Subject: (urth) Eyeflash Miracles: WolfeWiki Content

From: Matthew Groves <matthewalangroves at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 00:42:18 +0000

There's a set of essays in the old archives about Wizard of Oz
references in "The Eyeflash Miracles."  The essays are by William
Ansley, and they are very thorough on the Oz connections as well as
being a guide to interpretation.  Here are the relevant posts:

http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0024/0046.shtml
http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0024/0050.shtml
http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0024/0052.shtml
http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0024/0054.shtml
http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0024/0057.shtml
http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0024/0059.shtml
http://www.urth.net/urth/archives/v0024/0072.shtml

This is just the sort of thing I would like to see in the WolfeWiki.
A lot of work went into these essays, and others like them.  I wonder,
first of all, what the WolfeWiki custodians think about the
possibility of (upon obtaining Mr. Ansley's permission) editing these
posts for inclusion on the Wiki.  Second, I wonder about the
feasibility of mining the archives for other gems like these and using
them for the Wiki as well.  The alternative is to create all such
content from scratch, which, besides being an unnecessary duplication
of effort, is a task that boggles my mind, considering Wolfe's
complexity and the breadth of his intertextuality.

Any thoughts?

Matthew

PS: Bill is a Vironese name.  Just occurred to me.  So is Slippery Dick.

---

From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 02:37:22 +0000

Assuming that William agreed, I'd be delighted to put it into some kind of
usable form.

Does anyone have a current eddress for him?

On 7/20/07, Matthew Groves <matthewalangroves at gmail.com> wrote:
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer
http://www.danehyoakes.com
Soon, where Toon Town once stood will be a string of gas stations,
inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food. Tire
salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards
reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful.

---

From: Mo Holkar / UKG <lists at ukg.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:06:00 +0000

Hi all,

Just a quick update on how things are going over at WolfeWiki.

I hope Dan'l won't mind me singling him out for having done some 
terrific work sorting, systematizing and writing. The pages are 
filling up gradually, but it'd be great to have some more voices 
contributing. Not just Wolfe experts, anyone who wants to help the 
project along will be very welcome as there's plenty of routine work 
still to do!

A few of the pages that have been set up:

Front page:
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=WolfeWiki.Introduction

Contents:
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=WolfeWiki.Contents

Page on the recent story Unrequited Love:
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.UnrequitedLove

Page on Long Sun
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=WolfeWiki.TheBookOfTheLongSun

And to sign up as a contributor:
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Admin.BecomingAnEditor

best,

Mo

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From: Recursive Loop <recursive_loop at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:27:20 +0000

I'm working through "Shadow" for the first time since...ummm...mumble...looks up and
whistles..can't be THAT LONG!

Anyway, it is going to be a while before I feel confident enough to contribute to this, but the
efforts are helping me on this go-round.

(Sometimes I feel, as I'm reading, I should be carrying a notebook to jot down words and words and
words...words that I want to learn, look up, start using. This time around I'm reading it less for
a story than an appreciation for the craft).

FPK3

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Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase.
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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:30:43 +0000

On 7/23/07, Mo Holkar / UKG <lists at ukg.co.uk> wrote:

> terrific work sorting, systematizing and writing.

Why would I mind being singled out for compliments?

I'm trying to systematically *start* pages. But a lot of what I am
doing is *just* a start. This is a wiki, and the whole point is to
mobsource content -- I'd really like people to take the stuff I've
done and make it better. In some cases, *much* better.

One thing that would help a lot is if you would go to the
pages for books that have been started, look at you copies,
and, if the edition you have isn't listed, add information about
that edition (publisher, date, cover artist; if you're feeling
ambitious, add the blurb at the bottom).

The point is, it's a wiki, edit it! Add content! Don't worry
about it not being "good enough," the whole point is tha
someone else will take it as a starting point and make it
better ... in a sense, this is the opposite of "pedant
central," nobody's ego needs to be involved.

---

From: Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:48:38 +0000

I noticed that it's not a free-edit Wiki.  How hard is it to obtain
permissions?

Furthermore, what is the spirit of this thing?  From what I've seen there
isn't a lot of consensus about the interpretation, so perhaps the sections
pertaining to places and characters should focus on objective facts to avoid
editorial battles.
However, I would rather like to see an interpretive FAQ of sorts for the
story also, perhaps in a separate section for each of the books.

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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:48:00 +0000

Paul,

Go to the bottom of the Contents page, and click the link for "Discussion
of edits, structure, etc." We're working on that. I've created bogey
templates for story and novel pages, but obviously they can be
improved upon.

Also, look at the page for "Unrequited Love" (via the "Stories Available
Online" link). I'm not suggesting that this is THE WAY to do it, but it's a
first-blush attempt -- this is a wiki, make it better!

On 7/24/07, Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 7/23/07, Mo Holkar / UKG < lists at ukg.co.uk> wrote:
> >

---

From: Mo Holkar / UKG <lists at ukg.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:44:55 +0000

>I noticed that it's not a free-edit Wiki.  How hard is it to obtain 

Not at all hard -- at the moment, while knowledge of the wiki is 
limited to members of this list, we're allowing anyone who wants to 
sign up as a contributor:
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Admin.BecomingAnEditor

If it continues to grow to the point where we observe "bad" 
contributor behaviour, then we'll tighten up on things.

>Furthermore, what is the spirit of this thing?  From what I've seen 
>there isn't a lot of consensus about the interpretation, so perhaps 
>the sections pertaining to places and characters should focus on 
>objective facts to avoid editorial battles.
>However, I would rather like to see an interpretive FAQ of sorts for 
>the story also, perhaps in a separate section for each of the books.

What we've tried to do so far is to create "rigidly defined areas of 
doubt and uncertainty" (in the words of Douglas Adams) -- each work 
has a factual area and a separate interpretative area. Of course this 
is all up for grabs as the consensus of users evolves, but hopefully 
it's a workable starting situation.

best wishes,

Mo

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From: aaron <aaronsingleton at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 05:39:06 +0000

I would love to contribute something.  Let me know what section needs the
most attention at the present and I will be happy to jump on it.  My
knowledge of Wolfe and his work is pretty thorough, and I am sure most who
post here could say the same. I do not claim any knowledge about Letters
Home and a couple of the other rare books, but for the most part, I am
familiar with his body of work. Let me know.  Thanks.

Aaron Singleton
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From: Mo Holkar / UKG <lists at ukg.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:12:14 +0000

At 06:39 25/07/2007, you wrote:
>I would love to contribute something.  Let me know what section 
>needs the most attention at the present and I will be happy to jump 
>on it.  My knowledge of Wolfe and his work is pretty thorough, and I 
>am sure most who post here could say the same. I do not claim any 
>knowledge about Letters Home and a couple of the other rare books, 
>but for the most part, I am familiar with his body of work. Let me 
>know.  Thanks.
>
>Aaron Singleton

Hi Aaron (and anyoen else who's thinking the same),

That's great! I guess a good place to dive in might be to start 
working through the individual stories and novels with which you're 
most familiar / have closest to hand, setting their pages up using 
the templates:
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Templates.StoryTemplate
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Templates.NovelTemplate
and filling those in with as much or as little detail as you feel happy to.

Dan'l's examples:
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=WolfeWiki.TheShadowOfTheTorturer
http://www.holkar.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=OnlineStories.UnrequitedLove
show how the templates are intended to be used. The templates 
themselves are only pro tem, of course, so if you think they could be 
improved upon, go right ahead.

But apart from that, please do feel free to add, correct or improve 
anything else that you see as you wander around the site,

best wishes,

Mo