mine + collected letters 4 proj.... GreatgrandpaRodge (.docx)

Dear Students of Brickberk high; Brickberk Family; The Goan community; and Friends, Associates and Enthusiasts of Dr Rodge Brickberk,

 I am writing to ask for your help in compiling memories, reflections and insights into the life of my great grandfather Dr Rodge Brickberk.

As some of you may be aware, I have recently entered into my last year at Brickberk high, and I have been asked by the student body, in association with our local newspaper, to write a piece on the legacy of Dr Brickberk.

The Stone Sun (our local paper for those living outside of Flinton), the student body and other members of our community have, rightly I think, been asking for our community to re-evaluate the importance my great grandfather still has within life here in Flinton. I am in agreement with all those concerned on the need to assess his legacy and wish to attempt to address the issue in a calm and impartial manner to see how his life could be remembered in the future.

I hope you understand the spirit in which this project is being conducted. I further hope you will be willing and able to offer your thoughts, reflections, memories and ideas about Dr Brickberk, and how we as a community can continue into the future with a fair and realistic understanding of our shared past.

Yours truly,

Abigail Wallace

Student – Roy Fig

Hi Abigail,

I saw your letter on the notice board by the front gate, also Miss Talcon mentioned you in assembly.

To be honest I didn’t know much about your great uncle until the assembly, but he seemed pretty cool. Nothing much ever happens round here, so I wanted to say I think it’s great to have something famous from Flinton.

I guess that’s why everything around here is named after him.

My dad and I go to the rock sometimes, we’ve never heard it speak, but it was pretty cool all the same …

Dr Simon Brank, Urlapietrologist, independent researcher and online professor

Dear Abigail,

May I begin by expressing my deepest pleasure with the opportunity to begin to express how deeply the unflinching genius of your great grandfather has affected my life.

As you may be aware, Urlapietrology, the subfield of geology and linguistics left to us by Dr Brickberk, has had a difficult time in re-establishing legitimacy since the days of your great grandfather.

That being said, I believe, as all good scientists and citizens should, in the continual re-evaluation of our collective past knowledge and present knowledge, and I am fantastically excited to share with you my humble opinion as to the grandeur of his greatness…

Anonymous

#Imperialist C+**

Mum

 Dear Abigail,

I must say it is a little strange writing to you when you are just metres away, but there you go. And I apologise if the letter is a little topsy-turvy, it’s been a while since I wrote one.

Anyway, Grandad Rodge. In a way I feel a little sorry for you that you get to live through what is looking to be his fall from grace. I remember when I was a child your great grandfather’s work was still widely considered useful. People would smile and hoot their horns at us if we were all out. Everyone knew about him, knew how famous he was over in Europe and America. Must have been the same time they put the statue up.

I remember the day too. It was about as close to a crowd as Flinton could muster, but every one of us had a flag. Lots of the children were carrying rocks with a word or two painted on them. Your great grandpa gave me the ribbon he cut with the mayor. I had it hung above my mirror for years…

Written by Elisa Brigg and Denton Pope on behalf of themselves and the 23 signatures attached as part of the Block Brickberk Collective

Dear Abigail,

On behalf of Block Brickberk Collective, we would like to thank you for your upcoming project and this opportunity to raise our opinions on the issue at hand in a clear and open forum.

Furthermore, we acknowledge how difficult this may be for you and your family, but we want to be forthright in saying that we believe the immediate removal of your great grandfather’s presence from our community is the only way we, as an inclusive society, can continue on into a brighter future free from the grim shadow the legacy of Mr Brickberk and others like him cast…

Dr Simon Brank, Urlapietrologist, independent researcher and online professor

… In your letter, you asked for reflections and insights, so I will try my best. I am one of the last Brickberk scholars and therefore feel obliged, due to my many years of research and discipleship, to impart some of my knowledge to you.

Dr Brickberk, as you may know, studied geology at Oxford after which he read linguistics at Cambridge. The first of the many tedious and institutionalised obstructions the young Brickberk faced was attempting to combine the two disciplines for his doctorate.

The ridicule he suffered (he writes extensively on the subject in his journals (published, small scale last year, as I am sure you know)) was substantial, so I won’t dwell on it here, but needless to say, he was not beaten easily and after several failed attempts to find academic and scientific support at home, he left for brighter climes…

Mum

…He was a good man really. He never liked the mines. To be honest I think he blamed them for the rocks stopping talking to him…

Written by Elisa Brigg and Denton Pope on behalf of themselves and the 23 signatures attached as part of the Block Brickberk collective

…Mr Rodge Brickberk (apologies, but strictly speaking Mr Brickberk never received his doctorate from any legitimate university) represents some of the very worst of our community’s history and values.

Brickberk travelled to the land of the Goan people in search of personal fame and wealth with a complete disregard for local culture and customs. The extent of the damage his pig-headed search for evidence to support his redundant studies in Communicable Geology or Urlapietrology is incalculable. His “communications” or rather discoveries and the subsequent mining of what he saw as ‘intelligent rock formations’ were catastrophic. His presence in the region is directly responsible for decades of extraction of natural resources, and the periodic destruction of the natural environment and lands of the Goan people.

