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Transcript of Little Worlds: An Introduction to The Murphy Table
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little worlds:
An Introductionto the
Murphy Table
Nicholas
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NicholasCentral St. Martins, May 2012
A classification system for types of
deceit & conceit in storytelling
An Introduction to the Murphy TableLITTLE WORLDS
Privately published in 2012 by Nicholas Jeeves
Nicholas Jeeves 2012
The moral rights of the author have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part
of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise, without first seeking
the written permission of the copyright owners and the publisher. A catalogue
record for this book is available from the Central St. Martins library.
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The Murphy Table is an attempt to broad-
ly identify the spaces between deceit and
conceit in storytelling: between what is
explicit and what is implicit; what is mani-
festly false and what can be understood
to be true; the games people play in the
shadows between these ideals; and the
welcomes they are likely to receive.
Naturally these spaces and shadows
are not so easily defined, and some mate-
rials will run into others and back again,
or dance across the rows of categorisa-
tion. But it is a useful place to begin and
from which to try to conjure some order.
The table begins with the explicit
nature of non-fiction and moves through
six types of murphy before reaching the
implicit nature of fiction. The structure of
the table explains why we could include
the Information Authority Of Japans ani-
mal islands but not Milnes Pooh Corner;
why Lovecrafts Arkham but not Wode-
houses Blandings; why Borges Widow
Ching but not Boswells Dr Johnson.
Fundamentally the table is about
types of storytelling. In general terms
non-fictionis bought, read and parsed
by the reader as an honest attempt at
recording explicit fact (but not truth).
Though it may sometimes flirt with opin-
ion, it is never intended as an attempt to
deceive, and is assembled in such a way as
to wash away unclarified facts and replace
them with clean ones. Whether or not the
work succeeds at this is moot: the attempt
is honest. As readers we understand what
has been undertaken and the transactive
rules of storytelling have been respected.
The A-Type Murphy
An explicit deception or perversion of fact
primarily motivated by the agents desire for
financial or personal gain.
A-Type materials pretend to be fact, but
wear it like a cloak explicitly in order to
deceive. Konrad Kujaus Hitler Diariesare
a case in point. Purporting to be authen-tic, they were in fact entirely fabricated
with the sole purpose of extracting
money from buyers something Kujau
managed with great success, receiving 2.
million Deutschmarks for his efforts.
Kujau was born in 1938 in circum-
stances of extreme poverty. One of five
children, all of whom spent time in vari-
ous orphanages, he quickly drifted into
petty crime. By his early twenties he had
been arrested several times and served
two short jail sentences for theft and,
notably, forging luncheon vouchers.In the early 1970s he began to il-
legally import Nazi memorabilia from
East Germany, forging their provenance
in order to boost their value. Before long
he realised that he could radically increas
his profits by forging the objects them-
selves. He began by painting numerous
Hitler canvases before taking the bold
LITTLE WORLDS:The Murphy Table
Kujaus Hitler Diaries
Konrad Kujau
A Man may, if he pleases,invent a little world of his own,
with its own laws
George Macdonald, A Dish of Orts: Chiefly Papers
on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare, 1893
Information Authority OfJap an s a nim al isl ands
HP Lovecrafts Arkham
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but brilliant step of copying out Hitlers
Mein Kampfby hand and selling it as the
original manuscript. With the sale, pur-
chase or possession of Nazi memorabilia
being illegal under German law, the very
secrecy in which collectors operated kept
him from detection; it was this cloud of
secrecy that would help Kujau sell his
ultimate forgery the Hitler Diaries.
Having made Kujaus acquaintance,
and been convinced of his East German
connections, a young journalist with a
fascination for Nazi Germany named
Gerd Heidemann was looking for a scoop.
Kujau obliged with a careful game of
cat and mouse. Over a period of months
Heidemann was persuaded to pay for the
diaries (all 62 volumes no-one could
accuse Kujau of laziness) at more-or-lesshis own expense. Heidemann in turn sold
them on to the magazine Stern for 9.3
million Deutschmarks.
On their publication in 1983 the
diaries were almost immediately proved
to be fakes. Heidemann and Kujau were
sentenced to four-and-a-half years apiece
for forgery. The diaries became a sensa-
tional backdrop to the even more sensa-
tional story of a Nazi-obsessed journalist
being taken in by a brilliant forger.
