Did you decipher the footnote at the bottom of page 177? If there’s something fun/cogent there, I’ll keep bashing my head on it, but (this probably betrays my general feelings about the book) I don’t have a ton of confidence in that.
Hey LSM, I had to pull my copy. I even put the numbers into perplexity AI to see if there’s significance. I think it has something to do with chronology based on the downfall of “the technocapitalist chrosophere” and western time.
For the text, I put the first half into the AI and using some assumptions about cryptography it came up with:
“"The time has come; and about the me the not and not of the not ... and the me the definition and until the definition is complete,"
Just to complete this, according to the cipher breaker at https://planetcalc.com/8047/, the message most likely reads... GO INTO THE WORLD; AN) FIRST GO TO THE SEA AND DRY UP THE SEA ... AND GO TO THE MOUNTANI AND SHAVE THE MOUNTAIN HNTIRELY, FOR THE MOUNTAIN IS THE SYSTEM PF THE WORLD... CARRY DECRUASD TOWARDS DECREASE $ND CARRY INCREASE TOWARDS INCREASE
The first sentence, up to TO THE SEA gives AQ=666, which was a tag for CCRU esoteric stuff, so this is probably correct. Okay, all good!
That's amazing work, I am going to edit the original post to note the discussion in the comments about the cipher. There's probably other great things to uncover.
Your guess is as good as mine. I have to say I thought the book kind of petered out at the end, which I looked at again when researching that footnote. I guess I expected something bigger, rather than another essay.
When it comes to unorthodox narratives, I think there are probably books that do it better. Dictionary of the Khazars is one of my favorites, and House of Leaves also comes to mind. But this book also gets points for extreme sci fi theological weirdness. It's unforgettable, that's for sure.
Agree with your assessment, with the caveat that I really started skimming at some point. I enjoyed House of Leaves, so I think I'll need to check out Dictionary of the Khazars. Thanks for the recommendation!
Good review, but how do you feel now about its time-bound framework in the wake of the Gaza war? It's not as time-bound as we thought it might be, is it?
You’re right. The Middle East is a perennial cauldron of conflict, unfortunately. However, I will say that oil extraction has largely been unaffected by the current conflict. I think that’s because the USA has increased its production so drastically that the usual oil rich countries have much less sway. If I’m an oil company exec and I have a choice between building extraction capacity in the conflict ridden MENA economies or in the USA, I know where I’m putting my capital investiture.
Did you decipher the footnote at the bottom of page 177? If there’s something fun/cogent there, I’ll keep bashing my head on it, but (this probably betrays my general feelings about the book) I don’t have a ton of confidence in that.
Hey LSM, I had to pull my copy. I even put the numbers into perplexity AI to see if there’s significance. I think it has something to do with chronology based on the downfall of “the technocapitalist chrosophere” and western time.
For the text, I put the first half into the AI and using some assumptions about cryptography it came up with:
“"The time has come; and about the me the not and not of the not ... and the me the definition and until the definition is complete,"
Sounds like some Heidegger, honestly haha!
Hey, great review. The numerical part of that cipher looks like AQ to me. It reads... occult inside crypts. Not sure about the rest.
Sorry what’s AQ? All I can think of is Al Qaeda. Definitely happy to see people still decoding this neat book.
Alphanumeric Qabalah. Popular with Nick Land. The numbers refer to EN letters shifted by 9. I guess the rest is a substitution cipher.
Just to complete this, according to the cipher breaker at https://planetcalc.com/8047/, the message most likely reads... GO INTO THE WORLD; AN) FIRST GO TO THE SEA AND DRY UP THE SEA ... AND GO TO THE MOUNTANI AND SHAVE THE MOUNTAIN HNTIRELY, FOR THE MOUNTAIN IS THE SYSTEM PF THE WORLD... CARRY DECRUASD TOWARDS DECREASE $ND CARRY INCREASE TOWARDS INCREASE
The first sentence, up to TO THE SEA gives AQ=666, which was a tag for CCRU esoteric stuff, so this is probably correct. Okay, all good!
That's amazing work, I am going to edit the original post to note the discussion in the comments about the cipher. There's probably other great things to uncover.
Ha, ok, I took a similar approach but didn't get quite as far. Thanks!
Your guess is as good as mine. I have to say I thought the book kind of petered out at the end, which I looked at again when researching that footnote. I guess I expected something bigger, rather than another essay.
When it comes to unorthodox narratives, I think there are probably books that do it better. Dictionary of the Khazars is one of my favorites, and House of Leaves also comes to mind. But this book also gets points for extreme sci fi theological weirdness. It's unforgettable, that's for sure.
Agree with your assessment, with the caveat that I really started skimming at some point. I enjoyed House of Leaves, so I think I'll need to check out Dictionary of the Khazars. Thanks for the recommendation!
Oh yeah and likewise if you have any recommendations of similar books would love to hear them. I’m always up for reading something unconventional.
Good review, but how do you feel now about its time-bound framework in the wake of the Gaza war? It's not as time-bound as we thought it might be, is it?
You’re right. The Middle East is a perennial cauldron of conflict, unfortunately. However, I will say that oil extraction has largely been unaffected by the current conflict. I think that’s because the USA has increased its production so drastically that the usual oil rich countries have much less sway. If I’m an oil company exec and I have a choice between building extraction capacity in the conflict ridden MENA economies or in the USA, I know where I’m putting my capital investiture.
Intriguing the angle with Hamas and Hezbollah in ()holes though
I haven’t read the book but i imagined that I had and i didnt like it
That’s fair. It’s not for everyone including if you imagined you read it.