Jupiter

TOYNBEE IDEA IN MOVIE 2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER

**Q: What are the Toynbee tiles?**
 A:
They are graffiti, guerrilla propaganda, outsider art, and an unsolved
mystery wrapped into a single cryptic phenomenon. They are four-lined
messages, sometimes described as “plaques”, found in the asphalt of
numerous major US (and, in four cases, South American) city roads.

**Q: What do they say?**
 A: Their message
 reads, "TOYNBEE IDEA / IN MOViE `2001 / RESURRECT DEAD / ON PLANET
JUPiTER" with occasional variations and frequent additional texts.  The
most common variations change ‘MOVIE’ to ‘Kubrick’s’, ‘RESURRECT’ to
‘RAiSE’, and/or omit ‘ON’.

**Q: When did the tiles first appear?**
A: The Toynbee Idea message seems to have first appeared around 1980 in
various media, but the first tiles were probably laid circa 1985.

**Q: How many tiles are out there?**
 A:
We know of around 150 old-style tiles (from c. 1985–2001) that have
appeared in 25 cities in the US and South America. We would guess that
over 300 new-style tiles (2001–present) have appeared in or near
Philadelphia, as well as a small number outside of Philadelphia. House
of Hades, the most prolific copycat movement, has probably laid around
100 as of 2012, and there are several other smaller copycat movements.

**Q: Are they still being laid?**
 A: Yes.  Tiles are generally laid during the summer months.  No major
tile run has appeared more than about a two hours' drive outside of
Philadelphia since 2002: one isolated sighting off I-95 in Connecticut
in 2006 is the sole known exception.  Copycat tiles continue to appear *en masse.*

**Q: Where can I see one? Do you have a list of the surviving tiles?**
 A: Unfortunately, we do not have a current list of extant tiles.  We
kept lists for years, but it simply became too difficult to monitor the
survivors.  As of 2012, Philadelphia still has nearly 100 that survive
in some form, none older than about 11 years old.  Pittsburgh,
Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Margate, NJ, all have surviving
old-style tiles, while barely visible fragments also remain in New York
and Chicago.  Trenton and numerous Philadelphia suburbs have surviving
new-style tiles.  Copycats have been sighted as far west as Portland,
and are spread throughout the United States, with a few appearing as far
 away as South America and Iraq (!).

**Q: How are they laid?**
 A: First, a message is carved on a piece of flexible, not brittle,
linoleum. Two pieces of tar paper are used to cover the linoleum like
bread covering the filling of a sandwich. The linoleum is also smothered
 with Elmer's glue and asphalt crack filler. The whole concoction is
then laid down in the asphalt of an intersection while concealed by the
tar paper. The tile is "baked" into the ground by the sun's heat, which
liquefies the asphalt ever so slightly. Pressure from car and foot
traffic further impress the tile into the ground. By the time the top
layer of tar paper is removed, the tile will have become deeply embedded
 and will be impossible to remove without fully repaving the street.  A
final point: a floorboard-less car will assist in the process of laying
tiles, but it is not necessary, nor do we think that all tiles were laid
 via a floorboard-less car.

**Q: What's the difference between 'old-style' and 'new-style' tiles?**
 A: Briefly, the latter involved an evolving style that eventually
flowered into colorful and large mosaics, concluding circa 2001.
Thereafter, tiles became smaller, less artistic, more hastily written
and completely lacking non-text flourishes (e.g., pictures.) This era
begins the "new style." By 2007, old-style elements began reappearing,
and the distinction has since become more ambiguous. Generally, the
old-style tiles tended to be deeper into a crosswalk, i.e. in the area
through which cars drive, while new-style tiles tend to be closer to the
 sidewalk and oriented to the eyes of a pedestrian. The major exceptions
 to this are the highway tiles, which are considered to be of the new
style (mainly because of handwriting and date) despite being geared
towards drivers.

**Q: How does one destroy a tile? What happens to make them no longer there?**
 A: While it's setting in, traffic often destroys part of a tile. The
only way to destroy a tile once it's been laid is to repave the street
it is on, or to dump tar on it to conceal it.

**Q: Has anyone systematically tried to rid a city of its tiles?**
 A: The city of Chicago has declared tiles "vandalism" and stated their
intention to remove them all, although a few fragments can still be
found there. The rapid disappearance of the numerous Manhattan tiles
lead some tile fans to speculate that the city of New York tried to
destroy all the tiles in the city, but missed one on 36th St and Park
Ave, which has eroded down to almost nothing as of 2010.

**Q:
 If you chart the locations of the tiles on an inner-city or nation-wide
 map, will it form a picture or a treasure map or something?**
 A: No.

