To Madness...

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locke

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« on: June 13, 2014, 07:35:12 pm »
You are about to begin reading R. Scott Bakker’s new novel, The Unholy Consult. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, “No, I don’t want to watch TV!” Raise your voice— they won’t hear you otherwise—“ I’m reading! I don’t want to be disturbed!” Maybe they haven’t heard you, with all that racket; speak louder, yell: “I’m beginning to read Scott Bakker’s new novel!” Or if you prefer, don’t say anything; just hope they’ll leave you alone.

Find the most comfortable position: seated, stretched out, curled up, or lying flat. Flat on your back, on your side, on your stomach. In an easy chair, on the sofa, in the rocker, the deck chair, on the hassock. In the hammock, if you have a hammock. On top of your bed, of course, or in the bed. You can even stand on your hands, head down, in the yoga position. With the book upside down, naturally.

Of course, the ideal position for reading is something you can never find. In the old days they used to read standing up, at a lectern. People were accustomed to standing on their feet, without moving. They rested like that when they were tired of horseback riding. Nobody ever thought of reading on horseback; and yet now, the idea of sitting in the saddle, the book propped against the horse’s mane, or maybe tied to the horse’s ear with a special harness, seems attractive to you. With your feet in the stirrups, you should feel quite comfortable for reading; having your feet up is the first condition for enjoying a read.

Well, what are you waiting for? Stretch your legs, go ahead and put your feet on a cushion, on two cushions , on the arms of the sofa, on the wings of the chair, on the coffee table, on the desk, on the piano, on the globe. Take your shoes off first. If you want to, put your feet up; if not, put them back. Now don’t stand there with your shoes in one hand and the book in the other.

Adjust the light so you won’t strain your eyes. Do it now, because once you’re absorbed in reading there will be no budging you. Make sure the page isn’t in shadow, a clotting of black letters on a gray background, uniform as a pack of mice; but be careful that the light cast on it isn’t too strong, doesn’t glare on the cruel white of the paper, gnawing at the shadows of the letters as in a southern noonday. Try to foresee now everything that might make you interrupt your reading. Cigarettes within reach, if you smoke, and the ashtray. Anything else? Do you have to pee? All right, you know best.

It’s not that you expect anything in particular from this particular book. You’re the sort of person who, on principle, no longer expects anything of anything. There are plenty, younger than you or less young, who live in the expectation of extraordinary experiences: from books, from people, from journeys, from events, from what tomorrow has in store. But not you. You know that the best you can expect is to avoid the worst. This is the conclusion you have reached, in your personal life and also in general matters, even international affairs. What about books? Well, precisely because you have denied it in every other field, you believe you may still grant yourself legitimately this youthful pleasure of expectation in a carefully circumscribed area like the field of books, where you can be lucky or unlucky, but the risk of disappointment isn’t serious.

So, then, you noticed in an email that The Unholy Consult had appeared, the new book by Scott Bakker, who hadn’t published for several years. You went to his house and read the volume. Good for you.

In his window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for. Following this visual trail, you have forced your way through his house past the thick barricade of Books You Haven’t Read, which were frowning at you from the tables and shelves , trying to cow you. But you know you must never allow yourself to be awed, that among them there extend for acres and acres the Books You Needn’t Read, the Books Made For Purposes Other Than Reading, Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong To The Category Of Books Read Before Being Written. And thus you pass the outer girdle of ramparts, but then you are attacked by the infantry of the Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered.

With a rapid maneuver you bypass them and move into the phalanxes of the Books You Mean To Read But There Are Others You Must Read First, the Books Too Expensive Now And You’ll Wait Till They’re Remaindered, the Books ditto When They Come Out In Paperback, Books You Can Borrow From Somebody, Books That Everybody’s Read So It’s As If You Had Read Them, Too. Eluding these assaults, you come up beneath the towers of the fortress, where other troops are holding out:

the Books You’ve Been Planning To Read For Ages,

the Books You’ve Been Hunting For Years Without Success,

the Books Dealing With Something You’re Working On At The Moment,

the Books You Want To Own So They’ll Be Handy Just In Case,

the Books You Could Put Aside Maybe To Read This Summer,

the Books You Need To Go With Other Books On Your Shelves,

the Books That Fill You With Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified.

