Post by Apple on Jun 9, 2020 17:52:02 GMT -5
A big question on my mind was always: what type of puzzle has Fenn created? (If anything systematic, I'm fully aware it could be some random or otherwise poorly constructed game). I came to believe that Fenn and his collaborators were very aware of Masquerade and created a similarly systematic puzzle. A lot of my opinions were shared with Nkown, although he has always been miles ahead of me. (Much gratitude sent his way!)
Fenn "wrote a poem containing nine clues that if followed precisely, will lead to the end of [his] rainbow and the treasure" (p.132). "All that will be needed are the clues, some resolve, and a little imagination……….." (The Thrill of the Chase book jacket). "There are also subtle clues sprinkled in the stories" (p.133). Fenn counsels us to "start with the first clue and follow the others consecutively to the treasure. Hints in the book are not that organized" (Mysterious Writings Featured Question 12/11/14). "All of the information you need to find the treasure is in the poem. The chapters in my book have very subtle hints but are not deliberately placed to aid the seeker" (Is the Book Important?...). Fenn instructs players to "read [his] book in a normal manner. Then read the poem over and over and over, slowly – thinking. Then read [his] book again, this time looking for subtle hints that will help solve the clues" (Holly Johnson Interview 7/8/13).
In addition to these and Fenn's multiple other statements about The Thrill of the Chase's importance in solving the poem puzzle, the incredible effort that he put into creating TTOTC and all the associated game related texts beyond the poem puzzle (e.g. Too Far To Walk, Once Upon A While, and the Scrapbooks) speaks to their necessity in the poem puzzle's solution. TTOTC is subtitled "A Memoir" and there is no doubt that many of the anecdotes are based on actual events. However, two points bear further contemplation: some of the events are not credible (e.g. the pontoon airplane episode in My Brother Being Skippy) and, given its limited length, the selection of events is extremely peculiar (e.g. the cow milking in Bessie and Me). As TTOTC is unconvincing strictly as a memoir, it is not unreasonable to assign an alternative purpose as not only essential to the solution of the poem puzzle but to go as far as to posit that its principal purpose is to provide instructions as to how to solve the poem puzzle. After all, in Scrapbook 62 Fenn tells us that "excellent research materials are TTOTC, Google Earth, and/or a good map" and in the Mysterious Writings Question from 6/27/14 he tells us his "Thrill of the Chase book is enough to lead an average person to the treasure."
(1) My contention is that Fenn's puzzle has a systematic solution. (2) My contention is that TTOTC is an instruction manual for solving the poem puzzle. (3) My contention is that the poem puzzle contains hidden information that adds much needed specificity to the extremely vague outward instructions. (4) My contention is that all the information needed to solve the poem puzzle is contained within TTOTC and that "specialized knowledge" (Mysterious Writings Question 6/27/14) will not be required to solve the poem puzzle. (5) My contention is that Fenn was too subtle in the creation of TTOTC for the instructions to be applied or even identified with confidence. (6) My contention is that the plethora of Fenn's additional game related texts beyond TTOTC serves to distinguish and perhaps clarify the instructions found within TTOTC.
Hypothesized Game Feature 1
An "indicator error" is Fenn's use of intentional errors to draw attention to items of interest to the game. He overtly states this in Scrapbook 179 Heck with Those Guys: I "misspell a word to make the reader stop and look it up" and corrupt "a word or idea." This is illustrated with an anecdote about extracting information from a reluctant interviewee by deliberately saying "something to them that I knew was wrong." In TTOTC, this concept is perhaps subtly raised in Important Literature: "I never thought I had to believe everything I said" and "non-fiction writers don't have to be right but eighty-five percent of the time" (p.14). Indicator errors are ubiquitous. One glaring example of an indicator error is the wrong synopsis provided for For Whom the Bell Tolls within Important Literature (p.11).
