THE DISCREPANCY // 052
Waldo’s walking stick is among the visual details examined in the University of Chicago’s Mandela-effect work. People can recognize the striped traveller while leaving that object out. A character built to hide in a crowd has another line hiding beside him.
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WENDA / ODLAW — Two small names sit in the margin. The crowd has other travellers.
BEFORE THE REFERENCE
Draw the hat, glasses, sweater and hands before opening the comparison. Does one hand need an object to make the pose complete? Let the drawing retain its blank space. The crowded page you remember may be clearer than the isolated character you are now asked to reconstruct.
THE TRACE TO FOLLOW
The university comparison gives an identifiable image rather than a rule for every illustration ever printed. Follow it, then find an edition of the book you knew. Keep page, printing and pose together. Is the unexpected line a cane you missed, or the exact detail you remember checking before?
Keep your first version
Record the detail before opening a reference. Keep the exact object, release or edition with your comparison. A first recollection and a later discovery can be followed as separate traces.
FOLLOW THE SOURCES
Compare the particular object, recording or documented account.
Reported recollections and discussion; a separate trail from the reference.