website into shape, so that on Obliviana Day, 1997, July 28, I can officially "launch" Obliviana. It's gonna be quite a challenge. Right now, the website is quite bewildering. It IS a whole lot better than my previous website, but it still needs a lot of work. In the final push to get the website done, the past week or so, I managed to lose sight of my overall plan for Obliviana. All day today I've been moping around, all dejected like. So I just checked back to my notes in OsoaWeek143, and now I remember what's going on. Basically, the idea of the FOW (Forge of Wander) board ans the Racetracks is absolutely fundamental. This got me to thinking about using Racetracks in the website. How would this work? Well, basically... hmmm... I have these "forward" and "backward" buttons on each page now... maybe I can use something similar to move around a Racetrack... I definitely gotta pursue this angle. Goodnight. 4/29/97 * 12:16 AM I was thinking before about Obliviana (the boardgame), and I realized that it needs some kind of gimmick to focus attention on it. That is, on its own, it's a great game, but someone has to PLAY it to see how truly awesome it is. But getting someone to the point where they are actually playing the game is tricky. People are busy and bombarded with a massive amount if infostimulation every day. If information about Obliviana happens to pass someone's way, it better stand out strongly in some way, else it be lost amidst the din of info. Alas, everyone else promoting a product or service is ALSO trying to stand out. A sea of stand-outs is a sea where nothing stands out. So the idea of a gimmick... something connected to the game... Pretty cool that I have all the rest of Obliviana to be the gimmick then, eh? But ah... this issue is riddled with difficulties... Obliviana the boardgame is something that can be enjoyed by all sorts of people, a very wide demographic. But a lot of the stuff in Obliviana Super Occult Amusement has a much more narrow demographic. I was just shaving, and I had an interesting idea, though I don't know if it'll wind up being used in any way. The idea is that there's a fictional alternate reality where the boardgame Obliviana has been extremely popular for many centuries, kind of like the chess or checkers of that reality. At some point in history, a group of very bright and artistic individuals formed a movement and created their own little imaginary world on the FOW board of the Obliviana boardgame. Though these people might be hundreds of miles apart, the board united them, and they "lived" and "travelled" on specific roads on speciific squares. I imagine this movement being print and mail based and pre-computer. There would be a central organization, which would publish a monthly update, and local chapters of this group would maintain a model of the world, adding to it according to the magazine. And each chapter would also exist on a certain square, and create things there, which would be sent back to the central organization, which would in turn go out to all the chapters. There would be strict rules for building things, so that the construction of a side road or a building or whatever else would have great meaning. Folks in the chapters would sit around for hours having heated discussion about how best to develop their little part of the world. Now let's step back into this world. Hearing about this idea, I think that more than a few people would like to experience it for themselves. The game itself will besome of interest, since in this world it is not such a massively familiar thing. Also, the chapters would be run online, since people actually getting together might be a little scary for the people of today. In any event, having chapters online would allow people to fit this activity into their busy lives. So... quite an intruiging idea, eh? I could develop a short story about this organization in this alternate reality, and have it be th basis for Obliviana. Huh. It has possibilities. Definite possibilites... 5/1/97 * 12:12 AM Ah, it's May! What I want to discuss tonight are the reasons behind creating a little world on a game board to "live" on. Any sort of fiction creates a temporary little world that you send time in. Watching a movie, reading a story, playing a videogame... But these have clear boundaries, and begin and end. You could make the point that a big Star Wars fan spend a lot fo time in that world, but in his own mind. Traditional role-playing games represent very interactive artificial that have some degree of permanence. Digital MUDs are like this too, but have much more structure. Indeed, computers and networks make artificial worlds much more defined and much more workable. Why enter such a world? Cuz the real world sucks, and it's something fun to do. Real world sucks... I'm being very terse here, but why not? I'm trying to get to some idea that hasn't quite coalesced in my mind yet. In Obliviana, 209 is a way to make the real world much more interesting. If artifical world is an escape from the real world, and I have this way to make the real world not suck, why do I need an artifial world? Answer: It is not an artificial world. New question: How