#future of xerox

[thenewsfactsnow]

Xerox Announces 15% Job Cut, Leadership Shuffle Ahead

Xerox, renowned for its digital printing and document management technologies, has unveiled plans to downsize its employee count by 15%, marking a significant step in its broader strategy aimed at restructuring its organizational framework and operational model. The restructuring initiative includes not only a substantial reduction in the workforce but also a comprehensive leadership reshuffle,…

[paintingpuff]

Badly Summarised WIPs Poll Tag

Saw this tag game and considering my dozen WIPs thought it would be fun, not really sure who to tag tho

Rules: Pick a bunch of your WIPs and summarize them as badly as possible

[smokeycemetery]

[falseandrealultravival]

7-Eleven Japan copy machine

This Japan's number one convenience store is exclusively stocked with Fuji Xerox. Because performance is number one. But I rarely use it anymore. It seems to have evolved to become harder to use.

I was in a hurry, so I asked the clerk to operate the copy machine, but this clerk ignored the priority and responded to other customers, so I scolded him.

The purpose of the copy was to copy the invoice to the seed company that neglected the procedure, but I didn't know that the convenience store would make the same mistake. .

The future of Japan is bleak.

Rei Morishita

セブンイレブンジャパンのコピー機

この日本ナンバーワンのコンビニは、もっぱらフジゼロックスを置いている。性能がナンバーワンだからだ。でも、私はめったに利用しなくなった。使いにくくなるように進化しているように思える。

急いでいたので、コピー機の操作を店員に依頼したが、この店員、優先順位を無視して、他の客に応対したので叱った。

そのコピーの目的は、手続きを軽視した種苗会社への請求書のコピーだったのだが、そのコンビニで同じような失策をされるとは。。

日本の未来は暗い。

[tomadom]

Fade into grace through hilarious torture

[eusuchia]

finished!

my big paper has arrived... time to make pamphlet

[polkadotmotmot]

Esiri Erheriene-Essi - The Future Isn't What it Used To Be, 2021 - Oil, ink and xerox transfer on linen

[greenhorn-art]

Unqualified Assistance by TheDefenestrator

Art by @lycheeluv

Fandom: 全职高手 | The King's Avatar

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Category: Gen

Words: 9,601

No one has ever doubted the identity of the “team reporter’s assistant” following Excellent Era around to their games, but he sure takes slacking to a new level. How does he get so many exclusive interviews and never publish anything?! Ye Xiu would like to protest that he has, in fact, listened to their advice and published many articles. They’re just all Glory guides.

Collection: QZGS Big Bang 2023

ABOUT THE BOOK

FORMAT: Letter quarto (trimmed), flatback casebinding, french link stitch, no tapes

FONTS: Times New Roman, Permanent Marker [via Google Fonts], KaiTi

IMAGES: Artwork by Lycheeluv

MATERIALS: 24lb Xerox Bold Digital paper (8.5"x11"), 80pt binder's board (~2mm), 30/3 size waxed linen thread, 1.9mm cording, green cardstock, Russian Green Iris bookcloth, DecoArt Crafter's Acrylic Yellow Gold, 20lb printer paper, paste wax

PROGRAMS USED: Affinity Publisher, Bookbinder-JS

.

Been feeling restless lately and thought that the focus and rush of Making A Thing would help. So I turned to my AO3 bookmarks to find a short fic to bind. I found three loosely connected by a similar theme: people interacting with Ye Xiu without knowing he's 'Ye Qiu'. I ended up doing all of them as a mini three-book collection.

[First, Second, Third]

Unqualified Assistance was the first one I typeset, using Times New Roman because in the story Ye Xiu poses as a reporter. (Times New Roman -> newspapers -> reporters). I went back in and added the Permanent Marker for the AO3 info after using it in the next book.

I also added a faint Lorem Ipsum background to the title page and first page of the story as a nod to the reporter profession.

Unqualified Assistance is another Big Bang fic. I wanted to highlight the awesome artwork, so I kept the typeset on the minimal side and didn't use any other art. Lychee's work is so lovely and expressive!

For the bookcloth I went with green because in the fic Ye Xiu is known as 'Wang's Rookie' or 'Rookie Wang'. (Time for more word association: Rookie -> greenhorn -> green, and Wang -> Wang Jiexi -> Tiny Herb -> green).

For the endpapers I used cardstock in a colour matching the bookcloth cover. No artwork or decorative paper here, just colour coordination that I can carry throughout the set.

