DRAWING BOARD PLAN Who is John Mandeville?

The story of a leather-bound burgundy briefcase as it travels through the hands of strangers and back to its rightful owner.

Key Themes 1. Fate: The novelette deals with the concept of the irony of Fate, and, written from an atheistic perspective, the comical value of the idea of a Set/Deterministic Path. 2. The Meaninglessness of Life: A modern approach to the Existential question of whether life is worth living, expressed through John Mandevilles failed suicide attempt. 3. Black Comedy: Taking deep, philosophical subject matter and making light use of it in a nonchalant sense between a group of fairly two-dimensional characters. Un-referenced Quotations The greatest problem with linking dreams, feelings and thoughts to chemicals in our brain is that science cannot yet prove their cause or effect, which is unhelpful, yet not enough to dismiss the idea entirely. One must always have the ability to believe otherwise, or we shall never move forward as human beings. - Dr. Hartman (My own fictional character) Amor Fati Love Your Fate, which is in fact your life. Nietzsche You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it. Goldie Hawn Do not be afraid; our fate Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift. Dante Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. Emerson Characters The characters are introduced in the following linear order in the novelette = 1. Gold and John

2. 3. 4.

Mr. Smith Georg and Tilda John Mandeville

To list them in chronological order is as follows: 1. John Mandeville 2. Mr. Smith 3. John and Gold 4. Georg and Tilda Part 1 John and Gold find a burgundy briefcase containing 100,000 in twenties. They are shallow characters, living a simple life working as personal trainers at a gym called TurboFlex in East London, which is where they discover their fortune. Initially shocked, they later take the money home. Part 2 This deals with the story of a businessman known only as Mr. Smith. This part starts three days prior to the First Part, where two idiots working at a gym discover the briefcase. Mr. Smith leaves for a business trip from his Wapping apartment. He goes to the National Portrait Gallery, where he, almost inexplicably, mistakes his briefcase for another in as he leaves the gift shop and takes an important business call. He only notices later at a motorway diner that the briefcase is not his and contains 100,000. He panics, and believes he is being followed by the police, after using the identification of a man known only as John Mandeville and spending a small portion of the mysterious cash. During a comical run-away from the police, he throws the briefcase through an open window, into an unlocked gym. And in a panicking escape, he has an accident, falling, and waking up in hospital. He awakes an unspecified amount of time later with severe memory loss, which triggers an identity crisis, after the doctors have found bank cards on him in the name of John Mandeville. Mr. Smith begins to believe he is John Mandeville. So we now have two John Mandevilles, but you have only met one of them. (Thus, justifying the title of the novelette.) Part 3 Part Three focuses on a pair of kleptomaniac friends named Georg and Tilda. This part begins a few days after the second part. Tilda is into online dating and Georg likes stealing cats. The pair take enjoyment out of breaking into peoples homes and taking personal belongings of no value. This proposes my own argument that, to an extent, finding pleasure or happiness in pointless activities can give a certain Meaning to Life. And so, by complete chance, they break into Golds Duplex an take Kafkas The Trial, a Britney Spears CD, a few DVDs and some jewellery. They then come across the briefcase and decide to steal it, but in their excitement, Georg accidently leaves a card to the cat shelter where he works. Gold and John are incredibly sad to find the briefcase gone, and, in finding the Cat card, a comical catand-mouse scenario ensues. John and Gold buy a gun and some balaclavas and track down the pair of kleptomaniacs. This part results in the tragic death of all four characters. Part 4 In the fourth part, the reader meets John Mandeville. This part documents a day in his life. He wakes up one morning deciding that life is not worth living and, after withdrawing his life savings and putting it into his beloved briefcase, he sets off to the John Mandeville sits at the national portrait gallery to see his favourite painting, the Stuart-period oil on canvas Henrietta Maria. In a philosophical monologue with his conscience, contemplating life and its meaning, he attempts a comical suicide by stepping off of the roof of the gallery building. However, his long coat is caught and, as his briefcase falls down below, he helplessly hangs from the top of the building and cannot cut himself loose. Part 5

Part Five documents what happens in between and basically explains what has actually happened in chronological order. The briefcase falls below and Mr Smith, leaving the gift shop, puts down his similarly burgundy briefcase whilst taking a business call. He hasnt noticed mistakenly exchanging this briefcase until later when he opens it at motorway diner on the M4. Tilda had been online dating and had planned a blind date on the night of her death. By complete chance, the man she had a blind date with was called John Mandeville, however, she did not know the briefcase had belonged to him because Mr. Smith had previously taken out the credit cards from the case. John Mandeville, on a recent resurgence of happiness after his suicide attempt earlier in the novel, goes to her door with flowers, ready for the blind date. The door is open. He steps in. The briefcase is lying on the floor waiting for him. Four people lie dead on the floor. He picks up the burgundy briefcase and smiles. Amor Fati The End.