In this type of murphy the rules of
storytelling have been baldly abused. It is
a hoax all the purchasing parties have
been explicitly deceived to the financial
benefit of the agent, without opportunity
for recompense.
The B-Type Murphy
An explicit deception or perversion of fact
primarily motivated by the agents psycho-
pathology.
B-Type material is not principally moti-vated by money. Here the psychopathol-
ogy of the agent is taken into account,
allowing greater consideration for mental
disorder. Any money accrued is a by-
product of the deceit, not the purpose.
Facts may be obscured and lies uttered,
but beneath the agents own storytelling
lies a deeper story.
Ferdinand Waldo Demara (1921-
1982), known as The Great Impostor,masqueraded as many people in a number
of professions. In 1942, aged 29, he faked
his suicide, borrowed another name, and
became a religiously-orientated psycholo-
gist. After a brief spell in prison he posed
as, among other things, a civil engineer,
a sheriff s deputy, an assistant prison
warden, a doctor of applied psychology,
a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care
expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist
monk, an editor, a cancer researcher, and
a teacher. In his biography he explained
his thoughts:
The first rule is that in any or-
ganization there is always a lot of loose,
unused power lying about which can be
picked up without alienating anyone. The
second rule is, if you want power and
want to expand, never encroach on any-
one elses domain; open up new ones... It
works this way. If you come into a new
situation dont join some other professors
committee and try to make your mark by
moving up in that committee. Youll, one,
have a long haul and two, make an enemyFound your own committee. That way
theres no competition, no past standards
to measure you by. How can anyone tell
you arent running a top outfit? And then
theres no past laws or rules or precedents
to hold you down or limit you. Make your
own rules and interpretations. Nothing
like it. It is rascality, pure rascality. 01
Rascality aside, Demara had an ex-
ceptionally high IQ and a photographic
memory. Many of his employers con-
sidered him a boon, and were extremely
impressed with his work; in some cases
they were disappointed to see him go.
He died on 1982 as a much-loved
Baptist minister. Clearly none of these
roles provided him with any significant
financial reward, instead servicing a pro-
found psychological need. Consequently
we may be more sympathetic as the ele-
ment of deceit is mitigated by recognised
psychological factors.
In the cases of both Kujau and De-
mara, and others similar, the meta-story
becomes an active component. While
the hoaxes themselves may have caused
some injury and disappointment to thepeople present at the time of revelation,
any subsequent storytelling about the
agent becomes more rewarding. It is safe
to say that, in the cases of both, they hurt
a lot of peoples feelings. But those people
are also, at other times, readers, and may
have been amazed at Kujau and Demaras
lives had they not experienced its deleteri-
ous effects at first-hand a theory borne
out by the success of the many subse-
quent books, articles and movies based on
their exploits.
Ferdinand Demara, The G rea t Impos ter(image courtesy Time Inc.)
Crichtons Bestselling Biography of Demara
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Andy Cru z and Ken B arner o f HouseIndustries (image courtesy Marc Eckardt);
and Chale t, th e typeface suppo sEd lydesigned by Ren Albert Chalet
The c-Type Murphy
A deception defined by inference and
implication, informally acknowledged by
the agent.
C-Typematerials begin to move
away from the hoax as a rigid definition,
and bleed into storytelling as we might
ordinarily understand it. The key differ-
ence at this level is the acknowledgement
of the agent. Whereas Kujau and Demara
did everything in their power to conceal
their true selves, C-Type work is designed
from the first instance to allow for ulti-
mate discovery, the moment of which is
to be an intrinsic part of the pleasure of
the material when considered as a whole.
Type foundry House Industries
were already well-known amongst theircustomers for utilising unusual methods
of promoting their newest typefaces.
For Chalet, a modern sans serif, House
created a fictional character named Ren
Albert Chalet, a supposedly overlooked
designer from the 1940s. The published
type specimens contained quotes about
Chalet by some of the worlds leading
type designers. He was even scheduled
to appear at a type conference (he was
unwell on the day and unable to appear).
That most people believed the story, and
with some design magazines even print-
ing articles about the font and its inspi-
ration without ever realizing that Ren
Albert was a fictional character, exposes
the limitations of the knowledge design-
ers have about the history of typography.
