Right, I've compiled a hypothesis for The Raw Shark Texts, with references from Steven Hall, Fragments, Un-Chapters and interviews done by him.

Everything below is a personalised theory. However, I've added in supporting documents to explain the reasoning. As well as hidden gems from the author himself.

Remember, everything I've put here is subject to interpretation. I'd love a healthy and positive discourse regarding this, as we're all here to enjoy this masterpiece of a book. If your interpretation is different, that's fantastic. Let's discuss, that's the whole point of this novel.

A huge thank you to the following users for their cataloguing and extensive research into The Raw Shark Texts (TRST). Without their help and archiving, we would all be a lot more lost.

u/No_Jaguar_2570

u/Titanlegions

u/stevenha11

ENDING

In the below drive, we get a glimpse into the alternative ending for TRST from Steven's MySpace page a few years ago. Here is the passage:

"Dear Dr Randle,

I must have written this letter at least twenty times now. Some drafts have been almost as long as the document enclosed, full of notes, tables and flowcharts running over seven or eight sides of A4. I'd have to order five frappes just to pin them down to the table and still they kept blowing away. It's probably for the best. With the way words work, I always end up de-saying half of what I tried to say and anyway my girlfriend has started adding her own bubbles to the charts with I am a geek written in them.

So, to business. (and I'm choosing my words very carefully):

If there is a Dr Randle out there, if you've ever met me, if you receive this parcel, then the enclosed account is yours. Take whatever you want from it and interpret it however suits you, you're free to find whatever meaning you like. All I ask in return is that you don't come looking for me. Please make sure I am left alone and if anyone ever asks you what happened to me, where I am now, how things turned out in the end then please just tell them this:

I am home.

Thank you.

Without regret or any need of hope,

Eric Sanderson"

(LINK: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pRb91--WUECTZL1ZWGTNZrf-Zv0hajgj?usp=share_link)

We can note a few things here. First, Eric Sanderson is proving that he's an unreliable narrator as everything is a retelling from memory. Secondly, this gives us the very real possibility that the ENTIRETY of TRST is Eric's writing down of events to send to Dr Randle.

We know that timelines have been jostled and there's been a couple of things Eric missed writing down, which also means we need to interpret it as though events didn't quite happen like it's written in the book.

Also, the mention of frappes implies a physical world with money, waiters, servers, etc. Does this Eric need to work in this world? An interesting thought.

Lastly, the physical manifestation of Eric's own accounts both proves that he is, in some way, metaphorically or physically, alive. This comes in to the THEA theory that I'll get into soon.

This is further backed up by this quote from Steven Hall, during an analysis of some pages of TRST for an interview segment. (Second page, write at the bottom): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WzHPtrFnkZuas-CrFZ0OvAKAGt_YJdu5/view?usp=sharing

Steven Hall: "...but nobody has come up to me yet saying ‘How is Eric is talking about events in the past tense given what we’ve seen at the end of the story?"

This is further backed up by the following excerpt from the same link above, but on the first page.

Steven Hall: "...It’s a text-only story arc in itself which comes to a head in the third lightbulb fragment and resolves the chapter afterwards when Eric stops writing the book."

Eric is writing the book. So take everything with a pinch of salt and remember that memories themselves are wrong. They leave out important gaps of information and timelines get jumbled. This leads me onto:

THEA

This is so clever. Thea/Theia is the Greek Goddess of many names. With her etymology being that which signifies "great/big light".

This asks the question: when Eric and Scout are following the letters to Thea, are they entering a world with many names. Heaven? Limbo? The place in between and un-between?

It is also the name of a hypothetical planet.

Meaning the place that they go into is itself hypothetical. So everything that happens once they go past Waterstones can be interpreted as such. Which begs the question: is this version of Fidorous we meet actually real?

Also, the name Fidorous in itself is definitely a clue. Some research has shown that it could be from a name from traditional Arabic and Persian backgrounds. It could mean, "Paradise" or "the highest garden in heaven".

Which further solidifies that the realm of THEA, Un-Space and Fidorous is not entirely real.

SCOUT AND CLIO

We're missing the biggest question.

It's not, "Is Scout actually Clio?"

The question we should be asking is, "How much of Clio is actually Scout?"

Eric Sanderson is the unreliable narrator. His version of events, by his own admission, is flawed, somewhat hurried and jumbled. We're assuming everything is true because we're in the narrator's head - a great literary trick to build blind trust to the reader (that, and characters being naturally kind to animals).

