Digital vs. Analog: ELI5

[Kitsune]

Okay, please explain to me like I'm 5, because I rewound this part over and over, and something's not sinking in. I get that sometimes things DELIBERATELY don't sink in at first and you just need to wait for them (I'm super fun to watch movies with... "WHY IS HE DOING THAT?!" "...Just be quiet for three minutes and you'll see..."), but I feel like there's something I'm objectively missing.

From MAG39 Wiki:

Jonathan explains that he finds some of the statements real, regardless of how dismissive he appears. He explains that some of the records can't be done digitally, and it's those ones that he records on the tape recorder. He refers to them as "the ones with wrinkles", and said they felt there was something solid to them.

So let's start at the beginning, because I may have missed a basic premise on an early listen. These are the facts as I THINK I understand them. Please tell me where I've misunderstood something completely.

• The Magnus Institute studies the paranormal.
• People come to the Institute with stories of the paranormal, meet with reception, and if they seem legit (?) / fall under the rules, they are asked to write down their accounts. Additionally, sometimes they record them with Jonathan rather than writing accounts.
• The Archives itself consist of 3 groupings:
  
  1. Artifact storage,
  2. Written accounts,
  3. Recorded accounts either
     1. Read by Jonathan from the written accounts
     2. Recounted by the person who lived them (presumably no written account exists, in this case?) with Jonathan in the room, beginning and ending the recording.

• When Jonathan took over, his task was to take the piles of written accounts and organize them (by case number? Which is to say, chronologically?) AND record them.
• He was frustrated by the fact that they were so obviously out of order, a fact we now assume is because Gertrude was either trying to piece something together herself, or trying to warn her successors / everyone.
• The quote above suggests that, as Jonathan was recording the pile of unorganized written accounts, some of them "refused" to be recorded on his laptop/digitally, forcing him to use the tape recorder. I assume the recording didn't happen at all in these cases / was somehow deleted.
• Jonathan started noticing a pattern -- that the ones that "didn't work" digitally, that he had to record on the ancient tape recorder were the ones that seemed truly supernatural.
• I assume "the ones with wrinkles" is poetry for their hidden depths, not that literally the tape from the recorder was actually wrinkled. (Ah, my childhood...)
• Now, the MAG### numbering of the stories is obviously for meta reasons -- so we know what episode we're on. 
• Also meta: we only hear the ones done on tape-recorder (aka, the real ones), no digital ones (because they're not real paranormal experiences)
• So, presumably, in-universe, as we've been with Jonathan, starting MAG1, the recordings we've heard were only one of every, say three, where MAG1 was misbehaving digitally, he put it to ancient tape recorder, it worked, then he moved on to a digital recording of a written statement, perhaps another digital recording, and so on until he found another misbehaving digital recorder and took back to the tape -- providing US (meta) with MAG2.
• OR has one particular pile/box of written statements (and some recounted ones) ALL been misbehaving digitally, and Jonathan has blown fully through 1 through 40, because that was what Gertrude left behind for him to suss out. And it was only later that he realized, "huh, ever since I moved to tape recordings, every one of these has been real and connected"?

This whole series, I think I've thought it was the latter, since (meta) we have been worried about things like "How long has Martin been missing; we haven't heard from him in 3 recordings" etc, but now I'm starting to think it's the second-to-last bullet point... or something else entirely.

YES I AM VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THINGS, BUT ALSO SOMETIMES DON'T UNDERSTAND VERY BASIC NARRATIVE PREMISES. Please help me and don't make too much fun of me.

[Jonny]

Oct 15, 2016 18:20:16 GMT Kitsune said:

• So, presumably, in-universe, as we've been with Jonathan, starting MAG1, the recordings we've heard were only one of every, say three, where MAG1 was misbehaving digitally, he put it to ancient tape recorder, it worked, then he moved on to a digital recording of a written statement, perhaps another digital recording, and so on until he found another misbehaving digital recorder and took back to the tape -- providing US (meta) with MAG2.

Correct.

