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all 21 comments

[–]UrbenmythNot!Them 50 points51 points  (10 children)

It's important to note that the Archive's purpose is not to store information. Its purpose is to feed stories to Beholding, and it's organised primarily to do that.

So what happens is you write down your story. The presence of the Eye forces you to write it as a story- here, analogous to the cooking, I guess. Forcing you to put it in an easily digestible manner. It is sent to the Archivist, who here works as the Eye's "mouth", and they read it out. This feeds the story to the Eye. You can also give a personal statement, which will be recorded, but this is a bad idea.

The researchers, who in this analogy are the Eye's digestive system, go out to analyse the story. They rule out ("vomit up") any hoaxes or mistakes or other indigestible meals. As for real statements, they find any lingering fear- "No-one can explain how, in a building that size, he spent the better part of three years alone except an old wooden coffin", that kind of thing- and add it to the statement. The story is now fully consumed and put away in the archives, the Eye's "stomach".

Everything else- the library, the scientific contacts, artifact storage- they don't do shit. They're only here to give the illusion that this is a real scientific institution rather then the gaping maw of a nightmare god. They're poorly managed because Jonah doesn't actually care about advancing knowledge.

The institute seems chaotic because it's stated goal is very different from its actual goal. Seen for what it is, it's organised just fine.

[–][deleted]  (4 children)

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    [–]mhastronautThe Vast 15 points16 points  (1 child)

    I'm in school to be an archivist now and Jon being terrible at his job used to really frustrate me. Then I got to the later seasons and found out Jon being bad at his job was a really specific choice that makes this podcast's existence possible. Now it's maybe my favorite "reveal" from the pod.

    [–]coyoteTaleThe Lonely 8 points9 points  (0 children)

    I love reveals that stem from suspension of disbelief. They put the answer right there in front of us from the start, but they knew we’d assume that’s just how the world worked.

    [–]UrbenmythNot!Them 9 points10 points  (0 children)

    They do actual work, but they don't do anything important for the Institute. From Jonah/the Eye's perspective, they're not doing anything. They're just camouflage.

    (Fair point about Artifact Storage though. Fat Reserves perhaps, to continue the analogy. Providing fuel for when there aren't statements coming in.)

    [–]novinicus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    they acted as guinea pigs having to try stuff out part of the time - more feeding the Ceaseless Watcher, just through a different avenue.

    I really think this is the point of artifact storage - Gerry kind of mentions this in 111 - "The feeling that something, somewhere, is letting you suffer, just so it can watch."

    [–]A_shkThe Extinction[S] 3 points4 points  (4 children)

    I did understand the supernatural aspect of it being a cover up, I was frustrated by the more technical day to day aspect of the other employees' actual role.

    [–]UrbenmythNot!Them 5 points6 points  (3 children)

    Do whatever they like, I guess. The higher ups don't really care.

    [–]mt5o 5 points6 points  (0 children)

    If they got to do whatever they like, they might unknowingly interfere or get super sued in a way that no amount of mindfuckery can fix.

    I'd assume that Elias gives them some basic guidelines on what to do to smokescreen and maybe they do help out indirectly.

    [–]A_shkThe Extinction[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    Haha yeah. Through my second listen that's what got me frustrated :)

    [–]in-the-widening-gyreThe Stranger 5 points6 points  (0 children)

    Be a smokescreen?

    I kind of imagine, they're probably a bunch of professionals, and for them it's sort of more like working in an institute about like urban legends and fear as a cultural phenomenon in Britain?

    [–]MiskaPestek 15 points16 points  (0 children)

    The Archives are a confusing sham both by design and by carelessness. That's literally it.

    [–]janeprentissThe Spiral 10 points11 points  (5 children)

    :)

    (more will be explained as you get further along in the show)

    [–]A_shkThe Extinction[S] 5 points6 points  (4 children)

    Would believe me if I told you that I'm on my second listen of this podcast and I am still confused? (rather, I'm more confused than I was the first time around because this institute really doesn't make sense lol)

    [–][deleted]  (3 children)

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      [–]A_shkThe Extinction[S] 5 points6 points  (2 children)

      I do get that it's a cover story for something more supernatural and that explanation is pretty clear to me as I've heard the whole series.

