easy town books extracts

This is a collection of extracts from book 1 & 2 about the Hub. The Hub is both an idea for a business model and an idea for a new internet platform.

The Hub started out as the project’s own social media platform and has evolved into an internet within the internet.

[Jack] ‘(…) So what is the Hub?’
‘It’s all social media in one castle,’ Noel proclaimed with pride. ‘Without the advertising or data collecting. And you get to decide whether your castle is a simple two-dimensional space with just a phone booth to call your kids, or a three-dimensional palace with nearly endless rooms (…)’

(book 1, beginning, week 7)

Hub users pay an equivalent of one euro a month in return for ad-free online services, privacy, full control over features, algorithms and designs.

Noel stood up and declared solemnly: ‘This is the end of big brother. This is the restoration of our privacy and self-determination. This is us, getting our lives back.’

(book 1, beginning, week 1)

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PART I

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main extracts and thoughts on dot.international

• Brainstorming for town businesses, book 1, week 3
• dot.international, book 2/1, Australia
• dot. international principles

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PART II

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book 2/1, travelling

• Urns, San Francisco
• Hachiro, San Francisco
• A show of respect, South Africa

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book 2/2, travelling

• Who do I want to be? China
• dot. in China?
• Otaon
• Jesse, Australia & Romania
• The prince and the queen, Russia
• Berlin

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PART III – additional material from book 1

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• Job shaking
• Price per task

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This collection includes the story of Princess Marlana.

This collection includes two extracts from book 2, travelling

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book 2/1, travelling, Flight to Sydney

digesting instead of blocking

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book 2/2, travelling, China

Coexisting, a magic valley

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‘You are not wrong. We have made our world into an artificial world. It’s not properly alive any more.’

Digesting, book 2, travelling

Content

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1. Foreword

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book 1, beginning

1. The beauty of modern slavery, at the conference
2. Exploitation, week 3

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book 2/1, travelling

1. We are all for freedom, Brazil
2. Racism, colonialism and the superiority complex, South Africa
3. Slavery, South Africa
4. White Africans, South Africa
5. Raw materials, Flight to Sydney
6. Cheers to all the bastards, Australia
7. What’s best for humans, Australia
8. Brexit, and the EU needs a rethink, Australia

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book 2/2, travelling

1. Balances, China
2. Going in circles, China
3. Refugees, Otaon
4. The time of the dwarfs, Romania
5. Second class humans, Romania
6. We can do better, on a global scale, Romania

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additional extracts

1. Rethinking the way we do business, book 1
2. The Hub, a business model, book 1&2
3. dot.international, a business model, Australia
4. The flare up, at the conference

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If you don’t mind some spoilers, then this is the extracts collection to get a better idea of what this series is about.

The Hub and dot.international are introduced in this collection, for more details see the Let’s build the Hub and be done with the tech giants and dot.international.

‘Ah, the beauty of modern slavery,’ Alice said with gusto.
She paused and took in the mixed reactions from the audience before she continued with a hint of mockery in her voice: ‘Modern slavery serves us so beautifully, and we don’t even have to see it.’

The beauty of modern Slavery, book 1

This is a collection of sex-related discussions and incidents from book 1, beginning and book 2/1, travelling.

‘You know,’ Alice said, suddenly sombre. ‘I wish we could just face all the sex issues and then move on. So many things are more important than our sexuality. But our sexuality fucking fucks with us.’

book 2/2, travelling, Russia

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Extracts from book 2/1, travelling, and we need to talk about sex

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Prelude, US

• Nudity

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Happy Flying, US

• We need to talk about sex

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San Francisco, US

• Urns
• Property
• Couple therapy
• Sex jokes
• Perspectives
• LGBTQ+
• Homosexuality, an intrusion?

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Copacabana Beach
  • What’s wrong with a girls night?
  • Hoping to be liked
  • So, what’s wrong with a girls night?
  • Traumatic run-ins with women
  • What’s the idea of a girls night?
  • Women prison and inferiority complexes
  • A world run by women
  • I never wanted to be a woman
  • Trouble with the body
  • Limping
  • Boys night and penis length
  • Prejudice
  • Evasive gender

• This is Rio, best place for gays

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

• You have to fuck
• Your dick is not a weapon
• Abortion and the Catholic Church
• Trustworthy men
• Sex and populism
• Sex talk, a journey
• Exploring why we do stupid things
• Why does fear smell?

