In a recent thread, rickmagic1 raised the question (and I paraphrase) 'Do we always need the Bogeyman to be Bizarre?'

As (another) way of answering that question, I thought it would be interesting/nice/fun if we could weave ourselves a cloth made out of our favourite stories. If you have a tale to tell, you're very welcome to tell it here .

I suppose I should get things started. I hope you enjoy this wonderful, introductory fragment by Gregory Bateson:

'A man wanted to know about mind, not in nature, but in his private, large computer. He asked (no doubt in his best Fortran), "Do you compute that you will ever think like a human being?" The machine then set to work to analyze its own computational habits. Finally, the machine printed out its answer on a piece of paper, as such machines do. The man ran to get the answer and found, neatly typed, the words: THAT REMINDS ME OF A STORY.'

Gregory Bateson - 'Mind and Nature'


Regards,

Caleb Strange.

Nice one Caleb! Asking folks to take the red and blue pills in one paragraph. Asking folks to see the room from both sides of the mirror too.

By all means spin your own yarn and learn to weave.

Don't fear the scissors!

( Put the scissors away before you run with this )

Not to be...well...perhaps I didn't express myself clearly enough, but this is what I was getting at on other threads here...why does everyone seem to think the boogieman to be bizzare? that's a good phrase! Seems especially in today's world...bizzare is not horror...but the reverse..

I'll have to think of a story to tell...but it would be interesting...use the marrucci rule, as mentioned elsewhere, to tell some stories that are good enough to tell on there own, and seeing if we can make magical routines out of the ones that AREN'T horrifying!

It's okay folks, the White Queen in one room can be a kitten in another. Do you think the White Queen also likes milk?

Has anyone taken the premise of Paul Harris's Twilight to some logical extensions?

Are the things we see in mirrors always correspondences of the things outside the mirror?
How accurately do things reflect? Are some mirrors analogical?
And when I look at a mirror, part of that which is behind me is (often) obscured by myself. Is it possible to see through one's own reflection, by inference, from the pattern behind?

Extending the thinking behind 'Twilight', surely all things can be mirrored/produced, not just coins? And perhaps some things can reflect that are not actually mirrors?

Caleb Strange.

Another story:

Many years ago there were two wise men - teachers - who went from town to town and village to village transmitting their knowledge through humour. Sufficed to say, not a single 'Thou art' or a shiny 'Bejewelled Lotus' ever passed their lips. Such sermons they told would begin, as likely as not, with a 'Knock knock' or a 'Have you heard the one..?'

Now, one day, one of these men died, having left particular instructions for his cremation. And the instructions were these:

1) Burn my body on a pyre in the town square.

2) Leave me in the clothes I die in.

And so the pyre was built and the people came from all around to see this cremation. Indeed, so many wanted to pack into the tiny square that it was getting dark by the time they had all gathered. A sombre, respectful silence fell as the teacher touched a torch to his friend's pyre.

And the curling flames took exactly fifteen minutes to reach the firecrackers in the dead man's pockets...


Regards,

Caleb Strange.