Who is John Dishwasher?
September 21, 2006 1:09 PM   Subscribe

Who is John Dishwasher? "Follow the white box" beckoned a mysterious and inviting flyer posted at several Massachusetts colleges. The simple website contains an online publication of Gods of Our Fathers, the first of what is suggested to be many novels by this reclusive author. Is this the next lonelygirl13 or just a new take on the serialized novel? One thing's for sure: whoever made the website aims to intrigue with vaguely suggestive hints as to the author's personal life. "We do not forward personal mail to John Dishwasher. He will not accept it. The reason for this will become clear in his later works." Could this be the rabbithole to a new alternate reality game, or just a get rich quick scheme?
posted by Zephyrial (16 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Link to photo of the flyer: 640x480 jpg

Along the bottom of the flyer were a number of tear-off paper snippets reading "Follow the white box at johndishwasher.org".
posted by Zephyrial at 1:15 PM on September 21, 2006


is he the next dishwasher pete^?
posted by snofoam at 1:21 PM on September 21, 2006


All I see of the novel is the copywrite page. Otherwise, the overly long "intro" put me off of really trying to read much more.
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:21 PM on September 21, 2006


Oh, I found it. One has to select "go to chapter" instead of "begin the novel" for some reason that probably includes badly coded html, a lack of understand web design, or both.

The writing seems to also be overlong and self-indulgent. I wonder if he pays royalties to the estate of Henry Miller.

Oh well, your favorite virally marketed "indy" writer sucks.
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:27 PM on September 21, 2006


There's a page-advance link on the copyright page. It goes to the next page. There's a link on that one, too.
posted by grobstein at 1:43 PM on September 21, 2006


The intro reads like somebody took a crap on If On A Winters Night A Traveller:

However you heard about us, you probably heard very little--more questions and possibilities than anything else. But those questions, those possibilities piqued your curiosity; and piqued that strange hollow hunger you feel sometimes, that nagging dissatisfaction you feel with what is fed to your mind and soul by modern human culture. You felt: "Maybe this is it. Maybe this is what I've been looking for. The name is promising. Maybe behind that name will be satisfaction." Well, because you were hungry, you will now be fed. Because you were awake enough to hope a modest pseudonym might lead to nourishment, you have found that nourishment.

The intro was sufficiently nauseating to make sure I didn't have any stomach left for the book. Good work! Other then that, this is some good marketing. How else could somebody have convinced all of us to actually take a look at their stuff without going to the trouble of actually editing or publishing it?
posted by my homunculus is drowning at 2:25 PM on September 21, 2006


snofoam, I knew Dishwasher Pete. Dishwasher Pete was an acquaintance of mine. John Dishwasher is no Dishwasher Pete.
posted by schoolgirl report at 3:43 PM on September 21, 2006


WHOIS johndishwasher.org?

It's Franklin Muret from Wooster, MA.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:01 PM on September 21, 2006


John Dishwasher's friends are easily impressed.
posted by paulsc at 6:30 PM on September 21, 2006


Is that next to Worcester?
posted by uosuaq at 6:36 PM on September 21, 2006


It's not too fa, but you'd want to take your ca.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 6:58 PM on September 21, 2006


John Dishwasher's friends are easily impressed.

Yeah, I didn't see much promise in the novel, though admittedly I only read a page of Chapter 1. (C'mon, it's the Internet.)

I vote scam to make some money.
posted by mrgrimm at 7:45 PM on September 21, 2006


Lonelygirl15, perv.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:58 PM on September 21, 2006


mr_crash_davis with another ZING!

(I need to lay off the all-caps thing. I'm embarrassing myself.)
posted by cgc373 at 1:52 AM on September 22, 2006


So bad, so bad, so very, very bad..
posted by alltomorrowsparties at 3:01 AM on September 22, 2006


by the way, the word referenced in the flyer is "intimate" as a noun.
posted by radiosig at 4:06 PM on September 22, 2006


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