Books

Yay!! Clues!!
Does anybody else get the impression that sometimes clues make it all more confusing?

i don't get this

http://www.privatjokr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8518#8518

That should help.

They won't make sense if you have not or are not reading the book. Though they won't necessarily make sense if you have or are. They're just clues to solve the mystery.

this just made me want to read the book...

wow if someone tryuly figures out the mystery they are the greatest i know you have to listen to themusic on the books homepage but i personally donthave the time and i would reallylike to talk with gregory galloway buti cant find any contact info he seems to be about as mysterious as the book he wrote

i dont get it either!! i am getting these clues already by email and still can't figure out where the heck anna went. its soo dumb. but i just can't give it up!!

Gosh, these clues don't make any sense! I've searched for all this crap like a million times and I get results about suicides and artists. I personally think Anna is in Alaska but that's just my mind trying to grab hold of something to satisfy me. It's so annoying not knowing where she is! If anyone ever figures this out, I will seriously be in awe of them forever.

- "forever breathes the lonely word"
is an album by Felt the picture attachment is the cover art

click here

maybe someone can help me out here, cuz i haven't thought this through -- but bear with me:

the Felt album includes the song "All The People I Like Are Those That Are Dead" and the title (Forever Breathes the Lonely Word) refers to the subject line "creation." what does Anna create? OBITUARIES.

the subsequent clues lead to dead people, and their obituaries.

except for the last one, which is a staged photo of a person pretending to be dead. pretending to be dead.

so does that mean that the solution is in Anna's obituary?

does any of this make sense?

a little help with my thinking would help.

Don't any of you realize that anything requiring this many vague, obscure clues is obviously a massive contrivance, designed for the sole purpose of jerking people around?

some people (like me) enjoy a challenge. i didn't expect an easy answer, or easy-to-solve clues. i don't think that would be in the spirit of the novel. i don't see the clues as a "massive contrivance" but as an extension of the stuff Anna created in the novel. participation (like thinking) is voluntary. and the "let no man. . ." clue has sort of shattered my previous theory. any thoughts?

Bryce,

The "let no man..." clue is tracks from a scottish album. Click here to see.

A few of the other clues point to Germany. The letters and the notebook don't seem to add up, however.

The "blue eyes" pictures is a portrait of Madame Jeanne Hebuterne. Click here More is available on here from wikipedia...Click here. A french woman. Another point to Europe...

Bryce is my new hero. I look forward to reading more of your thought process.

I've spent HOURS trying to figure them out, and I've figured out the Felt album art stuff and all those other things, I just can't put them together. EEK! It makes me sad. I wanna know! It was an amazing book, too.

This new clue is part of a poem by Weldon Kees who was apparently largely uphappy with life before he disappeared in 1955 and is believed to have taken his own life...

More on Kees here: http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/articles/050704crat_atlarge

The definition for gadabout: One who roams or roves about, as in search of amusement or social activity.

I have no information on the picture.

Bryce referred to the "ik - 1 of 3" clue as a staged photo, which got me to thinking about clue "108" (don't you love all the numbers in the clues?) and the Modigliani painting.

A number of his paintings are thought to be forgeries, and there was a somewhat famous incident where 3 students duped the art world by creating a sculpture and throwing it in a river, where it was discovered and thought to be a long lost Modigliani.

I don't know if this is where the clue is pointing, but there's another staged event and a river to ponder.

Is Anna a Gadabout?

Gadfly,

I believe that she was, based upon the definition. She was always up to something and/or had a piece of information to impart someone with that she didn't acquire from sitting at home.

Which leads us into wondering if that is a strong hint to the fact that she is off galavanting across lands foreign or otherwise, in search of amusement.

i like thinking of anna as a gadabout -- maybe that's the key -- after all, she's done this before -- at least she mentions that she's written obituaries for everyone in town before (p. 156 if anyone's interested). i see that fitting into much of what's been suggested here -- and to the weldon kees disappearance (yet another river reference). are we getting closer?