so? Hmm... Aha! In most srtifial worlds, you are not you; you play a character. In Obliviana's Little World of Racetracks, you are you. In Obliviana, you have a Fonosta, which is something like a wand, which is a tool you use. You use it in, in one way, to establish a presence in a shared digital place. That is, since the physical you cannot be seen in an online environment, you need a tool to allow yourself to be seen. Following this reasoning, all the elements of the Obliviana online world can be seen as necessities in building an online place. Here's a question: Is Disney World an artificial world? Well, you are you, and that which is there is there. If you were playing a character, such as in a live-action role-playing game, and imagining that certain things were other things, then it would be an artificial world. But Disney World is not like that. It is not artificial, it is real. If you reason about this issue, you can identify some gray areas, perhaps related to that tiring and nonsensical maxim that we live in "consensual" reality, which implies that reality is only real because we agree on it, and that that which we agree on is far from optimal. I reject this idea. I think that it's plainly apparent what is real and what is not real. And physical reality, as well as situational reality, are the hallmarks of realness. So... Obliviana's world is real. In creating a "Little World of Racetracks", my goal is not to make an alternative to the real world, but to facilitate such things as digital communications, symbolic organization, and other things related to making the real world a cooler place. Make no mistake about it. The goal of Obliviana is to make the real world a better place to live. This is done by changing the way you look at and interact with the world, as in 209ing. There's a lot more to the real world than we can normally understand. Obliviana is a game... but why is it a game? Let me sleep on that. *OW* PAINFUL ESSAY 5/2/97 * 12:07 AM You know, I just realized something. In a sea of pessimism, a little optimism could go a long way. What has happened to our future? Look at EPCOT, chock fulla visions of a bright future. Then came Road Warrior, Blade Runner, and "political correctness". EPCOT is steadily losing its optimism, as ride after ride, feature after feature, gets a horrific facelift. I mean, the ride "Horizons", which opened in 1983, I believe, presented an extremely positive look at the future. Now, in 1997, it either has been or will soon be dismantled. This is symbolic. And need I remind you that the "Universe of Energy" now features "Ellen's Energy Crisis"? That's Ellen, as in "quite famous lesbian". Stay with me here. What I'm saying is that we have lost any semblence of a positive outlook for the future. Everyone seems focused on liberal crap like "everyone getting along" and "helping the homeless" and garbage like that. What has happened to the future as envisioned by Walt Disney... by Ronald Reagan...? And please, don't get a knee-jerk convulsion at the mention of Ronald Reagan, all you liberals out there. Reagan espoused an extremely positive vision of the future. People live much of their lives in hope of a better future. Espousing a bright vision of the future and sharing it with others brings happiness to people's lives, and more importantly, it helps MAKE the future become a better place. We are living in a time of unprecedented prosperity, yet every day we are hammered with stupid negativity such as "these poor minorities are being oppressed". And we let this propaganda ruin our outlook for the future. I was thinking about this as I boarded the bus home earlier this evening. I began thinking about the possibility of Obliviana rekindling this lost optimism. And in running a few mental simulations of such an initiative, I realized that it would be very hard to present such a viewpoint. People would call it "retro", or "ignorant of the suffering of the masses", or "creepy cult theology". But you know what? Fuck those people. I'm gonna go ahead with it. I'm gonna be as positive as EPCOT, as optimistic as Reagan. I mean JESUS CHRIST! Aren't you tired of all the bleak, cyberpunk, hopeless, nihilistic, whining idiocy that passes for a vision of the future today? PEOPLE! COME ON! We are painfully aware of the pitfalls that lie ahead. With a little effort, we can prevent the nightmares that might come from a super-computerized bureaucracy, genetic tampering, cybersex, etc. We CAN have a bright future. In fact, in a lot of ways, we are IN a bright future! There's just this damn mass hysteria, this overwhelming illusion, this insane dwelling upon the most fucked-up members of our society. Drugs! Homelessness! Lack of education! Lack of jobs! Misery has been glamorized, totally! The whole grunge/generation x thing was a big manifestation of this phenomenon. Now we're post-grunge, and its absolutely pointless obsession with misery has become ingrained in our culture. And things like family values, family activities, sexual innocence, CHILDHOOD, and the pure Primal Wonder of dreaming of a better tomorrow have all become JOKES. Goddammit! Kids today are looking forward to a life that SUCKS! My