| OPERATIVE EMAIL: marie_saschen@yahoo.de SUMMARY: This operative, while not adhering to the “five evidentiary instances” requirement in the strictest sense, has completed the assignment with such a high level of creativity and professionalism that I found myself, at one point, almost questioning whether Neurocam has accidentally engaged a real semiotics professor. (And perhaps we have.) Given the operative’s extremely high level of literacy, apparently thorough knowledge of a subject area that could be of great use to Neurocam, and willingness to engage, under the Sachsen alias, with other aliased operatives, I recommend this operative for all future assignments. I additionally recommend this operative for immediate promotion, if such action has not already been taken.
EXTENDED REPORT AND DOCUMENTATION OF CORRESPONDENCE: initial contact: Good day, I believe you have some questions? Yours, Dr. Marie Saschen initial response: Dr Sachsen, From time to time Neurocam International deems it necessary to liaison with individuals external to our organization; it is in this regard that you have been requested to make contact with our staff. If you find yourself amenable to such an affiliation, please read and reply to the following instructions. Failure to reply by the stated deadline will be interpreted as a lack of interest in Neurocam International, and you will receive no further emails from us. ------ It is always our hope that the external liaisons fostered by Neurocam International will evolve into mutually fulfilling relationships. However, one must evaluate any new association with due diligence. To facilitate this process we require full disclosure from our affiliates of any and all activities, past and present, that may pose a security risk to our organization. These activities include the maintenance of online journals or other accounts that contain personally identifiable information, regardless of whether that information is deemed by the affiliate to be incriminating. Please do not hesitate to be forthcoming with these details, Dr Sachsen, as future discovery of undisclosed material would be deleterious to your affiliation with Neurocam. Kindly send your report to this address (audrey.jackson@neurocam.com) by no later than the close of business (local time) Friday, April 29, 2005. Regards, Audrey Jackson Operations Division Neurocam International audrey.jackson@neurocam.com
second contact: Dear Audrey Jackson, Thank you for your letter. I would be happy to help out in any way I can, though I do not exactly understand why an organisation such as Neurocam (or at least, what little I have been able to glean from the media and the internet on the subject) would have need of the services of an aging semiotician at the end of her career! I am not sure that anything in my background poses a 'security risk', in that I am, and always have been, an academic (albeit one with a somewhat tenuous relation with the orthodoxy) with a field of study centred generally on language, culture, and representation, and specifically on postsemantic discourse and subdiscourse - the essential crux of the post-Debordist theory. My Institute for Postsemantic Research, which I founded in 1988, poses no risk whatsoever, as it is I that determine the nature and direction of whatever research projects are in progress at any given time - which, to be honest, is very little at the moment given that our former benefactors at Uni-Karlsruhe have cut our funding, leaving us dependent on private donations and grants to continue our work. I have been affiliated with various loose groups of academics, but that was a long time ago, in the 1960's (when I was intimate with Beaudrillard's circle, though the horrible rumours of some impropriety between Jean and myself are not to be credited, I assure you) and 70's (when I began to champion the work of Guy Debord). During my years with Guy I was drawn, quite against my inclinations at the time, into a number of radical groups, including the Situationist International, but was never admitted into the inner circles. I left those things behind me, discouraged by their lack of intellectual rigour and the absence of any solid theoretical base for their rather reactionary radicalism. You may already know that, while I am a German citizen and resident of Karlsruhe in southern Germany, I am engaged in academic research which has brought me to Canada for the summer. I have begun an online journal purely to keep in contact with my students about my work here (which has to do with the institutionalisation of postmodernism, particularly in regards to the works of Deleuze, Guattari and Lacan, in North American scholarly discourse). This, I suppose, may constitute, for you, a perceived security risk, so I would like to assure you that nothing apart from my research for the IPR, and some minutae only of interest to my students and colleagues will be discussed, and you may rest assured that if your organisation has need of some service from me, no-one will ever know apart from Neurocam, and I. I hope this has been informative enough for you, and I look forward to hearing from you again soon. If you have any further questions or need of any further clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours, Dr. Marie Saschen Institute for Semantic Research
second response: Dr Sachsen, I’m sorry if my correspondence was either troubling or inconvenient. Please rest assured that it was not my intent to be either. To be completely honest, I’m not entirely sure why I was instructed to contact you. Neurocam International operates on a highly compartmentalized, need-to-know basis with its junior executives. My knowledge in this case extends to the following: We have been contacted by a certain individual who believes you have conducted research relevant to his client. He wishes to engage your services. For reasons that are unknown to me, Neurocam finds itself in the role of potential broker to this relationship. The research in question, which is admittedly not my area of expertise, relates to a historically prominent family of Scottish Freemasons. (Personally, I find the study of semiotics to be far more intriguing than the study of a bunch of self-important rich white men. Perhaps – and most probably – there is an enriching link between the two.) I’m afraid I can say no more until I hear from you. Best, Audrey Jackson Operations Division Neurocam International audrey.jackson@neurocam.com
third contact: Dear Audrey, Thank you for clearing my thoughts a little about this. I presume the individual you are referring to is a Mr. Sebastian Hoddle, who contacted me yesterday about just such a matter. I hope to be able to attend to his request, to the best of my abilities, very soon, despite the rather hectic schedule I find myself saddled with at the moment, though my interest in Freemasonry is solely in context of certain aspects of my work in semiotics and postsemantics (which I readily agree is far more interesting than cabals of aristocratic relics seeking some sort of mythical 'ancient knowledge' or some other such spurious pursuits which have, for one reason or another, survived the 'Enlightenment'), and specifically with a paper I am researching at the moment which, using the works of Eco and Calvino as a structural framework, will look at the links between the ancient religious notion of 'The Word' (in its creative, not evangelical) sense as a prefigurement of recent advances in postmodern/postsemantic critical theory. Anyway, I am a long-winded old crone, and so I shall wrap this up. Thank you again for your letter, Dr. Marie Saschen
third response: Dr Sachsen, Your work sounds truly fascinating. I would be particularly interested
to In the meantime, my superiors have requested that I ask a favor of
you. If this arrangement is amenable to you, please BCC the following If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Best, Audrey Jackson fourth contact: Dear Audrey Jackson, If my work was not fascinating to me I could hardly justify having stuck with it for so long! I would be happy to provide you with a draft of the finished paper once it is ready for publication. I will, as you request, send to you copies of my correspondence with Mr. Hoddle. I am composing a letter to him in response to his enquiry in what few spare moments of liberty I can claim during this busy week. I will send his initial enquiry to you immediately following this letter. Thank you, Marie
fifth contact [forward of correspondence between operative and the Sebastian Hoddle in question]: Dear Dr Saschen
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