It wasnt a complex or particularly
determined hoax. House were already
well-known for their boisterous shenani-
gans, and it was hardly front-page news,
only affecting or interesting to a small
number of professionals. As Andy Cruz
(the real author of Chalet alongside part-
ner Ken Barber) stated on theDesignTaxi
website:
Ken and I noticed sometime during
the late 90s that everyone was rediscov-
ering Swiss design. Ken put all the sans
classics into the House Industries type
blender and Chalet was born. I thought
people would have figured out that Chalet= Housein Swiss, but I guess our story
line about the legendary type-turned-
fashion designer was too deep. 02
House were evidently ready to
admit their deception, and in fact were
allowing for it. In the end it was their mar-
kets neurotic desire for detail that really
enabled it to succeed.
The D-Type Murphy
A conceit defined by inference and implica-
tion, formally acknowledged by the agent.
D-Typematerials allow for a more
formal acknowledgement. When we loo
at Asger Carlsens Wrong, a series of pho-
tographs of people with spindly wooden
contraptions for legs, our suspicions are
on high alert: we live in a technologically
able world ever-ready to deceive us, and
we must be careful to suspect a trick. In
Carlsens own words,
There is a composite of illusion
and reality in the images, and I think they
are even more believable because they
are produced in black and white Even
though [people] know its not real, their
mind is manipulated somehow and they
suddenly think the content couldbe pos-
sible. The work should in fact be consid-ered a relief from reality. 03
The last sentence is important. Wit
D-Type work we are willing participants
in this is-it-or-isnt-it mental to-ing and
fro-ing. Indeed it is the fundamental com
ponent of the images ability to entertain
and is the response required by the artist
in order for the work to fully resonate.
From Asg er carlsen s Wr ong
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Even though they knowits not real, their mind is
manipulated somehow andthey suddenly think thecontent could be possible.The work should in fact
be considered a relieffrom reality.
ASGER CARLSEN on WRONG
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The E-Type Murphy
An acknowledged conceit supported by cred-
ible evidence but defined by implicit artistic
or literary context.
Closer to storytelling are E-Typematerials, which exploit the credibility of
non-fiction while acknowledging that a
conceit is in play. The Argentinian writer
Jorge Luis Borges Universal History of
Iniquity (1935; rev. 1954), is a powerful
example of this ploy.
The book is a collection of short
stories which are semi-fictionalised ac-
counts of criminals. The sources are listed
at the end of the book, but Borges makes
many alterations in the retelling arbi-
trary or otherwise particularly to datesand names, so the accounts cannot be
relied upon as historical. Using this blend
of fiction and non-fiction, Borges exploits
our implicit understanding of what fiction
is to bring us closer to the characters.
Consequently the study is a much more
intimate experience for the reader, allow-
ing for ideas of truth to emerge from fact.
The quality and nature of the evi-
dence is key. The element of doubt must
be there, and remain there after the fact.
When a detailed, highly realistic setting is
invaded by something strange and excit-
ing to believe, we are torn between whatwe know to be likely, what we would
knowingly like to be true, and what the
maker may or may not know to be true.
That Carlsen openly expresses this idea
takes him firmly out of the arena of
hoaxes, and we move ever closer to our
traditional understanding of storytelling.
The F-Type Murphy
An acknowledged conceit supported by
incredible evidence but defined by implicit
artistic or literary context.
F-Typematerials move closer still
to the greater truths that pure fiction canexpress. Employing patently implausible
content, there is no real danger of decep
tion. Instead F-Types utilise the explicit
craftsmanship found in the real world in
order to make an imaginary world more
plausible.
Donald Evans (19451977) was
known for creating hand-painted postage
stamps of fictional countries. During a
six-year period from 19711977 he painte
stamps issued by forty-two countries tha
he conjured from his imagination. Evanstraced each stamp design in pencil, then
completed it with watercolour and pen
and ink. To simulate stamp perforations,
he punched out rows of full-stops on an
old typewriter. He enjoyed considerable
success while he was alive, and had solo
gallery shows in Amsterdam, London,
New York, Paris and Washington, DC.
(He died, tragically, in a house fire in
Amsterdam aged just thirty-three.)