I don't know that we'll ever be able to gauge if we're getting closer until we know for a fact that we've got it. I think only then will we know how close or how far we were at any given point. I know I am not being very encouraging at this point...

The new clue: 91664.

The quote is from John Hanning Speke's journal from his adventure in which he discovered the source of the Nile River. The full journal is here.

The specific excerpt containing the quote is here.

I just noticed that one of these clues is a screenshot from the movie Stroszek, a really strange German film (that I happen to own). Not having read this book, nor ever planning to, I can't give any more insight. But if you hadn't already figured out the reference, there it is.

I think I found her...

Well. I'm totally stumped. I do agree with Privatjokr, however, that we will not know if we're getting close to solving this mystery until we have solved it. After screwing around on google and following links from the more obvious pages I was even more lost than in the beginning. I'm giving up hope. It just runs too deep for me.

NYCS & the Bunny:

http://www.artpool.hu/Ray/Publications/Plunkett.html
http://thegalleriesatmoore.org/publications/johnsoncp.shtml
http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/emma/Gallery/galleryjohnsonpix.html

Everyone mentioned in the clues killed themselves. Duh? It's not that difficult.

She didn't kill herself. She wrote in her boyfriend's obituary that she and he get married eventually. Therefore, she was planning on finding him at some point. I'm almost certain I know where she is. I just have to check three more things then I'll let you all know, if you want.

Is she in Germany?

Ok, guys, can someone e-mail me with the stuff they've figured out? It would be nice and I'll have to do some additional thinking. Cupcake, kudos to you if you can solve it. I've been scanning this chatbux several times in the past two months and I've kidna given up, but my passion was renewed again. I hope this is really worth it because i destroyed (kinda) a copy of this book in the library by dog-earing it and writing on the pages. xD Thanks for the insights, guys.

Dead people. Yes, the ik - 1 of 3 thing is a staged picture. From this, I think it says that she staged her death. The only problem now is where she went and the connection of the people.

The people I think that have the really strong connections are Bryce, Clare, Mr. Devon, Carl's Dad and G's mom. But then, I think you guys already know that.

Just a few quick comments as I'm stopping in, thrilled to find some more answer-seekers around. My theory is that Anna's relationship with G_ stems from a sort of "experiment" that she and Mr. Devon undertake together. Bryce is their first attempt and unsuccessful, as he is too impressionable -- he immediately transforms into a stereotyped Anna, instead of actually becoming anything that Anna actually IS. G_, however, self-describes his biggest personality trait as being a person who cuts the labels out of his clothes. He resists brand-labeling, is as plain and pure as a glass to hold water (Anna presumably is providing the water that fills his metaphorical glass), and so he is a "success" in that regard -- he ultimately takes off on his own Anna Cayne journey. The reason I feel it is a work undertaken by Mr. Devon and Anna is, initially -- Mr. Devon is the one who tells G_ to meet girls in the library, where he meets Anna on the very first try. Anna's "how do you draw a bunny" note to Mr. D is a direct reference to Ray Johnson (of our NYCS clue). Mr. Devon takes G_ to his gallery showing, which has an homage theme. He explains the first -- The Drunken Boat (a Rimbaud work, as is 'A Season in Hell' which Anna quotes in an earlier mailing in the book. Their relationship may reference Rimbaud and Verlaine, but I haven't thought much into that yet.). Mr. D does not say what the other two works hearken to -- but one of the two, the aquarium with stuff in it, parallels the CD which Anna gave G_, frozen in a huge block of ice. I've some other thoughts, but this is currently what I'm building from.

P.S. Thank you to whoever directed me to this thread from my LJ.

Cupcake -

If you found her, I want to know!

Relia, you're awesome. My first thought was that Mr. Devon and Anna were like... uh... pedophilic lovers or something. I think that you've started. Nice.

What does 41573 mean in the nycs clue?

And, uh... What does 4 stand for? I wonder if it stands for the number people...

"What does 41573 mean in the nycs clue?"

