Does it come with a stick-shift?

a stapled document

All round the hall, like glittering waxworks, stood the tall, bearded sowars of the Governor’s bodyguard, with pennoned lances in their hands.

We have moved out of fannish lore and into questions of ontology. I have long been fascinated by anything having to do with the nature of existence, nonexistence, the interplay between the two — even more than being fascinated by discussions of fanlore.