In an interview for Paris Review in
1975, Evans revealed that The stamps ar
a kind of diary or journal... Its vicarious
travelling for me to a made-up world tha
I like better than the one that Im in. No
catastrophes occur. There are no gener-
als or battles or warplanes on my stamps
The countries are innocent, peaceful,
composed. In What Am I Doing Here?,
Bruce Chatwin concluded:
By common consent, the art of th
drop-out generation is a mess and the
art of Donald Evans is the antithesis of
mess. Nor is it niggling. Nor is it preciou
Yet I cant think of another artist whoexpressed more succinctly and beauti-
fully the best aspirations of those years:
the flight from war and the machine; the
asceticism; the nomadic restlessness; the
yearning for sensual cloud-cuckoo-lands;
the retreat from public into private obses
sions, from the big and noisy to the small
and still. 04
Donald Evans, Republica de Banana, 1960
Jorge L uis B ORges
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Its vicarious travellingfor me to a made-up world
that I like better than the onethat Im in. No catastrophesoccur. There are no generalsor battles or warplanes on
my stamps. The countries areinnocent, peaceful, composed.
Donald Evans
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Flashman already being a well-established
fictional character from Thomas Hughes
1957 novel Tom Browns School Days.
Again the Murphy Table enables us
to better sympathise with the misunder-standing: Fraser goes to the lengths of
adding marginal notes to his own work,
occasionally correcting Flashmans recol-
lections and offering more viable dates
and explanations. As such, even though
Frasers books are also shelved under fic-
tion, they have more in common with a
D-Type Murphy.
It is always a fun game to imagine
such books, photographs or papers being
found in ten thousand years time. With-
out explanation, what would our descend-
ants make of Kujaus diaries, Carlsens im-
ages, or Evans stamps? They may reassess
Hitlers motives; they may wonder at the
ingenuity effected to help our fellow man;
they may imagine new Atlantean myths,
speculate on tidal disasters.
Whether this matters or not is a
matter of debate, especially if we con-
sider, for example, the endurance of holy
texts. For mankind a truth will always
resonate more deeply, and more widely,
than a fact, giving stories the power to
endure long after records have decayed.All we can hope to do is to understand an
intention, to get to the heart of the mat-
ter at hand and to learn to appreciate the
messages received.
Evans art resonates twice: In the
beauty of the stamps themselves, and
in the imagination that spawned them.
Evans augmented the artworks with
postcards which he sent to friends, care-
fully postmarked with a rubber stamp he
carved from a pencil eraser. He also devel-
oped the histories, geographies, customs,
languages, and flora and fauna of his
countries. That he seized on the singularidea of stamps as a way of directly trans-
porting us to these fantastic places may be
his most profound achievement.
The table begins with the explicit
nature of non-fiction, and so ends with
the implicit nature of fiction. Paradoxi-
cally, fiction has more in common with
non-fiction than any of the other murphy
types, as once again there is no practical
intention to deceive, even playfully. Just
as with non-fiction, fiction is processed bythe reader with a tacit understanding of
the nature of the contents. We under-
stand that, while there is no fact in the
book, there may be truth. Again, whether
or not the work succeeds at this is moot:
the attempt is honest. We understand
what has been attempted and the trans-
active rules of storytelling have been
respected.
The Murphy Table allows us to
more readily understand what a sto-
ryteller is doing, be they writer, visual
artist, performer or pretender. While Dan
Browns The Da Vinci Code, for example,
is shelved under fiction in bookshops, it
really has more in common with E-Type
murphies, as the author notes a list of
spurious facts at the beginning of the
book to give the fictional narrative some
real-world heft.
George MacDonald Fraser performs
a similar trick with hisFlashmannovels,
though with a more elegant touch. The
conceit of the books is held in their
introductions, in which Fraser spins ayarn about having discovered Flashmans
memoirs at auction, and how he himself
is merely the editor and presenter of these
papers. Despite the legal clarification on
the books imprint pages citing Fraser
as the author of the works, a number
of historical enthusiasts enthusiastically
took the memoirs to be authentic, despite
Frase rs The Flashman Pap ers, Vo l. 1
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WilhelmVoigt
The Amusing Captainof Kpenick
b.1849, d.1922An A-Type murphy
Friedrich Wilhelm Voigtwas bornin Tislit, Prussia in 1849. He took topetty crime from an early age, begin-ning a career of thieving at fourteen
years-old. Never a skilled criminal, bythe time he was 57 he had been sen-tenced to a total of 25 years for crimesranging from theft to forgery.