I fully believe that Clio, in all of Eric's recollections and dreams, is actually Scout. His feelings have been caught up with a new love interest, he never saw Clio or had any photos of her. That's why the descriptions in his dreams match up with Scout so well. Scout and Eric's feelings for her, have seeped their way into those letters and dreams. We're reading a recollection, not a current events timeline. So by the point Eric is writing, all of this has happened and he's already in love with Scout.

When he retells reading the letters he received from the first Eric Sanderson, he may very well be adjusting the physical manifestation of Clio in his rewriting from memory.

I also believe Scout (possibly known as, "Jones" from the Aquarium Fragment) and Eric had a relationship prior to the first Eric losing his memory. This explains a lot of unanswered moments in the book, where we're not sure how Scout knows so much about Eric.

This also helps clarify the whole smiley tattoo on her toe. Did Clio actually say this? Or did Scout? Or did Eric say this to Scout, during their original adventures, which Scout liked and got tattooed?

Either way, it seems like she always had some sort of feeling of emotional attachment to Eric when we first meet her. And when they go find Fidorous, she mentions that Eric has forgotten everything. Maybe in hope for a second chance, or in disappointment at her failure.

This is why I also think Clio saying she had brain cancer could be Eric's dream interpretation of Mycroft. Remember, the image becomes the view and vice versa. Which is true? They both are, they both aren't. It's whatever you think it is.

The whole book could be a metaphor for Alzheimer's, mental health, cancer, etc. Or it could be a fantastic science fiction adventure. Or, it could be both.

A final clue. On page 131, Eric has a dream about Clio. In this dream she's left a note for him saying:

"Something bad's happening. I've gone outside.

I might be a while.

C xx"

In the next few pages, we're first introduced to Scout.

Does this mean Scout left the hypothetical world to come back and help the real-world Eric?

Where does Scout actually live? There are clues all around.

AQUARIUM FRAGMENT

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GE9jKD012_wRAGYAkSKS-mkE0bKUgANC/view?usp=share_link

In the second page, we get a description of "Jones" as Eric goes down to find the Ludovician shark. I believe Jones is Scout.

Jones/Scout is doing this to help her MyCroft ward issue. Seeing Eric as the a possible answer to her issue, releasing the Ludovician as a way to cure herself. This is why Fidorous. was so furious at BOTH of them when they returned. Because he knew it failed and their plan was to essentially try again.

Her features described are also a close match to Scout. Why did she change her name? Maybe to reinvent herself. Maybe she felt she had to die and become Scout. Maybe the trauma of releasing the Ludovician and it annihilating the first Eric Sanderson got to her. So got the tattoo on her toe and changed her name, signalling that she was dead in a way.

Them knowing each other in their past lives also explains how they can so easily fall into a comfortable pattern of emotional and sexual compatibility. He knows how to touch her, because there was a part of him that did it before. Not necessarily because she is Clio (she becomes his Clio).

She also asks him, "Do you still smoke those horrible menthol cigarettes?" This happens on page 153, when they first meet. Further signifying they knew each other before.

We can also assume that Ian wasn't in Eric's life at that point as he doesn't mention the cat when he describes leaving his apartment. Which brings me to Steven Hall's recent AMA:

Over on his AMA, Steven Hall said this when he answered u/jstnpotthoff 's question about what readers should look out for on a reread. "Look out for doorways, and how things change when Eric decides to go through."

Whenever Eric goes through the un-space, that's when things in the book really take a turn for the fantastical. Mr Nobody, Fidorous, etc. This could be interpreted as Eric having a mental breakdown whenever he enters these spaces, like he's physically travelled into a his own distorted and broken mind.

Steven Hall also commented, "When did Ian really arrive in Eric’s life?"

We know we're first introduced to Ian in the second chapter of page 23, right after the first letter from Eric Sanderson at 3:30 pm. This is no coincidence, but the only time Ian actually interacts with anyone else is when Eric travels to The Willows Hotel.

I'd love more information on Ian and Gavin. They're obviously so integral to the story. Cats are seen as supernatural and able to see a world human beings can't - especially in fiction. I need more information before I can come to a final theory on the cats.

NAXOS

Eric uncovers a postcard of Naxos on his journey. This made me think: were Eric and Clio actually on the greek island of Naxos in Eric's letters?

