Post by zaphod73491 on Jul 13, 2019 16:04:36 GMT -5
Kaot: I think you are going to be disappointed by the solution to Forrest's puzzle if/when it is ever made public.
Hi Astree: I guess because each searcher has his/her own unavoidable biases about what they think Forrest's "special place" will be like, and the solution leading to it, and the real location and clue answers will likely fail to live up to those lofty expectations. Ultimately, many searchers will prefer their own solutions to Forrest's actual answer. There is precedent for this. After Masquerade's Golden Hare was "found" in March 1982, celebrity witness Mamber Gascoigne wrote this cautionary summary of his experiences documenting the contest from start to finish:
"Tens of thousands of letters from Masqueraders have convinced me that the human mind has an equal capacity for pattern-matching and self-deception. While some addicts were busy cooking the riddle, others were more single-mindedly continuing their own pursuit of the hare quite regardless of the news that it had been found. Their own theories had come to seem so convincing that no exterior evidence could refute them. These most determined of Masqueraders may grudgingly have accepted that a hare of some sort was dug up at Ampthill, but they believed there would be another hare, or a better solution, awaiting them at their favourite spot. Kit would expect them to continue undismayed by the much publicised diversion at Ampthill and would be looking forward to the day when he would greet them as the real discoverers of the real puzzle of Masquerade. Optimistic expeditions were still setting out, with shovels and maps, throughout the summer of 1982."
I think we can expect much the same in Forrest's Chase -- probably amplified because it has lasted much longer and involved far more people.