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Generation Hex

  
  

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Boy in a Suitcase
12:46 / 11.10.05
Who?
 
 
Scrambled Password Bogus Email
15:34 / 11.10.05
Regular speaker at Treadwells and Mysteries on all sorts of occult guff, writer, performer, event organiser, general magician about town in London...Do you want links?

Or were you being disingenuous?
 
 
Boy in a Suitcase
18:59 / 11.10.05
No, I don't know him... link me up...
 
 
Scrambled Password Bogus Email
06:53 / 12.10.05
OK, here is some essential background...

here is some more...

More of the same

Parties, oh yes, parties

And, at the risk of rotting the thread a little, apologies for the length of this :

THE SIX FIFTY


FRIDAY OCT 7 1955-2005

A poetry reading to celebrate one of the most influential poetry readings ever. The Six Gallery Reading in San Francisco launched the Beat poets on an all-too-suspecting public. McClure, Snyder, Lamantia, Whalen and Ginsberg became new names in U.S. poetry. Allen Ginsberg's HOWL - which no one had heard before - became an instant Isaiah-like prophecy for America and smashed the force field of McCarthyism.

Fifty years on, six contemporary London-based poets are gathering to remember that landmark evening for poetry and to honour other Beats such as Kerouac, Wieners, Burroughs, Waldman, Corso, and Fainlight..

Special guests will include Carolyn Cassady

As coda, the poets will usher us into the third millennium with a volley of original poems. Poets: JOHN CONSTABLE, AIDAN ANDREW DUN, LIZA HAYDEN, YANG LIAN, NIALL McDEVITT and CHRISTOPHER TWIGG

The venue is the prestigious October Gallery where Burroughs once exhibited his paintings and which is profoundly connected to the American and international avant-garde.

Friday Oct 7 The October Gallery
24 Old Gloucester St LONDON W1
£10 / £6 concs (Holborn/Russell Square tubes)
Doors: 7.30 Show: 8.00
TICKETS: Call Graham on 07973 661 123
graham@ear-2-ear.com

________________________________________________________________________
SOUTHWARK MYSTERIES


OCTOBER 2005


5 FREE WALKS


with John Constable (aka Crow) and friends

Wednesday 12th October: 1pm: Black History Walk
inspired by the recent publication of Speak of me as I am: The Black presence in Southwark since 1600 by Stephen Bourne. A celebration of Black people in Southwark, with two resident south Londoners: Nigerian actor Susan Aderin and Anglo-Celt poet John Constable (aka John Crow)
(meet outside Metropolitan Tabernacle, next to Fusion Leisure Centre
Elephant and Castle)

Thursday 13th October: 12.30: Bankside to Elephant Walk
a walk with the author of The Southwark Mysteries, from the familiar sights of Bankside through the back streets of St George's Fields to the Elephant and Castle. Includes a visit to the people’s shrine at Cross Bones graveyard.
(meet inside Southwark Tourist Information Centre at Vinopolis end of Clink St.1 Bank End, Bankside SE1)

Thursday 13th October: 6.30: The Little Tramp
a stroll down Charlie Chaplin's memory lane, through the neighbourhoods that shaped his celebrated "Little Tramp" character
(meet outside Metropolitan Tabernacle, next to Fusion Leisure CentreElephant and Castle)

Friday 14th October: 12.30: Walworth Walk
"The Fool’s Land", St Peter’s Church and the old Surrey Gardens: changing cityscapes down the Walworth Road
(meet outside Metropolitan Tabernacle, next to Fusion Leisure Centre, Elephant)

Friday 14th October: 6.30: The Secret Elephant Walk
the legend of Mary Overie, a Roman cemetery, Austin Osman Spare and a haunted music hall: myth and magic around the Elephant and Castle
(meet outside Southwark Tourist Information Centre, 1 Bank End, Bankside SE1)

all these walks are free of charge

www.into.org.uk/SouthwarkMysteries

____________________________________________

AND (more details to follow):

