Vulture Interviews doug Dorst

Just published is a new interview with Doug Dorst on the Vulture Website, conducted by Jennifer Vineyard

There are some pretty cool questions and in depth answers, although not necessarily revealing any answers to mysteries in the book !

References

It is worth pointing out a few items that have recently been found that are direct comparisons to items and words found in S.

The first is from @JillaggieARG and is the original postcard reference that the postcard in S. that Eric sends is based on. As you can see the original is not crimped and has the Rio De Janeiro name present on it.

Oddly I was looking through my folder of S. images for the insert reference I have and found that I had already had this original from a different source. I can't remember if I put something in the comments or just found it and forgot it, but it is the same as Jill's version. Thanks Jill for sending it and a note to self - must remember to follow up on these things !

Next is @MyTheseus who mentions the comparison to page 147 of S. and Belloc's Cautionary Tales For Children

Then we have Clare (@CFish6) who sent in a reference advert used to construct part of the McKay's magazine article

See the original reference here

Finally for now we have @blackwellharb who tweeted this self referential tweet -

"@SFiles22 check out Lopevi (13th Straka book). Tiny volcanic island just like Obsidian Island. #whoisstraka"

Many Warblings

A few small updates for you in one easy to digest post.

First we have had Jana contact us to say the following about the Lampa newspaper clipping -

In the insert pg. 69 (Czech headline) there is a grammatical error. It should have been divákY. This version (diváků) is wrong and would only work in combination with "skokem diváků", which would mean: (Suicide shocks by) "a leap BY witnesses". Wasn't there speculation that members of S. Jumped after Straka in order to save him?

(By the way: "Opice-Tance" is not a proper way how a Czech would write the term "Monkey Dances")

So mistake or clue ?

Next, in case you didn't see it in the comments, Jordan is putting together a task force to see if a co-ordinated effort can decipher the mystery of WhoIsStraka.com.

Read more on Jordan's blog - Notes From A Standing Desk

Finally for this post the BOLO Books Blog has published an interview with Doug Dorst.

The interview talks about Ciphers, the books creation and Stephen King, head on over to the Bolo Books blog and read the interview

Poll Results

Really sorry about the lack of updates, lots of things happening which have prevented me updating.

So the first update of many I have for you is the result of the poll, the vast majority of you, 205 of 238 votes, do not write in the margins of your own copy of S.

30 of you have written in different pen colours and 3 lonely souls are making their own conversations with Jen and Eric !

Fellow Birders

I realise we haven't posted much recently on the blog, but there hasn't been much to write about and unfortunately the old enemy of time has meant I haven't been able to make any more sense of some of the mysteries of S. Hopefully these small snippets of information will spark some theories and questions of your own.

This post has a couple of updates and potential rabbit holes for us to fall down and I will shortly post a small poll suggested by a reader of the blog.

First of all Jill Aggie sent a question about this postcard via email, it is the Postcard from Eric on the 18th of April and what is intriguing Jill is the postmark. Unlike the other postmarks, this one has a string of numbers to the left of the usual circular stamp, it could just be a product of that particular post office of course but it is interesting as it is almost a regular pattern. Minus two single digits it is a 4 x 8 grid.

-9004100
-9807082
04575220
19644144

If anyone can make sense of these numbers or suggest a potential cipher to try and use to decode them please let us know.

Next Danielle Parker mentioned in the comments that the Santorini Man murders that are heavily referenced by Radio Straka, in the book and on the Eotvos Wheel website has striking similarities to the Taman Shud Case an Australian mystery where a body is found with the last page of a book in his pocket. This is also know as the "Somerton Man" which is again very similar to the S. version.

Inspiration for the events in Ship of Theseus or is there a firmer link to the S. Santorini Man mystery ?

As pointed out by Mystimus in the comments there is another blog with an article about this - The Monkey Dance

Finally for now I was thinking about the negative space mystery that may be something we need to solve and also the twitter icon that @EricHusch had a while ago (see earlier post).

I had a go at manipulating the S. logo and creating a mirror image any laying one S. over the other, in a Palimpsest manner, I came up with this.

Looks a little like an Owl to me, and also seems to form a sort of mask for reading a hidden message, if only I knew where to look ! I have tried printing it, cutting out the holes and placing it over some of the pages but have got nothing so far.

Again if you can find a way of using it to find new information please let us know.