this is not tom theories discussion

We have an excellent thread started by lindseysubtlyinked to discuss the thisisnottom riddles; I thought here that those of us who've reached the current end could discuss the developing story--if it is a developing story--and the world of that which is not Tom. -John

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca B on March 9, 2009 at 1:21am: Whoa...Its Ernest Hemingway. The American Novelist is Ernest Hemingway. I think..yeah i think so. Wow... I can't believe I figured that out.

He committed suicide, famously, with his favorite shotgun. And a few years (yeah, i know its supposed to be months) before in 1958 he did an interview with the Paris Review, in which he famously said the following:

Interviewer: Finally, a fundamental question: namely, as a creative writer what do you think is the function of your art? Why a representation of fact, rather than fact itself?

Hemingway: Why be puzzled by that? From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality. That is why you write and for no other reason that you know of. But what about all the reasons that no one knows?

also, his picture matches the description. he even had brown eyes.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by bolinskyman on March 9, 2009 at 9:44am: I doff my cap in deference to thee Rebecca. Nice find!

Continuing on a research note, as we probably know, the BVI are the British Virgin Islands. 1.3.1 talks about "her" and the novelist walking the perimeter of an uninhabited island. Among the 11 or so uninhabited islands of this area, only four of them really match the scene set in 1.3.1: Fallen Jerusalem Island, Ginger Island, Prickly Pear Island, and Sandy Spit Island.
Sandy Spit resembles a classical paradise desert island, and has had many pictures taken of it to be placed in covers of magazines and other pages of interest.

Off the small coast of Ginger Island, there's a popular coral reef named "Alice in Wonderland".; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by bolinskyman on March 9, 2009 at 10:08am: I think Hank is behind all this.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by bolinskyman on March 9, 2009 at 10:42am: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma7xpbGEjl0&eurl=http://www.brot...
A Tom is mentioned :?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by valerie2776 on March 9, 2009 at 11:16am: Haha no, the Tom mentioned there is namlhots aka Secret Brother Tom. Early on in Brotherhood 2.0, people who posted video responses were known as secret siblings.

The guy who's behind thisisnottom is named Alex.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Padraic on March 9, 2009 at 1:55pm: Anyone else reach 1.3.1 and is know thoroughly confused?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Madi on March 10, 2009 at 1:58pm: So... the "he" and the "she" were once a "we", but now they're not...? Is that right?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rebecca B on March 10, 2009 at 2:16pm: either that or we have entirely entered an world of "post-numerical grammar".

they were a "we", now they are a female "I", and there is a hovering "he" which is either referring to the American novelist (which I suggest is Hemingway), or the mysterious Tom himself, or a character/presence we have not met with seemingly menacing, god-like qualities.

Could this new female "I" be the wisp referred to in Karyn story? After she died of the cancer?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex D. (kira902k) on March 10, 2009 at 3:56pm: i really want to get to the current end, so i can discuss and be excited for the next level, but i fail at riddles. i cant get passed the fourth one... GR.
anywyas, it is preeeettty darn cool :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rebecca B on March 10, 2009 at 7:36pm: the fourth one? message me if you want some hints :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John Green on March 11, 2009 at 5:51am: I'm almost positive the novelist is David Foster Wallace. I see the point of Hemingway (they were both scruffy, both historical suicides), but the last words of Wallace's novel Infinite Jest ("the tide way out") are used word for word in the text of 1.3.1.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Stephanie Bingham on March 11, 2009 at 1:12pm: This is true, and Wallace had a short story called "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men #6" which appeared in The Paris Review, but this was over a decade before he commited suicide. The last interview he did was not with a French paper, and it was 4 years before his death.

Of course, as someone said before, Hemingway's interview with a French paper was a few years before his death and not a few months.; ▶ Reply to This