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Thoughts On "S"

~ by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst

Thoughts On "S"

Tag Archives: Emydio Alves

p268 from The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves

10 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, Ship of Theseus, Who Is Straka

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

268, caduceus, Doug Dorst, Emydio Alves, hermes, JJ Abrams, mcrinitus, mercury, The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves, V.M. Straka, valise, VM Straka

On April 10th at 8:14pm GMT, user @mcrinitus posted this picture of p268 of The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves.

Bk4uggRCcAAFG_w.jpg-large-2

This page is referenced in Ship of Theseus on p xiv of the foreword. Jen writes…

This phrase is in Coriolis (p. 464). And in Winged Shoes (p. 268).

“This phrase” refers to the quote “is unwavering, from first to last.”

Also, note the first words: “The statues looked down on him.” Did Emydio Alves jump with his valise from the Charles Bridge? This is the same bridge that Vaclav Straka jumped from on October 30, 1910, as indicated by the insert on p69 – the newspaper clipping of Lampa. Interestingly (someone else pointed this out to me), p268 in Ship of Theseus has a margin note from Jen Hewyard that says…

Vaclav Straka was alive.

@mcrinitus posted this page apparently as a reward for the solution to his rail fence cipher, also posted today. @MrToasty is the apparent first person to solve it completely. The solution is…

The Caduceus gives life to those that are dead, but it stands for so much more.
Who is Emydio Alves?

@0bfusc8 was nice enough to post this picture showing the cipher and its solution…

Bk5DjWDCMAEUBAU.png-large

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Godel, Escher, Bach in “S”

01 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, Ship of Theseus, Uncategorized, Who Is Straka

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Art of the Fugue, Bach, Doug Dorst, Emydio Alves, Eric Husch, Filomela Caldeira, Godel Escher Bach, Hermann Hesse, Jennifer Heyward, JJ Abrams, substance, The Glass Bead Game, The Great Synthesis, The Tortugan Journals, The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves, V.M. Straka

hofstadter_geb

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

EVOLUTIONS

The FXC footnote on page 52 of Ship of Theseus possibly leads to a game-changing idea behind the construction of  “S.” that lead to a book entitled The Glass Bead Game. If you haven’t already read that theory, it is worth your time, especially before exploring the connections to Gödel, Escher, Bach.

That theory led to explorations into synthesizing S.‘s apparent fugue state and the musical fugue, as in Interlude: Toccata and Fugue in Free Time (p299-330).  If you haven’t already, I suggest you read geekyzen’s thoughts on the musical connections in “S.”  It is also worth your time.

This attempted synthesis led to the idea that S.‘s fugue state may be similar to an Australian walkabout, where aborigines walk across the lands, singing songlines that serve as musical maps to help them navigate their journey. It also led to the idea that perhaps J.S. Bach’s Art of the Fugue is the songline that may help us better understand “S.“ 

In the comments section of that post, Jillaggie1 said all of these posts together reminded her of Douglas Hofstadter’s book Gödel, Escher, Bach. Then the user Captain pointed out the The Art of the Fugue is actually discussed in Gödel, Escher, Bach.

And so the journey begins.

CONNECTIONS

There are strong similarities between Gödel, Escher, Bach (GEB) and The Glass Bead Game (GBB).

  1. Both focus the synthesis of thought in otherwise vastly different fields: music, mathematics, art.
  2. Gödel, Escher, Bach attempts to weave an Eternal Gold Braid in these various fields as it applies to thought. In The Glass Bead Game, the main character creates a drawing in which these same disciplines come together in a circular garland. He then dreams that this garland spins until it flies apart into twinkling stars.
  3. Both focus heavily on the musical fugue.

There are strong similarities between “S” and Gödel, Escher, Bach. 

