Does Bill Wright Write Right?

There is a friend of mine who blogs by the name William Wright (WW) or in normal life as just Bill. Anyone who reads this blog probably knows who that is. Bill has been regularly blogging about the same strange worldview that this blog presupposes — where Mormonism supposedly collides with JRR Tolkien’s writings.

I think Bill is a very intelligent person who also has a gift (or a curse depending on how you look at it) to find connections literally everywhere. This gift does not stop there. Bill can take these connections and weave them together to form a coherent story around this worldview.

I actually think in scriptural parlance, Bill is “translating” which just means he is finding “the Story”, capital S, through random and disparate threads — so random and disparate as to easily boggle a reasonable (and less intelligent) mind. Bill has divined his Story from a long list of songs, music videos, movies, pictures, book covers, medicine bottles, YouTube videos, memes, and even a mustard bottle (!).

He does so without losing his self-awareness, regularly acknowledging how strange his ideas would seem to anyone else, as well as his methods for reaching his conclusions. Bill even throws in pretty regular deadpan humor along the way, which is a good reminder from him to not take things too seriously.

Sync Stream Story Building

Bill’s cues for developing his Story are called “syncs”. Bill was introduced to syncs or “the sync stream” through fellow blogger William James Tychonievich (WJT). WJT also has a brilliant mind. He might even be smarter than Bill…or maybe just more well read. I can’t tell. They are both smarter than I am, by the way, and I’m no dummy!

Here’s how syncing works. Essentially you pay attention to your daily life and see what pops up and then connect it to some other random thing that you or someone else in the sync stream had noticed before. A sync can show up anywhere and at any time. For example, let’s say one day WJT blogs about something that mentions pumpkins and then later Bill has some random daily interaction that also involves pumpkins. That is a potential sync, so pay attention to the details and see what you can learn from it.

A critic might say that anyone could do this and reach all kinds of conclusions about any topic. Or that just by nature of humans receiving so many daily inputs you are statistically certain to encounter the same or similar inputs on a pretty regular basis, such that viewing these connections as anything more than coincidence is foolhardy. I don’t think those are invalid criticisms but I also don’t think that proves that syncs aren’t also real and worthy of a person’s attention. The right (Wright!) person’s attention, at least.

However, I don’t participate much myself. For awhile Bill and WJT were syncing about Humpty Dumpty. I was on vacation in Philadelphia at the time and noticed a restaurant called “Humpty’s Dumplings”. If Bill or WJT had seen that, I would bet money that a picture of the restaurant sign would now be on their blogs. It was right next to a bar called The Saint and both establishments feature intriguing art that would also have made the sync stream most likely. Here are pictures using street view Google Maps:

This was a couple of months ago but I intentionally chose not to join in on the syncing. I’m happy to let them cook while I sample the various dishes. Bill and WJT are gifted at this in a way that I am not and maybe that is why I have a pretty strong aversion to participating in the process. I really just have no interest.

I should mention that WJT does not much embrace the “Tolkien as history” worldview. He does, however, embrace some form of Mormonism and he does follow the syncs wherever they lead, which increasingly connect him with what Bill Wright writes.

As for who is behind these syncs, both Bill and WJT believe they come from angelic sources. WJT says it’s the spirit of Joan of Arc and another spirit named Claire. Bill doesn’t take issue with the names but says it’s the seven daughters of Asenath and Eowyn. In other words, I believe WJT and Bill think the different names refer to the same angels. Bill posits that syncs are done as a counter to Ungoliant’s long weaving of lies and deceit into our world…so the syncs are an attempt at re-weaving darkness into light, essentially.

Are syncs a good thing or not?

While I strongly dislike the means, I generally like the end result. Meaning, I think Bill is pretty good at building the Story using this tool. There have been missteps, like when he identified Elrond as Tom Petty, an idea I hated back then and hate even more today. Bill has (for now) abandoned that idea. But for the most part, I think his syncing has led to some fantastic discoveries even if I don’t agree with or like all of them, and especially the method he uses to get there. I am cheering him on though, and as long as it’s working with no negative consequences to him, I am glad to see it continue.

I have borrowed a lot of his Story ideas for what I’m saying on this blog, although I hasten to add that Bill isn’t all in on what I say about the dwarves. So don’t take what I say on this blog and assume it fits with his Story because a lot of it does not at the moment.

WJT doesn’t use syncs to build a Story from what I can tell, but more as a means to unravel a giant mystery. He’s more like a scientist logging data points from an experiment that isn’t ready to reach any conclusions quite yet. By contrast, Bill uses the syncs to validate or invalidate his Story. The two of them often end up with very different takeaways despite pretty stunning correlations in their independent observations.

So does Bill Wright, you know, write right?

Yes, I think in a lot of cases, even most cases, he does. At the top of this post I said Bill is “translating”. Oliver Cowdery was supposed to translate at one point but failed in his attempt. D&C 8 seems to suggest that it was his gift with divining rods that would help him translate. Or said another way, I wonder if Oliver misread that revelation thinking he would use his rod gift to do it.

But after he failed, we get these reasons why in D&C 9:

Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.

Once at a family reunion I saw a distant elderly uncle of mine use divining rods. What he did was ask a question and then start walking while holding the rods out. Depending on what the rods did, he would have his answer. I gave it a shot and together we divined attributes of people buried in the family cemetery. It was a lot like taking “no thought save it was to ask” so I wonder if that’s how Oliver was trying to translate.

You’ll notice D&C 9 doesn’t mention misused rods as to the reason he couldn’t do it. I wonder if Oliver was holding sticks and asking questions while God was waiting on him to study things out and feel his way through it.

Well, geez, that sounds a lot like what Bill is doing! I haven’t heard him talk about his bosom burning per se, but he is certainly studying things out and, in a sense, asking if it’s right by paying attention to the syncs.

So yeah, for now I think Bill Wright does write right.

As for WJT, I can’t fault him for taking a different path with the syncs. It would be cleaner for me if he too were actively building the Story but maybe that’s just not what he’s supposed to get out of it. Who am I to say?

We’ll see where it goes. Regardless, I think Bill’s divined Story gives me a framework from which to build another Story that includes the dwarves, and that is another reason for me to like it.

I hope I haven’t misrepresented Bill or WJT so if I have, please feel free to clarify.