On a whim, I trimmed the textbooks and painted the edges gold. This, I think, was the last step that really made the books a set.

With some finishing touches in the form of endbands and labels, it was done. The faux endbands were made by wrapping bookcloth around a core (in this case, leather cording). The paper label on the front cover was printed on regular ol' printer paper (20lb) treated with a paste wax (wax & mineral spirits/turpentine mix). In the future I'll use 24lb paper, because the 20lb turned slightly translucent after waxing.

[the-antiapocalyptic-man]

I love how you connect various characters and power sets to the lanterns and emotional spectrum, whether it’s the various lantern corps. Or the red, green and others from the swamp thing and animal man comics, and recently that amazing green arrow art, what other characters do you think tap into that same power source in the headverse? I’ve always wondered if the emotional spectrum is some filtered version of the source, or that maybe it has ties with the lords of order and chaos … I just get so inspired by your creativity it really lights a fire in me 😁

Always glad to inspire

so actually the Emotional Spectrum being a filtered version of the Source is exactly what I was thinking, but as a consequence of the eternal tension between the (Light) Source and The Great Darkness. The Darkness predates The Source and instinctively seeks to consume it, the site of contact between the two creating material reality (The "Pankosmos" or "Pankosmik"). The Source manifested consciousness in the form of The Presence (often conflated with the Christian God, but ultimately distinct) and life itself in the form of The Entity, filtering out into the Spectrum Entities, its "children" (Umbrax, Lovebird, Proselyte, Adara, Ion, Parallax, Ophidian, Butcher, and Raedan/Hate Machine) while the Great Darkness began mimic this process, creating Nekron and Barbatos, corrupting Eclipso, and manifesting an "Anti-Presence" or Primordial God of Darkness.

The Lords of Order and Chaos initially emerged from opposite sides of this divide (The Source and Gemworld for Order, The Great Darkness and Darkworld for Chaos) but the division blurred over eternity as being living in material reality grew beyond the Manichaen Us-Them Dichotomy of Light and Dark. Just as the multiverse is a product of the interaction between opposing forces, so is everything within it. The Source being released from its Wall would be just as devastating as the Great Darkness overtaking material reality, if not moreso. This came to a head twice in Proto-History and Hyper-Ancient human history with Krona's vision of the Empty Hand on Maltus, and again with Garn Daanuth and Garn Ahri'ahn (descended from the Omega Humanoids that populated the Garden of Eternity before it was rendered barren and became the Rock of Eternity) struggling over Darkworld leading to the deluge that sunk Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu and trapped Skartaris in a pocket dimension. Many of the refugees of the Garn Civil War ended up on Xerox (The Sorceror's World or "Gemworld") though Xerox itself wouldn't created until far into the future, unstuck from Hypertime by its overwhelming mystical energy.

Predating the Maltusians reverse-engineering Lantern technology from Volthoom, the Spectrum itself was wilder and less controlled, appearing like mystical fire and becoming the basis of the Starhearts. Obvs this powers Alan and Jade (Green), The Sorovs and the Church of Blood (Red), Cobalt Blue (Blue), The Amazons' Purple Ray (Violet), Despero (Indigo), and various Wizards and Warlocks (Orange and Yellow). The Black Flame is particularly dangerous, resurrecting the dead but sublimating their will entirely to Nerkon.

[visiblenostalgia]

The Future of The Internet: An Intuitive Deep Dive Into The Madness Of Millions

First off: This is gonna be a prediction on such a mass scale. I don't expect anyone to really FULLY pick this up (it is a prediction after all, so it's like throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks). But from what my spirit guides are telling me to do right now, they want me to push this out as far as I can because of the Pluto In Aquarius permanent ingress happens next year. We're all changing for the better and somehow the internet is going to FULLY reflect that. Why am I capitalizing 'fully'? Three of the most mundane planets are influencing this. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The icey planets are changing the paradigm soon and it's gonna flip a whole switch on our digital reality. Kind of like a 'whopping us into some sense' type of way. A rough face slap essentially. Or would it be like a baby giraffe who just arrived and has gotta walk on stubbly legs? Who knows. And because of the current state of hateful and aware affairs.... it looks pretty tribal and yet all too liberating at the same time. Without further ado, more below the cut!! ~ <3

HISTORY

Now most aren't really too speculative on where the internet started, but with a little research on hand, there have been speculations that the original basis for the internet and how it was programmed in it's "alpha" form, would be around October 29th, 1969. It was mainly a military owned and insider personnel type thing. Used for the benefit of the government to send messages to its military at a faster rate than normally possible at that time. Doesn't help that if we keep it to the basics of the sun being in scorpio (the personification of what 'underbelly' means), and knowing the ruler of that sign being Pluto (which so happens to be in a mercurial/communicative sign, Virgo), insider communication seems to check out perfectly. Setting the precedent of what's to come.

