0=2, aka "ain't nothin but a thang"

[saintbryan]

I've noticed a recurring idea cropping up in my life. “Idea” might not be the most complete way to describe it- I certainly have lots of ideas about it- but it could just be a universal law, or a pragmatic way-of-living or a philosophical imperative or some such. But I've started noticing a bunch of different ways in which it can be

Comments

[ext_506041]

Ham-fisted huh?

[saintbryan]

Yep. At least it behaved to me like a big hammy fist. I have a strong attraction to fantasy and fear, and your book filled that criteria well. I picked it up because an ex-roommate left it behind and I kept reading it because a part of me wanted to dive deeper into the paranoid "oh shit here comes a scary future" mood that I'd been feeling for the past year. I had to stop smoking weed for a little bit after reading it.

In particular what I found hammy about it were the prescribed descriptions of what a "matrix warrior" should act like and what one should experience. Had I read the book at an earlier time in my occult career I probably would have tried harder to ape those descriptions in the hope that it would make me more like a matrix warrior.

[ext_506041]

did you miss the satire perhaps?

[saintbryan]

I guess you could say that. While I was finding the book fantastic and scary I was also finding it funny, but I never did make up my mind as to whether the author intended it to be funny. Cynical, and making fun of life in the matrix, yes. But I could never actually tell if the book as a whole was serious or not.

Immediately after finishing the book, my primary criticism (arming myself against believing it to be true) was, "ok, so he tells a bunch of stories, but he never actually describes any concrete practices by which one may empirically confirm or deny his claims, leaving the reader floating about with only some ideas and their emotional biases (the ingredients of a faith)."
So yeah, it's quite possible that I missed something.

I liked the hell out of your "Being the One" doc. Did you write "Matrix Warrior" during the phase that your film describes? I'm curious as to where you were coming from when it was written.

[ext_506041]

the book was a self-satire of sorts, as well as a chiding love-hate letter to the world/humanity. I took it seriously because I am a serious writer; but i didn't intend for the book to be taken seriously, exactly. I was aiming for a best seller, so it was meant as a game, for entertainment purposes, like the movie. I guess because I took those Castaneda-soaked ideas seriously myself, even when i was using them for satire, that gravitas remained

[saintbryan]

So it seems that you put a fine hand into making the reader unsure if you were a hammy paranoid or a satirical genius? The book did in fact succeed in that I did enjoy it even when I thought it was a lark. After reading it, instead of stewing in the ideas as if they were super serious things, I decided to write a sci-fi role-playing game based loosely on the ideas presented in the book. That was fun.

[ext_506041]

how far did you get with the game?

transmedia artist joseph matheny was interested in doing something with the book too, for a while

[saintbryan]

Not all that far in terms of actually playing it, but I wrote out a basic 2-campaign-length story arc, which I am unwilling to share here because some of the players of the game read this journal, but if you're curious, I will share it with you in private.

Did Joseph Matheny lose interest? I've been into RPGs since junior high, but lately I've been considering it as a highly untapped artistic medium (ok, not exactly untapped [see WoW, et al], but at least potentially powerful). I ought to look more into these "alternate reality games." My only concern is that they may be a bit more powerful than I suspect. Some people are very susceptible to getting lost in fantasy worlds.