      I just think there isn't enough justification for the rest of the employees in the rest of the institute. I wish Jonah would have put more effort into having it make sense and defining other people's jobs clearly, at least for me as a listener. I mean, what do the DO all day?

      [–]Sometimes_LiesResearcher 5 points6 points  (0 children)

      I mean, what do the DO all day?

      Well to be fair, it wouldn’t be the first time for someone to have a job that’s an utterly pointless waste of time - that kind of stuff happens even in the real world, even without the workplace being a cover story for an eldritch abomination.

      We also don’t really know how big the rest of the Institute is, or how many people are actually working there. We just don’t know enough about them to say much. Even if they did no useful work, adding the illusion of legitimacy to the Institute would still help lure in new victims and maybe even funding.

      It’s also entirely possible that the other departments do have their own important functions and we don’t know simply because Jon has no real reason to investigate or care. His hands are already full and Elias spends the entire series being very careful to stop Jon from asking the truly important questions.

      I’d also argue that Artifact Storage seems like it probably had more to do with the conflict between the powers than anything else. Not directly related to the Archives, but robbing another power of its tools/manifestations probably helped towards slowing down their rituals, and stopping them from slowing down yours.

      The powers basically being at “war” with one another isn’t something the show explores as thoroughly as it could’ve, so it’d make sense to me if the other departments helped with the day to day of that aspect.

      [–]mt5o 2 points3 points  (0 children)

      He probably does do something offscreen. Just with most of the podcast time being taken up by statements, there is a lot less time dedicated to worldbuilding. Also, audio dramas, as a genre, tend to have less worldbuilding as it needs to be explicitly stated.

      [–]Khaytra 6 points7 points  (0 children)

      As far as written statements vs live: I think they do both, but it seems like most of them do come from a written sheet. I know there are several references to writing, and occasionally marks or smears on the paper, and what they do after finishing writing their statements. I guess Gertrude's "Archivist compelling" power extended to getting people to write their stories, not just tell them.

      But it is kind of contradictory who takes the statements. It seems like some of the "mundane" statements get taken up by the standard research team (he says something like "the ivory towers of academia aren't interested in the supernatural" in the pilot) and the rest are funneled over to the archives, either before they make their full statement or the statement is sent later?

      But also, it does seem like Jon got way out of control with the deep investigation of the statements. It's certainly not how it was presented as his job in early S1, but after hearing what Gertrude and her assisstants got up to, it doesn't seem too out of the ordinary for that department tbh.

      [–]in-the-widening-gyreThe Stranger 4 points5 points  (0 children)

      Urbenmyth's explanation is really thorough, but I thought I'd add a couple of things I was thinking about.

      Jonah does not care about telling anyone how anything works. Getting people entrapped and letting their curiosity do the work is better for him. So Jon is floundering by design.

      When a statement giver comes into the archive, you normally give your statement either by writing it out or digitally recording it. As long as the archivist is around, and your statement is real, you get the storytelling magic and it's well written. Gertrude generally got people to write things. It seems like she read out statements without recording to keep up her strength, and recorded ones that she wanted to pass on, storing them in a cache in her office.

      With Jon, he's not aware of the dream side of things at first, so he doesn't avoid recording or taking or live statements. If the statements don't record digitally (I think Jon is mad at Rosie in 17 because her equipment didn't work to record Naomi Hearne) the statement givers are sent to the archivist. Not because it wouldn't make more sense for them to go to research, but because they've already been identified as supernatural and should get the full eye-treatment. I think we've heard all the real statements given in person after Jon started.

      I'm sure Eric Delano was just as appalled as you are :D

      [–]articulateTiradeThe Spiral 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      I feel like you can blame anything in or related to TMA on Elias and be at least partially correct