Trying to Pin Down Geoff Latta's Posts Here on the Forum

[Richard Kaufman]

Guys, I need a little help. Geoff Latta posted here quite a bit at one point and we are trying to locate his posts. All we need is ONE post and then we can identify all the others.

If any of you can recall a post of Geoff's, please post a link to that page here and give me the post number. Thanks.

[Joe Mckay]

Here you go...

http://www.geniimagazine.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=148288#Post148288

Joe

[luigimar]

That was fast Joe!

[Joe Mckay]

Chris Aguilar recently mentioned the post on the Conjure Nation forum. Man - I hate to reveal my secrets...

Joe

[Ian Kendall]

That's an interesting thread to read, in light of the publication of the Cervon Notebooks.

[El Mystico]

I like this thread too; not sure what Ian is intending; I thought there was some great unpublished Vernon material in the notebooks?

But what gets me is the absolute certainty of some people that the best material was held back from Revelations. I think it would make a great study for someone - how did such a strong rumour develop?

[Ian Kendall]

It was more that the discussion in 2003 was that Cervon had scads of unpublished Vernon stuff and was holding onto it, and now we all have it for ourselves.

[El Mystico]

Ah, yes.
(And now it is out there, no one talks about it!)

[Richard Kaufman]

Not all the Vernon stuff is out there.

Part of the reason no one talks about the Vernon stuff that came out in the Castle Notebooks is because of the way the material is presented. It's both buried, presented without any context, and from my point of view as a person who has written a lot of sleight of hand, inadequately described.

[billmccloskey]

The difficulty with the Castle note books prompted me to create a private website where I have began transcribing all the hand written notes in the book so I can read them easier, along with links to all the references. It also makes it easy to cross reference everything in the book. I made it a website so I could study it where ever I was and naturally it can never be made public (just for my own personal study). But it does make studying the Castle notebooks much easier, when you don't have to decipher Bruce's writing.

[Ian Kendall]

I'm looking forward to having the time to examine the notebooks properly. So far, I just get to browse through them, which is not that satisfying. Like Bill, I had the plan to transcribe them; perhaps a hive project would speed things up?

Since I traded my set of Crimps for the Notebooks, I'm used to reading through handwritten descriptions :)

[billmccloskey]

For awhile I thought I would open up the website to people who could prove they have purchased and are in possession of the books, even to the point of having them photograph them with today's newspaper, and then keep a registry of who owns what number book. But I wasn't sure of the legal ramifications of that so decided to just make it my own resource.

[Mark Tams]

Bill, what a great idea to move the needle forward in studying this material. I would only hope that we can have access sometime to your work on this subject! Personally, I would have no problem being a paying subscriber to something like this. Please keep us posted as you make decisions moving forward.

[erdnasephile]

Does anyone know if there are any plans for the Cervon tapes to be published? They most probably would make a great companion/extension to the notebooks.

[Richard Kaufman]

The videotapes don't overlap the notebooks--they came afterward. I've heard no plans. I don't believe the tapes could be released as they are. The material would have to be written and illustrated or photographed and a book created.

[billmccloskey]

Thanks Mark. The website is www.castlenotebooks.com. I was surprised the domain was available, but there you go. I need to do more research and check with the publishers to see how they would feel about it. I originally conceived it as a membership site for those who owned the books to make the studying of these great books easier. But again, I don't want to step on any toes or put myself in any legal, copyright issues.

[Richard Kaufman]

Bill, you'll encounter genuine copyright issues if you try to go public with your site. First, it devalues the purchase of everyone who bought the physical notebooks because there's no way to create a login that will allow only purchasers of the books to view it.

Anyway, the simple fact that you don't own the rights to the product means you need to keep it private. But it will probably be a great resource for you!

[Jonathan Townsend]

Richard, what if it was a password protected site and he gave out the password upon request?

The idea being that way his HTML research work hosted at his ISP would be treated like a book at his library at home?

[billmccloskey]

Richard, the way I was going to handle that was to have everyone register their books by the number, provide proof that they have the books by photographing them and then linking their membership to the number book they had so no one could photo graph the same book. At least that was the original idea. but again, I don't want to have to worry about any ramifications so I will just keep it for my own resource unless I can come to some sort of agreement with the publishers.

I will say that without a resource like that, it will be difficult (as you have pointed out) to really mine the data in the book efficiently and successfully. But be that as it may.

[billmccloskey]

At any rate, I plan on dedicating the next couple of years to this project. If nothing else I might be able to provide some insights into the material to scholars without revealing the actual text or at least point them in the right direction.

[erdnasephile]

Question: it is quite common these days to produce commentaries on works that are still copyrighted. (Cliff Notes and such come to mind).

If someone were to publish a "Guide to the Cervon Notes" that consisted of cross references and annotations, would that necessarily violate copyright?

I'm not suggesting anyone do this, but I was wondering.

[IrishMagicNews]

It's obvious looking in here that Bill is a man of the utmost integrity.

Bill, surely Louis Falanga and yourself could come to some understanding.

Respectufully,

Brendan

[billmccloskey]

That is a great suggestion Brendon. When I am further along with the project, I will reach out to some of the folks here for an introduction.

[Bill Mullins]

Guys, I need a little help. Geoff Latta posted here quite a bit at one point and we are trying to locate his posts. All we need is ONE post and then we can identify all the others.

If any of you can recall a post of Geoff's, please post a link to that page here and give me the post number. Thanks.

Does this mean that a bunch of posts that are now labled "anonymous" will get relabled "Geoff Latta"?

[Richard Kaufman]

Not sure, but Stephen Minch is trying to obtain as much of Geoff's writing as possible for his upcoming book.

[Tom Stone]

Stephen talks about the upcoming book here:
http://hermeticforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=64

[erdnasephile]

Man, that book sounds great!

Mr. Latta was another example of a master who, like Ken Krenzel, was extraordinarily generous with his time and knowledge.