  1. One of the Straka candidates is Lewis Looper (FN1, p38). GEB discusses loops in detail. Douglas Hofstadter later wrote a full book on the subject entitled I Am a Strange Loop. Hofstadter’s publishing company described GEB as “a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll.” This gives us both Lewis and Looper. In addition, the eternal golden braid is a loop, which reminds us of our opening puzzle, “What begins at the water shall end there, and what ends there shall once more begin.”
  2. In GEB, Hofstadter utilizes a fictitious author that he names Egbert B. Gebstadter. He creates this character for various reasons, but uses the initials EBG as a play on the Eternal Golden Braid of Gödel, Escher, Bach. In “S.” we have a character known as Edsel B. Grimshaw. He is mentioned in the marginalia by Eric Husch on p106. In addition, he is the author of a 1950 review of Ship of Theseus provided by Doug Dorst, tweeted on December 19, 2013. It appears that Egbert B. Gebstadter and Edsel B. Grimshaw are both meant to point to GEB.
  3. There is a character in GEB that is used repeatedly in dialogues to present ideas. He is the TORTOISE. “S.” refers repeatedly to The Tortugan Journals of Juan Blas Covarrubias.
  4. Within GEB, there are embedded puzzles and ciphers. There are definitely puzzles and ciphers in “S.”
  5. The book cover of The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves and Escher’s Gravity (mentioned in GEB) both use birds of negative space in a very similar way.
  6. Both books deal with self-reference.
  7. Both books appear to challenge us to synthesize vastly different fields of thought (psychology, music, mathematics, art, etc.)

There are undoubtedly many more similarities. I would love to see your own thoughts here.

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Birds of Negative Space in Gödel, Escher, Bach

27 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, Ship of Theseus, Uncategorized, Who Is Straka

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Doug Dorst, Emydio Alves, Godel Escher Bach, JJ Abrams, S, The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves, V.M. Straka, VM Straka

WingedShoesCloseup

Compare Escher’s Liberation to this close-up
of a portion of the cover of The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves.

Both show birds of negative space in transformational ascent.

In Gödel, Escher, Bach the author points to Escher’s Liberation and asks this question about the birds…

Do they suffer as much from being crystallized into a rule-obeying system?

Perhaps breaking free of the rules is the point.

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The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves

17 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by Brian Shipman in S, Ship of Theseus, Who Is Straka

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Doug Dorst, Emydio Alves, JJ Abrams, Pietro Ubaldi, S, Ship of Theseus Paradox, The Glass Bead Game, The Great Synthesis, The Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves, V.M. Straka

Pietro_Ubaldi_e_Manuel_Emydio

Pictured here is Pietro Ubaldi and Manuel Emydio. I believe the Winged Shoes of Emydio Alves is intended, in part, to lead us to Pietro Ubaldi (1886-1972).

Ubaldi was an Italian author, teacher, and philosopher fluent in English, French, German, and Portuguese. He wrote at least 24 books, half of them authored in Brazil.

His most famous work is entitled THE GREAT SYNTHESIS (Synthesis and Solution to the Problems of Science and Spirit). 

The Great Synthesis looks at and sees life as a continual transformism, as a current that never stops, as a wonderful whirl in which thought, conscientiousness, spirit is constructed, and reveals that “all life forms are our sister and, like us, they also fight for ascending toward the same spiritual goal, which is the purpose of every human life.

Here we see echoes of the Ship of Theseus Paradox, maelstrom, the soul, and synthesis as in The Glass Bead Game. 

Books by Pietro Ubaldi

1 – MESSAGES
2 – THE GREAT SYNTHESIS (Synthesis and Solution to the Problems of Science and Spirit)
3 – THE NOURS (Techniques for Reception of Thought Currents)
4 – MYSTIC ASCENSION
5 – HISTORY OF A MAN
6 – FRAGMENTS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION
7 – THE NEW CIVILIZATION OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM
8 – PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE
9 – HUMAN ASCENSION
10 – GOD AND UNIVERSE
11 – PROPHECIES (The Future of the World)
12 – COMMENTS
13 – CURRENT PROBLEMS
14 – THE SYSTEM (Genesis and Structure of the Universe)
15 – THE GREAT BATTLE
16 – EVOLUTION AND GOSPEL
17 – THE GOD’S LAW
18 – THE FUNCTIONAL TECHNIQUE OF THE GOD’S LAW
19 – FALL AND SALVATION
20 – PRINCIPLES OF A NEW ETHICS
21 – THE DOWNFALL OF THE IDEALS
22 – A DESTINY FOLLOWING CHRIST
23 – HOW TO ORIENT ONE’S OWN LIFE
24 – CHRIST

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