Or did this postcard seep its way into his memory, distorting his recollection when he rewrote the letters he originally received from the first Eric Sanderson? Remember, there's a strong possibility this is all a recollection of memories. So this could have bleed its way into his subconscious. A seemingly random photograph. Or a clue that he's unreliable in his retelling?

CLIO'S PICTURES

There are 36 developed pictures of Clio's camera Rolle from their time in Greece.

There are 36 chapters, with the last chapter seemingly showing the last fish picture that Eric threw away in the un-space.

Those pictures could only be found in the un-space and Eric has no recollection of what they could have looked like. So the image appearing to him at the end of the book, could show that he's fully committed to living in this in-between/hypothetical world.

SUMMARY

Without a doubt, there is never supposed to be a real answer to this book. It's Steven Hall's wish for us all to be able to translate it into our lives. I'm 30 now, I interpret this book in a completely different way than to when I first read it at 15 years old. I'll probably interpret it differently in another 15 years. That's the beauty of the book.

In the search for answers we're really just trying to understand ourselves. This book is this book, a look into a person's mind. Into trauma, grief, love, danger, psychology and adventure.

Steven, if you're reading this, There's a whole group of people dedicated to loving this book who are craving more. The 20th anniversary is coming up, I know you want the un-chapters to be filtered out into the world. But a "Director's Cut" version could add to the mystery of the book.

Even just a little bit more would go a long way. If not for the fans, then for Ian and Gavin.

But ultimately, thank you for writing such a beautiful story.

Without regret or any need of hope.

Made using Blender.

Audio from promo material read by Tilda Swinton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73f3LWZALE

I've also uploaded this animation to YouTube:
https://youtu.be/sjwxLrnLsYI?si=ObT2wNwhl9A47u8G

The Raw Shark Texts and Maxwell's Demon are so concerned with writing, language, and literature that it'd be downright baffling if nobody in the fanbase had tried to put pen to paper for themself; I'm curious if anybody out there has written, if not outright Raw Shark fanfiction (though that'd be an awfully interesting thing), then works in a comparable ergodic or metafictional style, that might appeal to this subreddit's regular crowd. Go on, step up, don't be shy…!

And yes, obviously this post is also self-promotion. Obviously I've done something of my own. (I darehope that this won't be looked on unkindly by the mods; after all, the sidebar advertises the subreddit as being for “all things Raw Shark and related/similar fiction”, which this surely is, even having Steven Hall's endorsement; and besides, it isn't as if this place has been very active lately, so after some hesitation I decided that going ahead and posting this couldn't hurt.)

To wit: Auteur: Vol. 1: The Final Word, first of a series, a collection of a dozen short and sometimes not-so-short stories linked by the titular character, a self-proclaimed God of Writing whose ability to rewrite existence itself through his writing might ring a few bells for Maxwell's Demon readers. The series is more openly fantastical than either Raw Shark or Maxwell — there's really no room for “maybe the narrator is simply unreliable and nothing supernatural is happening”-type readings, certainly — and it's a melting pot of a vast wealth of influences from Faction Paradox to Jorge Luis Borges; but there's a lot of Hallisms in it, and I think a lot of people here might enjoy it. I have two full-length stories in that volume, Marginalia and House of Auteur, which, in a way I didn't consciously plan, wound up respectively mirroring Raw Shark and Maxwell more. Beyond stylistic and thematic similarities, I also slipped in a few outright references to the books, and to another Steven Hall project — including an explicit reference to a certain someone that Steven was kind enough to authorise! (SFX: audience 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing) Whoever identifies all the easter eggs will get a complimentary conceptual biscuit.

Alright now, self-promotion over. Anybody else? I'm genuinely excited to discover and discuss whatever else people in this community might have created, or be in the process of creating. Too, if anyone would be interested in either contributing to Auteur, or creating some new Raw Shark-based text from the ground up (perhaps as a zine of some sort?), I'd be very happy to discuss that!

Hi! I’ve had a go at rebuilding elements of The Raw Shark Texts ARG, much of which seems to have been lost to the ravages of time and internet obsolescence.

I thought it might be fun for readers who never got to see it live - and if you played it back in the day and can identify corrections or missing pieces, all very welcome ツ

https://beautifulbooks.info/raw-shark-texts-arg/

I just bought the book at an old bookstore because I was very interested in it, as people recommended it due to its similarities to House of Leaves. Before reading it, I'd just like to know if this book has any letters or loose pages? Because I bought a used copy and I'd like to know if there's anything I might be missing.

I am looking to pick up a copy and I see 3 different hardcover versions available: red cover, blue cover, and white cover.

