Lutwidge Writings

Letter to Ryan 1
April 17, 1952

Warden Yarn Co. [This is scribbled out numbers] Park Ave. New York, NY

To Whom It May Concern:

After having made numerous previous inquiries by telephone, and receiving no adequate response, apparently I have to spell it out in writing. My organization accepted a contract to provide construction materials and other supplies for your unspecified project in the North Atlantic. We cheerfully agreed to some most peculiar conditions regarding confidentiality and consented to form partnerships with your organization. In exchange, we were promised long-term contracts, as well as control and, eventually, full ownership of several lucrative New York real estate properties. We are most dismayed to discover that our contracts have been cut off in recent months without valid explanation. Raw materials, purchased upfront by our organization, rust and rot at our docks as we await contact regarding delivery. We find ourselves most vexed by this utter lack of response; not in the least because we have exposed ourselves to undue risk in the implementation of your particular demands. We have grown increasingly suspicious that your organization has used ours as a "shield" to obfuscate your actual purposes. Perhaps your intent is to prevent the government from ascertaining the true nature of your unspecified project in the North Atlantic (op. cit., Q.E.D). We do not intend, as the popular parlance has it, to be left "holding the bag." We fully expect you to come through in your obligations; or failing that, to offer us a sizable cash settlement to compensate us for this ongoing frustration.

With increasing pique, O.O.L Orrin Oscar Lutwidge

Letter to Ryan 2
June 22, 1954

Page 2 (of 2)

IN SHORT, Mr. R. (if that IS WHO YOU ARE). I have deduced who you are and what you are up to. Others will, soon - all too soon. Despite your best efforts - a trail remains. It is only a matter of connecting the dots. If you would like to KEEP your secret. I would advise that you contact me. Others are already finding the clues — putting the pieces together.

..This irksome French heiress and various agencies of the United States gov't. are moving in closer. Inch by inch, they encroach upon the center of the secret. It is my choice now. I could assist them - or I could cast chimerical glamours to lead them astray. (I have already taken it upon myself to destroy hard evidence of the city's existence and to introduce false evidence to confound & confuse these unworthies.) It is my understanding that you sought to gather the brightest and the best under your banner: yet you have left this very brightest mind alone in the shadows.

..I advise you. kind sir: test not my patience. You should reward your faithful servant, lest you taste his wrath.

..I await the coordinates of RAPTURE.

..............................With mounting impatience:

....................................O.O.L.

Title Page

 * THE
 * INTERNATIONAL
 * ORDER
 * OF THE PAWNS


 * ________


 * An Introduction for New Members

[The motto reads "Agere, Auferre, Audere", Latin for "To Act, To Carry Off, To Dare"]


 * FIRST EDITION


 * 1956

Page 1


To the Pawns:

In this world, a grand game is being played. Its moves are secret, its strategems complex. You have been con- tacted because your have witnessed the patterns that lie beneath the surface of things. Unlike the blinkered herd, you have recognized the secret sequence of the squares! Thus, you have achieved the First Degree. To achieve victory, one must first recognize that the game's afoot!

The White King (in his Ivory Tower) has challenged us to play his covert game, to find his hidden castle. But the game is both intricate and global. The Queen cannot be everywhere at once, alas; so you must advance the agenda.

You may be asked to go anywhere -- to participate in actions that seem, at first blush, baffling. Your mind may be strained to the breaking point by puzzles, paradoxes & provocations. But if you persevere -- if you prove your pluck and probity -- if you aid us in uncovering the hidden whilst luring the Unworthy off our Trail of Truth -- then knowledge will be granted unto you in a matter of degrees.

Dare, my pawns! Dare to accomplish what few dream. But dare most of all to be silent!


 * With respect and admiration,
 * your Red Queen:


 * O.O.L

Letter to the Red Pawn
June 17, 1958

My dear Red Pawn:

Your assistance in the matter of the Frenchwoman was much appreciated; you replicated the hand of her father with much skill, and your efforts to plant the documents in the Gobi Desert enabled me to be "in two places at once," as it were.