On closer inspection Pluto sat at the last decan of Virgo. Taurus being its sub-ruler. Which brings its slow-notoriety and slow-growth to the public eye.

Because after over a decade, the internet has its "beta" release because of Xerox's more interactive systems. Networks being more common, has brought more information sharing and an ultimate release for IBM systems. The computer went from a government owned invention, to a technological advancement for business and relaying data on stock prices on January 1st 1983. Very much a business incorporated sign for it to be born in, being Capricorn, we look to its ruler Saturn for extra conformation. Again, more notions of privacy and economy come to the internet. It sits once more in Scorpio. Dealing with the 'underbelly' once again. Taking another chance to look at the ruler of the sign Saturn was sitting in, it brings us to Pluto being in Libra. Which libra does deal with connections and solid foundations among people. Agreements and liability. Saturn's exalted sign as well, don't forget.

So the two (Saturn and Pluto) are in mutual reception. Businesses and powers-that-be are in symbiosis despite neighboring one another. Neutralization of any discomfort (which makes me think of a sextile -- a sextile that isn't a sextile at all (man, ping that to your notes about mutual reception hehe)).

Then, when 1984 came around, the Macintosh released the FatMac. Bringing the computer to the Homefront with a 'computer for the rest of us'. A bit of virtue signaling to the future of where computers were ULTIMATELY headed. We love Apple. God bless the genius of Steve Jobs y'all <3 (besides we'll do a whole bit on this at some point the more I think on that). But to bring the internet to the Homefront, coding had to have improved. Which, once more and finally, do we get to the internet "driving down your neighborhood street". It finally comes home on April 30th 1993. A nearly exact opposite to the "alpha" release we discussed all the way at the beginning of this section. This is where the 1.0 phase of the internet comes in. The World Wide Web ("www"). From personal studies on dates I thought were significant, colored blue like this, this day would particularly stick out to be a very Saturn and Moon dominant day. Jupiter being in third. It brings a structural (Saturnian) and personal (Lunar) backdrop to what's coming down later. HTML was released this year as well. Bringing more of an emphasis on that structure. Setting off more of the creativity in some people. In terms of modality, it was Cardinal heavy. Pioneering and brand new. Plus, because of the newness to this invention and the fact that this IS the 1.0 release, it started a... settling the Oregon trail kind of energy.

I know, the connotations of saying that are very dark, but an analogy is an analogy. We colonized the digital space as a human race. And we still do with the sphere of the STILL current invention of Virtual Reality.... lil food for thought..

Let's backtrack to the nineties once more shall we? I'm not done (cause we're only getting started!)

Geocities

Established and released in November of 1994, this started the wide WIDE reach to have people start their own website. A lot of the energies involved were once again tied to Scorpio. Now beginning to show the Piscean side on top of that. Tying in more creativity and personal-ness to the sites people had made. Capricorn being involved too, enhancing the structure of the internet once again with the infamous release of this digital product.

To make another very similar analogy to American history, the internet has brought a sense of decentralized-ness. Or, if we were going to use a more 'american-historical' term, it was a 'confederation of sites'. No big central power to the way in which it worked. Even if you had search engines. It was all of the people who made them.

To make an astrological connection to this, Saturn (structure and now coding), was in Aquarius. A sign dedicated to the underdog and smaller man. The 'we-the-people' kind of energy that we see now with Pluto in Aquarius in 2024.

God had blessed the United States back then am I right?

Time flies and now we land on the date December 17th 1996. CSS and coding for the 'look' of a website makes itself a lot more accessible and easier for people to grasp. Better yet, it was a tool released for the folks willing to enhance usability and design for their digital experience at the time.