Finally released from prison in1906, he drifted from town to townuntil his sister invited him to live withher in Rixdorf. Having learned shoe-making from his father, he brieflyfound work at a shoe factory untillocal police discovered his record andexpelled him as an undesirable. Hemade to leave for Hamburg, but infact remained in the area as an unreg-istered citizen.
Voigt, not to be defeated, hatcheda plan. Having purchased all theparts of a German Captains uniformfrom various second-hand shops and
bazaars, he dressed himself up andmade his way to the local army bar-
racks, stopping four grenadiers anda sergeant on his way and orderingthem to accompany him. Once at the
barracks he commandeered six moresoldiers from the shooting range, andmarched the lot to the station. Fromhere he took the train to Kpenick,marching them on arrival to the cityhall. Here he ordered everyone to stopwhat they were doing, and instructedhis men to cover all exits. The localpolice were told to maintain order and
to prevent calls from the post office toBerlin for one hour. He then turnedto the treasurer and the mayor, and ar-rested them on suspicion of fraud.
Confiscating 4002 marks and 37pfennigs (the exact figure is knowndue to the fact that he signed a re-ceipt) he told the grenadiers to escortthe arrested men to Berlin for interro-gation, and told the remaining guardsto stay in place for thirty minutes. Hethen left for the train
station where he changed back intohis civilian clothes, and disappeared.Over the following days, reac-
tions were polarised. The press werefascinated, sensing a terrific story.The public were delighted at this taleof old man Voigt, who dressed up asa captain and robbed city hall. Thearmy were outraged, and began theirown investigation.
It didnt take long for the au-thorities to catch up with him. Hewas arrested on 26th October andsentenced to four years in prison forforgery, impersonating an officer, andwrongful imprisonment. It was nowthe publics turn to be outraged, and
the noise soon reached the ears of theKaiser, Wilhelm II.The Kaiser, unexpectedly, was
reported to have been amused bythe incident, taking the view thatVoigt was more amiable scoundrelthan wicked criminal. Perhaps mostimportantly, he was impressed thatsimply appearing to be a Germancaptain inspired such obedience inothers. For years he had been instillinginto his people a reverence for theomnipotence of militarism. Voigtscaper proved, extraordinarily, that thescheme had succeeded.
Voigt wasted no time in capitalis-ing on his fame. His effigy was in thewax museum in Unter den Lindenonly four days after his release. Heeven arrived to sign photographsas The Captain of Kpenick butwas soon ejected by unamused localauthorities. He appeared in a playthat depicted his exploits, and toured
in Dresden, Vienna and Budapest invariety shows and amusement parks.In 1909 he published his book, HowI Became the Captain of Kpenick.
Yet by 1910 his celebrity wasalready dwindling. He moved toLuxembourg, having received a lifepension from a sympathetic Berlindowager, where he bought a houseand retired. But post-World War Iinflation ruined him, and he foundhimself returned to penury. He died
in 1922.Nevertheless his legend lived on. Anumber of successful books, plays andtelevision dramas were produced inGermany, one of which was adaptedinto English by John Mortimer, andperformed by the National Theatrecompany at the Old Vic with PaulScofield as Voigt. A bronze statue ofVoigt, in full Captains dress, standsoutside the City Hall in Kpenick, ap-parently looking for a carriage.
Most importantly he is nowviewed by many in Germany as avictim of official prejudice, caught inthe Kafka-esque situation of not beingable to get work without a residentpermit, and not being able to get aresident permit without work. Hisstory is taught to this day in German
schools as an example of tenacious re-sistance against an unjust bureaucracy.