However, I must urge you to stop harassing her immediately. I am given to understand that a letter, apparently on my letterhead and in my hand, was sent to the Frenchwoman on May 23. Its contents echoed thoughts that I had previously expressed to you, but it showed my our hand in a clumsy and unnecessarily provocative manner- and revealed matters which I had repeatedly told you were of a confidential nature (e.g. The Bellman's Chart).

I suspect that you have taken it upon yourself to continue the game.

Understand quite clearly, sir: The operation has been a success, and I have already taken steps to eliminate all the forgeries we provided our quarry. Now, possibly because of this idiotic note of May 23, the Frenchwoman has hired Private Investigators to dog my steps -- even as I prepare for the next and final steps in my own quest for True Rapture.

Please- your involvement must not be discovered, and the game is at and end.

Yours, quite piquantly:

O.O.L.

("which is me,"

INDEED!)

Plans for the Metal Box Puzzle


''Fig 3a. - 3rd CONFIG.''

5x5 Lock

Refer to Knight's
 * Journey

SOLUTION ACTIVATES

GYROSCOPIC
 * SENSOR

THE SEEKER
 * MUST BE
 * SET TO 
 * SEA!

Utropolis Manuscript
(Fun Fact: The thumbnail version of the cover page that can be seen in the archives looks significantly different than the cover page when seen up close. Compare the pictures at the right.)

Cover Page

 * inscribed
 * this year of our lord


 * nineteenhundredsixty
 * OR


 * in the modern chronology
 * THE YEAR 15 A.R
 * (Anno Raptus)


 * ____________________________

One Ostracized Loner was delivered from the

depths by the bursting of the BATHYSPHERE.

He brought NAUGHT to show for his sojourn

in Wonderland save some sorrowful souvenirs of

that C ivi l SL AUGHTE R. O, the BROKEN

FACES - trophies of the FOES!


 * (and mementoes of the FRIENDS......)

FOOTSOLDIERS in that MYTHIC WAR


 * to DECYDE THE FATE OF


 * THE CITY 'NEATH


 * THE SEA

MUST GET


 * IT ALL DOWN....


 * ONLY ADAM CAN HELP


 * preCIOUS JARS GROW EMPTY.....

Must PRESERVE MEMORY
 * of that
 *  UT OPIAN MET ROPOL IS

Second Cover Page
 KILL 

 I*AN 


 * RØD


 * is ReD

' HEBERiNNE? '

TRUST
 * NOT
 * THE PAWN !

'N OM. DE PLUM E!!!'

THE NAME SHALL BE A MASQUE

for the TRUTH to hide BEHIND


 *  AHA !


 * the perfect


 * surname?

(arrow pointing to a taped on page fragment)

(the fragment-)


 * APRIL MARCH:


 * a novel

Copyright:1936

Written by Herbert Q(obscured)

THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. 1 - by 'Quain' pg 5

 * I beheld the chiseled face - the face of Great

ORION, cast in bronze. As some great artisan's hands

had shaped the mold, a vacuum to be filled with molten

metal - - so had ORION shaped my life. This man, who

had been my employer, my partner, my nemesis - had

taunted me with silence. By refusing to extend the

invitation to Paradise - he had goaded me to

Greatness. I had gone a-hunting for a Snark - and had

found my true self. "NO GOD OR KINGS." as he would

say - "ONLY MAN." "OR KNIGTS??"-^


 * I discovered what appeared to be a way down - an

elevator mayhaps? I pulled the brass lever. It

lurched - and down, down, down I went - plummeting

into the mystery like Alice. Then it was as if the

floor dropped out - suddenly my transport was

whisking through water. This was no ordinary

lift, thought I, but some bold new submersible!


 * The splendour of the city unfolded before me - a

vision of beauty, trimmed in neon.

THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. 1 - by 'Quain' pg 8

 * My bathysphere traveled through rings with

rings - a glidepath to my final destination. The

hatch opened. I steeled myself - expecting to face

a challenge - the sharpened lances of the Red

Queen's knavish army. I was greeted by naught but

silence!


 * I found myself walking through the darkened corri-

dors, strangely quiet - - littered with chaos. In the

solft glow of the empty store-fronts, I noticed

streamers on the ground and party favors. "Had some

grand celebration been interrupted in the midst?" I

mused. Glass crunched beneath my feet; I bent down

to discover the shattered stem of a discarded cham-

pagne glass. "Late for the party," said I, reflect-

ing upon the irony. I wondered where all the

revelers had got to - even as I heard scuttling

sounds in the distance; even as I felt unseen eyes

watching me.


 * The details remain - but there are fugues in the

score. Like shards of the Looking Glass. I feel it

is Urgent that I pin these vaporising truths to the

foolscap pages - ere all of it slips from your

humble narrator forever!

THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. I - by 'Quain' pg 156

 * see letter from J.S.


 * The one called Catherine helped me hobble into the

flat that served as the headquarters of my new compa-

triots. The walls were lined with canvasses - eerie

images glimpsed through the windowpanes of this strange

city, light filtering past sculpted pinnacles whilst

great-leviathans and eight limbed monstrosities whirled

above the rooftops - the pigeons of this subaqueous

Metropolis!


 * I stared numbly at the paintings - barely feeling

the blood dripping down my arm to the floor. The

accursed Madmoiselle had wounded me in the fray. (A

pox on all the French!)


 * Noticing my wound, Catherine sat me on a stool to

tend it. I found myself directly facing a portrait of

a young girl, fragile and innocent. Every brushstroke

spoke of loss. As she wrapped my wound with gauze,

Catherine noticed my gaze, "Eve," she whispered. I dared

not ask what had become of the child.


 * One of the Vanished! 


 * Mother took her? 


 * Note Suggests: went voluntarily

'''THE UTOPIAN METROPOLIS - Ch. I - by 'Quain' pg 157'''


 * OAKES???


 * The door burst open. There stood the brusque man

in the sailor's uniform, the White Knight who had

saved me. We were lucky to have him at our side - a

rare commodity, a soldier with experience in the War

and training in the art of strategy.


 * "Where have you been?" asked Catherine.
 * " Sinclair Solutions," he grinned. "I think we've

got a thing or two to turn this battle."
 * check on this


 * The Knight eyed. "Pal," said he, "I don't even

know where the hell you came from. But after the way

you handled that wrench out there - you're jake in

my book. We could use a mechanic."


 * I protested that my profession was invention. He

reached out his hand in comradeship. I accepted -

only to have him squeeze my grip and turn my arm

to expose the veins. To my shock, he raised a syringe

-like device, poising it in the air.


 * "Don't worry," said he, "This will only sting

for a second."


 * Before I could flinch - the needle plunged.


 * WHAT IS IT???


 * 'splice of life'??

Cover
(A spiral consisting of the repeated words "RAPTURE IS REAL")


 * RØ( rrin )D
 * KIL( utwidge )LIAN
 * Q( scar )uain


 * The Testimony of 


 * Øne Old Loon


 * Who Ran the Red Queen's Race

Page 1
To square the circle is a tangle...

yet a problem more easily subsumed

than to find the TRIANGLE within the TRIANGLE

Ye be lost unless ye find it.....


 * an' ye find it, ye be DOOMED


 * Here


 * there


 * Be


 * M ON S TE R S 



Page 2
(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)


 * "...the pool of tears..."

