![\"by](\"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2017\/03\/arms-from-the-sea-300x231.jpg\")
I had no idea that this moment would send me on a Crying of Lot 49-<\/i>like quest to find the source of these books, the meaning of the free giveaway and downloadable app, and\u2014most of all\u2014the story behind the enigma that is Rich Shapero.<\/p>\n
After digging like a conspiracy theorist for hours, I have found my conclusion: Rich Shapero is a very wealthy artist who seems to have made a fortune in Silicon Valley, and now spends his money creating multimedia story \u201cexperiences,\u201d which he promotes through free giveaways and other events on college campuses around the world. These \u201cother events\u201d include a group of dancers in Australia, dressed as \u201cwolf women\u201d to promote an earlier novel called Wild Animus, <\/i>according to this article from an Australian paper (http:\/\/www.adelaidenow.com.au\/news\/south-australia\/wolf-pack-of-women-on-the-prowl\/news-story\/dc25f1b7bdc07c10e43a4c7d1d222d60<\/a>). You may notice that the article calls Shapero a \u201ccomposer-performer.\u201d That is because he often releases an album of music along with his novels\u2014all of which are self-published through his company, TooFar Media.<\/p>\n Truly a man of many mediums, his newest endeavor is the world of mobile apps. I actually downloaded said app, which has zero reviews on the app store and is rated 12+ for \u201cinfrequent\/mild realistic violence, infrequent\/mild mature\/suggestive themes, infrequent \/mild profanity or crude humor, infrequent\/mild sexual content and nudity, infrequent\/mild alcohol, tobacco, or drug use or references, and infrequent\/mild horror\/fear themes.\u201d I had no idea what to expect, except that it would be infrequent, and mild.<\/p>\n It opens by reminding me that it is an immersive story experience, then immediately asks me to update. It then offers a tutorial on how to swipe left to turn pages on an e-book.<\/p>\n Turns out, it\u2019s just a digital copy of the book that I already got for free\u2014plus a music album, stuffed with mediocre soft-rock containing lyrics such as \u201cThe capsule cracks, a midnight cold\/Through the blue stain, what do you see?\/Is this death taking control?\/Or is it life\u2014Can you hear me?\u201d The only other feature for the Arms of the Sea<\/i> section of the app (as it includes similar experiences for his other books) was a single photograph of a trippy image like the one on the cover.<\/p>\n As far as I can see, there are no interviews with Shapero online. I emailed him in hopes of interviewing him myself, sadly to no response. The closest thing I could find were from these not-quite-reliable sites (http:\/\/www.angelfire.com\/droid\/deathpestilence\/wildanimus.html<\/a>) and (https:\/\/litreactor.com\/columns\/what-the-hell-is-wild-animus<\/a>), in which Shapero\u2019s inner Tommy Wiseau comes shining out. \u201cI like to have sex while I\u2019m writing,\u201d he is quoted as saying, which makes so little sense it hurts me.<\/p>\n After I had conducted all this research, there was only one thing left to do: I had to read the book. What does this book, with two stars on Goodreads, have in store for me, with reviews like \u201cCrap\u201d (Kyran) and \u201cI couldn’t even finish this mess, they dumped a sh*t ton of them at Lesley University\u201d (Luci Bailey)? I took a deep breath and dove in.<\/p>\n It starts with our protagonist Lyle climbing a statue made of salt. He is then referred to, by a robot cop, as \u201cCitizen El-mu-zero-five-nine-delta,\u201d and I think I know exactly what kind of book I\u2019m reading. Dystopia, I can handle this.<\/p>\n Nope.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll give Shapero one thing: he\u2019s creative. The writing itself isn\u2019t awful, but it isn\u2019t consistent, either. One may call it infrequent\/mild. Decent lines like \u201ca labyrinth of pale roads and bleached buildings\u201d are sprinkled in next to lines like \u201cA lieutenant led in Clean-Cut, the charismatic leader of Solution who preceded Red One.\u201d Sci-fi isn\u2019t my favorite genre, but the book is punchy enough and reminds me of an action movie. I delve deeper.<\/p>\n It seems like Lyle\u2019s statue-climbing scheme has made him something of a Mockingjay. A character named Audrie enters and says lines like \u201cNo one in Salt wants your sea, Lyle,\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re a sneeze to me, Lyle. I\u2019ll blow my nose and forget you,\u201d before suddenly revealing that Lyle\u2019s mother has died. Then the city is engulfed by the sea, and everyone seems to die except Lyle\u2014though I\u2019m not sure. I\u2019m skimming now; it\u2019s losing my interest even with everyone dying and all. Lyle is still on the statue, so he survives.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s where things get crazy. A \u201cseaman\u201d called Blednishev takes Lyle away to meet his god, who has singled out Lyle to save. Blednishev injects Lyle with some blue water, then says, \u201cHe\u2019s in your bloodstream.\u201d Lyle goes underwater and meets the god, named the Polyp, who takes the form of an attractive man. The Polyp extends his arms, described as looking like eels, and wraps them around Lyle\u2019s wrists, ankles, and ribcage. I am very scared. The Polyp, a sculptor, shows off his power by reshaping Lyle\u2019s body to look more attractive. I\u2019m still scared. The Polyp then changes Lyle into a woman, and then a fish, then a squid.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s a lot of sailing around with Blednishev, then more needle injections and time with the Polyp, and the introduction of Spider Legs, the Polyp\u2019s enemy. Then back to the Polyp, with a scene so full of innuendo I doubt I can quote it on this blog\u2014just go read pages 70-76 if you want to see for yourself. The Polyp literally crawls its entire being down Lyle\u2019s throat and narrates the whole thing to him, as they \u201cmingle\u201d their minds.<\/p>\n The book is short, but confusing and boring. The Polyp scenes were never overtly sexual, but considering the Polyp took over Lyle\u2019s body several times via pleasurably entering Lyle\u2019s mouth\u2026I don\u2019t know what to make of it. It\u2019s weird, it\u2019s uncomfortable, and I can\u2019t believe everyone on campus has a copy of something two steps away from tentacle porn sitting in their dorm rooms, and they don\u2019t even know it.<\/p>\n Well. That concludes this mystery. Rich Shapero, a mystery in his own right, has given out his dystopian\/sci-fi\/LGBT romance\/erotic novel, free, app included. My advice? Don\u2019t get sucked in by the Arms From the Sea<\/i>. You\u2019ll regret it. I know I do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Christina Bagni\/\/Blog Writer Perhaps you heard whispered rumors in the air. Perhaps it happened to a friend. Perhaps it has even happened to you. At the corner of Boylston and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"arms](\"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/undergraduate-students-publishing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2017\/03\/arms-music-262x300.png\")
After deleting the app, I found Shapero\u2019s website, but it did little to help me understand him. His bio (http:\/\/www.richshapero.com\/about_rich\/<\/a>) includes photos of what are supposed to be Shapero but look like four completely different men. The bio begins, \u201cRich Shapero considers himself normal in most respects, unusual in a few,\u201d and then has a quote of his in which he says \u201cThe virtue of being at peace with the human condition was not bestowed on me,\u201d among other phrases. Thankfully, he does make mention of how he gives things away for free: \u201cI want people to see what I\u2019ve done. I have no commercial motive. I\u2019m like a street musician playing for whoever might have the interest to stop and listen.\u201d This solves one mystery. Rich is rich, and simply wants to share his art with the world, no matter how strange his multimedia experiences are or how expensive it is to give away thousands of hardcover novels.<\/p>\n