Comstock The Prophet

* See also Tear_Via_Machine
* See also Comstock
* See also Infinite BS
* See also Quantum_Particles_Can_Do_Anything
* See also Comstocks_Cult
Consolidate with The_Prophesy_Business
SO COMSTOCK WAS A PROPHET ???
The Infinite BS Game Writers 'Spin another Tale' as faulty as is so much of the rest of their strange Story details.
This alternate Booker is given SO LITTLE TIME to do all these things to fit the game's Comstock Story.
To make a Good Story, the PIECES OF THE STORY have to 'add up'. The Infinite BS game's Comstock Story REALLY DOES NOT.
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Famed Prophet :
Supposedly reason given as how Comstock achieved Great Fame - Enough to be let into the "Halls of Power" in Washington DC to get funding for something costing MANY millions of 1893 dollars to the Taxpayers Google "Inflation Calculator" - SO multiply that out - as Every million dollars then is like 25 million dollars now ... 
This would require : Comstock to NOT be treated as a Charlatan by Cagey Experienced Politicians there - Politicians who had their OWN serious/important agendas for the limited public TAX monies ...
Why not use the Luteces Tear Machine as a Timemachine and make investments 50 years previous to then CASH in by 1890 ?Or one of those timemachine contortions where he arranges it 'later', and then 1890 some mysterious guy walks up and just hands Comstock a pile of money etc ... That is simpler than manipulating many far more clever and perhaps dishonest politicians.
 
There is also Comstock somehow 'Getting an IN" with right 'influential' ones who had Control of that money ... Ignorance - Lets Ignore the Fact that the pretty limited tax money is already allocated and spent via long existing 'deals' between the politicians - and the proposals/'sales job' by Comstock having to be done while Congress was still in-session ( Congress was IN SESSION only part of the year ). AND BEFORE Such tasks are already completed. 
NOTE - The process has the Spending Bill originate in the House of Representatives, Then be OK'd by the Senate, and then go to The President of the United States to be signed into law - Generally a rather lengthy process with politics 'up the wazoo' being involved.
And some 19-year-old ignorant Rube is supposed to 'work' THAT situation.
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Big Issue : The Limited Timeframe the Game Story Gives To Do So Many Things : 
Between the "Wounded Knee" Massacre (DEC 29 1890) and The 1893 Columbia Exposition (opened MAY 1 1893). 
( That really ONLY allows the timespan of 1891 thru 1892 to get so much done. )
Remember, we assume when Booker got 'out of the Army' he was still ONLY about 16 years old Getting INTO the Army when he was only 16 years old was a whole separate fantasy -- when grown men of bigger accomplishment couldn't be in the Army due to limited budgets and opportunities.???
Still, Comstock later was only 18-19 WHEN Columbia was Built ...
* Getting Out of The Army - (Its own problem - They shot Deserters)
* Get that Baptism, and turn bible-thumping ( Reads "Bible Thumping for Dummies" ??? )
* Learned To Be a Conman ( Something that actually takes long experience and is fraught with various convictions/jailtime/angry Marks ... )
* Meet the Luteces - to become 'Trusted', get Access to that Machine, and Learn how to use it expertly and Operate it well enough to do this 'Prophetizing'.
* Become a Great Famed Religious Prophet 
* Get the Money - convincingly spin the 'Columbia' project from Tight-Fisted Politicians (or whomever). Then wait for the Government Spending to wind its way through the usual political process ...
* Get Columbia BuiltIgnore all the difficulties to achieve this brand new and unknown technology with THOUSANDS of things which need to be Made to Work - enough to build the whole floating 'Show City' and do it in mere months to be shown at the 1893 Exposition ( We might get a little extra time IF it didn't appear at the Fair until months AFTER the Fair opened. )
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Fame As A Prophet ? HOW DO YOU GET IT ???? :
You make a Prophesy, and then when it is shown to 'come true' ONLY THEN you get serious attention
'Wash, Rinse, Repeat' - To get more and more KNOWN as a 'Prophet' ( and failures/botches can UNDO a 'reputation' ).