Sunday 23rd October @ 10am, 4pm and 7pm

Cross Bones graveyard, Redcross Way, London SE1

as part of The Lion's Part's OCTOBER PLENTY: visits from the Corn Queene and Green Man to bless the Cross Bones people's shrine and proposed memorial garden

and the magical moot that happens at 7pm on the 23rd of each month

Free Event

_________

AND

Monday 31st October @ 7pm

(or arrive at 6pm to become a full participating member of Southwark Mysteries)

@ The Roebuck 50 Great Dover Street, London SE1

The Halloween of Cross Bones VIII

with John Crow, Goddess Priestess Jacqui, Jahnet de Light and more...

a ritual drama, followed by procession to the site of the ancient
burial ground, to honour the outcast dead. Please bring your blessings and totemic offerings...

£7 / £5 concs. & members

John Constable aka Crow >><<

=========================================================

He's a genuinely lovely chap...I'm sure he'd promote it for you, and include it in his spiel.
 
 
Scrambled Password Bogus Email
07:00 / 12.10.05
PM me if you want details etc...
 
 
--
14:19 / 12.10.05
Got mine last night. Read a bit of it... Pretty impressive. The cover is really great too... That's always been one of my favorite paintings by Laffoley.

Coincidentally, the 3 magicians who inspired me the most in the old days all have quotes on the back cover. I really wish that P-Orridge and Morrison would get down to writing that magick book they thought about doing years ago.
 
 
Logos
01:53 / 13.10.05
Generation Hex Review

If you’re looking for the book that’s going to lay the secrets of the universe out in front of you and Explain It All, this is not the book for you. If you’re looking for the Julia Child Magical Cookbook, go somewhere else.

This book is like reading about someone else’s dream. It is an assemblage of narratives of burning personal importance to someone, built out of scribbled notes written on the back of torn up cigarette cartons, snapshots of drug hallucination, sex experimentation, electronica blasted through wracked-out speakers, the view out the window of nighttime bullet trains.

The communication is so direct and raw that it’s almost meaningless, even when shouted. And then, in the middle of it, you catch yourself thinking, yes, this is exactly how it is. You remember the time when the universe came out to play. Forget the methods, forget the means used to tell the story. This is the book about noticing that moment when it comes your way.

That’s why you read Gen Hex.
 
 
buttergun
15:52 / 13.10.05
I'm debating picking this up. Is the book just a bunch of autobiographical sketches, or does it have any how-to info with new ideas/concepts? Will I learn something from it, or is it more along the lines of "hey man, I'm a fucking extreme magician, I'm different from you sheep?"
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
16:03 / 13.10.05
Yeah, because anyone writing about hir practice/experiences outside of a Wicca 101 manual is obviously motivated purely by ego and must be smacked down forthwith.
 
 
Boy in a Suitcase
16:38 / 13.10.05
Logos, that review is perfect!! Better than I could have ever hoped to get and you say it great. Any chance of posting it to Amazon??
 
 
*
16:40 / 13.10.05
I don't know, BG. Can you learn from other people telling you about their experiences in an egalitarian manner— i.e. "I don't know how you like to do it, but this is how it worked for me"? Or do you need a guru to tell you How It Is Done?
 
 
ghadis
16:44 / 13.10.05
buttergun...I think thats the most stupidest thing i've read in a thread for a long time...Well done!!
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
17:19 / 13.10.05
in teh book kin i get luv spl maek cute boyz like me??? kthksbye.
 
 
buttergun
17:44 / 13.10.05
Id, that's all I wanted to know. If it's other people telling about their experiences, that's fine. I was afraid it might be more along the lines of, "I came from an oppressive Christian society, no one understood me, they made fun of me because I was so different" sort of woe-is-me shill. It's just that "extreme" tag that throws me off -- reminds me of those oh-so-annoying-but-of-the-moment "extreme, dude!!" commercials of a few years back, particularly the ones for Mountain Dew.
 
 
razorsmile
20:46 / 13.10.05
Just read through the messages on this book and sounds like I ought to take a peek ... will wait 'till I have some cash though unless anyone fancies loaning me one in return for a free sub to razorsmile (which means getting the odd thing through the post at intermittent and unpredictable times ;-)

Anyhow, sounds good and I checked out iMomus livejournal review which did sound a little bitter and twisted, though I sort of got some of where he was coming from...not sure...

