“In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only prohibited word?”
I thought a moment and replied, “The word chess.”
The way the reading sets it apart from any other reading that I have had the pleasure of encountering.
The way the reading starts off sets it apart from any other reading that I have had the pleasure of encountering.
“On page 22 of Liddell Hart’s History of World War I you will read that an attack against the Serre-Montauban line by thirteen British divisions (supported by 1,400 artillery pieces), planned for the 24th of July, 1916, had to be postponed until the morning of the 29th. The torrential rains, Captain Liddell Hart comments, caused this delay, an insignificant one, to be sure. “
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Immediately, it hooks you into this work of non-linearity, a reading unlike anything I have ever encountered. One that recognize itself as a reading and uses this mechanics of breaking the fourth wall as part of it’s narrative.
The word ‘Time’ , as Albert puts it, is prohibited because it is exactly what the reading is about.
I found this idea so intriguing, this idea that we can convey the theme by omission, it sparked an idea for my own project. ( But more on that later.) This form of story-telling ran parallel to the “Adventure books” that I played when i was a child.
“Turn to page 32, you encounter a troll.”
“Turn to page 18 if you believe in free will.”
“Turn to page 18 if you believe in free will.”
Yet it managed to capture something so poetic that these “Adventure books” never manage to, the idea of time as a mechanics .
The plot itself was very compelling too. In a earlier part of the story after Doctor Albert had revealed his understanding of the book as the labyrinth, it was hinted that Doctor Tsun will arrive at his house, once as an enemy and once as a friend.
“The rest is unreal, insignificant. Madden broke in, arrested me. I have been condemned to the gallows. I have won out abominably; I have communicated to Berlin the secret name of the city they must attack. They bombed it yesterday; I read it in the same papers that offered to England the mystery of the learned Sinologist Stephen Albert who was murdered by a stranger, one Yu Tsun. The Chief had deciphered this mystery. He knew my problem was to indicate (through the uproar of the war) the city called Albert, and that I had found no other means to do so than to kill a man of that name. He does not know (no one can know) my innumerable contrition and weariness.”
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As a spark of an idea, i wonder if it’s possible to craft a mix medium narrative using game, writing and even photos? Would that be an appealing narrative?
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