The energies on that date were relatively splashed. Nothing too significant. And with my synesthesia, the one thing that comes to mind when someone says 'splash' is paint and iridescence. Bringing more of that emphasis on the freedom to design and enhance a users experience in the personality of sites that were created. By 1996 though, Pluto has finally reached Sagittarius! GEN Z REIGN SUPREME (despite our never-ending depression we'll get through it though I promise you that)!! Again, igniting that need to bring a sense of adventure. More people start to join the online space. With Saturn at zero Aries by this day (structures in detriment and a new Saturn cycle sadly), there's a theme of freshness and the slates wiped. So, again, more pioneering and newness. Hell. This is where Saturn and Pluto are in trine with one another. And if the powers-that-be externally meet up in harmony like this, oh you know it's gooooooddd.

The golden age of the internet begins.

Although started with water, invert the alchemical triangle to the upright position..... and alchemy begins to take shape. so to say~

GOLDEN AGE - 1999

Alrighty! We made it to the y2k movement pre-2000s. color was all the rage thanks to CSS and HTML makes it much more possible to code ones own sites. The tools continue to evolve and become more advanced. Not to mention the commodified Windows 95 and 98 experience was well underway this year, and Macintosh brought in Mac OS by this point. I mean... do you see this absolutely gorgeous graphics on both of them????

(even though they were rivals, they both had a lovely look to them)

what comes next after these years? 1999 of course! A BIG PROPRIETOR FOR 2.0

Geocities get's acquired by Yahoo! (January 28th 1999): This day was huge with a lot of energies being torn between Taurus and Aquarius (yet, I see the contrasting energies actually quite beneficial to one another). Most of the Taurus comes from the degrees in which some of the planets were situated (using degree theory as a base for this). But the contrast on both has fixed earth and fixed air. Some would say it's because the detached and logical energy of Aquarius doesn't get the slow to grow and traditional ways of life side of Taurus, but I see them coexisting. Like how fog creates the dew in grass on those very revitalizing yet calm 'last days of school' that you may have experienced. Take what resonates as usual. If it doesn't es fine. But it's foggy air, calm winds and the dew sitting on cool crisp grass. It's a good mix. Hell one could say it's Venus and Uranus working together. A wonderful (Venusian) surprise (Uranian) to the collective. Hell it made Geocities far more accessible because of Yahoo being a rising name in the internet search engine space.

HTML 4.01 (December 1999) Maybe it was an attempt to absolve the 'y2k' bug, maybe it wasn't. But what it DID bring, was more unanimity to the eventual structure of the internet. The Taurus-Aquarius energies are still prominent, yet it was slightly different with Jupiter at 25º of Aries. Doubling up on Aries energy since 25º Aries is on an Ariean degree. So, more luck in pioneering more sites for more online adventures. Saturn in particular was in 11º Taurus (in the Aquarian degree) when the released occured this month. Bringing more of that 'stability' aspect to the freedom to code. And then the outer planets were set in Aquarius to Taurus degrees. Except for Pluto..... Sagittarius 10º.... Capricorn degree. This was gonna lead to success either way.

2000's

So, what else? We made it to 2000. And 2.0 was at its time. It brought such big risers like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace this decade. Geocities continues to be used and with that, there was more of an emphasis on respect for what people brought to the online space.

It of course raised the question about living double lives and with the invention of proto-social media, personas slowly begin to fall. Eventually there's more real-life integration and an 'everyone in' type energy because of Pluto in Sagittarius destroyed the boundaries of intercontinental travel with the advent of speaking to someone on the other side of the planet with your PC. Fucking wild shit man.

Soon, the 2010's approach. Windows 8 is soon to release in the next few years

.... it brings us to another component.

2013 - Neocities

The indie web. An alternative to Geocities because it used HTML4.whatever at this point. Evolution is pretty hard to pay attention to when you're tryin' to write a whole thing on the history of how we function on the web; just to prove a point.

Before we go on about the astrology of such, this year also marks a turning point in the internet. I personally see this as the seed for delusion and craze. Social media starts to make our real life selves more noticeable. Sure, it enhanced communication to an even MORE personal level. But, the internet was highly synthetic and had fictional tones. So, the homogenization begins with bringing those same sites who were rising stars in the 2.0 era, into the current state of affairs. They became big conglomerates. Years continue with them starting to implement ad-revenue systems, stock exchange and other such money-power-lucrative systems that the newly ingressed Pluto in Capricorn is willing to expose. By 2019, geocities is completely shut down. Personality has been swiped away in trade of Wix's dull and corporate look.

Back to my point, a secret stem to this internet begins to slowly form. Neocities.

