Coincidence vs Significance
I wanted to do a longer thing on this, but I'll just rough draft it here before I get distracted and forget again.
I'm currently gearing up to go BOTG for a summer search and I wanted to mention how overwhelming this battle (title) can be. I'm locked in place. I have three very convincing solutions for the crux of this thing - which I believe is the line: "Return her face to find the place". Given that he has publicly stated that there are multiple ways to solve this, I have chosen to approach the riddle in such a way that any solution I come up with must align with an alternative, independant solution without-to the best of my ability-introducing fabricated bias.
The problem is that I now have three solutions that fit this critera well and, crucially, they all lead to wildly different corners of the American West. The main issue is the battle between coincidence and significance.
As a baseline example, let's look at Blacktail Deer Creek. Obviously a very important place for Justin. So, do we allow any Deer Creek to be a clue? Preposterous. There are far too many such names, which is logical-deer live all over the place. So then, variations that allow for specificity: Blacktail? Black? Dark? Other languages? Myths and legends? I think we also need to consider the duality of a thing as well- it's opposite, reflection, so: Whitetail? White? It's predator? It's ancestors?
This type of (over?) analysis can be applied to literally anything in Beyond the Map's Edge.
I think it is unrealistic to expect a massive convergence of such general clues, but I also think that a density of relevance of such clues will be a significant factor for the eventual correct solution. So then, what would that look like? There simply isn't enough physical space in a given area to cram in the names of things that would trigger a searcher to say: "Yep. That's it." In a way that would be wholly and completely Justin Posey.
Therefore, I think that a reasonable approach to this thing would be to focus the erratica. The weird, the obtuse, the esoteric. The references that come out of the blue. The stuff on the edge. I think a local density of that information has a chance.
This thing is an absolute labyrinth of potential relevance. It amazes me how connected everything is; follow the etymology of things back to the PIE roots and you'll be shaking your head in wonder. The syncretism of mythology over time is no different. Truly remarkable. It's also truly maddening when trying to sift Mr. Posey's story through the seive of it all. There is a way. But what that way is still eludes me...
What do y'all think? What have you found that simply had to be relevant that ended up being coincidence?