Most damming, however, are the insinuations he makes towards his ‘scientific right’ to research on sacred native lands, and his general misunderstanding and cavalier attitude towards the Goan people displayed in the posthumously published­, The United Notes of Dr Brickberk: What the rock said…

Anonymous

#remove, rename, move on

Dr Simon Brank, Urlapietrologist, independent researcher and online professor

…Dr Brickberk’s research led him all over rural territories, but, as you well know, it was in Flinton where he made his first and most important communication.

I will share with you a personal account he made to my mentor and fellow Brickberk scholar Jules Fort a few months before his death. The report covers ground not mentioned in his journals. I believe these will be useful in the continual fight to maintain his legacy.

Mid-January: My team and I had been traversing what we now called the Shire. We were 19 days on the trail with nothing to show – one thing I want to stress is that myself and the entire team were by now convinced that not all rocks were capable of communication, but we were certain many were and that we were making great progress.

Early tests run on a specific type of metamorphic rock called Gneiss proved very fruitful. Extensive study was conducted by means of the ‘tap and listen’ technique: in which my team and I would gather up small groups of sizable pieces of Gneiss and ‘tap and listen’.

Many of the researchers, myself included, consistently heard a noise that charts on the English IPA as something close to / bəʊ/ or in lay man’s terms a coughed ‘b’. After small variations in the sound as we moved farther upcountry, we began to entertain theories focussed around the idea that if we travelled farther north, we might discover what we had begun calling a ‘geographical consonant shift’, wherein the sounds particular rocks make shift based on geographic location.

My idea had been that logically the next ‘geo-sound’ might be something close to /cəʊ/, or a coughed ‘c’ and that we might begin to work our way through the alphabet given enough time. Of course, our research took an historic turn when we arrived at the foot of the most magnificent monocline. Which we, rather embarrassingly, now call Brickberk’s block.

We made camp at the base of the giant rock and set about making our inquires: tap and listen, tap and listen. But it wasn’t until night when we heard it…

Anonymous

#Flinton Legend; rock star! 2 generations of miners thank you Bricki

Mum

…At any rate, I know we always loved going out to the rock to listen.

We never heard it speak, but your dad always believed him…

Dr Simon Brank, Urlapietrologist, independent researcher and online professor

… speak, speak clear as the sky above. My lead researcher and I both. However, and this is something that I never thought to make note of – we heard different things.

Mine was, of course, correct, the famous ‘GOLD’. No missing it. Clear as could be and well the rest is history. Within weeks the mining companies had moved in and proved my understanding correct. Gold, a bloody ocean of it…

Kinson, the lead researcher, swore he heard something else mind, closer to ‘go awa’. But we could make no sense of it.

If I’m honest, it’s the greatest blight on all my life that really the only truly coherent thing I ever heard a rock say was ‘gold’…

Written by Elisa Brigg and Denton Pope on behalf of themselves and the 23 signatures attached as part of the Block Brickberk collective

…This collective holds Mr Brickberk; idiotic, predatory, imperialistic, culturally insensitive, and a poor representative for the 21^st town of Flinton.

We reiterate our desire to have his presence and legacy dissolved from the local community and believe profoundly that the statue of Mr Brickberk should be removed from its prominence at the centre of our town.

Sincerely,

Elisa Brigg and Denton Pope on behalf of themselves and the 23 signatures attached as part of the Block Brickberk Collective

Mum

…I hope this was helpful.

To be honest he lost the will for it really after a while. He always hated the mines. I think what really hurt was that he never managed to hear them again. By the time I was a teen he couldn’t have set foot in a university.

Anyway, hope you get lots of letters,

Love you lots,

Mum

Dr Simon Brank, Urlapietrologist, independent researcher and online professor

…I had hoped Communicative Geology would have had a more enduring and productive effect – but such is life.

I hope this account is of use to you. May I also add, when Urlapietrology is again established as a legitimate science, you can rest assured your great grandfather will be reinstated as its figurehead and remembered probably for his great contribution to science.

Faithfully yours,

Dr Simon Brank

Student – Roy Fig

…Anyway, if you ever want to meet up and talk about it, I’d love to grab a drink sometime.

094357890

Roy X

Debbie Kirra, Representative of the local Goan community

Dear Abigail,

Thank you for inviting our community to be a part of helping to re-evaluate your great grandfather’s legacy and the history of the area now known as Flinton.

Dr Brickberk was many things, and our sentiment towards him probably needs no explication. His presence in so much of life here in Flinton has no doubt long outlasted his gold.

The readiness of Flintons and his wider scientific society to embrace his ability to communicate with rocks has always been a source of a certain type of joy for our community.

His was a kind of folly, that I think we shouldn’t want to easily forget.

Kind regards,

Debbie Kirra