Breaking Open the Template Review
Aug. 22nd, 2011 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So I finished up two books (dead-tree versions even).
First up: Breaking Open the Head: A Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism by Daniel Pinchbeck. There are many routes to shamanistic experiences -- drumming, chanting, movement, etc. There's also the use of psychedelics and in this book the author recounts his experiences. He participates in various tribal shamanistic practices around the world a well as more modern, "better living through chemistry" creations. He describes his own experiences and chats with other people working with/using psychedelics -- both as part of a spiritual practice or in a medical context.
The book is surprisingly literate. Pinchbeck pulls quotes from great writers of the past some of whom used psychedelics and some who didn't. He covers a wide range of topics and their connections (tenuous or strong) to altered states.
The book does kinda veer into odd territory. It seems to me that if psychedelics have any value for the average person it may lie in the concrete demonstration that what you perceive as "real" is dependent on a fragile brain chemistry. Yes, there's an objective reality where you and I agree that there's (say) a rock over there and it weighs such and such and it's color is so and so, but in order to function, we take it on faith that what we perceive is really there and the brain takes an awful lot of shortcuts. People get very comfortable with reality as they see it, even if that reality consists of half-truths or fabrications. Taking LSD and having a conversation with space aliens and having that be as real as walking down the street, says something pretty profound about our grey matter and can prod us to question our viewpoints a little more.
The downside, of course, is that now we've had this completely "real" experience where we talked to space aliens and simple logic doesn't dispel the reality of that encounter and our thinking tips over to magical. Honestly, that's what happens here. You get the usual mumbo-jumbo of vibrations and diplomatic probe spores from other dimensions and so on. I think the real question is can anyone have these kinds of consciousness-expanding moments and use it as lever to help them take action is our more consensual reality.
Anyway, on to a different kind of fantastical encounter. I read Template -- A Novel of the Archonate by Matthew Hughes. Mr. Hughes takes his stylistic cues from Jack Vance and his novels have a certain Dying Earth or Rhialto tone to them. Here he indulges in some science fantasy. A man named Conn Labro is a duelist and games player living in indentured servitude to a gaming house on Thrais. One of his regular clients turns up dead and leaves him enough money to buy his freedom. Curious to know more about his mysterious benefactor, Conn travels to Old Earth and has adventures along the way.
As happens in Vancian tales, the meat isn't so much in the story as in the characters and the setting. Here, the author uses a neat trick saying that every human civilization in the galaxy distinguishes itself by making a central tenet of their society a virtue that is usually regarded as a vice. Thus Conn's homeworld of Thrais is a Libertarian wet dream and Conn has great difficulty understanding any interaction that does not consist of some monetary gain. Along the way, Conn encounters other cultures who cluster around pride, gluttony, lust and so on.
It was a fun, breezy read. It didn't stray too far from the Vancian mold, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Typically, it very quickly winds things up without much of an epilog, but it's a fun trip. Recommended for folks who like picaresque science fantasy stories.
later
Tom
So I finished up two books (dead-tree versions even).
First up: Breaking Open the Head: A Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism by Daniel Pinchbeck. There are many routes to shamanistic experiences -- drumming, chanting, movement, etc. There's also the use of psychedelics and in this book the author recounts his experiences. He participates in various tribal shamanistic practices around the world a well as more modern, "better living through chemistry" creations. He describes his own experiences and chats with other people working with/using psychedelics -- both as part of a spiritual practice or in a medical context.
The book is surprisingly literate. Pinchbeck pulls quotes from great writers of the past some of whom used psychedelics and some who didn't. He covers a wide range of topics and their connections (tenuous or strong) to altered states.
The book does kinda veer into odd territory. It seems to me that if psychedelics have any value for the average person it may lie in the concrete demonstration that what you perceive as "real" is dependent on a fragile brain chemistry. Yes, there's an objective reality where you and I agree that there's (say) a rock over there and it weighs such and such and it's color is so and so, but in order to function, we take it on faith that what we perceive is really there and the brain takes an awful lot of shortcuts. People get very comfortable with reality as they see it, even if that reality consists of half-truths or fabrications. Taking LSD and having a conversation with space aliens and having that be as real as walking down the street, says something pretty profound about our grey matter and can prod us to question our viewpoints a little more.
The downside, of course, is that now we've had this completely "real" experience where we talked to space aliens and simple logic doesn't dispel the reality of that encounter and our thinking tips over to magical. Honestly, that's what happens here. You get the usual mumbo-jumbo of vibrations and diplomatic probe spores from other dimensions and so on. I think the real question is can anyone have these kinds of consciousness-expanding moments and use it as lever to help them take action is our more consensual reality.
Anyway, on to a different kind of fantastical encounter. I read Template -- A Novel of the Archonate by Matthew Hughes. Mr. Hughes takes his stylistic cues from Jack Vance and his novels have a certain Dying Earth or Rhialto tone to them. Here he indulges in some science fantasy. A man named Conn Labro is a duelist and games player living in indentured servitude to a gaming house on Thrais. One of his regular clients turns up dead and leaves him enough money to buy his freedom. Curious to know more about his mysterious benefactor, Conn travels to Old Earth and has adventures along the way.
As happens in Vancian tales, the meat isn't so much in the story as in the characters and the setting. Here, the author uses a neat trick saying that every human civilization in the galaxy distinguishes itself by making a central tenet of their society a virtue that is usually regarded as a vice. Thus Conn's homeworld of Thrais is a Libertarian wet dream and Conn has great difficulty understanding any interaction that does not consist of some monetary gain. Along the way, Conn encounters other cultures who cluster around pride, gluttony, lust and so on.
It was a fun, breezy read. It didn't stray too far from the Vancian mold, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Typically, it very quickly winds things up without much of an epilog, but it's a fun trip. Recommended for folks who like picaresque science fantasy stories.
later
Tom