goodness, why are we all standing idly by and letting this happen? THERE'S NO REASON FOR THINGS TO BE THIS WAY. Let me be blunt. What we know as "political correctness" is nothing but a machine that is systematically destroying the future. Look friends, there will ALWAYS BE PEOPLE IN OUR SOCIETY WHO ARE FUCKED BEYOND ANY HOPE. I mean, come on. Don't you know someone who's just a total wreck, and who's never gonna become a fully-functioning individual? And don't you know that the more you try to help this person, the more they take advantage of you and drag you down? And don't you know that the only thing you can do is GET AWAY from this person, to save yourself from getting dragged down? "Political correctness" is grafting all of us mentally onto people who are hopeless. So we become hopeless. We get dragged down. For 30 years, the Federal Government of the U.S. has been spending TRILLIONS of dollars trying to help people who are fucked. And after all that money has been pissed away, these people are still fucked. And if you think I'm talking specifically about blacks, or hispanics, or immigrants, you are dead wrong. I'm talking about people who are fucked. And yes, a lot of them ARE "in" these minority groups, but by no means should ALL those that are "in" these minority groups be clustered together with those who are hopelessy fucked. So I'll be blunt again. Yes, a lot of black people are hopelessly fucked. And it's very sad. But for god's sake, don't pigeonhole all black people into the same category! I think people should be judged on an INDIVIDUAL basis. And if you see that an INDIVIDUAL is BEYOND HOPE, don't latch onto that person just cuz he's "black" or she's "hispanic". Let's look at the big picture. People who can help themselves are doing it. Those who are beyond hope are BEYOND HELP. This has been proven a million times over. So people, STOP DESTROYING YOURSELVES by obsessing on people who are already destroyed. There's nothing you can do. Focus on YOUR OWN LIFE, and YOUR OWN FAMILY. We will NEVER be rid of people in utter misery. In the past, people built emotional "walls" to keep away from people who are totally fucked. In recent history, these walls have been broken down. And we are now ALL miserable as a result of it. Y'know, I realize that the kind of creative works I produce will appeal to an audience that is mostly liberal. So by talking my mind here, I might be alienating most of my audience. But you know what? Fuck it. I'm gonna speak my mind, even it it means that I'll never succeed in realizing my dreams. So let me talk to you, the young liberal who is appalled at the stuff I've been saying here. Look at your own life. Look at your friends. Look all around you. I know you think that those people that I describe as FUCKED can be helped. WHY do you think they can be helped, and WHY do you think that YOU can help them? In fact, WHY should you be responsible for helping people, when YOU have nothing at all to do with their current pathetic state? It reminds me of a story my grandmother told me. A girl fell into a raging river, and another girl jumped in to try and help her. They both drowned and died. Now you might say it was heroic for the girl to try and save her friend. But really, it was stupid. The girl was caught up in the moment and made a bad decision. And her family and friends then had to live the rest of their lives without her, with the pain of losing her. So don't be stupid. Don't jump into that river. Y'know, I knew this would be a tough road to travel, this vision of mine to bring back a bright vision of the future. Because it is this modern sickness called "political correctness" that is truly trashing the future, that is truly ruining YOUR life. Why do you think that so few people are saying what I am saying? Of course, it is because such viewpoints are viewed with such a powerful contempt these days. But I am willing to face that contempt, I am willing to alienate my audience, because I truly feel that what is happening today is an OUTRAGE. I'm 29 years old, and I see my generation in utter disarray. If we don't break away from this goddamn "political correctness", we are all going to be very miserable for our entire lives. For no good reason. Well, there it is. And look at me. In trying to FIGHT negativity, I have become very negative myself. But this is the apparent checkmate that "political correctness" has put us in. I say "apparent" because it is not really a checkmate--it just appears to be. We CAN break away from this stupidity. We CAN regain the bright future that we held so dear but lost a decade or two ago. I know that a lot of you out there will reject what I am saying. But come on. Enough is enough. We have to face the truth that for some problems, there are simply NO solutions. Therefore, we have to make sure that such problems do not become OUR problems. Or you can go on adhering to that truly evil idea that "As long as one person out there is suffering, so must I suffer." If you continue living with this idea, I can tell you with absolute certainty that you will ALWAYS be suffering. For no reason. *OW* -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- ----- |