The Museum of Hoaxes
Terminal Tours
Posted By:
Doug Nelson
Oct 16, 2004
 http://www.terminaltours.com

I found this site while researching the cancer that killed my mother. At first I thought it was shocking (there are hints they'll help you commit suicide), then kind of cool (the idea of helping you live a dream before you die), then shamelessly preying on a desperate market (they obviously must demand payment in advance). Finally I learned it was simply there to sell a book (read the disclaimer).

"Disclaimer: Please note that this web site appears in and extends the fiction of Tom LeClair's Passing On, published by Greekworks in 2004. Click here for the Greekworks home page and purchase information."
Category: Death; Replies: 28

Comments
Tom LeClair
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 | 10:30 AM
As the author of Passing On and co-author of the "Terminal Tours" web site, I'd like to say that the site extends the fiction of the novel and parodies "promise you everything, including eternal life" web sites. Yes,
one can find out more about Passing On on the site, but it was not created "to sell a book." A close reader of the site, its authors believe, will find its stories neither shocking nor despairing but sympathetic and hopeful.
Michael Keever
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2004 | 03:15 PM
I'm not sure who Tom LeClair is, but I would appreciate it if you would quit piggy-backing on my book, Malaka-poosty!
fred
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 | 05:35 AM
I read the book and seen the web site and I dint buy nothin. The web's free, isn't it? It's better to read a fiction about dying than to die reading fiction. And like I say, stories are just stuff not to believe.
Alice
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 | 07:43 PM
Terminal Tours in the Museum of Hoaxes? Now that is really a hoax! I can't believe these people. I guess they can't take anything seriously if they can't recognize my story as the true answer to eternal life.
Thomas Rickson
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 | 04:26 PM
As webmaster and co-author of terminaltours.com, I'd like to say that we started this project with the goal of "extending the fiction of the novel." Once the site was out there in the world, it took on a life of its own. Pilgrims wrote in with their stories, and as we compiled and edited these stories, we ended up with a weird hybrid of fact and fiction--a piece of "faction," if you will. The novel that was the catalyst for this site is a piece of art--and a fine one at that. But the stories by the pilgrims are, I assert, absolutely true.
Lucille S.
Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 | 10:49 AM
As a person who has posted two life narratives on the Terminal Tours website, I'm beginning to wonder who this Doug Nelson guy is who started this hoax thread in the first place. How do we know he's real?
Maegan
Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 | 11:15 AM
Okay, so the site is real, it's content is not. If you have a story that's part fiction, it immediately becomes no longer true. Lots of stories are "based on actual facts", but are in essence, fiction stories. The movie Titanic, for instance...There was a ship called the Titanic. This ship sank in the Atlantic in the early part of the 20th century. But the movie is a fiction work. Lots of stories have factual pieces of information. (A story about a single girl in London may actually list street names or pubs that are in London...but that doesn't mean the story actually happened.) The vast majority of written stories (whether for books, television, or the movies) have factual information, but are fiction works.
Thomas Rickson
Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2004 | 02:59 PM
I must confess that I don't fully understand Maegan's logic. By what process do facts become fiction? Does their presence on a site about a fiction necessarily make these stories fictional? I'm also skeptical about this "vast majority of written stories" that are "fiction works." Is everything written down fictional? There is some danger to this logic. It suggests that the very process of writing is an act of lying. I guess my question for Maegan is: what does a true story look like? What are the limits of truth? At what point does an assemblage of fact become false?
fred
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 | 08:40 AM
I know I'm real, I got a real nice picture of me looking out across the southern Italian wasteland from a castle on a hill. If my picture is there, does that mean it's fact or fiction? Like we say where I live now, in Scotland, shite. See, that picture was taken awhile ago, now it's one of the only memories I have of my journey. The memory is fading a bit, but if I can't hold on to that photo, how will I even know that there is a place there that I have been to? What about that Maegan and Douglas, does a photo graph suffice to prove that I took a Tour?
Maegan
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 | 02:24 PM
I just don't think I'm explaining it correctly.
Look at the following:
I drove thru Sarasota on the Tamiami Trail, on the way I stopped at Fruitville Rd & left a dead body on the side of the road.

The previous was a fictional sentence. I used real places, but a fake event. Fruitville Rd, Tamiami Trail, & Sarasota are real places that you can travel thru/in. I have never really dumped a dead body in any of those locations. The ficticious event surround the real places makes that instance fiction.

Also, when Thomas quoted me regarding the vast majority of stories being fiction...I meant sheer published volume. There are lots of stories in the library. Some are non-fiction stories (for instance, the John Wayne Gacy Murders is a factual telling of events in a narrative format, it's a REAL story). Some books in the library are fiction. They are not real. These fiction books are often set on the planet Earth. They use real names of continents & real states & cities. Some might even reference real events (Wally Lamb's "I Know This Much Is True" has the main character thinking about Operation Desert Storm after his brother is injured), the events are used as a sort of reference for the time frame & feeling of the book. It does not make that even fake...it makes the context of the even fake.

