It has been a busy week of GANTOB bureaucracy.
First the subcommittees:
- The Quality Assurance Committee, which you may have read about in the first part of this piece
- The Arts and Craft Committee, which we will come to in a future post
- The Finance Committee, the details of which I will not recount here
Once the minutes of these three Committees were approved we were able to hold the GANTOB Executive Team meeting, via Zoom (because Gillian was back at The Kroft by that point).
We have come to a few important decisions which I have been asked to share:
- There may be more than 52 pamphlets. The only absolute rule is that submissions must be received by 23:23 GMT on 30 June 2024
- Now that we have mastered printing card (rather than paper) pamphlets without breaking the printer there will be one further mass mailing of pamphlets. This will be called “BADGE”
- The runner up prize for the Stone competition has been sent (and indeed received by the pair of scallywags who thought that they could submit an entry out of Lego bricks and stickers). The runner up prize contains a newly found Curt Finks story in an edition of one. It requires considerable construction. There is no time limit for such construction. Indeed, there is no requirement for completion. The story will be included in an appendix to the 52 Pamphlets book
- The winning entry for the Stone competition has been promised by 30 June 2024. A progress report has been received with pictorial evidence. This is very encouraging. It has required immense fiddly effort and may well become an answer to question 23. The prize – the winner may be glad to hear – will require minimal construction. It will be made of card and string. It will be a 3D working model. It will have a story within a story. It may answer some questions about GANTOB. After an audit of the GANTOB oeuvre by the GQAC discovered a near absence of material about Jimmy Cauty, there will be at least some Cauty reference in the model. The model will represent a collaboration between GQAC and GACC and will be finalised only on receipt of the completed Stone competition entry. It will be produced in an edition of one. It will be described in a section of the book that will not feature at all on the blog
- We are reaching the denouement of GANTOB (the project). Reflecting on Christine’s comment about the second book just containing material from the blog (which is not quite accurate) the final “pamphlets” on the blog – starting today – will only include the first ~250 words of text. The rest (~550-1,450 words per pamphlet) will only be available in the book. This may be frustrating to some readers, and may prove a bit tricky to follow, but is consistent with the guiding principles that Gillian laid out in the first of these 2024 pamphlets. People interested in finding out how GANTOB (the project) concludes just need to answer a question or submit a pamphlet by 23:23 on 30 June 2024. If their contribution is accepted, they will receive a copy of the book. People outside the GANTOB Executive Team who would prefer to see their pamphlet included in full on the blog can request this with their submission. Applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis by an extraordinary meeting of the GANTOB Exceptions Committee.
And so to today’s pamphlet. Number 44/#52Pamphlets I think. The illustration is retrieved from my stash of Curt Finks papers. It was titled “Picture of a dead editor in the shape of a fish”.
THE BENEFAKTOR, 19 May 2024, now feeling rather more connected with the project and back in the first person. Cheerio for now.
I had to think on my feet. Urs was standing by my side, helping me order the contents of the drawer so that I could close and lock the filing cabinet. I fussed and dithered, playing the part of a frail old man. I could picture the triumvirate sitting on the other side of the table in the dining room: interview panel, judge and jury, and firing squad rolled into one.
I have left spiritual things behind, and I certainly did not verbalise these ideas, but I could not help but think about the books of Luke and Acts. Two accounts, apparently by the same person, but giving different perspectives on the same events. If it was alright for Luke, then perhaps any inconsistencies on my part can be excused. I kept that knowledge up my sleeve just in case. I like to have precedents that I can draw on in such circumstances.
Out from The Kino, into the hall. Light flooded in from the bathroom, activating my glasses. I walked slowly, collecting my thoughts. Back in August 2023 I had kept my prior encounters with Curt Finks quiet. I was just the funder of GANTOB (the project). Then there was all the fuss about my forgery of his story about Gowans, the Edinburgh architect. And later on, The Photographer’s black and white documentation of my presence at one of Finks’ Fringe performances. The camera never lies and everything. Or it didn’t use to. So perhaps more than just Luke and Acts.
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