Today at noon EST (that's 9am Pacific time), Gaiman will begin an exquisite corpse story on the BBC Audiobooks America Twitter account with a single tweet. Other Twitter users can then contribute to the story with their own tweets (all tweets must include @BBCAA and #bbcawdio, cutting into those precious 140 characters). Once the tale reaches 1000 tweets, the BBC editors will edit it into a (hopefully) coherent story. An audio version of the story will be made available in the iTunes store for free.
We believe that we invent symbols. The truth
is that they invent us; we are their creatures,
shaped by their hard, defining edges.
When soldiers take their oath they are given a coin,
an asimi stamped with the profile of the Autarch. Their acceptance of that coin is their
acceptance of the special duties and burdens of military life--they are soldiers from that
moment, though they may know nothing of the management of arms. I did not know that then,
but it is a profound mistake to believe that we must know of such things to be influenced
by them, and in fact to believe so is to believe in the most debased and superstitious kind
of magic. The would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge; rational
people know that things act of themselves or not at all.
The Shadow of the Torturer, Gene Wolfe.
