Chapter 4 No.4

"Hey, did you get a weird Xerox catalog of science books and give it to Bob?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah, that. Yeah, " she said.

"Where did it come from?" I asked.

"No idea, it came without a return address. How did you get it?" she replied.

"Bob..." I answered.

"Oh, yeah. Funny how all the books in that catalog are on your shelf, huh? I thought it might be from you..." she said, smiling coyly.

"Nope, " I said. "I see how you could think that, but no."

I went inside where Bob was sitting in an overstuffed chair, holding wacko court as usual, with several Mondoids (followers of the radical publication Mondo 2000). I pulled him aside. "Still have that catalog you showed me the other day?" I asked.

"Yeah, " he said as he reached into his bag and handed it to me. "Here. You can have it. I figure it's more up your alley."

I rolled it up and put it into my back pocket. I looked out the window and saw several attractive college-aged girls disrobing to enter the hot tub. I quickly went back out to the deck and forgot about the catalog folded up in my pocket for several days.

Days later, I pulled the catalog from my pocket as I prepared my pile of dirty clothes for the laundry. I read it as I waited for my laundry to finish. I was stunned. This was so clever! Someone had actually disguised a brilliant series of short stories as a crackpot book catalog! As a fan of Xerox crackpot lit, I could fully appreciate the methodology involved. I ran off copies on a Xerox machine and gave them to several people. Eventually, with the help of a friend who owned a mail order conspiracy book company, I sold a "Xerox for cost" edition. Individuals or other catalog companies ordered sets that we Xeroxed to order. I estimate that we distributed thousands of copies like this. At the time, I considered the documents a great joke in the tradition of Discordian or SubGenius culture jamming and I willfully played along. Later, when I began to look into the true background and origins of the material, I discovered that this was no "joke". In fact, the documents may represent a signal that is being culturally transmitted in many different forms, whose full purpose I am yet to fully comprehend.

As you read the documents in the following pages, bear in mind that the catalog is not really a catalog; the brochure is not really a brochure. They are clever "enigma" codes that carry powerful symbolism, and a powerful message, which are merely disguised as a catalog and brochure.

Look no further than today's popular media to see the signal as it is picked up.

A frequency, a signal, a message in a bottle?

Joseph Matheny

From somewhere in the Pine Barrens of New Jeresy

This catalog is a reproduction. This is not a commercial advertisement. Consider this an unusually complete bibliography to the story that unravels in the companion documents. Read this like a series of short stories and you will agree with us that it is in fact a coded message and not a book catalog at all.

I N C U N A B U L A

A Catalogue of Rare Books, Manuscripts & Curiosa

Conspiracy Theory Frontier Science & Alternative Worlds

Emory Cranston, Prop.

Incunabulum/cocoon/swaddling clothes/cradle/ incunae, in the cradle/koiman, put to sleep/winding-sheet/koimetarium (cemetery)/printed books before 1501, hence by extension any rare & hermetic book...

INTRODUCTION

No book for sale here was actually printed before 1501, but they all answer to the description "rare and hermetic" - even the mass market paperbacks, not to mention the Xeroxes of unpublished manuscripts, which cannot be obtained from any other source!

The symbol INCUNABULA was chosen for our company for its shape-cocoon; egg-like, gourd-like - the shape of Chaos according to Chaung Tzu. Cradle: beginings. Sleep: dreams. Silken white sheets of birth and death; books, white pages, the cemetery of ideas.

This catalogue has been put together with a purpose: to alert YOU to a vast cover up, a conspiracy so deep that no other researcher has yet become aware of it (outside certain Intelligence circles, needless to say!) - and so dangerous that the "winding sheet" imagery in our title seems quite appropriate; we know of at least two murders so far in connection with this material.

Unlike other conspiracy theories, such as Hollow Earth, Men In Black, cattle mutilation, UFO, Reich & Tesla or what have you, the INCUNABULA Theory harmonizes with genuine frontier quantum mechanics and chaos mathematics, and does not depend on any quack nostrums, psuedoscience or ESP for proof. This will become clear to anyone who takes the trouble to read the background material we recommend and offer for sale.

Because of the unprecedented nature of the INCUNABULA File we have included short descriptions of some of the books, pamphlets, flyers, privately - circulated or unpublished manuscripts, ephemera & curiosa available through us. Some of this is highly inflammable and sexual in nature, so an age statement must be included with each order.

Cash (or stamps) only. No cheques or money orders will be accepted.

Thank You, Emory Cranston, Prop.

1. Wolf, Fred Alan

Parallel Universes: The Search for Other Worlds

(New York, Simon & Schuster, 1988)