[UA] [OT] Sleep Deprivation

[Matthew Rowan Norwood]

> The first and most fundamental of these adaptations of thought patterns to tool usage would be the use of spoken language.  Zen buddhism points out how hard it is for you to stop thinking in words once you've learned to speak.

Yeah, I read a book a little while back that pretty much summed up
McLuhan's ideas by saying that he was trying to be a Zen Buddhist
without knowing it, which was still a pretty impressive accomplishment
for a Western professor of Literature.

> ObUA: Clever GMs could work out weird things with the Alter Tongue, Infomancy or some other bits involving this adaptation of the mind to language.  At some level, almost any magick school or obsession is similar to this behavior.  Alternatively, there is the language of Babel used in The Invisibles which I won't get into much here.

As I read through Dylan Craig's campaign log (AMAZING, btw -- I'm green
with envy), its truck me that Pictomancy is a subschool of Infomancy.
You can really go so many different places with the school. Perhaps some
Cliomancy-esque effects, like creating a catch-phrase that infects the
population? "All your base" might be a minor version of the Alter Tongue
cooked up by an Infomancer.

I'm free-associating now, but the Alter Tongue reminded me of UA's
multiple sets of "twins". I'm not sure if I'm complaining or trying to
be helpful, but what with the Rayhab, the Alter twins, Joy and Sorrow,
and Rome and Carthage, there seems to be a preponderance of stories
dealing with "these two people who play this special game between them,
and the PCs or other outsiders get wrapped up in it". In the case of the
Alter twins, the "game" is a language, and I haven't actually read Joy
and Sorrow in One-shots, but the other two sets stick to that theme
pretty closely. Could this be a manifestation of some deeper truth about
the world of UA? Maybe a metaphor for the games played by the IC? But in
that case, why always two players?

-Matt Norwood

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