In that sea of wreckage

gleams the golden eye

that leads the bold to


 * -RAPTURE-

and the rest to merely  DIE 

Page 3
Down the


 * RabbiTHole

and what Orrin found there

(Alice in Wonderland book cutouts -)

"...Down down down. Would the fall never

''come to an end? 'I wonder how many miles''

''I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. 'I''

must be getting somewhere near the centre of

''the earth. Let me see: that would be four''

thousand miles down, I think-'"

"'-yes, that's about the right distance-but

then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude

I've got to?'"

(Arrow pointing to the passage)

Wouldn't y ou 
 * like to
 * know?


 * Such


 * nice


 * Grand


 * words


 * to


 * Say



Page 4
(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -) "'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!'"

Always Late......


 * too LATE

1959 and the party's


 * ALMOST Over!

(poster from the New Year's Eve Rapture masquerade ball with white rabbit mask)


 * what
 * does
 * the
 * WHITE
 * RabbiT
 * know?

Should auld acquaintance
 * be forgot? (party balloon)

YES Y₤S 1000x Y E S

Page 5
(Cut out of the Mad Hatter's tea party with mask pictures glued over the characters' faces)

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)

"'No room! No room!' they cried out when

''they saw Alice coming. 'There's plenty of''

'room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down

in a large arm-chair at one end of the table."



Page 6
All these years, Orrin had been
 * SHUNNED by the Master of
 * Wonderland as if there
 * Was NO ROOM for him.
 * But there was PLENTY
 * of Room!

In his new home, Orrin found
 * people WONDROUS
 * STRANGE, of a like he had
 * never before encountered.

They were the BEST and the
 * BRIGHTEST and hid
 * their BEAUTY behind
 * a Marvellous Masquerade.

They looked Askance at Orrin
 * at first. But he soon proved
 * his worth with his
 * Imagination and Invention..


 * So they invited him to try
 * the TREATS

Page 7
(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)


 * "However, this bottle was  not  marked 'poison,' 

so Alice ventured to taste"

(Pictures of plasmid advertisements and poster from Eve's Garden)

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)
 * "'Curiouser and cu-

riouser!' cried Alice"



Page 8

 * ELECTRO-BoLT and SONIC BOOM,
 * TELEKINESIS makes things Zoom!
 * TARGET Dummy, CyCLONE TRAP!
 * Unleash the ice of WINTER BLAST!  (symbols of snow flakes)
 * INCINERATE will make you warm
 * as you release an INSECT SWARM.
 * ENRAGE a useless bloody fool
 * and make an enemy your tool
 * The Possibilities are rife.........

for VARIETY'S the S PLIC E
 * of LIFE!

Page 9
THERE

ARE NO

HAPPY ENDINGS

'in the

KINGDOM......

FOR WONDERLAND
 * went to WAR!

(Picture of the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland covered in blood splotches. Also, a picture of Atlas holding up a globe.)

No DADDY No!
 * not the DRILL!

(Arrow pointing at Atlas)


 * WHO is HE?

(Got the whole World
 * on his SHOULDERS!)

THE MORE

THINGS

MUTATE.....

The more they

tend to

CHANGE!



Page 10
Orrin couldn't stay with his
 * new friends...For they had ALL
 * Gone
 * Quite
 * MAD

(Picture of Alice looking at the Cheshire cat)

(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)


 * "'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat:

''`we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'''
 * 'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
 * 'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you

wouldn't have come here.'"

Page 11
(Alice in Wonderland book cutout -)


 * "'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought

poor Alice,"

And so...
 * Orrin escaped from Wonderland
 * only to be betrayed by
 * EVERYONE!

LET THE
 * FRENCH
 * FRY!'

LET HER SEEING EYE D OG S
 * be BLINDED

and pity the seeker


 * who seeks in V AIN 

Page 12


THE SECRET, sweet Alice,
 * LIES DEEP

For the checkered Journey
 * can be traversed
 * only by a KNIGHT

And none are left in
 * this game but
 * PAWNS

of the Broken-hearted
 * Prophet I have
 * SPAWNED

Not

Quite

(cut out from a book)

"The End"