Now you have been able to reduce the countless embattled troops to an array that is, to be sure, very large but still calculable in a finite number; but this relative relief is then undermined by the ambush of the Books Read Long Ago Which It’s Now Time To Reread and the Books You’ve Always Pretended To Have Read And Now It’s Time To Sit Down And Really Read Them.

With a zigzag dash you shake them off and leap straight into the citadel of the New Books Whose Author Or Subject Appeals To You. Even inside this stronghold you can make some breaches in the ranks of the defenders, dividing them into New Books By Authors Or On Subjects Not New (for you or in general) and New Books By Authors Or On Subjects Completely Unknown (at least to you), and defining the attraction they have for you on the basis of your desires and needs for the new and the not new (for the new you seek in the not new and for the not new you seek in the new).

All this simply means that, having rapidly glanced over the titles of the volumes displayed in the house, you have turned toward a stack of The Unholy Consult fresh off the printer, you have grasped a copy, and you have carried it to the author so that your right to read it can be established.

You cast another bewildered look at the books around you (or, rather: it was the books that looked at you , with the bewildered gaze of dogs who, from their cages in the city pound, see a former companion go off on the leash of his master, come to rescue him), and out you went.

You derive a special pleasure from an un-published book, and it isn’t only a book you are reading early but its novelty as well, which could also be merely that of an object fresh from the factory, the youthful bloom of new books, which lasts until the dust jacket begins to yellow, until a veil of smog settles on the top edge, until the binding becomes dog-eared, in the rapid autumn of libraries. No, you hope always to encounter true newness, which, having been new once, will continue to be so. Having read the freshly published book, you will take possession of this newness at the first moment, without having to pursue it, to chase it. Will it happen this time? You never can tell. Let’s see how it begins.

Perhaps you started leafing through the book already, tell me























































WHAT DO YOU SEE?






















































In other words, it’s better for you to restrain your impatience and wait to open the book at home. Now. Yes, you are in your room, calm; you open the book to page one, no, to the last page, first you want to see how long it is. It’s not too long, fortunately. Long novels written today are perhaps a contradiction: the dimension of time has been shattered, we cannot love or think except in fragments of time each of which goes off along its own trajectory and immediately disappears. We can rediscover the continuity of time only in the novels of that period when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded, a period that lasted no more than a hundred years.

You turn the book over in your hands, you scan the sentences on the back of the jacket, generic phrases that don’t say a great deal. So much the better, there is no message that indiscreetly outshouts the message that the book itself must communicate directly, that you must extract from the book, however much or little it may be. Of course, this circling of the book, too, this reading around it before reading inside it, is a part of the pleasure in a new book, but like all preliminary pleasures, it has its optimal duration if you want it to serve as a thrust toward the more substantial pleasure of the consummation of the act, namely the reading of the book.

So here you are now, ready to attack the first lines of the first page. You prepare to recognize the unmistakable tone of the author. No. You don’t recognize it at all. But now that you think about it, who ever said this author had an unmistakable tone? On the contrary , he is known as an author who changes greatly from one book to the next. And in these very changes you recognize him as himself. Here, however, he seems to have absolutely no connection with all the rest he has written, at least as far as you can recall . Are you disappointed? Let’s see. Perhaps at first you feel a bit lost, as when a person appears who, from the name, you identified with a certain face, and you try to make the features you are seeing tally with those you had in mind, and it won’t work. But then you go on and you realize that the book is readable nevertheless, independently of what you expected of the author, it’s the book in itself that arouses your curiosity; in fact , on sober reflection, you prefer it this way, confronting something and not quite knowing yet what it is.

(with apologies to Italo Calvino)
« Last Edit: June 13, 2014, 07:39:56 pm by locke »

Aural

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« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2014, 07:55:34 pm »
Hey Madness. Would you say that TUC really concludes the whole story?

Rhom

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« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2014, 08:26:24 pm »
Dare I say it?  Reading that post was...

The slog of slogs!

Madness

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« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2014, 08:27:23 pm »
Since I'm fielding little queries in Quorum right now, Feananra, I thought I'd quote you what I wrote when SR asked me the same last night.

I'm also thinking about doing a general impressions post, as per lockesnow's "WHAT DO YOU SEE" query.