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South Africa

• Friends
• Colours of the skin, HIV and a priest
• De-scandalising sex

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Sydney, Australia

• Urns rebooted
• Sexiness as weapon among women?

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Time off, Australia

• Beauty

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Extracts from book 1, beginning, or drafting a town experiment

• The vilification of the body
• Porn
• Happy parents
• Why don’t you have children?
• Pregnancy nightmare
• Gendered outfits
• Singledom
• Losing it
• Sexual orientation
• One night stands, affairs, relationships and marriage
• Who rescues who?
• Jerks of my mother’s making
• Role models
• Abortion

About an hour later, Alice felt a rush of excitement.
Could this be an explanation? Of sorts?
She had to talk to someone. But who? Who would be open enough to even think about this?
Alice stared at the screen in front of her, then back at the notepad she had been scribbling on.
Leo. Of course. Leo.

book 2/2, travelling, Flight to Beijing

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This collection includes extracts from both parts of book 2, travelling.

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book 2/2, travelling

• Some notes on domestic violence, Flight to Beijing
• The penis trauma, Flight to Beijing
• Bulges and urges, Russia
• What are women for?, Otaon
• Making each other, Otaon
• Is this how rape happens? Romania

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book 2/1, travelling

• You have to fuck, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Your dick is not a weapon, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Nku killed her, Cape Town, South Africa

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‘Well, eventually I asked myself a few questions about the male body and in particular about the penis.’
‘What?’ Leo exclaimed, suddenly sounding a lot more awake. ‘How would you even do that? You don’t have a male body and in particular not a penis.’
‘Yes, I noticed. That’s why I need to talk to someone who has.’

The penis trauma

Flight to Beijing, China

• Some notes on domestic violence
• The penis trauma
• Sex talk in practical terms
• Fixated on pointing out the differences between the sexes?
• The body is the key. The key to what?

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Otaon

• Palace Garden
• Sex is a private matter
• Only to have more sex?
• What are women for?
• Making each other
• Beautiful women
• Headscarves
• Dressing sexy
• They should have protected you
• Get married!
• What is worse: breasts or bleeding?

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Romania

• Is this how rape happens?
• Relationships
• The perfect balance between female and male

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Flight to Moscow, Russia

• Small men and the boyfriend
• The Ball in Russia
• The prince and the queen
• The sea of boobs
• Ares
• The body must be a key
• Bulges and urges
• Tits and brains
• More awkward stuff
• Prostitution
• Partners don’t just happen

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Berlin

• Lesbians
• All cards on the table

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Afterthoughts

• The narrative

This short, single extract from the South Africa chapter is dedicated to all women and men who fight to end violence against women.

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This extract is also published in The penis trauma and in We need to talk about sex, limping.

While writing book 2, the topic of racism kept knocking on my door and kept finding ways to get into the story.

The extracts of this collection focus on the racism which is handed down from generation to generation.

The main piece, Breaking the Cycle, is a movie (so far only in the story), and it is retold by Jack Harris, a famous actor and one of the main characters in the book series.

The additional pieces, I am Walter Kunze and White Africans add thoughts about the guilt of our ancestors.

Content

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• Foreword

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• I am Walter Kunze, Argentina

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Breaking the Cycle, South Africa

• A few days earlier
• Before Jack tells the story
• Breaking the cycle

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• White Africans, South Africa

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Jack Harris, one of the main characters in the book series, is a famous actor. He splits his time between the town project and his movie career.
Some of his movies are just mentioned in the story, some are recounted by him and, in the case of the Invention of Evil, Jack and Alice watch his movie together.

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The monk

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The invention of evil

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How would you tell your experiment succeeded?

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Extracts from book 2/2, Otaon and some additional on the fictitious art of deep energies from several parts in book 2

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As a child, I loved the stories of Sinbad and Ali Baba. And when I thought about the travelling team’s visit to the Middle East, I wanted to capture some of this magic, and allow a whiff of fairy tales into the story.
This is one of the reasons why I eventually decided to let the travelling team visit a fictional, ancient kingdom in the Middle East and, of course, I called it Otaon.

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Content

Foreword

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The story of Princess Marlana and her guards in black

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The story of the hunters fountain and the observer

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The story of the snake, the witch and the mountain

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The library and the story of the philosopher’s study and a special mind

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These are often short extracts, but they have a magic of their own.