Some Notes on Ghost Turtle
Let’s talk about Ghost Turtle, my interactive visual poem. First, here’s the text (which I don’t think is collected on one page anywhere else any more).
A Presentation To The Royal Society of Natural and Unnatural Philosophy by Dr Elizabeth O’Leary, RSNUP, RGS
I'll say: The ghost turtle is not your bitch.
It will swim through every ocean and sea
With all the power of a shell-back witch -
Tide, current and wind, those are the key.It will swim through every ocean and sea
Navigating, storm-riding reptile,
Tide, current and wind. Those are the key
Blunt bullet-beaked head filled with guile.Navigating, storm-riding reptile
Can see for miles atop the swell;
Blunt bullet-beaked head filled with guile:
Don't you know that this is a magic spell?Can see for miles atop the swell,
With all the power of a shell-backed witch,
Don't you know that this is a magic spell?
I'll say: the ghost turtle is not. Your. Bitch.
This was inspired by a Bear Creek prompt, in this case "Ghost
Turtle". When it was tweeted out I got into my head the line, The ghost turtle
is not your bitch. Which rhymes with witch and gave me the phrase shell-back
witch. I had to do something with that.
I tapped it out into the twitter box and came up with something very close to this.
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| Original publication |
Lizzie O’Leary was a character in my Age Of Sail Fantasy serial Tapping The Admiral. One episode was made up of her letters, including one to the Royal Society Of Natural And Unnatural Philosophy, in which she overturns a received opinion. This is probably a cross-universal cousin, as despite her inclinations I doubt that the original version would address the honourable society in rhyme, if only because they would not take it seriously. And secondly they would be most unhappy at her casting a spell on them.
As far as I'm concerned this poem is not a spell as I don't do magic. Lizzie O'Leary might though.
Anyway this version of the poem got published in the Bear Creek Gazette. Because the Gazette did not keep archives it eventually vanished into the aether and when Bear Creek similarly returned to the primordial chaos I reclaimed the poem. But what to do?
Bitsy is a retro game engine based around 8x8 sprites. A friend of mine had been experimenting with it. And suggested that I might have a go. So I had opened it up and was playing with it. Making gravestones and spooky trees. Bitsy, as it comes out the box, supports two frame animations. One low lying bush I made shake in the wind turned out to look like waves on a beach.
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| Ghost Turtle comes ashore in the graveyard |
Where then would a ghost turtle lay it’s eggs? Can Bitsy make a two frame animated turtle as a character? The answers are: in a graveyard by the sea and yes, yes it can.
(It turns out it looks a bit like the turtle Logo, a computer programming tutorial from back in the mists of time).
I played with the idea of having a non-linear path, of going to various places to pick up the different verses in a different order, maybe the lines themselves having alternatives? But this was beyond my learning-about-Bitsy skills, and the poem… isn’t built for that? Really? So I made it linear. One room for each verse. In theory you can avoid the poem if you want, just wander about. More visual, less poem?
This is interactive, and so a fun piece to submit to Voidspace. And it's also a Bear Creek orphan, which Voidspace has been offering shelter to. One way or the other it was the right place for it and, by chance, it got in just ahead of the Issue 6 deadline.
Anyway that’s what I know happened with Ghost Turtle, the shell-backed
witch. The rest is legend and rumour.
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