Quote
SilentRoamer: do you feel it was a satisfying ending and gave you the answers you were looking for
Madness: Yes, and no.
Madness: The yes part because it absolutely does it's job of concluding TAE. And it's a fucking mindfuck of an infodump.
Madness: As I've said to Wilshire - the maddening combinations... we just couldn't have outthought him.
Madness: But no because it honestly raises as many questions as it answers... if not more.
Madness: The dude's imagination is... bottomless?

And welcome, Rhom :).
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Aural

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« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2014, 08:47:29 pm »
Thanks Madness, will have to read the quorum then. But how can I go back and read the things that were said yesterday; the quorum only shows the last 20 lines or so?

Do you by any chance know when the rest of the preview chapter posted here is going to be released?

Madness

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« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2014, 08:50:31 pm »
Yeah, you can't. The Quorum is impermanent but everyone seems to be asking questions there. Hence, why I quoted for you (I have ability to go back).

As far as I know Bakker wants to tighten everything up a little bit and then he'll get in touch with Pat. So in two words, no idea :).
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Aural

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« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2014, 09:41:19 pm »
Can you go back and copy the whole quorum since you started answering questions about the book? Unless it's too much of a hassle...

profgrape

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« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2014, 12:16:32 pm »
Madness, regarding your comment on "the maddening combinations", is this just to say that while the series contains plenty of hints as to where the series is going, the sheer number of possibilities make it near-impossible to predict?

Madness

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« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2014, 01:42:20 pm »
Can you go back and copy the whole quorum since you started answering questions about the book? Unless it's too much of a hassle...

This had to be copy and pasted line by line (because the Quorum Moderator Panel presents the feed bottom to top - don't ask me why) at 20 lines per page exploring 80 pages :P.

Quote
SilentRoamer [12|Jun 02:40 pm]:   madness have you seen the TUC manuscript? or does that recent post refer to something else?

Madness [12|Jun 02:42 pm]:   I have seen the Unmentionable, SR ;).

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 02:43 pm]:   the complete manuscript? woop woop

Madness [12|Jun 02:43 pm]:   Not the complete manuscript.

Madness [12|Jun 02:43 pm]:   :)

Madness [12|Jun 02:43 pm]:   In the sense that it remains unfinished.

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 02:43 pm]:   i thought that Bakker had confirmed he had completed the manuscript? or was it just the first draft he finished?

Madness [12|Jun 02:44 pm]:   I think those are the "same thing" one in normal human speak (the latter) and one in publishing speak (former).

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 02:44 pm]:   ah ok...... so you literally hold the answer to all my questions

Wilshire [12|Jun 02:45 pm]:   I thought "it was finished" as far as writing is concerned, more or less. It still needs to be chopped up by the publishers.

Madness [12|Jun 02:45 pm]:   I'm privy to... a mind-blowing and privileged perspective and I'll do what I can to honour that.
Wilshire [12|Jun 02:45 pm]:   i.e. he won't tell anyone anything.

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 02:45 pm]:   good i fucking hate spoilers

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 02:45 pm]:   :)

Madness [12|Jun 02:45 pm]:   Bakker has... some next-level amount of "projects" coming through. And I'm very happy he's waited as long as he has to get it right.

Madness [12|Jun 02:46 pm]:   I'm being choice wordy, Wilshire.

Madness [12|Jun 02:46 pm]:   It was his decision to let the cat out of the bag as the information has been available for over a month.

Madness [12|Jun 02:47 pm]:   But... as it stands. He and I did freestyle about many things, this circumstance being one of them, and in the spirit of raising a frenzy about the next couple years, harassing me is now an open option.

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 02:47 pm]:   whats the estimated publish date now? is it even this year?

Madness [12|Jun 02:47 pm]:   I don't really know. I do know that I don't understanding how publishing works.

Madness [12|Jun 02:48 pm]:   Seriously, it seems fucked.

Madness [12|Jun 02:48 pm]:   Umm... I want to say absolutely by mid-2015.

Madness [12|Jun 02:48 pm]:   But early is still an option.

Madness [12|Jun 02:49 pm]:      I gather that these companies work in "Quarters" and sequences/cues of putting authors out.

Madness [12|Jun 02:49 pm]:      And Bakker is not a priority.

Madness [12|Jun 02:49 pm]:   Except to us, of course.

Madness [12|Jun 02:49 pm]:   The trick is making people see the vision as we do though :).

Madness [12|Jun 02:49 pm]:   Outreach ;D.