June 28th 2013

Because this site is a major nostalgia revamp, its ultimate goal of replicating and replacing the former private-on-public-server brethren has since reached its goal today. Look to Tumblr and you notice the culture if you throw in the hashtag for it. Most people don't notice since they're too busy protesting thanks to Neptune in Pisces being our current cycle. Yet, when you want to leave the homogenized internet for something a little more personal and free to your own designs, then this would be your ticket. But it's gonna take effort to code a site.

Much like it takes effort to build a home, this release has a slight pull toward more of a water dominant presence. Bringing the full story of privacy and personality full front and center. But, because of the addition of fire in its chart, there's a lot of support for the freedom to adventure out and stand out. So, Fire and Water heavy.

It's best to work in short bursts. But put your ALL into it when you can/do.

NOW

With the advent of Neptune in Aries, Uranus in Gemini, and Pluto in Aquarius being on the precipice of what's to come, I think there'd be point where the homogenization of the internet is going to be too much to bear. I'm not trying to make this an eventual doomscroll, but don't you feel like the internet is kinda..... dying? Do we really need AI? Do we really need Bitcoin? Do we reallyyyy need this or that or anything to digitally exist other than just a little taste of our souls? I see a split (fracture) and a break.

SPLIT

if push comes to shove and we DON'T regulate AI or make it so where it's NOT subscribe able and it's a free service (i.e. we teach people the ways of building these mechanisms and make it easier to do so), then the internet is gonna split.

You'll have social media (the first one in the group), suddenly fall. The toxic nature could start to die down and become less and less significant as we get around to moderating our use. Respect could come back this way, but with the advent of that, it's the responsibility that comes with using the internet. Being careful with what you put out and more needs to teach digital literacy at a younger audience.

Fandom could take a slight hit because of this. Having a full-circle experience of everything I had to know about what it means to be in one, from being banned, blocked to accepted and loved, as well as the arguments over logistical means in a fictional world (which by the way Neptune in Pisces loves to blend reality with the incomprehensible imagination and raw emotions we get). Antiship and Proship wars too. (That's also gonna be something I wish to talk about with my Neptune in Aries predictions) But because of the 'digital literacy' clause and intent of stuff stated above, it'll take a slight hit where fandom may have a more respectful way of saying or doing such and so. Silent blocks, DNI alerts, the usual that we're so encompassed to.

Other than that: Forums or modified forums become the norm as we revert to a more personal and open lifestyle with the digital space. Doxxing and callouts will still happen, yet I feel as a greater disdain and utter repulsion for it could occur. All of this could be known as ADAPTATION for some. Better yet, true RESPECT.

BREAK

If push comes to shove and the internet space begins to get a little too dicey and personal, basically making it more of that TRIBAL sense of finding your people (not to mention it starts to also devolve to where there's cases of subconscious levels of aggression and too many 'what-if's' being thrown around -- i.e. assumptions, accusations and subliminal hate), then something out there or somewhere is gonna completely tear apart the fabric of the internet. For a bleak example: a foreign country hacks into our digital region. Our VPN.

Aries is ruled by Mars. Mars rules knives and seperations. Wars. If Neptune rules over the subconscious over everyone, this could bring about primal actions on a structure like this.

! not to mention that Saturn (code, structure), conjuncts with Neptune (dissolution and dissolving/illusions and spiritual destiny)... and Aries is known for the anger and drive that it has......

we could revert back to a 1.0 like state of mind. Addictions to social media will have huge withdrawals. Attention and clout chasing will get worse outside of that, and it just straight up becomes a crime.

One thing's for certain. We learn a lesson of being careful to not put our personal information out there. .... but that break gives a chance for the proto-web to come back. Hyper-personalization and drive to keep it within chat services like Discord could become even more so the norm or remain as they are. HTML 6 could come out and bringing the retro look with offline capabilities to the public. So as long as we're careful not to once again put our information out there, then that might bring us to once again let the people shine. The key theme with the break is RESTART.

I apologize if it did seem bleak or aggressive. It’s what I channeled and like I said, if you don’t resonate with it, don’t have to worry about it. 🧘✨ my last couple of statements before we close this off with resources, and one is gonna sound a lot like Smokey The Bear.

Care will prevent the destruction of our exchange in ideas and communication. Only YOU can prevent the 'break'. so let's strive for a 'split' alright? ~visiblenostalgia

and then there's something one of my professors had admitted.

"We have more information than ever, but we're more uninformed than ever."

and a small song before I really tie this up.

love you guys <3

RESCOURCES:

[rustbeltjessie]

what should my next mini-zine(s) contain?

