Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Printers' Imps


I just received a box of hard copies of the Maybe Quarterly, and I know a whole bunch got distributed across the planet, so you may come across one, or know someone who knows someone who can get you a copy...

I'll send a few out to people I know might like one - or can put you in touch with the guy publishing it - you can pay mail costs by PayPal and he could send you a bunch.

Or, or - Oh I don't know, we only did it for fun (as ever).

I am only sorry that Kent (our first editor) didn't live long enough to see us manifest it.

I really enjoyed sparring with Kentroversy – just because I don’t do those seemingly camp rituals doesn’t mean that he didn’t help me realise me that I shouldn’t dismiss the whole thing out of hand. We just belonged to different 'schools'.
the only image of Kentroversy I know of
The constant crossover between ‘show-biz legerdemain’ (of which I remain a fan, and occasional practitioner) and ‘ritual magick’ can lead to Second Circuit bickering among the sub-groups, but this exhibition in Austin, Texas (on the Alchemy website) demonstrates that the link remains strong.

Bobby and I made a collaborative piece bringing the two ‘greatest magicians in the world’ - Houdini and (young) Crowley - together - by Magical Means.

Anyway - manifesting the magazine does seem like magic to me - and here's a passage from AC that shows how close Kent and I sometimes came to thinking the same way.

MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

"Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.

(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge.
I therefore take "magickal weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations"---these sentences---in the "magickal language" ie, that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of Magick by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.)
In one sense Magick may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar."
Yeah, the shirt got stuck in a timewarp
So, behind the elaborate language I find a model of the world I can understand.
A couple of years ago we even manifested our own currency (though the only 'real' ones are the ones that RAW signed and sold on eBay, maybe) - you can still print yer own, if it takes yer fancy...Raw patatows seem worth at least as much as the average dollar/pound/euro these days!
You want a real one? Use your 'wrong hand' (RAW had got pretty shaky by then) and scribble 'RAW' on your 'forgery', and Shazam! it becomes authentic.
Hail Eris!

6 comments:

The Purple Gooroo said...

Awesome! Nice work, guys and gals!

Bogus, would you give the addy to buy one through PayPal? I definitely want to get a copy. Is your book available yet? I'll buy one as well, though Lulu--or even through PayPal.

That is too bad about Kent...I think he'd be pleased by the hard copy of the Quarterly.

Bogus Magus said...

Hi PG!

No problem, just email me a street address and I’ll send you one. In fact, I should send you a couple, so you can pass them on. Very few of us have any money, after all, so we can’t expect the elated one to cover all the costs – and have adopted a trickle-down distribution method.

Distributors in various countries (UK, US, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Australia) will each receive a bunch, and can do with them as they will. If you (or anyone else!) would like a 100 to play with, then I can put you in touch with Chris – he sent me 100 for $40 in mail costs (to the UK, less inside the US).

If you want a single copy, I’ll happily pay postage, just for the fun of it all! And if you choose to become a distributor you can maybe recoup your costs by selling some – who’s to know? Hail Eris! You could use PayPal to get your postage back, or ask for a s.a.e. or whatever you like.

No harm in leaving a copy in your favourite cafĂ©, or on a train (although we don’t really want them binned as easily as flyers, of course) or on a park bench with a Book Crossing sticker. Hand them out at music gigs, or leave some at a bookshop that stocks RAW books, or in your nearest art centre. Your imagination seems like the limit, really – as they now exist, and await scattering by ingenious methods.


As to the book: for those of you who haven’t visited Lulu yet, there is an item display page,
which allows you to see the front and back cover, and the first 12 pages. As they charge about a fiver to print and post a copy, I charged a tenner (I hate all that 9.99 stuff). The author can also offer a PDF download (which should be free, really, but currently I called it £2.30 for fairly obvious MLA reasons!)

Bear in mind that you get my first draft! I didn’t re-write, as one really should – and don’t expect people to feel that impressed as yet. Honest feedback would be fine. I may one day go back to it, and produce a properly revised and rewritten version (second edition). If nothing else, you get a fantastic cover by Bobby Campbell (worth the price alone!) I’d prefer to start from scratch and try again in November, why not join me? I hope to improve.

And you get a free storefront, which you could use for any publishing that might amuse you (my mate's novel, my mum's teaching notes, all may appear as free PDF downloads at some point).

Steve Fly Agaric said...

I also got a box of Maybe in the post today and i'm reading 'maybe' right now! Plus busy crafting a list of places and people to send them too. I think the mag' will get some balls swinging and rolling.

Onwords and outwards to a second edition...yeah.

Thanks Bogus, your intro: free for all just settled some butterflies. Now i'm off to read through with a cup of tea and a joint! CHEERS.

--fly agaric

borsky said...

Aye it rocks. Tomorrow I'll start distributing my pile. You guys gave a hard time for the lay-out, at some point I thought 'this will never happen' but finally and thanks to Bobby and el8ed1 we got it together.

A ship of Probing Fools - and I thought Bogus had gone strangely quiet on the forum - actually you were writing the novel Minja got you into. I'll certainly dig in, although the 2.30 quid became the less maybe 4.17 bucks.

Bogus Magus said...

Aw, Borsky, I wouldn't expect you to pay for my experiments...I'll make the PDF free pretty soon - but I was enjoying manifesting 'real' objects - magazines, books, etc - instead of just virtual ones.

I'll send you the PDF, no problem, but (like I said) I don't think of it as a finished book (well, finished as in 'I did it!' but not in terms of 'final draft') - I don't really know if it's readable yet. I hope to do better this November - although I will also be coming to the end of my online study (e-trainer) for the year, so it might get quite pressurized in November.

I am enjoying Antero's astrologik course right now - and the Moodle course forum works fine (in fact, even the MLA forum also seems to work pretty good right now).

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