I also was listening to craig o'hara tonight, reading out some of the acme collectives communique after the Seattle protests and found this passage interesting -

"After N30, many people will never see a shop window or a hammer the same way again. The potential uses of an entire cityscape have increased a thousand-fold.

The number of broken windows pales in comparison to the number broken spells--spells cast by a corporate hegemony to lull us into forgetfulness of all the violence committed in the name of private property rights and of all the potential of a society without them."

Whether the use of 'spells' here was intentional or not is irrelevant since it's the resonance of these concepts in the commnique with magical work, with casting and making spells, that seems to refute the rather crass reduction iMomus makes from magicians to 'satanists'. Magic is intimately connected with resistance, with the witch and shaman situated on the border, at the edge of the village, or factory, working with forces in motion.

It also sounds good that it's taking the approach of direct experience, if that is what it is doing. There's far too much 'how to' shit around, what we need is a lot more, 'what's happening', 'how it worked, fucked up, happened, lived' and so any contribution to that is to be welcomed. Look forward to seeing a copy.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
13:30 / 14.10.05
Generation Hex is released in the UK at the end of October. There's a launch event for it at Treadwells on Thursday 3rd November, with readings and drinks afterwards. I've posted a thread in the gathering about it. I'm the only UK contributor to the book, which is a bit of a shame cos it would have been better to have other people there to do readings as well. There will be drinks and stuff afterwards though.
 
 
Cat Chant
14:05 / 14.10.05
Buttergun: Will I learn something from it, or is it more along the lines of "hey man, I'm a fucking extreme magician, I'm different from you sheep?"

Back to Ghadis: I think thats the most stupidest thing i've read in a thread for a long time...Well done!!

Um. Actually, it strikes me as quite a good question, given that the quotes posted in the "women" thread (here include things like:

People knew me as Paradox the Prime. I was a young chaos magician who traveled the country on my wits and my antisocial skills, not a single root of stability and not a single plan or goal with the exception of subverting the structure of everything I came in contact with.

and

I'm really starting to dislike all those tarot twits. Psy-trance, “ohmygawd synchronicity!”, collective consciousness? All that debris needs to be annihilated.

I don't know where buttergun is coming from, but as a very new practitioner (sp?) myself, if the whole book is going to be like that I don't think I'm going to learn anything from it. I don't think that means I'm a mindless drone who can only learn from a guru - most of the things I've learned I've learned on a peer-to-peer, experience-sharing basis. Even the review says:

The communication is so direct and raw that it’s almost meaningless, even when shouted. And then, in the middle of it, you catch yourself thinking, yes, this is exactly how it is. You remember the time when the universe came out to play.

What if I don't remember the time when the universe came out to play? Is this only going to be of interest if I'm already at the same level/speaking the same language as all the contributors?

Sigh. Maybe I should just go and get the Julia Child Magickal Cookbook. Anyone got an ISBN for that?

(I wouldn't normally go on and on like this, btw, but I don't think this is going to be stocked in any of the bookshops near me, so I don't have the option of picking it up and seeing if it grabs me - AFAICS the only way of looking at it is to buy it.)
 
 
ghadis
14:51 / 14.10.05
Well, i was maybe a bit grumpy when i made the stupid comment so i apologise to BG for that. He seemed to imply that you couldn't learn anything from a book unless it was a how to manual, and i don't think we need many more of them. He did clarify what he meant in the later post.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
14:53 / 14.10.05
Not all of the articles are like that one, I think there are some really good peices of writing in there. As a contributor myself, I don't personally agree with the ideas and perspectives of some of the peices that have been included, but that's sort of the point, really. Not everyone is singing from the same hymn book, by any stretch of the imagination. Some of the marketing may well paint that picture, but there are a number of different pictures being painted within of people's personal experiences and thoughts about practicing magic in the early 21st century.

