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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Who's this Rheinhardt cat?

01:32 / 15.12.02

The Forum summary lists an author I've never heard of. Help?

03:24 / 30.12.02

Guess nobody else has heard of him, huh?

08:31 / 30.12.02

You'll have to ask Tom - he wrote the summary; I haven't got a clue, and a search on Amazon using variant spellings doesn't seem to turn up anyone obvious.

10:02 / 30.12.02

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been a little puzzled by this and wondered if it's not a misspelling. It certainly doesn't seem likely to be Max Reinhardt, the Austrian theatrical director connected with Brecht & others.

I'm trying to remember if it was in the rubric for 'Books' in the previous incarnation of the board. Wasn't Robbe-Grillet mentioned alongside Vonnegut?

10:25 / 30.12.02

Have just checked Amazon.co uk -- and turned up Flash 5 Bible, a handbook for web designers by a Robert Reinhardt. A "subversive God"?

As you say, Kit-Cat, we'll have to wait for Tom on this one.

12:06 / 30.12.02

The Rheinhardt in question is Luke Rheinhardt, author of The Dice Man, about which Tom Coates could not stop nattering through most of 1999. Haven't read it myself: a brief decsription makes it sound like American Beauty meets the I-Ching meets Two-Face from the Batman comics.

13:35 / 30.12.02

The Dice Man is written by Luke Reinhardt in the first person, although whether it's a true story is pretty doubtful. Basically it is about a man and his mid-life crisis; he begins to live his life according to the roll of a dice. What begins as simple removal of difficult decisions ("If I throw a one, two or three, I'll wear the blue shirt; if I throw a four, five or six I'll wear the red one") descends into a moral nightmare. The important thing being, of course, that although Reinhardt gives over the running of his life entirely to the chance of the die, he does ultimately make the choices the die can choose from.

Not read it for a long time - about 12 years or so. He's written other stuff, including some post-apocalyptic thing that was hilariously bad, but the name of which I can't remember. I also recall some "son of the dice man" type book allegedly written by his son, but I've never read it.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

19:09 / 30.12.02

Well, he doesn't ever really use the dice for simple choices to my memory. He starts by raping his upstairs neighbor. It's an amazing book. The point where he gets his kids involved is nuts.

The post-apocalyptic novel Long Voyage Home has actually gotten good reviews, but I'm famous at this point for liking things others hate.

In short, before Morrison wrote Invisibles and the readers wanted in on the action, Luke wrote Dice Man. It should really appeal to the lither and the Fall did a Dice Man anthem as well.

I think the follow up is called the Book of the Die and is heard to be not so good. Another book is 'House of Este' and is quite twisted I hear. I just gave a copy of Dice Man to a friend of mine with questionable morals. I hope his marriage survives.

06:40 / 31.12.02

A guy at work turned me onto Dice Man this year. It's pretty good, but somewhat dated--seduce, maybe, but rape? Anyway, it's spelled "Rhinehart." Jack's capsule description pretty well sums it up. Check it out.

23:29 / 01.01.03

Follow up is called son of the diceman, its not as goof. The book of the die isn't really a novel, more a lot of philosophical musings.

Seducing wouldnt have worked as a choice, since he wanted a choice to be something horrible that he could never imagine himself doing.

13:01 / 12.07.03

Ok. I'll fix it. Was in a hurry. I did - at the time at least - very much think that The Dice Man was quite a Barbelith-book. It's not brilliantly written, but it's compelling and interesting. The sequel is neither brilliantly written OR compelling / interesting.

11:19 / 14.07.03

I just finished reading Luke Rhinehart's Long Voyage Back. It was cheesy and not very well-written, although the subject matter was escaping by boat from nuclear war, so if you like that end of the world type stuff, it has some interesting parts. Actually, does anyone have a boat that I can borrow in the event of nuclear war? Or is there already a Barbelith boat put aside for this use?

19:18 / 14.07.03

Yes, but you have to roll a six to get in.

13:57 / 15.07.03

I read 'The adventures of Wim', by Reinhard, about ten years ago. I remember enjoying it, but very little else. There's a bit in it, possibly reminiscent of Crowley, about invisibility techniques. The method is to stay very still and quiet, supress the ego and give out no vibes. The lead character, if my recall's up to scratch, is a Native American Maitreya (sic), or future buddha.
Onnyway, there was a documentary about the author on British Channel 4 TV last year or the year before. More details on that if anybody requires them, but they'll have to wait till I get home.

05:15 / 31.07.06

I am half way through the book, Diceman, and I was reading away fairly engrossed thinking to myself with an evil grin, "I have a pair of die at home somewhere", and then I turned the page to start the next chapter, chapter Forty One. This chapter actually goads the reader into getting a pair of die for one's self and tempts the reader to start the Diceman way of life. I was thinking a week, maybe, see how it goes, see what options I would dare give myself and dare myself again to carry them through. Who am I to question the will of the dice...

"And you, Reader, good friend and fellow fool my reader, you, yes you, my sweet cipher, are the Dice Man. Having read this far you are doomed to carry with you burned forever in your soul the self I've here portrayed: the Dice Man. You are Multiple and one of you is me. I have created in you a flea which will forever make you itch. Ah, Reader, you never should have let me be born. Other selves bite now and no doubt. But the Dice Man flea demands to be scratched at every moment: he is insatiable. You will never know an itchless moment again - unless, of course, you become the flea"

12:35 / 01.08.06

I have read the book and while I liked the idea behind it (letting chance dictate your circumstances), I personally thought that the story was poorly written and very unrealistic. Having said that, I also, for a short period of time (say, one week) toyed with some dice. I discovered that no matter what the dice 'chose' for me to do, I would do the exact opposite.