[UA] Oh, Those Wacky Cliomancers

Nick Wedig mrteapot at disinfo.net
Thu Nov 30 13:04:59 PST 2000


>> Some folks run magick as being all about intent. If he tried to charge
>> and couldn't, he'd know he was at the wrong spot. 
>
>I believe that UA takes both into account, you have to have the details
>right and you have to have intent. The example in the book of the
>pornomancy unintentionally re-enacting a scene in the Naked Goddess' life
>is an illustration of the reverse point, but I don't recall there being a
>specific example of having the intent right and the 'crunchy bits' wrong.
>However, it isn't hard to envision a bunch of sincere, but not studious,
>occultists botching a ritual by using a bad translation or substituting
>components. :)
>
>On the flip side, however, I believe that Cliomancy has a special focus on
>mass belief, so an argument could be made that enough people 'knowing'
>that a site is significant in such a way is all that matters, since
>history is less an objective science and more a study of perceptions of
>the past. 

That was what I was getting at before, basically.  Someone mentioned a while ago the Disneyland counts for nothing historically (it hasn't changed the course of nations, or affected political changes, or much at all except make little kids happy) but is listed as a place clios could havrest.  And many of their spells point to their actually being focused less on actual history than general public knowledge (for example, it's how well known a place is, not the importance of the events there, that make it significant).  If they were focused on public perception rahter than actual historical events, then the public perception of the place being Shakespeare's home would be what Mr. Cobweb farmer needed, not the real place, so the previous fake places would have yielded charges, not the real one (until the switch was revealed... )

I dunno.  I'm thinking this through too much, perhaps.  

Mr. Teapot
cobweb farming

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