All the financial bullshit and red tape and stuff I’ve been dealing with has left me kinda uninspired, but I'm determined to get a mini-zine out to my subscribers this month (well, at this point, they won't actually be mailed until early September, but YKWIM).

Anyway, I wanted to let y'all vote on what that zine might contain. I put the same basic poll on my Ko-fi, but it struck me that more people will probably see it here, so I’m posting it here too. (And I don’t even care if you’re one of my subscribers or not, you can still vote!)

All of the items are projects or pieces which I've already started, and all will require about the same amount of time + effort to complete. (Except the art one. That one I could put together in a day. If I don't get enough votes otherwise, I'm gonna give myself a break and just go with that one this month.)

If your vote ultimately isn't chosen this month, I may use it in one of the coming months.

And finally: if you have some other topic/style/whatever you’d like to see me use aside from the ones listed here, let me know in the tags or notes! I probably won’t use it this month, but I may return to it in the future.

So…

[smokeycemetery]

[vintagegeekculture]

How 60s Zines and Fandom Led to a Novel Series

One of the biggest parts of organized fandom in the 1940s-1970s were fanzines centered on adventure and scifi writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. Xeroxed and passed around in manilla envelopes in the mail, the organized fandom included fan art, articles, fan fiction, and essays passed from person to person. The big fanzines were the Gridley Wave, ERB Dom, the Oparian, and Burroughsania (fantasy writer A. Merritt and the Weird Tales writers had fanzines even at this late date as well, like Amra).

I heard a great description of Edgar Rice Burroughs fans and the fandom around him: they’re like the rest of us, except even more so. This could apply to the extremely right-brained, detective novel approach they took to the source material. All fandoms have people in them that do this, of course, I would never say otherwise...but I’m telling you, nobody did it quite like they did. As an example, ERB fandom in the 50s very precisely calculated where Tarzan grew up, based on the flimsy clues of the text, that his family’s steamer was out several weeks from Libreville. Based on calculating the average 1889 steamer’s range in two weeks, along with overlaying existing maps of the Central African Republic (today’s Gabon), they were able to figure out where he grew up very precisely. This was typical of the kinds of things they did. It reminds me less of the usual activities of fandom, and more like Heinrich Schliemann using a copy of the Iliad to discover the supposed site of the city of Troy. 

It’s incredible how ahead of its time that all was, because the culture has only now caught up to what they were doing in the fifties in ERB fanzines. Today, the appeal of a lot of conspiracy theories floating around is that they are participatory, almost like some kind of ARG, like Ong’s Hat and the John Titorverse. Which pop music videos have clues put in them by the Illuminati? Can you guess which of the Hollywood Sickos was secretly replaced by a clone after being executed in a secret trial? It’s fun because you can play along at home! A lot of true crime podcasts and the communities around them also have this “figure out the mystery yourself” appeal, which is why the families of unsolved murder victims absolutely dread being covered by a popular mystery podcast. The future is in the back and forth model carried out by Edgar Rice Burroughs fans in the 50s. 

It’s no surprise Edgar Rice Burroughs has fans like this. He had an absolute domination over the pop culture of the early to mid 20th Century. He, not Fitzgerald, not Hemingway, was the best selling novelist of the 1920s. ERB was, in particular, a favorite of two audiences that no longer are reliable customers of the book and publishing world: working class men and young boys. This makes sense, since his works were adventure Walter Mitty daydreams, the male equivalent of romance novels. The fact that young boys are no longer reading is, incidentally, one of the most disastrous and under-researched social phenomena of the present time. I am who I am today because I dreamed and imagined.

The biggest of the Fanzine writers had to be Philip Jose Farmer, who later became a professional writer, a name you’ve probably heard if you’ve been following this blog. Farmer, when he was a full on writer, wrote biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage that treated them as living people. For example, Farmer’s Tarzan biography was so intensively researched that he calculated that one incident in Jungle Tales of Tarzan could not have happened, as there were no lunar eclipses visible over the Central African Republic between 1908-1909. 

What I think is forgotten, however, is that Farmer’s incredible borderline fanwork was merely standing on the shoulders of giants when it came to the right-brained ERB fandom of the 1940s-1970s in Burroughs Bulletin and Gridley Wave. Many of the ideas in Farmer’s biography of Tarzan were long-standing theories in the fandom, so often repeated they gain a strange secondary canonicity, for example, the theory that Tarzan had two different sons, and the John Clayton Jr. captured as a baby in Beasts of Tarzan was different from the one who became Korak the Killer in Son of Tarzan. None of this was new to Farmer, he was a latecomer. 

