Ted the Caver- Have you heard?, page 4

Well, I'm devoting a lot of time to reading the story, so I haven't read other people's replies. But I noticed something about the grey writing, (his supposed journal entries). It seems to me, especially when he's referring to the "howling" he's hearing, that when he is writing these journal entries, he's using something called "fore-shadowing". Fore-shadowing is when you hint to the reader of what's to come later on in the story. You obviously cannot use fore-shadowing unless you know what is to come. If he is, indeed, using fore-shadowing, it's my theory that he wrote this grey part well after atleast most of this story. Or perhaps as he was typing it he changed some of the original text to make it more interesting. That doesn't debunk his story, but it doesn't help his cause, either.

Also, the following "journal entry" forces me to assume that he is the kind of guy who really wants people to read his journals and be interested in them. This could be a motive for making the story up, yes?

From the journal of "Ted"
Before I continue with the next journal entry I thought it might be helpful to the reader to explain a little bit about caving and about the atmosphere in the cave. As I re-read and think about my description of the cave I notice that much of the language I use in my caving journal, and the descriptions, or lack thereof, assume that the reader has a knowledge of caving and what it is like inside a cave. In other words, I write my journals for ME! I will take this time to give a more detailed description of the cave. I will tell about what it was like while we worked on the cave. And I will summarize our feelings up to this point.

It's more than obvious from this pasage that not ALL of the grey writing is from his original journal. Why would you reference these pictures in your journal? One must wonder how we are expected to decide for ourselves which IS from the original journal:

From the journal of "Ted"
Unfortunately I don't possess the knowledge to give more detail about the types of rocks in the cave. When we were drilling we would have some parts that were easier to drill than others. And there were different colors in the rock (refer to the photo's taken in the cave). But that is the best I can do to describe the makeup of the cave.

I just got to a part which MAY explain why the previous parts of his journal seemed to have been written after:

From the journal of "Ted"
It was my recognition of this hole as a potential doorway to unexplored portions of cave that ultimately led to this telling of my experience.

Perhaps he wasn't writing the journal up until this point when he decided to write everything that had happened up until this point and then continue keeping a journal on it. As I continue the story I'll come back and give you my thoughts....

His remarks at the end about him having hallucinations interest me. He mentioned he wasn't sleeping well, was on medication, wasn't eating well, was studying myths and folklore on the internet, was shutting himself out from the rest of the world, and he just had a traumatic experience, which can all be causes of the hallucinations and such.

Well, I just finished the story. Here's my final conclusion:

Although my very first and very last entries in my own little journal of experiences reading Ted's journal seemed skeptical at best, I think I believe...at the very least that HE believes that all this happened. Throughout it I was bothered by the fact that it was written SO well, almost too well. I'm not sure why this bothered me, maybe because it seemed like it had been edited over and over until it was just right. Or maybe I was assuming that nobody who climbs into a passage so tight could possibly be smart enough to write so eloquently. Truthfully I was captivated and impressed by the whole thing, and it was very well written. However, he's got me sold! I think I believe it and I'm going to research it some more!

It's more than just a little strange that there is no ending to it. You click on "Next" and it leads nowhere. Is it possible something happened to him? Or is this part of his whole plot to deceive us all?!

And if that is indeed his name and address, it should be noted that he lives near Hollywood! Writers and film makers and the like abound there, yes?

WOW! I guess I should've read through the replies on this thread and saved myself the trouble of trying to figure out whether it was true or not. I was convinced, as you can see from my above observations, until I did a little Googling. Then I came back here to report my findings, and decided to read the other replies. My findings weren't nearly as conclusive, and not even worth posting now! Kudos to...oh I forgot who it was now, whoever has that bird flapping it's wings as their avatar. I'm too lazy to go check. Good job, though! (Now I'm back to say it was BOTH Journey and MsAreeka, and probably a couple others.)

[edit on 27-11-2004 by an3rkist]