Very glad to say my paperback edition is published and the cover can now be seen to the right of this post. I think I prefer it to the hardback.
It may surprise people not in the publishing business to know that the dust jacket, cover, blurb, even the title of a book is decided by the publisher. Of course established, successful and otherwise powerful authors can exercise a lot of influence, and these days publishers are much less likely to go with something an author hates, but convention and precedent says that the publisher in the end has say-so.
Apart from making my book a bit like a conventional history book - which of course it isn't - the hardback jacket was a bit dark, and I think there was also a danger it might've attracted nutters who want to believe that the world economy is controlled by a cabal of rich old Jews or that when you reach the highest level of initiation in Freemasonry, it is whispered in your ear that in fact the organization is dedicated to the worship of Satan.
Nutters like this have minds that are drenched in hate. They want to believe the worst.
The sort of nutters I want to meet want to believe the best. Their brains are drenched in demethyltriptamine - the secretion which gives rise to imagination - and people who have enough imagination know that it is a sacred faculty, at its roots a part of the impulse that creates the world.
What I want to show in my book is that is it is a crucial feature of the human condition that we have immense latitude when it comes to choosing what we want to believe about the world, and it is important that we become aware of which part of ourselves we use to do the choosing. Is it the best part or the worst part? Choosing with the best part is what that great initiate St Paul meant by 'Faith'.
Happy Solstice, MB
Posted by: Nick | June 21, 2008 at 03:24 PM
Oh, this is one of those deep and meaningful conversations about reality that I have with my best friend, usually over a couple of pots of tea (since I don't drink).
Over the months, the only thing we have agreed on is that reality is subjective. Any attempt to objectify a subjective reality is doomed to failure (which is why Kant doesn't work for me). Just because you cannot see my reality doesn't make my reality any less real - it's the Memorex phenomenon if you remember the advert - is it real or is it Memorex?
This then tends to lead on to the nature of hallucinations, altered states of consciousness and when am I going to get round to reading Graham Hancock's Supernatural? You can probably imagine how the conversation goes from there....
Although the bit about the hallucinating spiders is entertaining enough if you're only watching my reactions!
Posted by: Stef | June 23, 2008 at 09:45 AM
I don't remember that ad, Steph. Can you remind me?
Supernatural is brilliant book. The conclusion it comes to - as a result of the author's own investigations into altered states - is that this imaginative reality is really real. A key point is that when different people go into these states, they seem to visit the same place!
I agree with your caution about objective reality. The point here is that many of the same criteria we use to try to convince oursleves that our everyday world is 'real' can also be applied to the imaginative realm. That's one of the exciting discoveries of esoteric philosophy.
Posted by: jonathan black | June 24, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Would be happy to, JB.
It's an old ad - late 1980s, early 1990s - for cassette tapes. It begins with Pete Murphy of Bauhaus (an 80s goth band of whom I was much enamoured at the time) sitting in a leather armchair, allegedly listening to the opening bars of Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain on his stereo. However, as the piece gets into its stride, the walls of his sitting room fade out and he is finally seen sitting in his leather chair being blasted by the wind on a mountainside.
The tagline was "Is it real, or is it Memorex?" and it has stuck with me for years. It's very reminiscent of the parts of the Matrix movie (another one that I love) where Neo is having the structure of the Matrix explained to him by Morpheus. But I could go on about that for ever.
NB - If you have a spare 10 minutes, read The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas - contains an intriguing discussion on the nature of reality, language and what makes a god. Well, I'm enjoying it.
Posted by: Stef | June 24, 2008 at 11:22 AM
I had once been very interested in conspiracy theries like jfk and 9/11. Me and my friends would sometimes watch videos on utube about mad governent cover ups and Freemasons. I'm only 21 but I know my fair share of British and World history, and although many interesting things can be pondered on ultimatly it's all been put together by someone who has a very negative attitude towards the world. And the minds that are making this free thinking world a place where someone of my age can pick up a book by a friends dad in the local waterstones, and discover the things I have. I had been introduced to this way of 'inside out thinking' by my friends dad at about 13. He showed me how to meditate and always provoked different ways of thinking about everything. Though he was my first teacher he wasn't the most grounded man and after smoking too much cannabis he got sectioned for the second time in the last 6years. But I continued with my meditation and research. Speaking to my friends one night about related topics and my friend Tabby mentioned your book. I bought the book when it came out and have since read it 3 times and use it very often for reference. I want to say thank you for writing this book. It has inspired me in ways I cannot discribe. Ed
Posted by: Edward Wyatt | January 11, 2009 at 02:05 PM