Category Archives: UNIVERSES

Universes are comprised of thoughts, ideas, dreams, illusions, delusions, which may also include stars, space, time, energy and objects. Or not. These are the universes of the author Lawrence R. Spencer, and others for whom he has an affinity.

...and other stuff, ART, READING MATTER, SHERLOCK HOLMES, SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE, UNIVERSES

THE ULTIMATE SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY

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“My dear fellows! How delightful to see you both again. It has been several months since our most recent adventure together, so I surmise, Sherlock, that some new investigation in pressing upon you? Otherwise, I am sure that you would not bother yourself to venture to visit me personally at the club. Any matter of less urgency would certainly be addressed to me by letter, or telegram. Am I not correct?”, said Mycroft, grasping both of our hands in turn with cordiality.

“As always, your observation and supposition are accurate”, I said, confirming what was already obvious to my brother. “However, I assure you than the game that is afoot contains none of the gravity that others I have undertaken”. At this, Mycroft’s expression changed from one of concern to mild interest.

“Please take a seat and explain the particulars to me, if this room is suitable for discussion of details”, he said, waving his hand toward several richly upholstered leather chairs.

Mycroft is heavily built and massive, there was a suggestion of uncouth physical inertia in the figure, but above this unwieldy frame there is  perched a head so masterful in its brow, so alert in its steel-gray, deep-set eyes, so firm in its lips, and so subtle in its play of expression, that after the first glance one forgot the gross body and remembered only the dominant mind.

“I cannot think of a more suitable environment in which to discuss the nature of this case than that of a club founded on the philosophical principles of Cynicism”, I told him in a bland matter-of-fact tone.

“Let us fill our pipes”, I said reaching into my pocket for a tobacco poach and briar pipe, “as an explanation of the matter at hand will easily consume our meal time, as well as a portion of the evening.  Can a meal be served to us here, if it is not too great an imposition upon your generosity?”, I said as I sat down, ready to share as much information with my esteemed brother as would be necessary to facilitate his analysis of the matter.

“By all means, my dear Sherlock.  By all means!”, he said in eager anticipation of a mystery that might divert his attention from an otherwise unfulfilling evening of silent reading at the Club before retiring to his quarters for an equally uneventful night of dreamless sleep.

After recounting the details of my visit with Charles Dodgson and my subsequent invitation to him to dine with us at Baker Street, I summarized the nature of the matter.  Mycroft listened attentively while tamping and relighting his pipe several times in order to sustain a satisfactory stream of air through the stem.  When I had concluded my account, he raised his eyes to me.

“Well then, let us hear your suspicions, and I will look after the proofs”, said Mycroft.

“In short, my dear Mycroft, it appears that Mr. Dodgson, in league with Mr. Arthur Doyle, are accusing me and therefore all of my associates, of impersonating fictional characters! The assertion is that the stories published by Doyle as magazine serials, or in books, are merely works of his imagination. Moreover, this cad claims that the chronicles of my investigations, which are written by Dr. Watson, are innovations of his own. Can you conceive such a blatantly fraudulent accusation?”, I asked him.

Mycroft stared at me for a moment, and then with a glare turned in his chair and addressed Dr. Watson in an icy tone.

“Dr. Watson”, he said, “it is most obvious that the motivation for this absurd intrigue must begin with you. How is it that Mr. Doyle has come into the possession of your written accounts of the detective cases of Sherlock Holmes, and subsequently published them in his own name?”

— Excerpt from SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE  by Lawrence R. Spencer

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...and other stuff, ART, BULLSHIT, FREE ADVICE, LIVES, ORDER OF OMEGA TIME TRAVEL CULT, PICTURE POEMS, POETIC NONSENSE, READING MATTER, UNIVERSES

PROTEST SHIT

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PROTEST AGAINST SHITNo matter what your convictions, stand up and speak out against shit that’s fucked up!

PROTEST:
noun  1. an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid
verb  1. to give manifest expression to objection or disapproval; remonstrate.
          2.  to make solemn or earnest declaration.
...and other stuff, FREE ADVICE, THE OZ FACTORS, UNIVERSES

OVER THE RAINBOW

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“Now, Dorothy, dear, stop imagining things. You always get yourself into a fret over nothing. Now, you just help us out today and find yourself a place where you won’t get into any trouble.”–Aunt Em

 “Some place where there isn’t any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. Not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It’s far, far away–behind the moon–beyond the rain, somewhere over the rainbow…”–Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Most children enjoy playing games.  Since Dorothy is trying to be helpful by staying out of the way of grownups, she makes a new game for herself called “finding a place where there isn’t any trouble”. However, every game contains problems. In fact, solving problems is a game. A problem is a barrier to reaching a goal. Every game has players. Each player has a purpose for playing a game. Every game has a goal and barriers to reaching the goal. The goal of the game is not necessarily known to the players.

Games may or may not have rules that are known to the players. Every game has a beginning, middle and end. Too many barriers make an unplayable game. A game without a goal or worthwhile purpose makes a game not worth playing.

Solving a problem or winning a game are similar actions. However, a Dorothy soon discovers, creating a new problem in order to solve an existing problem does not usually lead to the winning of a game or to a workable solution to the original problem.