Hypothesized Game Feature 2
Wordplay features prominently in Fenn's game related writings. This wordplay enhances the texture of his writing but also complicates its interpretation. Examples of wordplay include the paraprosdokian "he was married five times, and he said he always married housekeepers because when he divorced they kept the house" (p.7), the variant synophone of the "kid" that had Fenn pondering his "kismet," or fate, was his kidney cancer (p.13), the neogram "cheap, one-pony show" (p.17) from a combination of the idioms "cheap trick," "one-trick pony," and "dog and pony show," the variant oronym of "Miss F or D" for Fenn's school teacher "Miss Ford" (p.26), the mondegreen "buffalo bull" for "Buffalo Bill" (p.65), and the irony that the "learning curve" was "flat" but not "dull" (p.105). The pun manifesto that is Scrapbook 49 Sweet Fragrances is a quite aptly a suite ("sweet") of flagrant senses ("fragrances"): "celery salt" is "very salty," ""something is dead" in "turmeric," and "bay leaves" are "just leaves."
Hypothesized Game Feature 3
That hidden information is present in the poem puzzle can be assumed from the fact that the poem's outward instructions are extraordinarily vague; that Fenn describes its creation as a fifteen year process; that it is compared to a work of architecture; and, paraphrasing, that one must "decipher" or "decrypt" the clues that are in the poem. Fenn states that "the person who finds the treasure will have studied the poem over and over, and thought, and analyzed and moved with confidence" and that "nothing about it will be accidental" (Mysterious Writings Six Questions with Forrest Fenn 2/4/13). This degree of certainty in the correct solution is in direct opposition to the outwardly vague instructions within the poem puzzle. That it took "fifteen years from the start to the time" Fenn "actually hid that treasure" (On the Road with Charlie Part One 5/8/17) argues for more depth than the poem puzzle's outwardly vague appearance suggests; although a weak argument, one would expect a much more contracted course of construction if the poem puzzle was simply a set of outwardly ambiguous instructions. On numerous occasions Fenn compares the poem puzzle to a work of architecture: "the poem is not so much written as it is an architectural plan" (EIS Radio 8/8/13), Fenn "didn't write that poem, it was written by an architect" (Collected Works Bookstore 10/23/13), Fenn "felt like an architect drawing that poem" (Moby Dickens Bookshop 11/2/13), "the blueprint is challenging" (Mysterious Writings Featured Question 7/1/16), and "that poem was really written by an architect" and "every word is placed in there strategically, and you can't ignore any of the nouns" (On the Road with Charlie Part One 5/8/17). The sum of these quotes suggests a deeper structure to the poem beyond its simple outward appearance and it is a short step to the assumption that the point of a deeper structure--and the point to mentioning that there is a deeper structure--is to hide additional localizing information. Lastly, on numerous occasions Fenn has stated that one must "decipher" or "decrypt" the clues in the poem. While this may simply refer to the outward clues, it also could refer to the presence of hidden information awaiting discovery: "if you can read the poem and decipher the clues, the clues will take you to where I hid that chest" (Forrest Fenn Interview 2/27/13), "figure out the clues, decipher what they say and go straight to the treasure chest" (New Zealand Radio 4/3/13), "if the person reads the poem over and over and are able to decipher the first few clues in the poem, they can find the treasure chest" (Collected Works Bookstore 10/23/13), "there are several people that have deciphered the first two clues" (Moby Dickens Bookshop 11/2/13), "the book will help them but they can find the treasure if they can decipher the clues that are in the poem" (Torg and Elliott 1/7/16), in "their minds think the clues are tougher to decrypt than they really are" (Mysterious Writings Featured Question 7/1/16), and "if you can decipher the clues, you're gonna find that treasure chest" (The Lure Post-Screening Q&A 5/18/17).