I don't recall it ever being explicitly stated, but the first statement to be recorded to tape (MAG 1) was recorded in-universe at the beginning of March 2016, and MAG39 and 40 were took place at the end of July 2016, so the first 40 recordings took place over the course of roughly 5 months. 

The MAG numbering is semi in-universe, in as far as it accurately indicates the order in which the tapes were recorded. The week-long gaps between episodes is completely out-of-universe and to facilitate its being workable podcast; in-universe there may be multiple weeks between, or only a few days (or hours, in the case of the latest episodes).

[cannonlongshot]

Pretty certain it's implicitly stated, you'll be happy to know - Tim does some April Fools jokes, though for some reason my mind is telling me that Martin investigated Carlos' flat in February? Don't believe that until I have a chance to check it XD

Kitsune, that's pretty much how I assumed it happened! And don't worry, I'm sure this community is nice enough to not laugh at you, especially since MAG is definitely not a straightforward narrative!

[spooniermist]

Yeah, this confused me at first as well. I think there was a brief mention in MAG1 that some didn't record and he recorded them in between, although I may be making it up.

From a timeline point of view, assuming MAG 1 happened shortly (weeks?) after Jonathan started, then all the craziness with Jane Prentiss started about 2 months after he started his job. Martin was supposed to have been living in the archives for 3 months, so over half of his career has seen Jonathan being hunted by the worms. That's pretty horrible in a whole different way, really.

[Kitsune]

Thanks, everyone! What a rich universe!

[cannonlongshot]

Yep, Martin investigated Carlos' flat late February. That places MAG22 in mid-March, which has some interesting connotations:

Martin was locked in his room for the duration of recordings 1-21. I think he's mentioned, but with most of the groundwork being done beforehand (we see it takes a good few months for recordings to be done, since it took so long for Sasha's research into the Harold Silvana case to come up) mean it's not quite a plot hole

The first 22 statements were recorded in a matter of weeks, but the following 18 took almost 5 months. Turns out worm infestations really kill workplace productivity!

[Jonny]

Oct 17, 2016 15:07:30 GMT cannonlongshot said:

Yep, Martin investigated Carlos' flat late February. That places MAG22 in mid-March, which has some interesting connotations:

Martin was locked in his room for the duration of recordings 1-21. I think he's mentioned, but most of the groundwork being done beforehand (we see it takes a good few months for recordings to be done, since it took so long for Sasha's research into the Harold Silvana case to come up) mean it's not quite a plot hole

The first 22 statements were recorded in a matter of weeks, but the following 18 took almost 5 months. Turns out worm infestations really kill workplace productivity!

You're right - I think that's probably me getting confused between the release schedule (which started in March with the quick-release) and the in-universe timeline - I've been plotting season 2 and so am currently wrapped up in a different set of dates. Also, Gertrude disappeared in March 2015, so that was also in my head (plus Elias wouldn't take a year to appoint a new Archivist). So I'm retconning my previous statement:

Canonically, MAG 1 was recorded in October 2015 (probably on Halloween, because that pleases me thematically).

[cannonlongshot]

Indeed, as MAG 17 was recorded about a week after Martin went missing, it does seem like there would be an exponential decrease in efficiency in the previous timeline XD

Apologies, Jonny, for holding your feet to the fire like this. I think I possibly hold you more to account than is entirely fair, but I can't help but feel like it's also bad to just ignore it?

Edit: I swear, I was just listening to MAG17, I don't have a savant-like knowledge of all dates in the series

^yet

[Jonny]

Oct 17, 2016 15:35:06 GMT cannonlongshot said:

Apologies, Jonny, for holding your feet to the fire like this. I think I possibly hold you more to account than is entirely fair, but I can't help but feel like it's also bad to just ignore it?

No, you're quite right. It's not fair to build an intricate web of clues and connections and then get confused and directly feed people misinformation - you're absolutely right to call me on it when I mess up, as occasionally there are deliberate discrepancies or inconsistencies, so I really need to be clear with when it's actually me, the author, getting a date wrong. I can only assure you I keep better track of everything when I'm actually writing it!