What I rate about it is that it focuses on direct personal experiences of magical practice, with - in most cases - a lack of "I am teh extreme dark sorcerer - you are sheeple!" nonsense. For the most part, it's the stories of otherwise quite ordinary people who have, for whatever reason, chosen to investigate and explore this broad area, what it means to them, what they get from it, how they became involved with it, why they continue to practice it. Which I find pretty interesting, and really quite unique, to be honest. I can't think of very many books on this subject that deal with the actual experiences of engaging with these things rather than adopting a textbook-style authorial voice and presenting ideas about magic as fact and formula.

That's quite refreshing to me, because its the... emotional content of people experiences with magic that are often more interesting than their dry theorising about what it might be or the endless derivative retreads of other people's ideas about how to practice magic that tend to dominate occult publishing. And, importantly, a lot of it is very well written and engaging.

I have three peices in the book myself. The first one is autobiogaphical and possibly the most difficult thing I've ever tried to write. A lot of this stuff is pretty difficult to write about without coming across like a bit of a dick. It's practically an invitation for hideous self-aggrandising nonsense, as feared by buttergun. But I thought I'd attempt to rise to the challenge of writing openly and honestly about how I came to be involved with this stuff, the various shaping life experiences that led me along that road, my various experimentations and the development of my thoughts and ideas about what it is and why I continue to do it. I'm quite happy with it as a peice of writing, although its quite scary to have published something as vastly personal as that under my real name.

My second peice in the book is in the 'practical' section and its about 'the drift' - a magical extension of the Situationist idea of the derive that involves communication and interaction with your immediate environment as a method of gathering information through non-ordinary means, working practical sorcery and communicating with deity. It's a method of working that I tend to use all the time. I rarely speak or write directly about what my magical practice actually consists of as its really not for publication, but the drift is a method that I think is really valuable to anybody involved with magic and tends to create an interesting level of openness to the stream of information that a simple stroll through town can throw up. I've tried to describe the processes of this kind of work to the best of my ability, and in a way that readers of the book will hopefully be able to experiment with and unlock for themselves.

My third article is a fairly strange one. I tried to write something on the idea of magic and community, and the relationship between a person's practices and the social environment that those practices take place within. I tried to write an article on that, but it didnt seem to happen. Instead I found myself writing this odd little peice that weaves in and out of fiction in order to explore my various ideas about the living, vibrant organic nature of magic and my thoughts on the role it plays in our day-to-day lives. It's a strange little article, but I think its possibly the best thing I've written on the subject. There's actually a lot of practical ideas in it as well, for someone who can read through the lines and bring a bit of creativity to their work, which is really the point of all of my articles to one extent or another.
 
 
Cat Chant
14:59 / 14.10.05
Thanks for that nice post - that makes the book sound fascinating, and like I might well learn something from it. Roll on payday, and sorry for brief/inadequate response to your persuasive words...
 
 
buttergun
15:19 / 14.10.05
Yes, thanks for that post, Gypsy. I'm going to get the book, after all. Ghadis, apology accepted, no harm done. I realize I did come off a bit "I need a guru!" in my initial post. But the book does sound fascinating. The first time I heard about it was in a review for another Disinformation book -- I think it was Phil Hine, in his review for Disinformation's Book of Lies, who said that Generation Hex would probably do a better job of introducing people to magick. And I'm definitely interested in the article that links magick to marketing.
 
 
Charlie's Horse
15:22 / 14.10.05
Gypsy - your third essay was so kickass it hurt. "I conjure up these spirits to look upon us and despair." Jesus. The old miracle-workers who really did work some serious miracles, versus the present day magic of lowered expectations and vaguely pushed probabilities. Makes you realize the extent to which we "had been merely throwing paper darts about a parlour, while real magic soared and swooped and twisted on great wings in a limitless sky far, far above them" (Friggin' Jonathan Strange). Sorry if this seems obscure to people who haven't read Generation Hex, but I really don't want to give this one away.