April 15, 1973, I suspect, which is 10 days after Johnson's obit for the NYCS (our other nycs clue) is dated.

Oh yes, I figured something out. Anna's obituary uses the name "Anastasia" in it, right? Her obituary refers to the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, and not to her. The names of her brother and sisters are the names of Anastasia Romanov herself. I don't know how this all ties in, but it's just something.

Someone else at the bottom here mentioned the Grand Duchess Anastasia.
Here are some potentially interesting tidbits:
Anna's mother physically resembles Alexandra (Anastasia's mother, with her 'witch' nose, and fly away hair). Mrs. Cayna also dressed as a princess for Halloween and when asked 'so any witches live here?' she replies, 'No, only princesses live in this house.' Anastasia was not a princess, but her mother was.

In her obituary, Anna refers to her eldest sister as 'Olivia'. Anastasia's sister was named Olga. Similarly, her brother was named Alexei, not Alex. These could simply be changes just to put the reader off. It's also interesting to note that Anna's 'brother' Alex died of a brain hemmorahge at four, as did Princess Alexandra's brother Frittie, who was also a hemophiliac, like the Tsaresvich Alexei, Alexandra's son.

Anna was the name used to refer a woman now identified as Franciska Schwasoska, who for a long time was beleived to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

The Romanov family and a number of their entourage were murdered in 1918 after the Russian Revolution- in a cellar, they were lined up against a wall and shot. In one of her postcards, Anna writes 'there is no better way to die than to be lined up against a (mexican) wall and shot!' or something similar to such....

Just some interesting connections.

I totally cant figure this out!! I am doing a book report on this for school due friday and I have no clue what i am supposed to put for the ending!!! All i can figure out is that the Houdini code is used. Did anyone decipher the last page of the book? I tried and I cant figure it out! I think that has to be a huge clue...

I know nothing of the clues. But did anyone think it was weird how when the night she went missing Anna's parents find a condom but the narrator had thrown it away? And he runs questions through his head wether or not someone had come over after he had left? This has been my biggest question. Why was the condom there? Does anyone know?

Pray = 1 = A
Answer = 2 = B
Say = 3 = C
Now = 4 = D
Tell = 5 = E
Please = 6 = F
Speak = 7 = G
Quickly = 8 = H
Look = 9 = I
Be quick = 10 or 0 = J

I found it (accidentally) at the website. :p

Mimi,
I would love to say I have even a remote clue as to what to do with that. Unfortunately, I do not. Care to explain? Or can anyone?

Mimi's info is for the last page.. crap I just returned the book.... someone decode it!!

I'm not trying to be dense here, but I apparently don't understand enough about code breaking to figure out how to work that key. Obviously each word doesn't correspond to a letter because the key only has letters A-J.

How would you decode it into words even if you had the book in front of you?

i think all of you are thinking to hard into this. Did you ever think that Anna wasn't suppose to be found? and that it is insignificant as to where Anna went? Kind of like the narrator's name. You're are never told it, but even if you were, would that have changed the novel? no. it is insignificant. I think there is only one point Galloway was trying to get across and that is that Anna is still alive. Think of the games she played with the narrator- alot of them led to nothing. All these clues are just things Galloway is using to mess with our heads and he's using them for us to waste our time trying to figure out something that cannot be found.

Your code for the Houdini translation is incorrect. The words correspond to numbers, which then translate into the alphabet accordingly.

Pray = 1 = A
Tell = 2 = B
Etc.

The word "answer-be" for example would be 2-0, or 20, the letter T. "Be" never appears on its own as there is no 0th letter of the alphabet.

If you would like to translate this yourself, I suggest you start with the original codeby Houdini, translate his message into the letters of "BELIEVE," and map those onto Galloway's afterword.

Otherwise, if you would rather just know the translation, I can post it here. Let me know.

Err, sorry for the error, "Answer" = 2, I mistyped.

I would certainly like the translation. As with that other person, I no longer have the book (I "rented" it from an audio book site). I have no doubt the translation is just as cryptic as the encoding but still it would be interesting.

