Book Club: Poker Without Cards

[Cramulus]

I found this interview with Ben Mack in which he promises to spill some of the book's secrets:

Tim, first off, thanks you for granting me this interview. I am greatly appreciative. I was concerned by comments I read on your site and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my perspective. This is the first straightforward interview I will do. I will be candid here because I respect occult investigation, and of all places, this is a forum for honesty. If you read books on the history of magic, you know that churches have been using the techniques of magicians for as long as we have records.

So, I will explain some of the mysteries of my book, Poker Without Cards. I won’t be doing my normal dog-and-pony show. So, as you ask questions, there are likely to be spoilers contained herein, and readers who haven’t read my book are encouraged to go to my site and download the free $3.23 version and read that first. That $3.23 edition is actually free. I do ask that if a reader finds value that they donate $3.23 to whomever or whatever they like. I hope that your readers will blog about my book. I also hope some will consider blogging under the name Howard Campbell when they are raging against the disinformation of our government and corporatocracy, if the two can be separated.

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2005/09/11/ben-mack-interview-part-1/

I haven't read it because I'm not done with the book yet. Basically placing it here to find later.

To me, a lot of the fun of this book has been trying to divine Ben Mack's motivation as it exists outside of the book. He's definitely trying to induce the same kind of worldbreaking chapel-perilous introspection that Illuminatus, Shrodinger's Cat, and other fictions about consciousness were aiming for.

Parts could really use edits though. For example, there's a paragraph on page 76 that also occurs on page 107. Because of the nature of the book, I'm left questioning whether it was Ben Mack's intention to jar me back into reality like that. If so, it's a creative, albeit clumsy device.

[ZL 'Kai' Burington, M.S.]

What I get from the interview (without spoiling anything) is that Ben Mack was writing one great big Life Embellished, Marty Stu, or Cannon Sue.

[Cain]

I think there was a sort of meta-fictional "interview" recording of him on Grey Lodge's website, somewhere.

Anytime Joesph Matheny's name is mentioned, you can be assured that the fiction extends well beyond where you would expect.

Does this Matheny fellow have something to do with PwoC other than being among the references?

He edited and published it, and also did the interview with Mack, IIRC.

Also, the mention of Ong's Hat, later on in the book, is a direct reference to an extremely intricate and mindfucky ARG Matheny ran back in 2000, before most people even knew of ARG's.  He does that alot, setting up mysterious websites and creating games, only to spill the beans 7 or 8 years later.

The guy's like the ultimate Discordian prankster, and I know the Grey Lodge crew tend to help each other out on projects, even if most of the work comes down to one person or so.

[Elder Iptuous]

he should sub out the editing next time....

if you're making a 'mind map' book to list off and arrange interesting references, you should at least spell them right.  there's been several so far that google has incredulously asked, "Did you mean ..... "

thanks for pointing me at the grey lodge.... neat-o site.  they have a link to the Codex Seraphinianus in pdf form, which i was looking for at the bookstores for a while...

[Cainad]

And the author of Finite and Infinite Games is James P. Carse, not Allan Carse.

[Phosphatidylserine]

I am done with classes now, so I will try to get through this before... whenever. Looks fun.

[ZL 'Kai' Burington, M.S.]

To me, a lot of the fun of this book has been trying to divine Ben Mack's motivation as it exists outside of the book. He's definitely trying to induce the same kind of worldbreaking chapel-perilous introspection that Illuminatus, Shrodinger's Cat, and other fictions about consciousness were aiming for.

Cram, I think you're spot on about the chapel-perilous introspection.

[Unayko]

So far: I really like it. Specially the beginning of the fourth session, though i really dislike (as someone pointed out before) his style. Dialogues are  ok but it sounds way too crafted and the fact that H.C. violates almost every existing pragmatics-rule as he 'talks' really kills the flow of reading

[Cain]

OK, so who hasn't finished yet?

[Phosphatidylserine]

Me. But I don't mind spoilers, if that's what you're worried about.

[That One Guy]

OK, so who hasn't finished yet?

I haven't even had a chance to start yet (this weekend is set aside for catching up), but don't wait for me - I'll slog my way through the thread whenever I get up to speed and jump in

[Cramulus]

I'm about 3/4ths done

we should start a separate thread for spoilers, I think

[ZL 'Kai' Burington, M.S.]

If most people are halfway through or so, what does everyone think of twisp? Is it just more intellishit or possibly a useful personal NLP trigger to let go of whatever is bugging you that you can't change?

[Cain]

we should start a separate thread for spoilers, I think

Seems like too much effort.  I can wait you guys out.

If most people are halfway through or so, what does everyone think of twisp? Is it just more intellishit or possibly a useful personal NLP trigger to let go of whatever is bugging you that you can't change?

Good question.  I suppose you could, in NLP parlance, create a trigger with such a word and associate it with the action of letting go of a problem (since you are what you do, and the "fake it until you make it" approach of memetics, it would be both a reminder and a trigger), but it doesn't seem to have any out of book function that I can see, except maybe to open up the possibility of its use.  Like fnord.

[Cramulus]

I think it's useful, in that it expands our vocabulary about understanding. The theory being that if we have more words for learning, we'll be better suited to types of learning. I think there's some credence to that - personally, I became a lot more keyed into synchronicity after I learned the term.  Twisp is a sensation I'm familliar with, but lacked a word to describe it.