Just be careful, eh? It is possible to rock so hard that it'll kill a man.
 
 
buttergun
15:26 / 14.10.05
Just had a thought -- Boy In a Suitcase, earlier you were asking for people to send review copies to. I know this sounds insane, but have you considered Thomas Pynchon? The man certainly has an interest in and knowledge of magick. And just because he's reclusive, it doesn't mean he won't provide book blurbs. In fact, a young author a few years back (Emily Barton) asked her agent to send her first book to Pynchon, to see if he'd provide a blurb. The agent said it was a waste of time, but sent it to Pynchon's agent (aka his wife) anyway. A week or so later, she got her blurb.

Also, there's Jim Dodge, author of Stone Junction, a book which is heavily immersed in magick, and has something of a cult reputation.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
15:36 / 14.10.05
I read Jonathan Strange shortly after I wrote that peice and was quite disturbed by the similarities between what I was trying to express about magic and the eventual themes that come up in that book. I think Susanna Clarke, who as far as I know has absolutely no background or interest in the practical side of occultism, has somehow managed to pen the most insightful, on-the-nose, critique of contemporary magical practice that I've ever read.
 
 
Gypsy Lantern
15:38 / 14.10.05
And thank you for your kind words about my article.
 
 
Logos
20:20 / 14.10.05
Deva-One of the main points here is that there are no levels, only locations and movement.

I'm writing an essay right now that says that good occult literature, or good conspiracy theory works like improv comedy. It's either funny in the moment, or it isn't. Either everything in the world is a symbol for everything else, or it isn't.

In the meantime, all anybody can do is sort of point at it and say, "look, they're doing improv," until you laugh.
 
 
Logos
20:24 / 14.10.05
Oh, and Gypsy, your third article in particular rocked beyond belief. One of my favorites.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
20:47 / 14.10.05
Will this be available in Waterstones, do you know? If not, what about New Eon books? Would anyone here even know, in fact...well, if you do know.
 
 
Seth
15:40 / 15.10.05
I've just ordered this from Amazon, based largely on the fact that it contains three Gypsy articles, combined with Gypsy's above sales pitch.

How does it feel to be so loved, dude?
 
 
toughest, fastest, fatest
10:16 / 17.10.05
Nice one Gypsy, even if I don't get a review copy, I'll have to buy it now...
 
 
LVX23
19:54 / 17.10.05
To flesh out the text a bit more for those who can't physically grab one to flip through before pruchasing, my contribution charts a 33-day long ritual to engage the egregore of Fox News and inject it with rebellious compassion.

I'd add that J-Lou's second piece in the book, Spooky Tricks, is excellent (all three of his are great but the second one really struck me). I also really like George Holochwost's The Sage's Game. Very rich and evocative. Gypsy's Dream's of a Midwich Planet is also fab, to echo other gushings here.
 
 
Alpha Beth
21:07 / 18.10.05
Gypsy, you were quoted here, the content from this thread.

What do you make of that?

What do any of you think of the critique being leveled at Gen Hex, Ultraculture, and Jason Louv?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
21:56 / 18.10.05
The author of that post doesn't seem to add anything to the Momus piece quoted in it, which has already been discussed in this thread. I'm confused by what you're asking Gypsy to respond to.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
22:00 / 18.10.05
If the critique being levelled at Generation Hex is that most occultists (definition up for grabs) already know that "sound ethics and the pursuit of justice... could make for a healthier world", then I have to say that reading the Barbelith Magic forum for the past few years has demonstrated to me that there are a lot of people out there who are into the occult, or want to be, who don't get that - who just want something that will make someone fancy them, or deal with their problems in a way that doesn't require work. The threads are there.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
23:14 / 18.10.05
Indeed. I can only think that the person behind that weblog has been uncommonly lucky in her magic-weilding aquaintances.
 
  

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