I don't know if I'm explaining this correctly & if you're still confused you'll have to wait a few days, because I've got a Thanksgiving Meal to shop for, cook for, clean-up after & I'm leaving work in 5 minutes & still haven't cleaned up my mess!
Maegan
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 | 02:26 PM
P.S. the only reason I replied to this thread was because all of the Terminal Tour people were saying that their stories were real...but the book is not! Thomas Rickson says he edited the stories sent in to the website. So the stories on the website are not even REAL!
The Curator
in San Diego
 Member
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 | 03:09 PM
Maegan, I suspect that Tom LeClair may be having a bit of fun here, extending the fantasy of his website here into this forum.

Michael Keever is a fictional character... as are these 'pilgrims' who describe going on 'terminal tours' with him.

The Keever character appeared in LeClair's first book, Passing Off:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/187794677X/qid=1101326881/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/102-0885004-9336950?v=glance&s=books

And I guess the same character also appears in the more recent novel, Passing On.

Oh, and Tom LeClair, Alice, and Lucille S. (whose messages appear above) all seem to be using the same computer at the University of Cincinnati. Interesting, isn't that.
Tom LeClair
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 | 03:26 PM
Who is this Alex B guy, some kind of deflater of hoaxes? I thought he was the proprietor of the Museum, a proponent of hoaxes. The scary thing about all this is some people, like Fred over there in Scotland, believe they went on terminal tours with Michael Keever! Be thankful a guy like that isn't writing to you, and thanks, too, to Maegan for trying to straighten out this whole fact and fiction issue. One last thing, Alex B: I'm sure I'm not Doug Nelson. How do we know you're not using him as a pseudonym? In which case, who runs the meta-Museum of Hoaxes?
The Curator
in San Diego
 Member
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 | 03:45 PM
Didn't mean to blow the whistle on you, Tom (well, I did, but...). I was just worried that Maegan was being given a hard time over that fact vs. fiction thing.

I'll make it up to you by posting a link to your site on the main page of my site. That should get it a bit more traffic than the link here would generate.

Oh, and I've got no idea who Doug Nelson is, unless he's one of my alter egos who somehow got away from me. That happens sometimes 😉
Casey
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 | 03:24 PM
are you really my Dad?
Tom Jr.
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 | 03:30 PM
Trust your feelings, Casey..I'm sure our father is real, as to whether he is our father, you will have to ask Maegan.
Casey
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 | 03:31 PM
are you saying Maegan is our mother?
Mama's baby, Papa's maybe.
Tom Jr
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 | 03:34 PM
well, "Rickson" is coauthor, maybe he's your Daddy
Casey
Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 | 03:35 PM
...and he didn't even want a picture of me!
Tom LeClair
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 | 09:02 PM
Alex, Can you step in here and deny access to these two guys. They are my real sons and threaten to create a damnable hoax about me using your innocent forum.
Justin Tierney
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 | 12:10 PM
i think you people are all a bunch of loonys......i dont think any of what you've been talking about is real. I just stubled along on this thread and said what on earth are these ppl babblinb on about. See now you made me do it.....jesus
Myst
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 | 03:56 PM
I'm not a loony, certifiably crazy maybe, but not a loony. We never babble here, nor do we ramble, chatter, jabber, talk incoherently, prattle, blab, rattle on, rant, rave, twaddle or carry on.

As for nothing being true here, well this is the Museum of Hoaxes. We come here to discuss the truth about said hoxes.
Paul
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 | 04:21 PM
What ARE you babblinb on about Justin?

I followed this thread but never responded because I don't have anything to add. And this is not the kind of thread to add a funny line.

You're response doesn't add anything either Justin. You may not believe in this or agree, but don't call them loonys.
Paul
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 | 04:26 PM
:-)
Thomas Rickson
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 | 04:33 PM
I might substitute the term "tricksters" for Justin's "loonys"[sic]. I've always admired tricksters in literature. Tricksters push the limits of the known world. From time to time, the limits of the known collapse under the pressure, and something new is brought into the world. Hermes had to steal Apollo's cattle and slaughter a tortoise to make the lyre, but the world is all the better for his music being in it.

Sometimes, Myst, we must "jabber, talk incoherently, prattle [and] blab". To move past what we already know--to learn and to create--we have to venture into the unknown. To make new sense, sometimes we have to dabble in nonsense. How can we know what is real and true if we never test our definitions?

By the way, I'm no man's daddy. But I am a son.
Paul
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 | 04:38 PM
You lost me after "I"
Myst
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 | 07:46 PM
Thomas, I was merely being sarcastic. :-D

Tricksters huh, cool I like that! I rather like the Tricksters myself, one of which is the Norse god Loki, he is so misunderstood by many.
fred perrara
Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2005 | 07:14 AM
Nobody tells me anything. How was my tour erassed by Myst and Maegan and Paul and most of all, Keever? I was in Italy, you can't make up things about Ravello if you haven't been there. That's me in the picutre. Are pictures fiction? Look, I aint got all that long until my ride comes, if I aint real, how come?

Note: This thread is located in the Old Forum of the Museum of Hoaxes.