**Q: Do you think aliens are involved?**
 A: No.

**ABOUT THE MEANING OF THE TILES**
 **Q: What do the tiles mean?**
 A: Prior to our research, no one had advanced a definitive theory.
Briefly, we believe that the tiles are meant to be taken literally, and
are apparently an attempt to make public a radical idea regarding human
resurrection.

**Q: Who/what is 'Toynbee'?**
 A:
 Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) was a 20th century British historian and
philosopher. He wrote extensively on numerous subjects, but was most
interested in the philosophies of culture and history, and particularly
questions surrounding the success and failure of individual human
civilizations. As a Christian thinker, he conceived of history in
teleological terms, causing him to fall out of favor among academic
circuits following historicism's shift away from teleological discourse
towards the end of the 20th century. His 12-volume *A Study of History* is the largest single work in the English language ever published.

**Q: Who/what are "Kubrick" and "MOViE `2001"?**
 A: Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) was an American film director, noted for
 his subversive commentary on philosophical and political issues, and
introduction of avant-garde elements into a Hollywood framework. In
1968, he directed *2001: A Space Odyssey*, arguably his most
experimental film. Based on a short story by sci-fi guru Arthur C.
Clarke (1917–2008) called "The Sentinel", Kubrick and Clarke crafted a
dense, ambiguous and metaphor-laden screenplay that gave rise to a host
of interpretations. That the first and last half-hours of the film are
practically devoid of dialog confused audiences and critics at first,
but the film has remained a cult favorite. While few may agree on what
exactly happens in the film, its spiritual and philosophical intensity
is undeniable. The film is also notable for its groundbreaking special
effects and breathtaking visuals accompanied by classical music,
especially Richard Strauss's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and Johann
Strauss's "The Blue Danube."

**Q: How do *2001* and Toynbee relate to one another?**
 A: It is not immediately obvious, and there are no concrete parallels;
one can only interpret the similarities for one's self. Toynbee's
writing on cultural rebirth may be comparable to the spiritual rebirth
at the end of *2001*. Toynbee writes of individual societies'
need to evolve intellectually, culturally and technologically in order
to stay healthy and avoid stagnation. One could interpret several parts
of *2001* (primitive man's development of tools, man's conquering
 machine, the ending, etc.) as literal steps of evolution. Also, Toynbee
 and Clarke were contemporaries.

**Q: Where does planet Jupiter fit in?**
 A: Again, it's tough to say. Jupiter figures prominently in *2010*, *2001*'s
 sequel. There are no direct references to Jupiter in any of Toynbee's
writing that we have found. Some have interpreted the planet seen in the
 final moments of *2001* as Jupiter, although others argue against that interpretation.

**Q:
 Do you think the artist responsible for the tiles really believes in
all this resurrection stuff, or is he just messing with our minds?**
 A: It is difficult to think that someone would put so much time and
energy into a guerrilla art campaign only to "mess with our minds," is
it not? I mean, we are talking about two decades of extensive traveling,
 not to mention all the time it must take to make and glue a tile. The
sheer dedication of the tiler seems to point to his sincerity. By our
interpretation, the Toynbee tile lexicon seems also to be sincere,
rather than a calculated artistic message that is intentionally opaque:
the "Manifesto" tile is a good example of this.
**Q: Don’t you think that [insert name of science
fiction author or paranormal theorist] is probably involved in this?  I
mean, have you read [insert name of his or her series or article]?  It
seems to be talking about the same thing.**

 A: The Toynbee
tiles are weird, and as such, they tend to remind one of other weird
things one has encountered. Certainly, there are other fringe thinkers
who have advanced similar theories, and we are often struck by the eerie
 consonance that rings out of other work that is floating around out
there. But with that said, we don’t have any evidence that any thinkers
or artists outside of Toynbee, Kubrick and Clarke influenced the tiler
in formulating the Toynbee Idea or subsequently crafting the tiles, and
in fact have pretty firm evidence that the influences start and end
there, at least as far as the nuts and bolts of the theory is concerned.

The name **Severino "Sevy" Verna** jumped out at us while watching local filmmaker **John Foy**'s "Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles."

 Verna, who does not appear in the film, is a South Philly recluse who
may be behind the odd tiles that have been embedded in asphalt in
streets around Philadelphia, the country and the world.

 He shares a name with the late husband of former City Council President **Anna Verna**.

 "I wonder if it's his nephew, who I haven't seen in I don't know how
long," the former Councilwoman told us when we asked about the film and
the name.

 She was right. Foy filmed one of three Toynbee tile enthusiasts calling
 the mother of the man suspected of placing the tiles, which often have
this message:

 "TOYNBEE IDEAS IN KUBRICK'S 2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER."

