Reader Mail 28 Jul 2011 12:17 am by Robynne

Black Cloud

Here comes another piece of mail we’ve received in exchange for a Death Prediction Card!

There’s a lot going on here! We have:

  • Two mailing labels that together contain the image of a hand
  • A little strip of marching ants
  • A bookplate with pretty butterflies on it
  • A note saying “dear Machine of Death / Please send me a death prediction card / kthxbi”
  • A card saying “you make the world a better place.”
  • A mysterious item labeled “Black Cloud”

On the reverse of the “you make the world a better place” card, we find:

“thank you,”

Maybe this card was meant to be read with “Thank you” first, with “you make the world a better place” coming later. Maybe I made a mistake in arranging these photographs in the way I have. But let’s move on from this fairly simple mystery to a far more interesting one.

“Black Cloud” turns out to be a book! We found we could open it and see more pages. Pages with images and words for us to think about.

Black Cloud Pages 1 and 2: i thought

Black Cloud Pages 3 and 4: there must be MORE

Black Cloud Pages 5 and 6: moremoremoremoremoremore… etc.

Black Cloud Page 7: More. More moremoremoremore etc.

So what does all this mean? I guess it means what you want it to mean. Or it means whatever the creator says it means. Since I haven’t heard any explanation, I’m assuming it’s about the frustration a person feels when, upon finally receiving some piece of knowledge or guidance, the knowledge doesn’t live up to the person’s anticipation. That’s, um, that’s just me. I’m the girl who thought Kafka stories were totally simple until we started arguing about them in 8th grade English, so I’m certain there’s more room for interpretation here than my simple analysis allows.

ALSO: David and Ryan have just gotten back from a week at Comic-Con, so we should have updated submission data for your edification very soon — as well as winners of the Facebook contests! Stay tuned!

4 Responses to “Black Cloud”

  1. on 29 Jul 2011 at 2:31 am 1.Marvin Choi said …

    My friend and I were at Ryan’s booth and he was like “it’s over 2000” and we were like “omg”.

  2. on 30 Jul 2011 at 9:40 am 2.Nova said …

    Hey guys! I was wondering if I could maybe send you an e-card (“handmade”, of course) + my address in exchange for a prediction? Our would you prefer snail mail?

  3. on 09 Aug 2011 at 1:16 am 3.Robynne said …

    Hey Nova! Sorry about taking a long time to respond. We generally prefer getting these things snail mail, just because it’s much easier for us to get predictions out when all we have to do is stick them into self-addressed stamped envelopes. If for some reason this is difficult for you, why don’t you try sending us an email with your entry and we’ll see what we can do. But if you can manage to send us a physical entry, it would be much appreciated.

  4. on 09 Aug 2011 at 1:16 am 4.Robynne said …

    Hey Nova! Sorry about taking a long time to respond. We generally prefer getting these things snail mail, just because it’s much easier for us to get predictions out when all we have to do is stick them into self-addressed stamped envelopes. If for some reason this is difficult for you, why don’t you try sending us an email with your entry and we’ll see what we can do. But if you can manage to send us a physical entry, it would be much appreciated.