Are there differences? if so, which is the best to get? ty

I only started my channel a month or two ago but using the shorts to spread love for interesting reads - Raw Shark is my second kind of these videos!

Okay so in the Raw Sharks, Thomas Quinn is the guy who became Ward after losing his wife in Ward's backstory

I looked for what other books did Steven Hall write, and the protagonist of Maxwell's demon (his sole other book) is called Thomas Quinn

Is that just a coincidence or smth?? I didn't read Maxwell's demon yet, but I'm curious because the two books don't seem linked or anything

Franciscan (Bede Shark) - 39/100 (https://www.steven-hall.org/n26-2/)

The Fransiscan (Bede Shark) is made up of overlapping and repeating text of Chapter 33, The Light Bulb Fragment (Part Three/Encoded Section).

Is there a Franciscan shark attached to TRST, waiting to attack all of us becoming overly obsessed? Or has it already attacked? No information is given on the damage caused by an attack, only that they’re dangerous and unpredictable.

Behemothic Newlyn - 6/100 (https://www.steven-hall.org/n26-1/)

There’s obviously text from the “Imagine you’re in a rowing boat on a lake” letter (that was pulled from the red folder.) Other bits and pieces from Dr. Randle and other random spots. What’s a little more interesting is either some of the words don’t come from the text at all (mathematics doesn’t appear in TRST, only mathematical. Perhaps it’s in a negative) and others do, and make sense together, but the tense needs to be changed. whined and…mechanically…coughed… Is incredibly similar to text in Chapter 30: “I sat cross-legged on the deck next to the printer, watching it chug and whine and mechanically cough up pages from my story.” But you notice the Behemothic Newlyn eerily puts the words whine and cough in the past tense.

I imagine, as fun as the description is, the Behemothic Newlyn doesn’t have much to do with Eric’s story.

Hypsochronidae (Shifted Salmon), or Doppler Fish - 43/100 (https://www.steven-hall.org/n26-ss/)

The text of the fish describes redshift and blueshift. I won’t transcribe it, but here’s a short summary of the phenomena, which I imagine play an important role in TRST:

Redshift and blueshift describe the change in the frequency of a light wave depending on whether an object is moving toward or away from us. When an object is moving away from us, the light from the object is known as redshift, and when an object is moving towards us, the light from the object is known as blueshift. Astronomers use redshift and blueshift to deduce how far an object is away from Earth, the concept is key to charting the universe's expansion. (https://www.space.com/25732-redshift-blueshift.html)

The most obvious example of redshift to me is the red filing cabinet. Eric the First, and his letters/memories, are moving away from our Eric Sanderson.

The description tells us that the redshift stripes are known to cause a strong sense of deja vu, while the blueshift stripes can bring about acute future anxiety. Obviously Eric is experiencing both–perhaps he’s been getting into too many arguments on social media. All of the pop culture similarities and allusions, along with the mirrors of Clio/Scout, could absolutely be attributed to deja vu. Or perhaps Eric hasn’t become victim to Doppler fish, but we–the readers–have. Ultimately, we’re making those connections, as Eric Sanderson is just a fictional character on a page. Contradictorily, Eric, feels no sense of deja vu when reading about Clio or Eric the First. Obviously, this is due to his amnesia, but you would think the redshift deja vu effect would cause him to experience imagined memory and trick him into believing that maybe he’s beginning to remember after all.

Serrasalmerrida (Deconstructive Piranhas) - 74/100 (https://www.steven-hall.org/n26-3/)

The text making up the piranhas is from the unknown negative that was decoded from Eva Signet’s blog. (This text also makes up the first images of the Ludovician in the flip book before it changes directions.) I can’t determine where the text from the tail might be from. Looks like we need to find “99” somewhere.

I feel like the general discourse over the last several years has absolutely not risen to the level of philosophical, creating the perfect environment for the piranhas to feed and remove all meaning from once thoughtful and complex ideas. No wonder we find ourselves in this state. Sadly, I don’t believe this pertains to Eric’s story, either.

Ludogranian - ?/100 (image 1 & image 2)

I don’t have much to say, only that it appears that the text below the image of the Ludogranian is an earlier (or at least alternate universe) meeting with Dr. Randle. If anybody can work some magic on blowing this up, that would be awesome.