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 10:28 pm]:   madness, how spoiler restrained are you, can you answer the following, a yes or no would suffice. Do we recieve a Kellhus PoV?

Cüréthañ [12|Jun 10:39 pm]:   YOU MUST TELL ME

Cüréthañ [12|Jun 10:41 pm]:   also, weren't we once promised the second half of chapter one?

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 10:48 pm]:   WHAT DO YOU SEE

Madness [12|Jun 10:52 pm]:   I'm personally constraining myself - but Bakker encouraged me to tease as much as possible (I'm still trying to find a balance in that). There are plenty of thoughts about the process he vetoed me to share though.

Madness [12|Jun 10:52 pm]:   Second half is coming (I tried to talk him into giving him another part of the book but he's commited to what he initially told us)

Madness [12|Jun 10:53 pm]:   I encouraged him to talk to Pat sooner than later but Bakker waiting to talk to all the long-standing draft readers and then tighten it all up one final time.

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 10:57 pm]:   do you feel it was a satisfying ending and gave you the answers you were looking for

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 10:57 pm]:   im trying to phrase my questions well

SilentRoamer [12|Jun 10:57 pm]:   as i can see you are with your responses

Madness [12|Jun 10:57 pm]:   And I thank you for that :).

Madness [12|Jun 10:58 pm]:   Yes, and no.

Madness [12|Jun 10:59 pm]:   The yes part because it absolutely does it's job of concluding TAE. And it's a fucking mindfuck of an infodump.

Madness [12|Jun 10:59 pm]:   As I've said to Wilshire - the maddening combinations... we just couldn't have outthought him.

Madness [12|Jun 10:59 pm]:   But no because it honestly raises as many questions as it answers... if not more.

Madness [12|Jun 10:59 pm]:   The dude's imagination is... bottomless?

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 02:25 pm]:   do we find out what happened at Ishual?

Madness [13|Jun 02:28 pm]:   SR, you know well how perspective matters much in Bakker... There are tangible, even likely, possibilities fielded as to Ishual's ruined state?

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 02:31 pm]:   another question - are the Intact much different from the Erratics?

Madness [13|Jun 02:32 pm]:   Well, I mean... Bakker's always maintained that Ishterebinth is an info-dump.

Madness [13|Jun 02:33 pm]:   He fucking nailed it, in my opinion... but the Nonmen are... not at all what I expected. In fact, so much more than I ever could have imagined.

Madness [13|Jun 02:34 pm]:   In a word, Ishterebinth is fucking haunting. Multiple times I had to stop and remind myself that I was reading Bakker.

Madness [13|Jun 02:34 pm]:   Blew me the away :o!

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 03:40 pm]:   So Madness....

Madness [13|Jun 03:41 pm]:   What's up, SR?

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 03:42 pm]:   is Titirga a neccesary knowledge

Madness [13|Jun 03:44 pm]:   The Atrocity Tales are in no way required reading but I definitely experienced some moments of extra-joy for having read them.

Madness [13|Jun 03:45 pm]:   Like... more than a few... Again, even the original books... the amount of layering Bakker has shown himself capable of, again and again.

Madness [13|Jun 03:45 pm]:   Fucking awesome.

Wilshire [13|Jun 03:46 pm]:   You make me so goddamn excited, Madness.

Madness [13|Jun 03:47 pm]:   Lmao - if I was Dunyain/Bakker, then he made his move because he liked how the series is reflected in my giant, awe-spun anime eyes ;).

Wilshire [13|Jun 03:47 pm]:   So true.

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 03:55 pm]:   ok thanks Madness

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 03:56 pm]:   that actually answers a lot of my internal questions

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 03:56 pm]:   :)

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 03:56 pm]:       The Shortest Path is not always the straightest route

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 03:56 pm]:       :)

Madness [13|Jun 03:57 pm]:       Lol... oh man, SR. Muhahaha...
Madness [13|Jun 03:57 pm]:       This is going to be fun for me.

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 03:59 pm]:       i told you my questions may seem kind, like a smiling knife

Madness [13|Jun 04:01 pm]:       Lol... remain open, SR. It is foolish to collapse possibilites at the word of a madman.

locke [13|Jun 08:17 pm]:        Is Kellhus a viewpoint character in TUC?

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 08:18 pm]:      locke thats a nice question :)

Madness [13|Jun 08:19 pm]:       Lmao.