A workable solution is solving a problem toward the attainment of a goal which serves the greatest good for the greatest number of those playing the game.

Example: Melting the Wicked Witch with water proved to be the greatest good for the greatest number of players in the Wizard of Oz Game.

Simply identifying the parts of a game or problem will often give us an external viewpoint from which to discover a workable solution to a problem.

Here are some of the goals, purposes, problems and solutions that Dorothy and Toto played in The Wizard of Oz:

Goal: no troubles.

Purpose: to live in a trouble-free environment.

Game: finding a place where there isn’t any trouble (namely, no miss gulch or wicked witches).

solution: flying “over the rainbow” to Munchkinland.

Dorothy solves the problem of miss gulch by hitching a ride in a farmhouse on a tornado which carries her out of Kansas into the land of oz. However, this proves not to be a workable solution to the problem when she crash-lands her farmhouse and kills the sister of the wicked witch. This gives Dorothy all kinds of new problems!

Solution to the new problem: get out of oz altogether to escape from the wicked witch by going back to Kansas.

all of this results in a totally new game with a new purpose and a new goal and new problems, namely:

New game: find out which is the way back to Kansas.

New goal: get back to Kansas.

New purpose: find another place where there isn’t any trouble (which is the same old problem all over again!).

Problem: solve the problems of a brainless scarecrow, a heartless tin man and a cowardly lion in addition to getting herself back to Kansas.

Problem: get the broomstick of the wicked witch for the wizard so he’ll tell her how to get back to Kansas.

Problem: avoid being killed by the wicked witch and her flying monkeys.

Problem: make the great and powerful oz keep his promise to her friends.

Problem: the wizard is a very good man, but not a very good wizard and a very inept balloonist who can’t get her back to Kansas after all.

Workable solution: Dorothy discovers that she always had the power to get back to Kansas.

As a result, Dorothy is able to end the game.

Games are a vast and complex subject. There are libraries full of books dedicated to the subject of games and solutions. Our entire existence is occupied in the playing of games, for survival or for pleasure, or just for the sake of having a game to play.

A game is ended when one reaches the goal or solves the problem posed by the game.

There are many types of games but in the physical universe there are two basic types of games:

1/ Survival Games

These are games that promote survival for the greatest number of beings.

2/ Non-survival Games

These are games that inhibit or prevent survival for the greatest number of beings.

Survival and non-survival are relative to what one conceives to be the highest attainable level of survival–infinite survival.

Like Dorothy, a game that many beings play is to find a place where there is no trouble. However, doesn’t it seem that beings sometimes CREATE TROUBLE for themselves in order to have a GAME to play?

Beings often play a non-survival game simply because they think there are no other games to play. Apparently, many beings think that ANY game is better than NO game, even non-survival games.

We can each create our own games to play in our own universe. These games can be above and beyond mere survival. One need only decide upon a goal and take on the purpose of solving the problems or overcoming the barriers to reach that goal.

Historically, Wicked Witches and the great and powerful Ozes of the world are very poor game makers or goal setters, as they often serve the vested interests of the few at the expense or pain of the many.

War, taxation, physical and spiritual enslavement are examples of non-survival games which have resulted from creating a NEW problem in order to solve an existing problem. These do NOT lead to workable solutions to the original problems.

Obviously, atomic bombs are not a workable solution to any problem. This is a game which no one can win.

Games are won with workable solutions.”

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KURT VONNEGUT: BREAKFAST OF HONESTY

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One of my literary heroes is Kurt Vonnegut.  He was one of the primary inspirations for my first book, “The Oz Factors“, which was modeled after the literature created by this  American “revolutionary” (which means he told the truth, rather than pandering to cultural lies and criminal activities called “American culture” and “American history”.  More importantly, as a human being he was caring, intelligent, kind, egalitarian, spiritually aware and didn’t take any bullshit from governments or religions.  Here is a short video of Kurt Vonnegut reading from his book “Breakfast of Champions“.

Here is an interview with Kurt on PBS at the age of 83, commenting on America and the failure experiment of the Human Race:

Learn more about the life and books of Kurt Vonnegut:

(November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was a 20th-century American writer. His works such as Cat’s Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973) blend satire, gallows humor, and science fiction.  Vonnegut’s first short story, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect,”appeared in the February 11, 1950, edition of Collier’s  (it has since been reprinted in his short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House). His first novel was the dystopian novel Player Piano (1952), in which human workers have been largely replaced by machines. He continued to write short stories before his second novel, The Sirens of Titan, was published in 1959.Through the 1960s, the form of his work changed, from the relatively orthodox structure of Cat’s Cradle (which in 1971 earned him a Master’s Degree) to the acclaimed, semi-autobiographical Slaughterhouse-Five, given a more experimental structure by using time travel as a plot device. These structural experiments were continued in Breakfast of Champions (1973).   Breakfast of Champions became one of his best-selling novels. It includes, in addition to the author himself, several of Vonnegut’s recurring characters. One of them, science fiction author Kilgore Trout, plays a major role and interacts with the author’s character. (Wikipedia.org)