The idea of information waiting to be discovered is subtly raised in Important Literature: Salinger had "written a lot of books and had hidden some in a vault so no one could read them...he seemed like my kind of guy" (p.12). Even more subtly, Fenn encounters mystical experiences when he pushes "the tall grass aside" (p.42) in Gypsy Magic and "in the tall grass" were "grave markers," "the more we looked, the more we found" (p.91,94) in My War for Me. Hidden information is more overtly discussed in several scrapbooks. Scrapbook 209 metaphorically describes the poem puzzle as fairy dolls that have hidden protective "armature" and "silent fetishes." These fairy dolls are provocative metaphors for the poem puzzle, as developed both within the text and photograph; "Chaos" stands with her foot on a chest, a representation of the hidden treasure chest, and holds the book "The Path to Perfect Happiness," a representation of "the thrill of the chase." Scrapbook 207 Absarokee Hut metaphorically describes the poem puzzle as a cabin that has a "claw hammer" "talisman" hidden under the floorboards; furthermore, this discovery is described as "well-ordered," a "footnote," and having been "unfolded" suggesting a systematic way to extract this hidden content. This idea is explicitly addressed at the conclusion of the scrapbook: "sometimes you have to just grab a misplaced tradition by the tail and rearrange it back like it’s supposed to be." Scrapbook 107 describes "untangl[ing] poor phone cord." A similar charm is discussed in the Mysterious Writings Featured Question with Forrest 1/5/15; therein Fenn describes a "slick," which are jade "good luck charms" or "amulets," that he "found under the floor boards of a long-ago abandoned log cabin." Scrapbook 213 New Things That Turn Into Old Ones describes secreting notated "plant life" "inside the cover of a book" for someone "to find in the far-distant future." Scrapbook 229 Medicinal Mojo Necklace describes a "medicinal mojo necklace" from whose beads Fenn received "large bits of information." Scrapbook 219 Good food times in SF describes "twenty-two crock pots" "lined up in a row," perhaps aspects of the poem puzzle, that contain "a very closely guarded secret." Finally, Scrapbook 223 Pansies of the West Fork provides further instructions on discovering hidden information: "if the log building in the background were to disappear you might see the West Fork of the Madison River confluencing [sic] with the Madison River" and "you can’t see the Madison River either, but it’s just 20’ behind the two pine trees on the right in this picture."
Hypothesized Game Features 4+
Many repeated elements in Fenn's writings need to be applied to extract the hidden information in the poem. I call this the "gypsy magic." I tried many magic tricks and I know Nkown tried many more. Obviously it didn't pan out for either of us. The major elements of our efforts included names and/or "I" (e.g. Mr. Fenn, Principal; I was in the middle), partnering and/or joining names (e.g. Bessie and Me), dividing and/or circling back (e.g. Long Ride Home), skipping/jumping (e.g. My Brother Being Skippy), and reversing/mirroring and/or circling back (e.g. Teachers with Ropes).
My expectation will be that by applying this gypsy magic, provided in the TTOTC instruction manual disguised as a memoir (and clarified in many of his other writings and strongly in the ones at the end of last year), to the poem in just the right way will reveal much needed specific information to the outwardly vague instructions in the poem. As a married man, I'm usually wrong.
Fenn "wrote a poem containing nine clues that if followed precisely, will lead to the end of [his] rainbow and the treasure" (p.132). "All that will be needed are the clues, some resolve, and a little imagination……….." (The Thrill of the Chase book jacket). "There are also subtle clues sprinkled in the stories" (p.133). Fenn counsels us to "start with the first clue and follow the others consecutively to the treasure. Hints in the book are not that organized" (Mysterious Writings Featured Question 12/11/14). "All of the information you need to find the treasure is in the poem. The chapters in my book have very subtle hints but are not deliberately placed to aid the seeker" (Is the Book Important?...). Fenn instructs players to "read [his] book in a normal manner. Then read the poem over and over and over, slowly – thinking. Then read [his] book again, this time looking for subtle hints that will help solve the clues" (Holly Johnson Interview 7/8/13).
In addition to these and Fenn's multiple other statements about The Thrill of the Chase's importance in solving the poem puzzle, the incredible effort that he put into creating TTOTC and all the associated game related texts beyond the poem puzzle (e.g. Too Far To Walk, Once Upon A While, and the Scrapbooks) speaks to their necessity in the poem puzzle's solution. TTOTC is subtitled "A Memoir" and there is no doubt that many of the anecdotes are based on actual events. However, two points bear further contemplation: some of the events are not credible (e.g. the pontoon airplane episode in My Brother Being Skippy) and, given its limited length, the selection of events is extremely peculiar (e.g. the cow milking in Bessie and Me). As TTOTC is unconvincing strictly as a memoir, it is not unreasonable to assign an alternative purpose as not only essential to the solution of the poem puzzle but to go as far as to posit that its principal purpose is to provide instructions as to how to solve the poem puzzle. After all, in Scrapbook 62 Fenn tells us that "excellent research materials are TTOTC, Google Earth, and/or a good map" and in the Mysterious Writings Question from 6/27/14 he tells us his "Thrill of the Chase book is enough to lead an average person to the treasure."