Madness [13|Jun 08:19 pm]:       Feananra asked something you'd asked and now so has lockesnow, SR.

Madness [13|Jun 08:19 pm]: And I think the "WHAT DO YOU SEE" question was more a generel request.

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 08:19 pm]: i knew it would be a popular question

Wilshire [13|Jun 08:20 pm]: do TJE see anything of note?

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 08:20 pm]: yeah lol

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 08:20 pm]: Wilshire

Madness [13|Jun 08:20 pm]: So verbatim what I said to SR: "Character POVs interact with Kellhus and the Omnipresent War POVs see the Aspect-Emperor."

locke [13|Jun 08:21 pm]: okay, so same as the last two.

Madness [13|Jun 08:21 pm]: I'll simply bid you think on all of the possibilities, Wilshire... In fact, that'd probably make a fun thread.

SilentRoamer [13|Jun 08:22 pm]: the funny thing is we are all talking from the assumption the TJE is true

locke [13|Jun 08:22 pm]: Do you know the name of the series that shall not be named? (you don't have to tell us the name or even reveal if it was made apparent by the text)

Madness [13|Jun 08:24 pm]: I guess that one doesn't really affect anything... yeah, it came up in conversation, lockesnow. Let me tell you. The way he just passed it off as "oh and this." Mind-blown!

locke [13|Jun 08:25 pm]: ha

Wilshire [13|Jun 08:25 pm]: lol

locke [13|Jun 08:25 pm]: has the first chapter changed significantly? Is there more to it other than the extract posted here, or is that the extant chapter?

Madness [13|Jun 08:29 pm]:   Yes, it was given to me two years ago as Ch. 1. But apparently the book has gone through multiple chapter reorganizations.

Madness [13|Jun 08:29 pm]:   And it was much longer than the excerpt we received initially.

Madness [13|Jun 08:30 pm]:   His words to me were that he plans on releasing the rest of the chapter to Pat but I don't know how he could do that.

Wilshire [13|Jun 08:27 pm]: Hey Madness, perhaps you could clarify, refute, or uphold what I said in my summary

Wilshire [13|Jun 08:30 pm]: My summary: http://www.second-apocalypse.com...=465.0

Madness [13|Jun 08:30 pm]: Wilshire, Ch.3...

Madness [13|Jun 08:30 pm]: Also a much bigger chapter.

Madness [13|Jun 08:30 pm]: Than what you heard read.

Wilshire [13|Jun 08:31 pm]: I knew that already!

Wilshire [13|Jun 08:31 pm]:   lol

Madness [13|Jun 08:31 pm]:   There was nothing too different, really, man ☺.

Madness [13|Jun 08:31 pm]:   It's just that so much more happens in that chapter.

Madness [13|Jun 08:31 pm]:   :P

Wilshire [13|Jun 08:31 pm]:   I was hoping for more ;)

locke [13|Jun 08:35 pm]: Does Death come swirling down?

Madness [13|Jun 08:35 pm]:   Death comes swirling down :).

Madness [13|Jun 08:37 pm]:   I will say Wilshire that I asked him to tighten a portion of what you heard up... there were some balances of conflict that weren’t quite layered out as well as others.

Madness [13|Jun 08:37 pm]:   Of Ch. 3.

Wilshire [13|Jun 08:37 pm]:   balances of conflit.
   
Wilshire [13|Jun 08:37 pm]:   interesting...

Madness [13|Jun 08:37 pm]:   That was another aspect that became clear even in scrutinizing the Unmentionable... there were clearly portions of the book he'd just worked longer or harder or got luckier with.

Wilshire [13|Jun 08:38 pm]:   lol "got luckier with", like how you threw that in there

Madness [13|Jun 08:38 pm]:   To note, I think it's extremely conceited that I might strengthen anything Bakker writes... I'm just a mid-wif ;).

Madness [13|Jun 08:38 pm]:   :)

locke [13|Jun 08:41 pm]:   are there any inchoroi POVs like we saw from the synthese in the first series?

locke [13|Jun 08:44 pm]:   also, the tabby cat has been suspiciously absent for three books, is there a triumphal reappearance of that beloved POV?

Madness [13|Jun 08:48 pm]:   Sorry, babysitting - nephew's hungry, dog needed out to piss, etc, etc ;).

Fëananra [13|Jun 08:48 pm]: Do we get answers for what the No-God is and why he keeps asking the questions?

