Pages

Friday, August 24, 2007

THE BOOK OF ENEMY: A BLOG-NOVEL

I'm working with a friend of mine Dave Wildman on project that brings blogging, and videoblogging together with his forthcoming novel, THE BOOK OF ENEMY.

If I was in Hollywood pitching this to a studio I'd say it's a cross between LonleyGirl15 and 24. But then again, I haven't read the novel. It's going to happen in real time during September and you can take part by making some videos, audio, podcsasts, photos, blog posts, etc. However you'd like to contribute would be great.

Dave explains what we're looking for below.

THE BOOK OF ENEMY: A BLOG-NOVEL

We’re looking for volunteers to participate in a social media art experiment. The Book of Enemy is a groundbreaking blog-novel that is happening in real time throughout the month of September. The project will culminate in a reading/performance piece at Axiom Gallery in Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA on September 28. A number of Boston artists, photographers and filmmakers are providing illustrations for the show, and we’d like to open the project up to the vlogosphere.

Here’s what’s happening:

Pol Thornton is a small time journalist working for The Berkshire Eagle who began a blog, was fired from his job on August 27 and disappeared the next day into a mysterious cult called Engine.

We know this about Engine:

* Engine’s followers consider it a religion. It is practiced by millions the world over in secret.
* Compounds exist in many cities. The main complex is located in The Berkshires, at the G.E. plant in Pittsfield, MA. Followers wear hooded red robes.
* Engine teaches that the Earth is conscious, and it is trying to kill us.
* Engine teaches that the only safe place is at an Engine compound.
* Engine refers to the Earth as The Enemy, and followers are sworn to its destruction.

While at the compound, Pol has managed to continue blogging (http://polthornton.blogspot.com/).

A collection of his observations and wild adventures will be compiled a the blog-novel The Book of Enemy, which you will be able to access on the upcoming website www.thebookofenemy.com.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED:

Go to Engine Reports (http://enginereports.blogspot.com/).

There you'll see a post put up by Betty Sharpe, an aggrieved (fictional) mother attempting to connect with others that have lost loved ones to Engine.

Under the comments section add the url for your video or just write a commentary.

Your post can be a video from someone trapped in an Engine compound somewhere, or it could be about experiences you’ve had with Engine. Maybe you know someone that joined the cult, or suspect that half your town is involved and would like to do a short documentary about it. Perhaps you’ve noticed strange activities going on with people dressed up in red robes practicing bizarre rituals and you were able to capture it on film. You could even have taken photographs or done artwork that you would like to add to the proceedings.

Add a Comment
Add a comment on Betty Sharpe's post with your links.

TAG = ENGINEREPORTS
Please tag your video, posts, audio, photos with the tag ENGINEREPORTS.

Anyone that participates will be included in the gallery exhibition on Sept 28, and some of the more creative entries may be featured in the full color program for the event.

Deadline:
Deadline for all submissions will be Friday, Sept 21st.

Make sure that any videos you make have the url for the www.thebookofenemy.com displayed prominently somewhere in them, preferably at the end, so that others can link into the project.

Here’s some more info you may or may not want to reference about Engine:
Engine believes only in psychic conversation, so members are forbidden to speak. They follow a psychic named Oslowe who teaches The Language of the Mind.

Deeper levels of Engine exist to combat The Enemy.

Everything that Engine believes can be tied into known history, but with a twist. They follow an ancient text that has been passed down by word of mouth over the centuries known as The Book of Enemy. The Book of Enemy details the period of time between Genesis and The Deluge when biblical figures lived for long periods of time, like Jared, who lived to be 962, Methuselah who lived to 969, and so on. The Book of Enemy explains that God is the Earth, and He created all these early humans as super moving machines to do work on the planet, to build a great geomantic grid that would allow it to evolve to a higher consciousness. The grid consisted of temples and geomantic locations such as Stonehenge and the pyramids. But the humans discovered individuality and there was a great uprising. God responded by melting the ice caps and creating the Great Flood, wiping out all His creations. But He allowed Noah (or Gilgamesh), to survive, to keep the race going but on a much limited scale, although population quickly exploded, and He set about trying to wipe them out again. Twelve of the original humans survived the flood, and became the twelve “gods” that helped the mortals rebuild the civilization of Sumer, which had been where the first strain of humans lived before the Deluge. This is why the Sumerian civilization seemed to appear out of nowhere around 3000 BC. The “gods” were eventually wiped out by the Babylonian civilization, but Engine believes that some of them still walk the Earth.
Anyone interested in reading the novel The Book of Enemy, that this is all based on, can contact: davidpwildman [ at ] gmail [ dot ]com.

Thanks!

David Wildman