Relia, that was from the official website itself. Well, if you really want to know:

http://www.assimpleassnow/com/hidden

And, I think it's not really Houdini's code. I think it's a variation of it and could be used to decode the acknowledgements page. Now that i think of it, word pairings also matter a lot.

Debt, gratitude, affection, love to the following: Aimee, Anna, David, and the Robbins office, Gina. Thanks to BMW and the drive back and forth to Cornwall.

Punctuation mine.

From a chat log where I worked through it with a friend (while I was at work, lol!). We started with the Houdini and applied it to the acknowledgements page.

Relia: I can't figure out how those nine words spell believe, a seven-letter word.
Katie: It's "Rosabelle, answer tell pray-answer look tell answer-answer tell." You leave off Rosabelle because it's just the trigger word or whatever you'd call it.
Relia: Oh, I didn't have dashes to help me. XD
Katie: They're in the book!
Relia: I DON'T HAVE THE BOOK WITH ME.
Relia: Anyway, pray and answer as prefixes may be numbers? i.e. 10, 20.
Relia: As in, what number letter in the alphabet?
Katie: answer = 2, tell = 5, pray = 1, to begin with.
Relia: I agree pray is the 1, as there are too many pray variants for it to be 2!
Katie: Well, it's also because pray-answer is L, and L is 12.
Relia: And answer-answer is V, and V is 22.
Katie: SO TO BEGIN WITH:
Relia: answer = 2
tell = 5
pray = 1
look = 9

I am absolutely stumped.
Coding isn't my thing, but I really haven't gotten my mind off the book for about 2 monthes.
Meaning it is one month and 2 weeks late. I can't return it though.

Does anybody have Galloways info?

i received this one the other day & noticed it was not on here--


ik--1 of 4

"koike eiko wears gianni versace"



(this is perhaps the strangest photograph i have ever seen)

sorry the previous photograph was accidentally resized

ik--1 of 4
^^original size

ik--1 of 4

koike eiko wears gianni versace is a photograph in a series of photographs shot by Izima Kaoru. his aesthetic is staging the death of a girl and shooting it in usually 4 pictures, starting from far away and getting progressively closer.

i took this from the website

“Dead, the models in Izima Kaoru’s images fantasise both mode and moment of dispatch, order the high fashion appropriate to such violent elimination. Photographed, they rise, wash off the synthetic gore, the mud and sand, and live; never again so perfect as in the dream of their destruction.”

i don't think anyone reported that one as figured out.

some food for though, i guess.

the narrator's name is the same as the authors- gregory galloway.

the double dactyl reference anna makes in the beginning of the book [each name has the same amount of syllables and starts with the same letter] and he says his name comes in both an "a" and an "o" version [gallaway/galloway]

not sure if that has anything to do with where anna is, but who knows.

I stumbled upon this looking to see if anyone had figured it out yet. I guess not.

We also need to figure out the connection of GG's friend's father (why can't I think of the name?) and the friend to all of this. They have barely been mentioned and I feel like there's something there...

What Colleen means is that we need to find the connection of Carl and his dad.

Carl's dad and G's mom had (or was having) some sort of affair, I guess? But... I think G's dad never said anything about it because he was... well, he didn't want to rock the boat.

And, Relia, I'm finally taking the time to translate it. :p

Quite possibly. But how does Carl's father know Anna? How are they connected?

Lycidas by John Milton:
http://www.bartleby.com/4/210.html

It was a tribute to his friend that *cough* drowned. Yep, Mr. Devon knew Anna and that's for sure.

Thx to Kate for posting the ik - 1 of 4 clue, and thx to sara for posting the quote about Izima Kaoru’s photographs -- I think they're both extremely important. I always thought the clue was critical (I had received the ik - 1 of 3 clue), and am now more convinced since there are different versions. I know it's been mentioned by others here, but the staged aspect of the photos seems to be a key insight into Anna's disappearance. And the photos fit with the dress neatly laid out. I can just see her brushing herself off and moving on, satisfied with her own dream of destruction. She's out there somewhere. But where?

