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"

Mckay's Magazine Review Ship Of Theseus

A short while ago Doug Dorst tweeted these pages from McKay's Magazine.

They contain pages from a review of Ship of Theseus and are from February 1950.

A brief scan of the review shows that the reviewer is not exactly a fan of the book - "a vulgar ouroboros of a novel, filled to bursting with apathy, anomie, and omphaloskepsis." (Yes I did look that last one up !)

The second page has some adverts and other articles and I am going to work my way through them to see if there are any further clues in them. This post will be updated if any new information comes to light, please let us know in the comments, via twitter or email if you think there is anything new in the article or other material.

This is great news for fans of S. as it means to me that there are other things to come, whether this is a gentle push to get us to look further or just part of a planned activity I don't know, but interesting never the less.

Update 1 - I just realized Edsel B Grimshaw, and this review, is referenced on the Eotvos Wheel Website, on the candidates page

@ObFuSc8 also reminded me that this is mentioned in the book - "Chap7 IIRC along with the obituary). Magazine owned by Bouchard/ARP."

Lady Lobster also points out that it is mentioned on page 106 in Eric's margin note.

Update 2 - The WhoIsStraka Wordpress blog has a transcription of the review.

Update 3 - There was a lot of discussion yesterday about the contents of the review and the adverts, I have collated most of it in a Storify list

I think the main points are -

From one of the adverts an address could be the New York Public Library and a search reveals it has books by Václav Straka - (Link from @CFish6) Does anyone live near the library that could call in and take a look at the books to see if anything is hidden within ?

@ObFuSc8 has posted a list of references used for the adverts in the comments below.

@MyTheseus mentioned the "magic burgoo" mentioned in the review and wondered if this points to anything within the book, a search for links and references was started.

@MyTheseus also said "Review mentions 450 pages in SOT, but there are 456. Six pages missing…" - So does than mean the original version of SoT has been extended for our benefit ?