Voigts arrest sheet
Poster for the 1956 West German film
Voigts statue, Kpenick City Hall
AddendAThree more murphies of notable interest
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The First Formosanin Europe
b. c.1679, d. 1763A B-Type murphy
Amy Pornio, dan chin Ornio vicy, Gnay-jorhe sai Lory, Eyfodere sai Bagalin, jorhesai domion apo chin Ornio, kay chin Badieyen, Amy khatsada nadakchion toye antnadayi, kay Radonaye ant amy Sochin,apo ant radonern amy Sochiakhin, bagneant kau chin malaboski, ali abinaye anttuen Broskacy, kens sai vie Bagalin, kay
Fary, kay Barhaniaan chinania sendabey.Amien.(Psalmanazars translation of TheLords Prayer into Formosan, one ofthe earliest examples of an inventedlanguage.)
Details of George Psalmanazarsorigins are scarce. Indeed, we donteven know his real name. He wasprobably born in 1679 somewherenear Languedoc, southern France.
According to his autobiography hewas educated first in a Franciscanschool and then in a Jesuit seminary.He was a precocious boy with anextraordinary talent for languages and
a powerful desire to see more of theworld. Only a lack of money hinderedhis progress. This he remedied by pre-tending to be an Irish pilgrim, havingstolen a cloak and staff from a localchurch, and making his way aroundFrance. Unfortunately, many of thepeople he met were familiar with theIrish and he was soon exposed as afraud.
Not to be defeated, he set hissights further afield and drew on
missionary tales from the far east,pretending to be a Japanese convertand exhibiting a number of inven-tively bizarre customs for verisi-militude, including sleeping uprightand eating raw meat. Developing theidea, he next declared himself a nativeof Formosa (now Taiwan), a landabout which very little was known,and which was therefore a safercover. He expanded his repertoire of
behaviours, claiming to venerate the
sun and the moon and speaking aninvented language.In 1702 he met the Scottish priest
William Innes. Innes converted himto Christianity, christened him GeorgePsalmanazar, and took him back toEngland to show him off to the clergy.On reaching London, word soonspread among the chattering classes,who took this exotic visitor with hisstrange ways and quaint English totheir bosom.
Psalmanazar wasted no time incementing his place. Within two yearshe had published his first book, AnHistorical and Geographical Descrip-tion of Formosa. He described its
customs, economy, geography andhistory all either invented or inspiredby travel reports from other far-flungplaces. The book was a huge success,enjoying a reprint within the year andwith French and German editionsfollowing soon after. Readers thrilledto tales of naked warriors, snake sup-pers, child sacrifice and undergroundcities. He even gave a lecture at theRoyal Society.
But Psalmanazars real mas-terstroke was to draw on his greattalent for languages, setting down theFormosan language and alphabet.Not only was it one of the earliestexamples of an invented language, butit was so convincing that it was still
being referenced more than fifty yearslater, despite Psalmanazar having
been exposed by then.
Psalmanazars star would riseno higher. He developed an opiumaddiction and wasted his money onill-advised business ventures. Criticallgenuine reports from Formosa werenow beginning to appear. In 1706he confessed to his fraud, and after
the briefest of outrages, the publicsenthusiasm dwindled.Nursing his wounds, it was in
language he regained solace. Thelocal clergy, perhaps impressed byhis natural facilities, were generousenough to grant him the money tostudy theological Hebrew. Intriguingly, he also struck up a close friendshipwith Samuel Palmer, and co-authorePalmers A General History of Print-ing (1732). He then turned to writingan authentic study of Formosa,criticising his former exploits. Hisfaith in now God re-awakened, hisstudies culminated in an anonymouspublished collection of theologicalessays in 1753. Living on an admirer
annual pension of 30, his last yearswere spent writing his confessionalautobiography. He died in 1763, the
book of his extraordinary life pub-lished posthumously.
Formosan Tabernacle drawn byPsalmanazar
Psalmanazars Formosan alphabet
GeorgePsalmanazar
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In the cartoon world of Tom andJerry, cat and mouse do daily battlearmed with sk illets, flypaper, tacksand inconveniently placed roller-skates. In essence it is guerilla warfare
never-ending, conducted with thematerials to hand, and with only theoccasional armistice in the face of a
third-party combatant.In Jeff de Boers world, the rela-
tionship between the species is posi-tively medieval. Cats have evil-lookinghelmets ridged with deadly spikes toprotect sensitive ears and noses. Micehave full-body armour, the nose-to-tailplatelets terminating in scorpion-liketails. Whether de Boers battle petsare at war with each other or withus is left untold. Whichever, theyveevidently been engaged in bloodycombat across centuries and nations,from the days of the Roman empireto feudal Japan and chivalric Europe.