Madness [13|Jun 08:50 pm]: Second question, locke. Sadly, no return of the tabby.

Madness [13|Jun 08:51 pm]: First question is complicated... the book is called TUC... expect revelatory mind-fucks?

locke [13|Jun 08:52 pm]: so is it general omniscient inchoroi stuff or is it specific POV of particular Inchoroi?

Madness [13|Jun 08:52 pm]: Feananra... sorry, I don't really think I can speak on anything like that.

Madness [13|Jun 08:52 pm]: Lockesnow, same as above :).

Fëananra [13|Jun 08:53 pm]: yeah, sorry I knew that question was stretch...

Madness [13|Jun 08:53 pm]: It's ok. We can't know if people don't ask :).

Madness [13|Jun 08:54 pm]: So far there have been... I don't know... four people to ask me anything at all.

Fëananra [13|Jun 08:59 pm]: Would you say that the ending is close to what has been theorized or Nerdaneled in the past or something that no one saw coming?

Madness [13|Jun 09:01 pm]: As you know, we've teased apart so many threads of speculation here on SA. Absolutely, there were little guesses. But no... no one knows where he's going with this... mostly because again it would have been impossible to predict how he uses all the pieces he's established throughout the series.

mrganondorf [13|Jun 09:04 pm]: was anything from tsa able to help Bakker fill a plot hole or whatever?

locke [13|Jun 09:05 pm]: How long is the book?

Fëananra [13|Jun 09:06 pm]: Do you know the name of the third series? (Not asking you to reveal it in case you do know.)

Madness [13|Jun 09:06 pm]: No, MG... he never went back to ZTS (Zombie Three-Seas) after he got another computer because a) it freed him up to write and b) because he always found himself trying to shoehorn other ideas in. Part of the reason he always visited here in a long time. He wanted/wants to stay true to the original visions.

Madness [13|Jun 09:07 pm]: Locke, it's fucking huge... I don't even know what it's going to look like in small print, book form...

Madness [13|Jun 09:07 pm]: An encyclopaedic brick? Lol.

Madness [13|Jun 09:08 pm]: Feananra, lockesnow asked me that early... It came up in conversation with Bakker. There are plenty of things that I'm privileged to know that I can never unknow now ☺.

Madness [13|Jun 09:08 pm]: It's all part of the journey. Again, humbled, that he thought my scrutiny might help him mid-wif the book.

Fëananra [13|Jun 09:10 pm]: Thanks Madness. Any word on the new and expanded glossary?

Madness [13|Jun 09:11 pm]: Just that he absolutely plans on doing one, Feananra, whatever form that might take in the future. It'll be something that's tackled after TUC (To clarify in transcript this meant after the draft of TUC is done – no word on it’s inclusion in the book or otherwise; though Bakker has mentioned publically that the book was getting to big to include it).

Fëananra [13|Jun 09:13 pm]: Can you at least confirm or deny whether the third series ties the story with Neuropath and is set in our world? The possibility of that crackpot turning out true has been haunting me ever since it's been mentioned on TFTSNBN.

Wilshire [13|Jun 09:13 pm]: lmao

Madness [13|Jun 09:15 pm]: And no, I can't, Feananra... questions about the third series are what plague me now  .

Wilshire [13|Jun 09:16 pm]: Was TUC as long as you expected. He made it out to be the biggest in the series, but he said later it was only about as long as WLW

Wilshire [13|Jun 09:17 pm]: or, around the same word count, I should have said.

Madness [13|Jun 09:17 pm]: TUC is definitely longer than WLW now - whatever it might have been when he made that commentary.

Wilshire [13|Jun 09:19 pm]: well thats good. it didn't make sense to me that it was both so much bigger and at the same time about the same number of words... Maybe he just uses really long words?

Madness [13|Jun 09:19 pm]:  I always have a dictionary on me when reading books. I used it about eight times, Wilshire.

profgrape [13|Jun 10:49 pm]:   Would I be out of bounds if I politely asked Madness to restate every question and answer he's given on the UC manuscript? :-)

Wilshire [13|Jun 11:09 pm]: Hmm I'd say it wouldnt hurt to ask

Wilshire [13|Jun 11:10 pm]: but that doesnt mean he'll do it. Your best bet is to ask specific questions in a topic, either create your own or tag along to one that is already started

Madness [13|Jun 11:27 pm]: In the topic already started please. And I will forget. It's already a hassle for me to remember. The individuals who asked me questions would better be able to tell you - even though I've already seen the telephone effect happening lol. Wilshire, still good for a game?

