[UA] All Humans are Liars

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu [mailto:ua-admin at lists.uchicago.edu]On
> Behalf Of Matthew Rowan Norwood
> Sent: 25 June 2001 17:22
> To: ua at lists.uchicago.edu
> Subject: Re: [UA] All Humans are Liars
>
>
[snip]
>
> UA, strangely, has quite a bit of Otherness in spite of its disciplined
> humanocentrism. (OtE seems similar from the posts I'v eread.) The
> Otherness of UA stems from its rejection of cultural archetypes
> surrounding mysticism and spirituality in favor of postmodernism. Magic
> in UA, for instance, is both mundane and completely alien. Each adept in
> UA is forced to invent his own unique cultural context instead of
> falling into a neat pre-packaged magical tradition that adheres to some
> standard cultural ideology. When we ask, "What is the meaning of the

[snip]

Brilliantly put.

I was quite shocked when I picked up the UA book and couldn't relate to any
of the magickal schools. Ok, the Fleshworker was a guy who, well, worked
flesh. Where was the example of this in occult history? The Plutomancer...
well, alright, I understand where he's coming from, but where can I read
more about this?

I'd previously had a lot of experience with Mage, where the factions are
much more typical and understandable. We have Celtic shamans (fair enough)
and assassins (ok, read about them in a RAW book), various Western Occult
traditions (no problem finding source material) and so on.

But then, obviously, I realised that was the point. The UA schools aren't
just another fanboy's cheesey idea for 'death magic' or 'money magic' or
'fate magic'. They're just *new* cultures, no different, say, from
Kibologists, Discordians, or otaku. You can follow their culture back 10,
20, or 50 years, but not much further.

And that's fine. There's a lot of consensual culture despite their newness.

Joe.

--
Joe Murphy (Broin)
broin at notzen.com

"You'll regret being so damn abusive when
the electric UFO gods transphase in from
Dimension 10 to appoint me manager of
the universe."  - The Drummer, Planetary.



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