so a book concerned with our lives should yawn at the mention of truth. (Or puke, depending on the demands of the situation.)
Ideas are maps. When used for the appropriate terrain they are extremely useful. At other times they are burnable trash.
Rational linear books are designed to be read from page 1 to the end. Since this book occasionally suggests alternatives to linear rationality it was felt that it shouldn’t be read that way. Hence, the use of dice.
The main sections or ‘chapters’ are defined by the twenty-one possible results of casting two identical dice. Each such section contains a variety of material – proverbs, parables, quotations, illustrations, poems, meandering essays, scenes from movies, contributions from other people who have played with the dice – and six options that a die may be cast to choose between. All are more or less related to one subject. We suggest that, rather than proceeding through the book page by page, you choose which ‘chapter’ to read by casting two dice and then going to the chapter chosen; for it is one of the themes of this book that Chance may have benefits beyond winning a lottery.
Although this is a Book of Wisdom it is also a work of fiction. There are four main characters in The Book of the Die: Luke Rhinehart, the original Diceman; the Lord Chance, the Force in the Universe that likes to stir things up; Whim, the Son of the Lord Chance, who was sent to earth to try to find Ultimate Truth (U.T.); and George Cockcroft, the man who claims to have created these three characters, but who is equally a fictional creation.
Luke originally appeared in The Dice Man, a book that was first published in 1971 but, for reasons that only the Lord Chance understands, has found a greater audience in the last few years than it did a generation earlier. Luke discovered that human beings can rid themselves of institutionalized misery by letting chance into their lives. The philosophy that lies behind Luke and The Dice Man is a major part of this book.
The Lord Chance is the Supreme Creator and thus takes full responsibility for every word you read here. Or rather, takes occasional responsibility, consistency not being one of his strengths. He (or She, depending on the time of day) is a central character in every book ever written but is rarely as acknowledged and named as He (She) is in The Book of the Die.
Whim is the son of the Lord Chance sent to earth to try to find U.T. Whim’s adventures were once written about, but then suppressed. The true story of Whim will appear next year in a book entitled Whim.
Finally, there is George Cockcroft. In theory, he is the author of several books, including The Dice Man. For most of the last thirty years he has hidden behind the name of Luke Rhinehart, but in this book he begins to peek out around Luke’s bulky presence and reveal a few things about himself. Of course, any man who has as one of his mottoes ‘This Truth Above All: Fake It’ can hardly be considered reliable, so the intelligent reader will take anything he says with the same pinch of salt taken when listening to any other fictional character.
You probably wouldn’t be reading this book unless you know something, however vague, about the weird ideas that you fear you may find here. So, a word about dicing.
Dicing is simple: we list some options which a small part of us feels might be challenging or interesting, and then cast a die to choose what we do. At the simplest level the dice choose from among films, books, clothing, food, friends and activities open to an individual at a given time. At a more challenging level, the dice come to choose how we act, what challenges we accept, what emotions we express, what goals we pursue, which of our selves we pretend to be.
The process of dicing helps us to discover and live out the many undiscovered dreams we each have within us. It frees us from our usual bondage to control, purpose and order, into the warm realm of spontaneity and chance. Die-ing is a game to encourage game-playing; a series of acts to encourage acting; a series of selfless whims to kill the self and nourish whim.
Dicing is only one of many ideas in this book. The Taoist sage, the Zen master, the Hindu yogi, the Sufi mystic and even the Christian ascetic share one common purpose: the destruction of the self, liberation from the illusion of a separate and controlling identity. All agree with the philosophy of die-ing: man must give up his illusion that a self can control life; he must let go; he cannot live until he has died.
Since it will soon become clear that nothing in this book is particularly reliable, we suggest that you approach the reading of this book as a game. You might try the game first with the rules we suggest or create your own better rules to create a better game, or, out of rebellion against us, just read the book any way you feel like.
The simplest game is to cast two dice and read the material in the chosen section. For example, if the dice fall at a ‘two’ and a ‘five’ you open the book at page 137 and read what you find in that section.
There is a second possible way to proceed. You are in a quandary. Or perhaps in a laundry. In any case, you have a question you’d more or less like answered. Or a decision you’re considering which necessitates a yes or a no.
So ask your question, then cast the dice. The material the die chooses for you to read may seem amazingly relevant to the question you ask. You may be thrilled. But the odds are equally good that the material chosen may not seem immediately relevant to your quandary (or your laundry). Read it anyway. We never know when something will awaken us.
So read this book sometimes by casting dice. Occasionally ask a question and see if the dice-chosen chapter speaks to you. Or dip into the book at random, at your own whim. Or read it straight through. Far be it from us to run your life.
What we think we know, we often come to believe is false. Having tiptoed from one error to another for half a lifetime, some of us come to feel that we are on firm ground only when we recognize that we are standing on quicksand. We do not know: of that alone are we sometimes sure.
We humans are not alone in our uncertainty. We must imagine that the Gods, yes even the Gods, suffer as we do from not knowing their origin, their powers, the extent of their freedom or fatedness. Just as we occasionally brood about whether we have created or been created by the Gods, so each God comes sooner or later to consider His own origin. Is He Himself the Supreme Creator, or is He only a creation of another God? Or, worst of all, is He merely a creation of the very human beings which He usually believes He Himself has created? We may imagine that the Gods, like us, must struggle to find their place in creation, each hoping that He Himself is the very Centre, but knowing that the evidence, unfortunately, points everywhere. It’s not always easy being a God.
This note is being written because it is the ignorance of the Gods which explains to us the otherwise inexplicable adventures of Whim. Few any longer deny that Whim embodies a Force beyond that of most humans. His life has become a mystery primarily because men have assumed that their God knows the Ultimate Truth and knows what He wishes to communicate to mankind. The idea that a God could visit human beings in order to learn from them is one most humans are not willing to consider.
We, however, standing firmly on our quicksand, make no claims to having the final truth about Whim. We know that he was born, lived and (perhaps) died. We know that an incredible number of events difficult to explain – accidents, coincidences, miracles, we must each choose our own word – followed him like seagulls after a garbage ship.
Parables about his life seeking for Ultimate Truth and then trying to help others who seek for it are part of The Book of the Die. This Prologue
