I’m glad to be heading home. On the way back I get off the train two stops early (Dalwhinnie) and Ali takes the scenic route home. My post yesterday – about the spirit of his Dad Curt Finks and his celebrity ghost friend – was written without causing conflict (unlike Brent Goose Rock).* As expected in a JAMs 2023: A trilogy re-enactment, we might look to children’s telly for some insight. Blue Cow’s bovine associates might have said that “Everyone knows that ghosts don’t write blogs”.
I update Ali on other aspects of the project, including the plan to recruit 31 volunteers to write all the December blogs, so I can reach 45 copies of the planned book. See my new un-numbered pamphlet “17, 23, 45. You decide” for more. It is being distributed by volunteers across the UK, including Andrew, Liam, Graham, Heather, Dan, Art, Christine, Andy, Nick and Caroline (“The Ten” perhaps). I sent them inserted into Bill Drummond books with numbered titles (17 and 45).
Ali introduces the number 8 into our discussion – the Edinburgh café posts, representing a “middle 8” as he puts it (posts 41 to 48). It was indeed a very long discussion I had with The Benefaktor and The Foundation Doktor. But we still didn’t reach the point where The Benefaktor and I explained how we finally landed on our original kollaboration. Perhaps we’ll come to that.
After yesterday’s post we decide to stop outside Halfway House and we talk about the practice of pulping remaindered books that haven’t sold. I have been using misprinted versions of Kompanion Volume to illustrate recent posts and personalise the copies of the new pamphlet for “The Ten” to keep. That uses spare materials well. I certainly wouldn’t want the produkts of my labours pulped. But is it kowardly to print only those copies that have a name against them? Should I be aiming to publish more and seek a new audience?
When we get back to The Manse I recheck the website that stocks Bill Drummond’s most recent books. The four books published in 2022, printed in editions of 400, are still available at their original price. I know of people who have bought multiple copies. Remaining copies will not be pulped presumably, but it demonstrates the nicheness of even King Boy D’s literary outputs. I decide that 17, 23 or 45 will be enough for my re-enactment.
GANTOB
13 November 2023
* See The Letter in Kompanion Volume.
Don’t forget to enter The Foundation Doktor’s competition to win a unique piece of art by GANTOB (inadvertently using TFD’s bootlegged text of an imagined Curt Finks story).
And send in your completed blog ideas for a chance to win the book of this blog.
GANTOB blog 