(1) My contention is that Fenn's puzzle has a systematic solution. (2) My contention is that TTOTC is an instruction manual for solving the poem puzzle. (3) My contention is that the poem puzzle contains hidden information that adds much needed specificity to the extremely vague outward instructions. (4) My contention is that all the information needed to solve the poem puzzle is contained within TTOTC and that "specialized knowledge" (Mysterious Writings Question 6/27/14) will not be required to solve the poem puzzle. (5) My contention is that Fenn was too subtle in the creation of TTOTC for the instructions to be applied or even identified with confidence. (6) My contention is that the plethora of Fenn's additional game related texts beyond TTOTC serves to distinguish and perhaps clarify the instructions found within TTOTC.
Hypothesized Game Feature 1
An "indicator error" is Fenn's use of intentional errors to draw attention to items of interest to the game. He overtly states this in Scrapbook 179 Heck with Those Guys: I "misspell a word to make the reader stop and look it up" and corrupt "a word or idea." This is illustrated with an anecdote about extracting information from a reluctant interviewee by deliberately saying "something to them that I knew was wrong." In TTOTC, this concept is perhaps subtly raised in Important Literature: "I never thought I had to believe everything I said" and "non-fiction writers don't have to be right but eighty-five percent of the time" (p.14). Indicator errors are ubiquitous. One glaring example of an indicator error is the wrong synopsis provided for For Whom the Bell Tolls within Important Literature (p.11).
Hypothesized Game Feature 2
Wordplay features prominently in Fenn's game related writings. This wordplay enhances the texture of his writing but also complicates its interpretation. Examples of wordplay include the paraprosdokian "he was married five times, and he said he always married housekeepers because when he divorced they kept the house" (p.7), the variant synophone of the "kid" that had Fenn pondering his "kismet," or fate, was his kidney cancer (p.13), the neogram "cheap, one-pony show" (p.17) from a combination of the idioms "cheap trick," "one-trick pony," and "dog and pony show," the variant oronym of "Miss F or D" for Fenn's school teacher "Miss Ford" (p.26), the mondegreen "buffalo bull" for "Buffalo Bill" (p.65), and the irony that the "learning curve" was "flat" but not "dull" (p.105). The pun manifesto that is Scrapbook 49 Sweet Fragrances is a quite aptly a suite ("sweet") of flagrant senses ("fragrances"): "celery salt" is "very salty," ""something is dead" in "turmeric," and "bay leaves" are "just leaves."
Hypothesized Game Feature 3
That hidden information is present in the poem puzzle can be assumed from the fact that the poem's outward instructions are extraordinarily vague; that Fenn describes its creation as a fifteen year process; that it is compared to a work of architecture; and, paraphrasing, that one must "decipher" or "decrypt" the clues that are in the poem. Fenn states that "the person who finds the treasure will have studied the poem over and over, and thought, and analyzed and moved with confidence" and that "nothing about it will be accidental" (Mysterious Writings Six Questions with Forrest Fenn 2/4/13). This degree of certainty in the correct solution is in direct opposition to the outwardly vague instructions within the poem puzzle. That it took "fifteen years from the start to the time" Fenn "actually hid that treasure" (On the Road with Charlie Part One 5/8/17) argues for more depth than the poem puzzle's outwardly vague appearance suggests; although a weak argument, one would expect a much more contracted course of construction if the poem puzzle was simply a set of outwardly ambiguous instructions. On numerous occasions Fenn compares the poem puzzle to a work of architecture: "the poem is not so much written as it is an architectural plan" (EIS Radio 8/8/13), Fenn "didn't write that poem, it was written by an architect" (Collected Works Bookstore 10/23/13), Fenn "felt like an architect drawing that poem" (Moby Dickens Bookshop 11/2/13), "the blueprint is challenging" (Mysterious Writings Featured Question 7/1/16), and "that poem was really written by an architect" and "every word is placed in there strategically, and you can't ignore any of the nouns" (On the Road with Charlie Part One 5/8/17). The sum of these quotes suggests a deeper structure to the poem beyond its simple outward appearance and it is a short step to the assumption that the point of a deeper structure--and the point to mentioning that there is a deeper structure--is to hide additional localizing information. Lastly, on numerous occasions Fenn has stated that one must "decipher" or "decrypt" the clues in the poem. While this may simply refer to the outward clues, it also could refer to the presence of hidden information awaiting discovery: "if you can read the poem and decipher the clues, the clues will take you to where I hid that chest" (Forrest Fenn Interview 2/27/13), "figure out the clues, decipher what they say and go straight to the treasure chest" (New Zealand Radio 4/3/13), "if the person reads the poem over and over and are able to decipher the first few clues in the poem, they can find the treasure chest" (Collected Works Bookstore 10/23/13), "there are several people that have deciphered the first two clues" (Moby Dickens Bookshop 11/2/13), "the book will help them but they can find the treasure if they can decipher the clues that are in the poem" (Torg and Elliott 1/7/16), in "their minds think the clues are tougher to decrypt than they really are" (Mysterious Writings Featured Question 7/1/16), and "if you can decipher the clues, you're gonna find that treasure chest" (The Lure Post-Screening Q&A 5/18/17).