Some other things to consider:

Comradecayt and others correctly mention the connections between Anna, Anastasia the Grand Dutchess, and Franciska Schwasoska. There's a further connection in that Anna was supposedly born in a thunderstorm in Charlottesville, Virginia, which was where a real life local woman named Anna Manahan lived for years, claiming til her death to be the real Anastasia. After her death, DNA testing revealed she was not Anastasia, but could possibly be linked to relatives of Schwasoska (the Anastasia imposter).

Also, scars and markings on Anna's (the character's) body match those known to be on Anastaia's (and perhaps Anna Manahan's) body. And her parents' names were the same as the Anastasia's parents, the last Tsar and Tsarista of Russia.

Another thing: Mumler: William Mumler was a "spirit photographer" in the 19th century, and took photographs that are remarkably close to the desciption of the photo of G__ and Anna that Mr Devon took.

There's also an interesting juxtaposition in the book of death (or near death) by water and by fire. Both in characters in the book, and in historical figures that the book references:

Death by water:

Anna (?)
Franciska Schwasoska (came close to drowning by jumping off a bridge)
Ray Johnson
Houdini (didn't die, but the water case trick)
Frank O'hara

Death by Fire:

Mr Devon (in his obit by Anna)
Mr Devon's girlfriend
The real Russian royal family (bodies were burned to prevent identification)
Mumlet townspeople
Bryce (came close to dying in car wreck)
Gorky's Barn?

41573 - "nycs"

The picture (Bunny) could be referring to Ray Johnson and his life.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Johnson
On January 13, 1995 Ray Johnson's body was found floating in a small cove in Sag Harbor, NY. As with much of the particulars of his life, little is known about the circumstances of his death. Those who knew him best, inasmuch as they knew him at all, have even speculated that his suicide was his final performance

Just bopping by to throw out another note based on things I jotted in the margins of my copy.

My issue with the relationship between Carl's dad and G_'s mother is a particular comment his mother makes at the beginning of the novel. He mentions the name of his school, and his mother's comment that she doesn't like the idea of it being named for an adulterer (exact quote and page missing -- my copy isn't at work with me!).

I've been toying with a theory that --G_'s father-- and --Carl's mother-- were having the affair, or something to that effect, and G_'s mom and Carl's dad became friends through their shared grief, you know, or something like that. Obviously not too much in the book to make this hold water, but I can't imagine Galloway included the comment in the beginning of the book for no reason.

Has anyone received any clues lately? I haven't gotten any in months :( Whats going on?! I want to figure out the mystery of Anna

I keep thinking about signing up again to see if I get any different ones the second time around, but I haven't actually gone ahead and done it yet.

Haven't gotten any in many months either. :(

In the last CD notes there's what looks like a circle-the-word puzzle. I can see several obvious valentine-related words going left-to-right. What else is in there? Has anyone looked at this?

The clue that begins "My journey down to Alexandria" is a quote from John Hanning Speke. The numbers might be September 16, 1864, which is the day after he died. He was supposed to have a debate with Richard Francis Burton on the 16th but died the day before--perhaps by suicide, perhaps by accident. The debate was about whether Speke had really discovered the source of the Nile or if he was wrong--probably his career hinged on this or something.

In any case--the picture under the link is neither Speke nor Burton. Who is it?