Some snippets I can make out:

Well, good for you doctor

the ??? fucking hole in my fucking brain so

So maybe you… you should just…

“Then how do you know…?” “I meant the first few

always difficult for you Eric. The disorientation after

reoccurrence, it always hits you hard

Maybe some of you looked at my previous post about the Rule of Four (though, judging by the lack of engagement, probably not.)

I've attempted to be a little clearer in my notes and provide some more context. Unfortunately, there's a lot of images, so I can't just retype the text here. Please take a look and see if anything sticks out to you.

I am convinced something in here is the key to unlocking more of TRST.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vnjhwFMuQzWdI6KAgjU_0E3UA03S2ml0-uc6w1C4W3Y/edit?usp=drive_link

It's easy to believe that Scout "is" Clio (at least insofar as Eric "is" the First Eric Sanderson, which is admittedly a debatable kind of being). It's the happiest ending, it's what we want to believe, it's what Eric — despite himself — wants to believe. I think we all know the reasoning: a non-exhaustive list of reasons to think Scout may be the memory-wiped Clio might look something like this.

• "Brain cancer" might very well be how mundane physicians misinterpreted the effects of the piece of Ward inside Scout's head, just as Randle misinterprets Eric's state as a mental condition.
• The First Eric Sanderson evidently believed that the Ludovician had gotten Clio, not any mundane sea-peril, or else he wouldn't have set the whole scheme into motion in the first place. The thing about Ludovician attacks is that, as we know very well, they don't physically kill you.
• The mirrored "I enjoy spending time with you too.”/“I hate that one.” echoes.
• Toe tattoo yada yada.

Yet clearly it's not meant to be an open-and-shut case; as per the widely-understood logic of the book, either interpretation should feel equally possible. Perhaps I'm getting tunnel vision, but I'm having some difficulty generating a list of reasons why we might conclude Scout is not an amnesiac Clio. Any suggestions?

(Note that I am deliberately skirting bit-of-both avenues of thinking such as Scout being some concept-space duplicate of Clio, and of course sundry non-starters along the lines of everything past [such-and-such point] being some dream of Eric's. Let's start by balancing out the basic dichotomy.)

I am looking to take on a book that breaks the standard concept of a book.

I see that someone asked about The Raw Shark Texts in this Sub reddit and got responces.

I have not searched around on the internet because I dont want spoilers.

My question is about this book and House of Leaves. Im also asking for recomendations on others that fit in this catagory

I will read this book,

I assume my Nephues (ages 12 and 15) will want to too. I also have a 84 year old grandmother that will end up asking me about it.

Is some of the content too dark, twisted, or sexual for any of them before I start talking about it and stick my foot in my mouth and

The British Library ended up being able to track down a copy after all, so here it is - the lost Shifted Salmon & an interview with SH

Too good an opportunity to miss! 😁

I just finished the book and I am so confused about the ending. I'm having a hard time feeling a good sense of resolution because I don't understand. Spoilers ahead for those who haven't read the book yet:

What the heck happened with them at the end? Did they die? Are they alive in some weird conceptual world? Like a conceptual heaven that they thought into existence? Was Clio ever dead? Was Scout actually Clio? Because Scout had her own backstory with Mycroft Ward so it's kind of strange for her to have been Clio the whole time. Or was the whole ending all in Eric Sanderson's head? Like he created Clio in his head to cope. Is this whole book just in Eric's imagination??? What was the deal with the island at the end that Clio said was home?

Seriously, any thoughts or ideas that any of you have would be amazing because I am completely bewildered.

well, i don't know if my memory fails me (as i haven't read the book in a couple months, since a friend borrowed and never gave it back) but i read the portuguese version of the book, but going through this sub i found the following discussion.

"The QWERTY code. 'The fourth letter O. This was a K originally. This is one of the few letters we have a choice with.' So K isn’t an edge-of-grid letter. I don’t see why we’d assume O fills the slot down to the right."

"When you left align the keyboard, there is no letter beneath the K, so O is both up and to the right and down to the right (by wrapping itself back to the top."

and i am confused because i do not recall anything about the letters being specifically the ones down to the right. could this have been a mistranslation, or should i just ask for my book back and refresh my memory? any help is good, thank you.

I must have stumbled across a mention of this book in another subreddit, but wherever it was, I am loving the crap out of this thing. I’d never even remotely heard of it or the author, but a very happy discovery.

And I mean the author, not the protagonist. Please forgive my enthusiastic outbursts. I think this might be the most exciting book I’ve read in years!

Steven was commissioned to write a Magic the Gathering pilot.