For 'Prophesy' to be believable, it has to be BIG ENOUGH to stand out and OBVIOUS.
Comstock has to PROVE he has the ability ( AND do it over and over to accumulate 'renown' )
In Prophesy, You have to be VERY specific about the 'Future' - Something appropriate and rather immediate to 'come true' to get any credence ( and that for the particular 'Audience' ). THIS has to be for Events which make it OBVIOUS that it was 'predicted' accurately. You have to do this over and over to show it is not coincidence/lucky guessing.
The 'Future' has to match and be significant for the People the 'prophet' is trying to convince ( Can't do it as a stage act - just a few people's 'future', and with the time the 'prophesy' takes to 'come true' ).
Has to be Specific - so Only works for a few related people at a time ( It Ain't gonna happen for a 'Revival Tent Full Of Rubes' )
Rich People as "Marks" "Give the Biggest 'Bucks for the Bang' " ( Somehow getting 'ins' to that type - its laughable )
Newspaper accounts ? Crap is printed every day and generally was laughed at - PEOPLE NEED TO SEE IT THEMSELVES ( Most people aren't stupid when its their money being involved. )
Cannot be some General Future - Plenty of other Con Men were 'selling the Great Shining Future' all through those times.
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A PROBLEM - Changing The OutcomeA consequence which even the earliest stories realized and dealt with - A prophesy being issued and believed can make people do things that disrupt the events the original prophesy was based on.
Problem - Seeing the RIGHT Future - Infinite Parallel Universes, Remember ?? ... ( All those other dimensions may be so different and even have different outcomes for whatever the Prophesy is for ). How does Comstock 'SEE' the right one ??Remember its just one coin-flip away from completely different outcomes - "Chaos Theory" demonstrates this concept ... "Butterfly Effect" etc...
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Details About This Machine Comstock Uses :
Machine is Controlled How ??? With such great precision - to pick times/places/people ...
Seeing What ?? ( Tears are A limited hole looking on to some spot in time/space )
Searching whatever out - the exactness of control - and quickly ? Not taking of LOTS of Time to try to find something good/desired
Remember Comstock isn't a quantum god who can do shit magically like Elizabeth.
Comstock has to SEARCH and FIND something interesting - Very Specific for the particular 'Marks' he is trying to impress
And the results of a Prophesy have to be pretty quick - the games timeline doesn't allow for 'Slow' anything.
Exact info is required about the situation and then about the Results - Can this machine 'fast forward' along a Timeline ? How much work/time to do that ?? How accurately to not 'get off the groove' ? The results often are in a different place than the predictive situation. How do you find those ? - Where and When ???
Reliability ? The Machine keeps breaking down ??? And what powers it ?? ( is it powered by the hearts cut out of infants ) A competitor in the Conman biz starts spreading false rumors about Comstock and in many parallel universes he is Lynched ... Perhaps in some universes, that Rival seizes the 'machine' and he BECOMES the NEW Comstock ... 
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Money Money Money - Just To make a Living (times were hard ...)
"Gimme The CASH !!""Gimme The CASH !!" - Scene in movie "The Fifth Element"
Would Comstock needed a 'day job' ?? What might the job be, him being so young and inexperienced and him being uneducated ? Sweeping out a store is his 'day job' which he can't really quit ??
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Charlatan Much ?
Was Comstock more like (had to be) a Gypsy Fortune Teller 'preying' on stupid rich people ?
How much 'FAME' do you get QUICKLY for that ?
There is More Religion involved with all this which Levine & Co don't particularly understand.
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This 'Political' Influence :
What Motivation would the Politcos in Washington DC have to even waste time seeing a 'Prophet' (like delivering Votes)
Politicians want "Proof" 
Flakey Religious stuff the flee from ( They have the REST of their Constituent Voters to appear 'Normal' for )
Then there are the Politicians and Businessmen in Chicago who 'have a say' in all this. They might not want something like Columbia UPSTAGING THEM. They could have real and contrived worries about Columbia falling from the sky suddenly and killing countless fairgoers.