THIS BOOK FRUSTRATED ME SO MUCH
god i love it though

i want a definite answer so so bad

and your clues were really helpful but i still am supremly confused

but i think its clear that you all believe that annas still alive which i do also but what really bothered me were the discussion Qs at the end of the book they gave me like 50384935 million more questions

like about the bruises? does anyone else think her father beat her cause of the whole ladder incident or am i making that up?

what was her relationship with bryce and maybe it was his condom? or maybe she just planted it?

do her obituarys really come true?

i want to know more about mr. devon. did he kill his girlfriend?

and about the letter she sent him that just completly confused me

basically i'm very confused any help would be greatly appreciated

ok im going to go work on the references page now when ive got it decoded (probably tomorrow) ill post the decoded page hopefully this will shed some light on the mystery but ill be pissed if it really is just an acknowledgements page but any way wish me luck. also if anyone can find some contact information for gregory galloway that would be nice i'd like to get ahold of him

ok so i did my best to decode the last page and unfortunatly it is just an acknowledgements page but heres what it says any way:

debt, gratitude, afftection, love to the following: Aimee, Anna, David, and the Robbins office, Gina
Thanks to Amwand for the drive back forth to Cornwall

thats all it said so oh well no insight but at least we all know what it says now

I just wanted to say that this page has been the most help in my pursuit for Anna. There are so many things that you all have thought of that I never would have even considered. I am so happy to have found these things out. Keep thinking and keep me posted.

hey there are some numbers on the cover of the book over the mountain top to the right if any one dident notice the numbers are 1 14 15 22 5 12 if this helps any one

those numbers correspond to letters spelling out "a novel"

We can't give up on this. Just finished the book and I don't know what to make of it... but I will figure this out. Nobody would go through the troubles of inventing these clues to no end, especially considering the fact that they connect so well...

I just finished listening to the novel on audio c.d.s I borrowed from the library. I new nothing of the online following and clues circulating when I picked up the padded package of discs. I signed up for the clues, but I doubt any will be sent to me, but it has been interesting reading everyones' theories and following the clues that have been listed.

A few thoughts:
I see a connection between Mr. Devon and and Arshile Gorky. Mr. Devon had lost someone in a fire and suffered physical injury, Gorky lost his work, but both discovered a type of rebirth after these tragedies. I would like to believe that there is some sort of finality to the story, some clue that will tie it all up, but I don't think that will ever be the case. At the end of the novel the narrator becomes much more like Anna, and in this way I feel like Galloway is taking the opportunity to play Anna to all of us, sending us out into the information, literature and music of the world. Honestly, how many of us had heard of all the artists and writers talked about in the book? The novel seems to be a sort of re-education of young adults of all the things we should have learned in school, while still supplying no answers to the bigger questions. Sometimes tragedies happen, and we want to know desperately why, but there is never an answer. Anyone who has ever loved someone who has killed themselves knows this feeling, I would think. Yet whether there is a body found or not, the question is the same either way and the answer is there is no answer, just more questions, more clues, connections, energy that never fails.

If there is was an answer or final message I think it would be to pay attention, look deeper, there is always more to learn.

Has anyone else thought that the entire book "As simple as snow" could be the ghost story that Gregory Galloway was writing for Anna?
His writing a story was mentioned a few times, but dropped off. This would be the sort of story Anna would love: clues, murder, herself as the star, royalty, mystery, but no answer.
If anyone has any reason that this theory couldn't be plausible, say something! Or if you have more evidence it could be...

I read the book over summer and loved it, but had no idea about this site until today. All the theories are amazing, I've tried following the clues myself but every time I think I'm close something completely throws me off and I'm back to square one. I really like the last posting about how maybe the whole book was G_'s story for Anna, it does seem very plausible, although I don't think someone would put so much time into all the tiny clues and nuances for it simply to be that. Although....it would be so simple, and yet so complicated...as simple as snow pretty much.

Did anyone see that when u go to amazon and look at the "let no man steal your thyme" album by the scottish chick has a link to a site that talks all about how that chick disappeared in the early 1970s right at her peak and it was a huge mystery and she reappeared 30 years later married and happy? I dont know if that has anything to do with anything but it is a big coincidence. here's the link:

www.btinternet.com/~blackvelvet/

weldon kees was also working on a script for a spy thriller movie called gadabout.....i feel like im going in circles here

So, does anyone reach the solution? I just finished reading the book and i'm very curious about where is Anna. Before i entered this site, i was thinkin about that Anna could be a ghost.

Oh, I never thought that Anna could be a ghost... That's really interesting.