 The mother, who died in 2010, said in the film that her son denied involvement with the tiles.

 She was the widow of Anna Verna's late brother-in-law, Carl.

 Foy said he came across the connection to the Council president while
working on the film but left it out because it wasn't relevant.

 The four students, laughing and giggling, had decided to go for a
meal after they viewed the Toynbee documentary movie at the film
festival.

“Have any of you changed your minds, after seeing the documentary again?” Cody asked over a carefully budgeted-for hamburger.

“No, I still think the Philadelphian, James Morasco created the
tiles. There are more of the tiles in Philadelphia than in any other
location, and his Philadelphia address was actually found on one of the
tiles placed in a Santiago, Chile street,” Heather answered. “I will
always think he is the guy, no matter what.”

“But, James Morasco *is* the same person as Severino Verna, Heather. It was an alias he sometimes used,” Cody pointed out with a guffaw.

Heather laughed. “I know. I was just seeing if the rest of you were paying attention!”

“And I will always think it is Verna,” Nathaniel answered. “That guy is just too weird for it to not be him!”

“I am leaning toward the St. Louis Artist, Joe Parisi,” Cheyenne
chimed in. His name appears in chat rooms as a likely candidate, and he
has made other similar tiles, against the media, supposedly. Placing
these tiles sound exactly like something a conceptual artist would do,
to pique public curiosity and gain renown, fifteen minutes of fame.”

“I stay constantly confused on the subject. I bounce back and forth
on the true identity of the tile creator—and it may not be any of these
people,” Cody admitted. “And what is the message on the tile in
reference too? Is it in reference to Ray Bradbury’s short story, ‘The
Toynbee Convector?’ Does it refer to the historian, Arnold J. Toynbee?
The Toynbee idea appears in his book, ‘Experiences.’ Does it come from
Arthur C. Clark’s short story, ‘Jupiter V?’ Or possibly it comes from
Mamet’s play ‘4 A.M.’ In the play a radio show host takes a call from a
caller who thinks the movie, ‘2001,’ contains a plan to reconstitute
life on Jupiter.”

“There are so many possibilities for the meaning of the messages on
the tiles. It is hard to avoid that there is some connection to the
movie, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’” Nathaniel was sure his mind was
permanently boggled on the matter. “It could have no meaning at all. It
could all be one big practical joke.”

As they were headed back to the breadbasket of the USA, Cheyenne
said, “Well, our movie didn’t win anything. Bummer. There were sixteen
movies in the U. S. Documentary category.”

“The winner was depressing, but it was well-done—‘How to Die in
Oregon’—about physician-assisted suicide was the grand jury prize
winner. Can you believe it?” Heather asked. She sighed.

The students had gotten festival passes. These passes allowed them to
 view any film. The stipulation was that you had to be there thirty
minutes before the showing to secure a seat. “It was a week of
delightful eye and ear candy!” Cody exclaimed.

There are those who believe the documentary did solve the riddle.
That a Severino “Sevy” Verna was the tile creator. Verna got a death
anxiety from growing up in a funeral home run by his family. He thought
he had come across some ways to beat death in at the public library. At
times he tried to share these ideas by way of calling in to talk shows.
Other callers called in and made fun of him.   He also contacted the
media with his ideas and they would not give him the time of day. This
caused him to bear deep-seated resentment. He thought up the tile-method
 to get out his message. Verna also had a car with absent floorboards.
This would have allowed him to place the tiles, unobserved. The
documentary filmmakers have no proof of Verna’s involvement but this is
the direction their filmmaking lead them. They tried to contact him and
they even sent him a copy of the film, but he would not respond.

So who created the Toynbee Tiles and what do they mean? Some of the
tiles instructed others to make more tiles of their own and distribute
them. This has resulted in a number of copycat tiles, some with new and
often disturbing messages, full of hate. Perhaps Toynbee Tiles have a
deep meaning and perhaps they don’t. Perhaps they are the “Kilroy Was
Here” of present times.

1970s edition
Page 73 (bottom) to Page 74
Explains Severino Verna's fascination with Jupiter and where his idea
came from. This is what sent him mad and made him make the Toynbee
Tiles.
Real question the becomes, what gave John Keel the idea? Keel died with
his papers in a mess, it would be quite the task - Atlantean or
Herculean - to sort through them to find that specific card OR LETTER
and whatever page, say PAGE 3 to find the identity of the people Keel
spoke 2 when he uncovered this rather odd belief that the dead / living
will be whisked away to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter which is really a
Space Ark.
Hurm.

https://thezombienomicon.com/eas/read.php?episode=1896