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The OLD Prophet : This was really there to have Comstock be different appearing than Booker for the game plot 'Twist' - OMG !!! Comstock is Booker AND HIS OWN FATHER !!!!! 
Comstock got 'Old Looking' when ??? ( allegedly to give him 'gravitas' as a 'Prophet' )
Would that 'sudden aging' help, or would people wonder what the hell happened and be afraid (and flee) ???
Freakishly Quick - People would see there was something wrong ( but this supposedly can be later before 1902 )
SO, did Comstock LOOK like a "Young Whippersnapper " to these Old Men in Washington, who are EXPERIENCED Politician ( who knew all about Con men who come to them every day - asking for Money ) ??? 
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This Religious Aspect ??
Fortune Telling is anathema to Established religions - ridiculed or forbidden Only God can see the future and HIS prophets can truly Reveal it. 
Comstock has to get 'Creds' as a Bible Thumper to fit with 'normal' people.
Christian Revival meetings are one thing, Futurizing by Fortune Telling is another.
This puts Comstock trying to become a 'bible' religious figure 'on the outs' with most American Religions (including Politicians)
Cult practices, if they developed early, would have the same distancing effect - most people avoiding such as he.
Such Circus Acts were seen as Dubious and unsavory by most people.
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How Did Comstock Even Meet/Fraternize With The Luteces ?
Luteces were closeted in some comfortable civilized place (Eastern US City ?) to do their research and develop their technology.
Are the Luteces trying to raise money to further their work ( or were they already rich enough ). Were they trying to do the same thing 'Prophesy' to achieve that themselves ( like swindle the Stockmarket ? ) - even before meeting Comstock ???
This machine doesn't seem to have much portability ( visiting 'The West' doesn't seem likely either ).
Booker thus had to go to THEM and to CON THEM ...
How does a young unsophisticated itinerant Rube 'get in' with the 'refined' Luteces Please, lets not have some creepy Fontaine 'romance' with Tenenbaum thing like there was in the Novel. Remember he is a nobody ( and a bible thumper ? ) before he meets them - NOT A PROPHET YET. ( Perhaps not much of a conman yet either if this whole timeline has to get moving ).
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Vision To Sell :
Supposedly Comstock has his 'vision' of 'Columbia'
And sets out to 'sell it' 
Amazing that besides this interdimesnional portal that the Luteces develop Theoretical Scientists rarely are engineers and when they are take YEARS to turn their theory/ideas into reality - Einstein for example created not one tiny little machine screw to help test/prove his own big theories, and many of those theories took decades to show any proof., they also create this Floaty mechanism and make it into more than some laboratory gimmick.
Consider : the Ferris Wheel at the Exposition put you 'up in the air in the sky' as much as Columbia did.
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An Odd Couple of Fish :
Why should the Lutece (scientists allegedly) consort with a Bible-Thumper/Conman ??
Money ? Until Comstock USES a Tear machine to do 'Prophesy', he doesn't have much money yet ( or for a long time before he gets his 'Rep' ...)
It is a Chicken Before The Egg problem ( The Prophet Before the Lutece )
It is also a rather FAST implausible 'power/influence race' in the 3 year timeline to achieve all the amazing/unlikely things the story claims to get Columbia built.
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All of This Here Illustrates a General Lack of Understanding :
* About Religion in America
* About How Con Men and Fortune Telling Works 
* About Politics and Politicians in those times (and now) AND HOW THE LIMITED MONEY WAS HANDLED
* About How Quickly Real Things happen in the Real World ( Timeline Issues/Prophesy Issues )
* Trying to have Flawed Fantasy connect logically to some story 'social relevancy' - Proper storytelling.
* Techno Gibberish - as failing in the Real World.
* How things get created/made For Real
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