Imagine

[Porky Man]

Oh for feck's sake, people. I've just done a stupid thing by looking to see what's been going on here since my last visit in August, and I can hardly believe this.

The thread is entitled 'Imagine' and the original post is meant to be a little bit of creative writing, ie a slice of fiction.

Love,

Caz
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so its just coincidence but thats quite a coincidence

even if it doesnt say damn michael barrett it does look like it ! thats not very likely unless it really does say it !

[Soothsayer]

I gave up about a third of the way through because the myths were already piling up, proving that the author either had a painfully slim grasp of diary facts or was having to fabricate them like mad to make some vague sense of the plot.

I must be thoroughly bored because I've succumbed to wandering around old threads for inspiration for a posting.

And here I find it, unexpectedly! Although I agree with Caz that Unn Truth was demonstrating a spot of fiction way back in whenever 'Imagine' was number 1 in the post charts - 2008 was it? - I am nevertheless struck by her comment, above.

The story Ms Truth relates - whilst patently fictional - does actually adhere to the 'facts' of the case, as I recall them. I'm unsure what 'myths' were piling-up, and which facts about the 'diary' (it's a journal) she has a slim grasp of, and I'm sure the Cazster knows more about the case than most, but on these details, I'm confused. Myths about the journal? I'm intrigued! Slim grasp of the facts? I'm interested!

I appreciate I'm many moons and months too late in bringing this up, but it's that fallow period between Christmas and New Year, I've forgotten my Friends Reunited password (perhaps they simply expire when you don't have any friends left to reunite with?), and the football doesn't start for another two hours. Only tea can save me from myself! Tea, and a little illumination from the First Lady of the Casebook as to what actually were the myths and the slimly-grasped facts, as by my reading of this extraordinary tale - whilst I cannot falter its irrelevance to the cause - it nevertheless is accurate in terms of what was possible.

I think ...

PS If the journal were a modern forgery, is there any reason why a tale such as this could not be 'more or less' what actually happened? And is it really likely that we should be able to read the line 'Damn Michael Barrett', even if it is technically 'Damn Michael Bonnett'? Hmmm ... curiouser and curiouser ...

[Carol]

I've just been looking over these old posts as Soothsayer is one of my favourite posters. I'd forgotten I'd written post 14. I've no idea now what I was going on about! Put it down to old age, please.

Carol

[caz]

Hi Soothy,

Against my better judgement...

Firstly, 'diary' and 'journal' can mean precisely the same thing, both coming from the word for 'day'. No dates are required when it's obvious that the entries in this old scrapbook are meant to represent the author's thoughts and observations from one day to the next.

Secondly, the whole basis of this fictional account is that Maybrick was only turned into the ripper and made to write a 'confession' (there, is that a better word for it?) for the purpose of showing an as yet unknown Mike Barrett to be a fantasist, because he had apparently claimed to all who would listen that Jack the Ripper had been in the family.

This is clearly contradicted by Barrett's furious reaction when Paul Feldman dared to suggest just such a family relationship back to the serial mutilator. It was apparently the very last thing Barrett wanted his immediate family saddled with, and it may well have acted as the trigger for his own, less than credible forgery confessions.

As for being able to read the line: 'Damn Michael Barrett' in the diary, you can't even read it ('technically' or otherwise) as 'Damn Michael Bonnett'. You only have to look at the page to see 'mole bonnett' on one line and 'damn Michael' (James's brother) on the line below.

What's curious is how anyone could still seriously be wondering if this could be some sort of deliberate clue to the author's entire motivation.

Love,

Caz
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