The idea of information waiting to be discovered is subtly raised in Important Literature: Salinger had "written a lot of books and had hidden some in a vault so no one could read them...he seemed like my kind of guy" (p.12). Even more subtly, Fenn encounters mystical experiences when he pushes "the tall grass aside" (p.42) in Gypsy Magic and "in the tall grass" were "grave markers," "the more we looked, the more we found" (p.91,94) in My War for Me. Hidden information is more overtly discussed in several scrapbooks. Scrapbook 209 metaphorically describes the poem puzzle as fairy dolls that have hidden protective "armature" and "silent fetishes." These fairy dolls are provocative metaphors for the poem puzzle, as developed both within the text and photograph; "Chaos" stands with her foot on a chest, a representation of the hidden treasure chest, and holds the book "The Path to Perfect Happiness," a representation of "the thrill of the chase." Scrapbook 207 Absarokee Hut metaphorically describes the poem puzzle as a cabin that has a "claw hammer" "talisman" hidden under the floorboards; furthermore, this discovery is described as "well-ordered," a "footnote," and having been "unfolded" suggesting a systematic way to extract this hidden content. This idea is explicitly addressed at the conclusion of the scrapbook: "sometimes you have to just grab a misplaced tradition by the tail and rearrange it back like it’s supposed to be." Scrapbook 107 describes "untangl[ing] poor phone cord." A similar charm is discussed in the Mysterious Writings Featured Question with Forrest 1/5/15; therein Fenn describes a "slick," which are jade "good luck charms" or "amulets," that he "found under the floor boards of a long-ago abandoned log cabin." Scrapbook 213 New Things That Turn Into Old Ones describes secreting notated "plant life" "inside the cover of a book" for someone "to find in the far-distant future." Scrapbook 229 Medicinal Mojo Necklace describes a "medicinal mojo necklace" from whose beads Fenn received "large bits of information." Scrapbook 219 Good food times in SF describes "twenty-two crock pots" "lined up in a row," perhaps aspects of the poem puzzle, that contain "a very closely guarded secret." Finally, Scrapbook 223 Pansies of the West Fork provides further instructions on discovering hidden information: "if the log building in the background were to disappear you might see the West Fork of the Madison River confluencing [sic] with the Madison River" and "you can’t see the Madison River either, but it’s just 20’ behind the two pine trees on the right in this picture."
Hypothesized Game Features 4+
Many repeated elements in Fenn's writings need to be applied to extract the hidden information in the poem. I call this the "gypsy magic." I tried many magic tricks and I know Nkown tried many more. Obviously it didn't pan out for either of us. The major elements of our efforts included names and/or "I" (e.g. Mr. Fenn, Principal; I was in the middle), partnering and/or joining names (e.g. Bessie and Me), dividing and/or circling back (e.g. Long Ride Home), skipping/jumping (e.g. My Brother Being Skippy), and reversing/mirroring and/or circling back (e.g. Teachers with Ropes).
My expectation will be that by applying this gypsy magic, provided in the TTOTC instruction manual disguised as a memoir (and clarified in many of his other writings and strongly in the ones at the end of last year), to the poem in just the right way will reveal much needed specific information to the outwardly vague instructions in the poem. As a married man, I'm usually wrong.