In particular, Farmer wrote an entire novel series was written based on an essay written in 1966 in the fanzines. This essay was “Heritage of the Flaming God: An Essay on the History of Opar and Its Relationship to Other Ancient Cultures” by Frank J. Brueckel and Michael Winger, and used to be referred to as “fanwank” but today would be called “Meta.” 

The essay was about one of the most awe inspiring locations in the Tarzan series, one no film version as yet has done justice to: the Lost City of Opar. No film version has yet got across the grandiosity of this incredible ruin in the heart of the African jungle, a colony of Ancient Atlantis abandoned in Central Africa, a city of colossal masonry that almost seemed made by gods. It was a city of peacocks, and apes, gold and diamonds....but also the degenerated inhabitants, the women of which were beautiful, the men were feral, bestial Neanderthals. In an ancient ruin made by their ancestors, the Oparians run like children playing murderous games in a haunted house.

The queen of the city was La, a high priestess of the flaming god, a beautiful, seductive, uncanny sorceress who might be the only true rival to Jane in Tarzan’s affections (and who some fans prefer), who’s icy queenly exterior hid vulnerability and isolation. She was sympathetic and lonely one moment, cold, pitiless, and murderous the next. She was far more than just the evil seductress, but possibly the most complex character of the series, and she got a huge fan response. After all, It isn’t just women who like sexy sympathetic villains, you know. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs always preferred Tarzan to get with La of Opar (a sentiment I’ve found to be almost universal among ERB dom), and even had the Germans kill Jane off in Tarzan the Terrible to make it possible. Reader outcry was so harsh at Jane’s death, however, he had to bring her back the very next novel. Tarzan found out her “death” at the hands of the German Army was faked and she was merely a prisoner of the Kaiser’s high command in East Africa. It is easy to see why La would have this towering, monumental stature in the Tarzan novels that she returned three times and almost literally replaced Jane as Tarzan’s wife. In an adventure series that flirted at the borderline edge of fantasy, La was the most “out there” element, a sorceress who was implied to be immortal and ageless, with the blood of Ancient Atlantis in her veins, and to disobey her was to die. 

Brueckel and Winger’s 1966 essay on Opar’s origins argued that the mother culture of Opar, Atlantis, was actually an island inside an interior continental African sea, an extension of Lake Tchad, and they used ancient flood data to support their idea about the continental interior. They further argued that Opar’s genders have such different appearances because of the introduction of Neanderthal DNA on the Y chromesome alone. Further, in their lengthy fan speculations, they connected the ancient interior African Atlantean civilization to the other great lost cities encountered by Tarzan, including Athne and Cathne, Tuen-Baka, Kuvuru, and Xuja, all of which had similar traits: cyclopean abandoned cities of great antiquity, worship of a flaming god, human sacrifice, absence of the bow and arrow, and matriarchal rule. Atlantis was the source of the Flaming God religion. They further argued, fannishly interconnecting everything, that the Kuvuru immortality elixir was in the possession of that mother culture, and was the explanation for the beautiful La’s immortality. They  also argued that the reason all these cultures did not have the bow and arrow was a religious taboo. 

All of this was very impressive stuff, especially for 1966, even for fanwank, though I confess a lot of the geological proofs went over my head.

This essay about the origins of Opar and the Flaming God was so well remembered that fan turned real deal writer, Philip Jose Farmer, wrote a series based on their speculations. Set in the ancient prehistory of Africa, he wrote of Opar at its height, when it was a minor mining colony of a forgotten African civilization on an internal sea in 10,000 BC, just like in Bruekel and Winger’s description. His novel series was Hadon of Ancient Opar, published in 1975, and PJF acknowledged Brueckel and Winger’s fan essay as the primary source of inspiration, which he turned into a book series. 

If you need convincing this meta was an inspiration for PJF’s book series, take a look at his map used in the series for their ancient civilization, which was a matriarchy with a sun worship religion with still surviving Neanderthals as a lower class. He even had a woman named La there, who may have been the ancestor of the La of Opar...or perhaps, the actual immortal La herself (the book leaves this open to interpretation). Always keen to have series cross over, PJF also mentioned the lost African cities of H. Rider Haggard and connected them with Burrough’s, which is a surprisingly good fit, since Haggard’s lost races also were matriarchies with a religion of sun worship. 