Jeff de Boer was born in Calgary,Canada, in 1963, the son of a profes-
sional tinsmith. Interested in artfrom a young age, it was only duringhis last years of high school that hestarted to make serious enquiries intometalwork, a developing passion thatculminated in the building of his firstsuit of armour.
In 1984 he enrolled at the AlbertaCollege of Art and Design to study
jewellery design. Combining his newskills in jewellery with his knowledgeof armour-making, he produced the
worlds first and only suit of armourfor a mouse. As in nature, more micefollowed and were soon pursued bycats.
All of the pieces in this particularcollection are master classes in themost precise and delicate forms ofmetalwork. They are made as if foran ancient emperor, hand-tooled tomillimetric precision with beautifullycomposed narrative reliefs and mysticwarrior symbolism. In form theyare equally breathtaking. Every ana-tomical detail appears measured forcomfort, movement and protection,impressing the vitalness of function.Had any of the great warrior kings
of history Genghis Khan, Atilla theHun, Alexander the Great beenshown de Boers Kwan Helmet for aRottweiler, one feels certain that hewould have inspired the commissionof a canine horde. The piece is a trueextension of the warrior spirit theromance of Parsifal, the wild menaceof the Vikings and the gory lustreof gladiatorial Rome. What de Boermight do with Hannibals elephantswe can only jealously imagine.
De Boers first solo show, openingafter eight years of private makingin his parents garage, was called
Articulation. Featuring some 140works, it opened at the Muttart Gal-lery in Calgary and went on to touraround western Canada for the nexttwo years. The work was collectedinto four discrete areas: armour forcats and mice; armour for executives;exoforms; and space objects. DeBoers Alien Duelling Pistols from
Space Objects depart from thehand-carved historical into a colder,futuristic world of machined parts,meticulously assembled into fantasticdeadly-looking devices and hypoder-mic projectiles. But the stylistic cold-ness of the pieces is mitigated withhis signature attention to form. Mingthe Merciless styling blends seamlesslywith practical ergonomics howeverotherworldly they look, these are stillhuman weapons. The cat and mouse
armour references a classically under-stood past, but the pistols reference apopularly imagined future.
Corporate Ties from ExecutiveArmour describe another kind ofcombat entirely the boardroom
battles of capitalism. That executivesand middle-managers require a battletie is a humorous conceit that playson the nobility of warrior symbolismwhilst simultaneously poking fun attheir self-image. That he has done sowhile giving equal attention to bothindividual identity and the necessarymovements of the human form istestament to his dedication to hiscraft. From Ancient Rome via PlanetMongo to the cut and thrust of capi-talist politics, de Boer exercises the
craft of battle like no other modernartist.
Samurai Siamese
Black Knight Mouse Corporate Tie
Alien Duelling Pistols
Artistb. 1963An F-Type murphy
JEFFDE BOER
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Harris, Robert
Selling Hitler: The Story of the
Hitler Diaries
Faber and Faber 1987
01 Crichton, Robert
The Great Impostor
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02 Design Taxidesigntaxi.com
(Cited content no longer available)
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An Interview With Asger Carlsen
Its Nice That 2011, p.60
Borges, Jorge Luis
A Universal History of Iniquity
Penguin Classics 2006
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Chatwin, BruceWhat Am I Doing Here?
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EISENHART, WILLIE
The World of Donald Evans
Abbeville Press, 1980
BROWN, DAN
The Da Vinci Code
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MacDonald Fraser , george
The Flashman Papers (12 books)
HarperCollins, 2005
Weissbrodt, Klaus
Koepenickia
www.koepenickia.de
Lynch, Jack
Orientalism as Performance Art: The
Strange Case of George Psalmanazar
(Lecture delivered 29.01.99 at the CUNY
Seminar on Eighteenth-Century Literature)
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/
~jlynch/Papers/psalm.htm
Psalmanazar, George
Memoirs of ____, Commonly Knownby the Name of George Psalmanazar;
a Reputed Native of Formosa
London, 1764
De Boer, Jeff
www.jeffdeboer.com
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A Man may,
if he pleases,invent a little
world of hisown, with itsown laws