Madness [13|Jun 11:27 pm]:    I promise to salvage what I can find from Quorum. Exploring pages at 20 lines per page is taxing.
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Madness

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« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2014, 01:45:34 pm »
Madness, regarding your comment on "the maddening combinations", is this just to say that while the series contains plenty of hints as to where the series is going, the sheer number of possibilities make it near-impossible to predict?

Bakker has clearly had a story he has wanted to tell... I don't think he's lying when he says he's had the end of TSTSNBN decided for years. But the man had the patience and the stamina to tell us PON first. With TJE and WLW, he has spent five books establishing associations in our mind, building up the world.

This all becomes increasingly clear in the sixth volume. I told Bakker I likened it to him establishing the toys in the sandbox. This is finally his chance to play around. I'm glad his writing has had the chance to grow just enough with each tale.

Truth - a lesser author would have just written TUC and TSTSNBN and that would have been it.

EDIT: To be clear, it's the way he uses all of these associations in combination... it's nothing less than a mind-fuck.
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sologdin

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« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2014, 02:07:03 pm »
good work, madness.

and good thread, locke. your NG mimicry lays bear that it is firstly a reading machine. its role is hermeutical.  slick.  the reader is the NG, and the text pops us into its perspective. we've even got trisk and others running around with talk of murdering the world to get volume VI. 

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« Reply #11 on: June 14, 2014, 03:58:45 pm »
Thanks a lot for that, Madness.

So far you haven't said a single word about the No-God... Isn't there anything that you can tease on that? Was the NG's role in TUC anywhere near what you expected?

eta: Do we have new PoV characters? (Whether human or not.)
« Last Edit: June 14, 2014, 04:03:41 pm by Fëananra »

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« Reply #12 on: June 14, 2014, 06:06:45 pm »
Madness, regarding your comment on "the maddening combinations", is this just to say that while the series contains plenty of hints as to where the series is going, the sheer number of possibilities make it near-impossible to predict?

Bakker has clearly had a story he has wanted to tell... I don't think he's lying when he says he's had the end of TSTSNBN decided for years. But the man had the patience and the stamina to tell us PON first. With TJE and WLW, he has spent five books establishing associations in our mind, building up the world.

This all becomes increasingly clear in the sixth volume. I told Bakker I likened it to him establishing the toys in the sandbox. This is finally his chance to play around. I'm glad his writing has had the chance to grow just enough with each tale.

Truth - a lesser author would have just written TUC and TSTSNBN and that would have been it.

EDIT: To be clear, it's the way he uses all of these associations in combination... it's nothing less than a mind-fuck.

This comment to me indicates that TSTSBN is required to complete the story. Bakker has confirmed however that the plot threads started in PoN are tied up in this book.

Do you think TSTSBN will be required to give readers a satisfactory conclusion?

Triskele

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« Reply #13 on: June 14, 2014, 07:55:06 pm »
Thanks for this, Madness.  So excited for this one.  I cannot wait to see the Mansion in all of its haunting lunacy.

Mithfânion

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« Reply #14 on: June 14, 2014, 09:56:00 pm »
Quote
SilentRoamer [12|Jun 02:47 pm]:   whats the estimated publish date now? is it even this year?

Madness [12|Jun 02:47 pm]:   I don't really know. I do know that I don't understanding how publishing works.

Madness [12|Jun 02:48 pm]:   Seriously, it seems fucked.

Madness [12|Jun 02:48 pm]:   Umm... I want to say absolutely by mid-2015.

Madness [12|Jun 02:48 pm]:   But early is still an option.

Madness [12|Jun 02:49 pm]:      I gather that these companies work in "Quarters" and sequences/cues of putting authors out.

Madness [12|Jun 02:49 pm]:      And Bakker is not a priority.

Madness [12|Jun 02:49 pm]:   Except to us, of course.

This is typical from what we heard and speculated about before. The manuscript is in but now they need to lock on a date, and as you say, if you're not in schedule, you could easily move up a few months. I do remember from previous books that according to Locus, there was about a year in between handing in the MS, to publication. So hopefully early 2015.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.