What about the text? What clues are in the writing?

[david]

Hi everyone!
My first post.  I live in PA, but have gotten so into this hunt, I flew to Maine this weekend for some BOTG during the nice weather.  Wow!  What a beautiful place!

Anyway, I see everyone focusing on the images, but if you read that interview, the artist says that there are as many clues in the text of the book as there are in his paintings....  Personally, I find it difficult to read because it rambles on.  That is probably on purpose.  It seems that each line has letters placed in some specific way because the word wrap variations make no sense.  Some lines are long, some short, and the short ones don't even end at the end of a sentence.  Then of course there are the random capital and lack of capital letters throughout...

What theories do you have on how to use the text to find the riddle?

[thedawailey]

Feb 25, 2020 9:51:59 GMT -5 david said:

Hi everyone!
My first post.  I live in PA, but have gotten so into this hunt, I flew to Maine this weekend for some BOTG during the nice weather.  Wow!  What a beautiful place!

Anyway, I see everyone focusing on the images, but if you read that interview, the artist says that there are as many clues in the text of the book as there are in his paintings....  Personally, I find it difficult to read because it rambles on.  That is probably on purpose.  It seems that each line has letters placed in some specific way because the word wrap variations make no sense.  Some lines are long, some short, and the short ones don't even end at the end of a sentence.  Then of course there are the random capital and lack of capital letters throughout...

What theories do you have on how to use the text to find the riddle?

Welcome to Maine! Acadia is beautiful, in all seasons! I agree with you about the text, and there has been discussion about it, but I don't think anybody has come up with anything consistent or solid. There are a few things that have been pointed out. For example the first letters of the Tallest Load of Bull statement by Panhandle Sam anagram to BOTTLE TAG, which some have felt points to the wine bottle on the Harley Quinn illustration. astree recently posted a mirrored image of that page which shows what looks like a Coke bottle hidden in his green jacket.

Another thing is on page 31 - opposite the Harley Quinn illustration, the first letters of each line of that section spells MY I FOOT I which hints at the solution to the book, Masquerade which used eye to longest toe/ finger to pick out letters in the borders. This doesn't work with Fandango, so is this just a nod to Masquerade?

But there are so many odd phrases, punctuation and line breaks, random capital letters, and even switching from present tense to past tense in a single sentence. If anybody else can make consistent sense of it all, I'd love to hear it!

[dalby2020]

I've been looking at the rhymes and there is definitely something hidden. The lines that rhyme differ across stanzas and pages. I also found a few non rhymes that have what should have been the correct word on another page. Follow wind for example.