When I heard the connection between this fan essay and PJF’s book series, I had to track down a copy of Brueckel and Harwood’s essay for myself. I was able to find one for sale by the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest on the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois. They have a lot of pride in Edgar Rice Burroughs, who was born there, and they have many rare and old things for sale related to ancient fandom of the 60s. To my surprise, when my order arrived, I got a copy of the Historical Society of Oak Park, IL newsletter, and a personal addressed letter from the historical society librarian. I was so surprised by this that I actually called the Oak Park Society up to thank them, and had a pleasant chat with the kindly librarian about their collections of ERB memorabilia and fandom. All in all, a pleasant ending of an investigation into one of the oldest fandoms, one that, like Opar and the beautiful, immortal La herself, still lives in a hidden corner of the world. 

[cyphyree]

A while ago I had the idea of making stickers that look like stamps and "postcard" mini prints of Morioh landmarks, so i painted the tunnel as a test

Printed out a prototype on normal xerox paper and cut it out too, i think it could be neat as a print-sticker set!

Might still do this idea in the future but we'll see haha (don't mind the dust in the pic)

[those70scomics]

Fictober Day 11: "well, that worked out great"

That '70s Show fanfic

Red had finished his rudimentary design for his gray Toyota Camry. His shop was closed for the evening, and he planned on surprising Kitty with all he was doing for her -- their -- Halloween party.

His -- their -- gray car, only four-years-old, would temporarily become a possessed monster. With some washable paint, Laurie's artistic skills, and the kettlehead's help with electronics, the Toyota would transform into a vampiric, seemingly murderous beast.

The suggestion was Laurie's. She'd seen some horror movie a few years ago based on a book, and she was excited to put her painting skills to use for the party. On a whim, she'd applied to art school with a portfolio of illustrations she'd drawn throughout the late '70s. She got in with a partial scholarship, didn't quit, met her future husband there. Turned her life around and was genuinely happy.

A damn miracle.

Red made a few copies of his design with the Xerox machine in his office. He'd send one to Laurie through the mail tomorrow. It should arrive by Friday, which was appropriate considering it would be Friday the thirteenth -- in October no less. Wednesday the eleventh, today, didn't have the same spooky ring to it.

The door to his muffler shop rattled. That had better be the wind. The door had a CLOSED sign on it, but the door rattled again.

With a sigh, Red left his office. He prepared to tell an impatient customer, as nicely as possible, to come back tomorrow. Through the door's glass window, however, Red spotted the familiar dark curly hair of someone he wouldn't be able to ignore.

"Oh, hell's bells!" Red unlocked and opened the door. Bob stepped inside the shop, wearing a thick coat. "Whatever you want, it couldn't be said over the phone?"

"No, Red, it couldn't. I have a big problem."

"I can't handle your El Dorado without my staff. If you had it towed here -- "

"It's not about my car. It's about my daughter. I think she's possessed."

Red had been wrong: October eleventh was plenty spooky now.

Bob moved deeper into the shop and picked up a monkey wrench from the counter. "You ever see the movies The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby?"

"Glad to say I haven't. What's your point?"

"As a Catholic, I don't take strange behavior lightly. If this wrench were covered in holy water, I'd feel a whole lot better."

"Crap, you know."

Bob raised the wrench to his face and peered between its jaws. "Know what?"

Red wasn't going to play into Bob's nonsense. "The only person who's possessed here is you. Either put down the wrench or bash my head in with it."

"Aw, jeez." Bob returned the wrench to the counter. "Are you screwing with me?"

"I'm not the one who went to your store in the middle of the night, claiming my daughter had some demon inside her. Why are you really here, an early Halloween trick?"

"To ... to ... " Bob shook his head. "What're you pissed that I know about?"

"Nothing anymore. It's clear you don't know, and I'm not gonna tell you. You'll just have to wait 'til Halloween to find out."

Bob moved toward the front door. "Can you give me a hint?'

"Sure. Paint's involved."

"Paint?" Bob squinted, obviously confused. "Okay ... I guess I'll see you around."

He left the shop, and Red waved bye. Once Bob was no longer visible through the door window, Red muttered to himself, "Well, that worked out great."

Bob had gotten wind of Donna's pregnancy, but as long as Bob acted dumb, Red wouldn't give anything away.