The Incarnation of Smudge

In the land of Teerakmurai (tea-rack-mirror-eye, "mirror" pronounced quickly as a single syllable, accents on tea and mirror), once lived a girl who had accumulated, by the end of her life, more names than she could remember.  Truthfully, she just didn't keep score, and the Board is not inclined to chase down the official records. But the number of her names was more than one can count on one hand, or even on two.  The number was extraordinarily high by any standard, so much so that some members of the Board have referred to her as the Girl of A Thousand Names (probably an exaggeration), or for short, Polyname. 

In Teerakmurai, names are handed out somewhat like titles in the West, to address the uneasiness that adults feel with their station in life from time to time.  In the West, a person might endeavor to change her title from "chief bottle washer" to "understudy to the Nubian princess" or such like, with the expectation that the change in title will be accompanied by corresponding changes in career responsibilities.  But in Teerakmurai, names are changed by the naming authority upon request without any change in worldly responsibilities.  A certificate is issued, listing the old name and the new, the new name is added to the register, and life goes on.  

The certified name is used primarily for official purposes, and the person retains an informal name for daily use, usually assigned by the parents shortly after birth.  The Terakmuraiians believe that the spirits that influence the destinies of the living will take notice of the official name, because it is the name chanted by the monks during supplications at the temples, the name spoken to the soothsayers while possessed by these spirits, the name written on prayer sheets and burned with incense.  And not least of all, the name by which one is known to the King.  Not personally for most subjects, of course, but to the minions and mandarins of his regime attending the business and ceremonies of state.    So it is widely believed that the official name taken bears heavily on one's fortunes and destiny.  In comparison the informal name is unknown and unused except in social intercourse with one's circle of family, friends, neighbors and so forth.

Polyname accumulated a great train of official names, because of a great train of disappointments and dashed hopes beginning in young adulthood.  Each new name was sought out, adopted and certified as each old name failed to produce the desired change in circumstances.  But from her incarnation she was known by her informal name of Smudge, or in the more literal translation "little dirt."

Smudge was born as the second and unplanned daughter to a young landless family at the lowest rung of the social order.  She was born about six weeks early to boot, a frail and tiny thing scarcely larger than a kilo bag of rice.  Yet another daughter, and particularly one in frail condition, was not a burden her father felt willing to bear.  In dramatic demonstration of his painful state of emotional affairs, he suddenly hurled her a second-story window one day not long after her birth, and she fell to the ground below.  Miraculously, or perhaps just luckily, she was unhurt.   It was the time of rains, so the ground was muddy, and the softness of the mud cushioned her fall.  Her grandmother found her covered in mud and wailing as loudly as a frail infant can, her mother having fainted dead away from the shock of witnessing her husband's unfathomable act of violence against the helpless infant.  Smudge's father had been well drunk with rice wine taken from the family's commercial stock, and fled in shame and rage from the scene.

The fall to the mud happened before Polyname had received her first name.  Plucked from the mud, she was cleansed by rinsing in rainwater from the family cistern, three times.  Her mother and grandmother carefully inspected her front and back, limbs and digits, and found no harm.  Not even a bruise could be found.  From then on she was called Smudge, in acknowledgement of the dirt cleaned from her that day, and to ward off any envious spirits.  Even then, she was notably beautiful, in an infantile way.  And after surviving the fall unharmed, she was known to be extraordinarily lucky, too.  Such attributes attract envy, it was feared.  Not that Smudge ever received any material things that would provoke much envy, as it turned out.  

But she did receive a gift of a non-material nature.  The story of Smudge's gift, and the chain of events that the unveiling of that gift set in motion, will be the subject of another post, or several. 

The Antichrist Writes In

The Antichrist, more commonly known as the Sovereign Peoples United (SPU), has written in.  The Board has received the Standard Letter from the Public Communications Bureau, which by itself is nothing to be alarmed about.  It is all but impossible that the Board would have been noticed by any of the SPU's non-robotic minions, at this early stage. And yet, the speed with which the Standard Letter was dispatched -- after only a few scattered posts by the Board -- is disconcerting.

The message reads in pertinent part:

Dear Publisher:

It has come to the attention of the Public Communications Bureau (PCB) that you are operating an unregistered Information Service (IS).  Although registration is not mandatory, IS operators are encouraged to register each IS with the PCB.  The benefits of registering your IS include automatic pre-publication review of all information placed on your IS for compliance with the SPU Directive for the Prevention of Offensive and Detrimental Speech (SPUD-PODS).  Content that is determined to be out of compliance with SPUD-PODS during pre-publication review will be automatically withheld from publication and securely impounded.

Except in extraordinary circumstances, the operators of registered Information Services will not be subject to penalties for any content that is withheld from publication due to non-compliance.  Such penalties may include, but are not limited to, the impounding of all IS content, whether compliant or not, forfeiture of assets related to publication of the IS, monetary restitution to any offended class or harmed governmental branch, mandatory SPUD-PODS re-orientation, and public participation in remedial social networking.  Operation of an unregistered IS may also subject the operator to annual taxes for the prevention of surplus income.

Content prohibited by GET-PODS may include, but is not limited to: (a) unfair criticism or other information tending to undermine public confidence in any SPU agency, affiliate, board, bureau or institution; (b) any information offensive to any protected class recognized by the Cultural Educational Bureau, including any class protected by race, ethnic origin, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or political disadvantage; (c) any unauthorized publication of copyrighted content or discussion of protected ideas; (d) any information comprising or supporting any unregistered agreement, transaction, trade, or exchange; (e) any advice, opinion, or speculation of a nature requiring a professional or vocational license by the Board of Professions and Vocations; or (f) anything subject to censure at the discretion of the Director.

Register your Information Service today!

Etc., etc.,

Sincerely,

Etiawomb-be Matombenu
Director, Public Communications Bureau

This IS is, and long may it be.  The proliferation in unregistered Information Services since the Great Emancipation is a source of some comfort.  Minor transgressions of the Board are likely to be buried in the deluge of banalities springing up from its unregistered and unwashed peers.  Despite liberal use of AI agents and crowd-sourced sifters, the ever-expanding Eye-Net, and virtually unlimited processing power, the same imperfections of the physical realm that impose scarcity and suffering on the members of the Board also operate as a shield against total control by SPU.   Simply put, there are no shortages of eyes, ears and minds for hire, but trust and loyalty are in short supply.  And like any living entity, SPU is often preoccupied with getting its priorities in order, and so much the more as its power increases.


The Board is tax exempt, and does not intend to register.  The usual precautions will be observed.  Clarity will be sacrificed for the sake of security.  Names will be changed, narratives will be replaced by parables, and simple points will be obfuscated by complex blather. 

Directly accessing the Board should be avoided, and indirect channels for access exploited.  Anyone posting comments here should be assumed to be an agent of SPU or a fool.  Those being watched may do well to stay away entirely.

Now the work may begin.