The Glass Bead Game: Pt. 2

In 1943, Hermann Hesse published Das Glasperlenspiel ( The Glass Bead GameA"). The game itself is a central theme of Hesse's novel. He gave only a sketch of how it might be played in practice, but made it clear that it is a game of comparisons across different subject areas. The Glass Bead Game can be played at many levels of complexity. Its moves can be deeply technical, or conversationally playful. A move in a game about music and astronomy might ask: If the solar year in astronomy is like the octave in music, what is the musical equivalent of the lunar month?A" A more playful game about music and fashion asks: If Alexander McQueen is the Jimi Hendrix of fashion, what is McQueen's Purple Haze?A" Another asks: Who is the Napoleon of football, and what was his Waterloo?A" A more intimate game enquires: Where is your Ithaca?A" The first volume presents A basic form of play, genealogy, and examplesA" including a short game concerning music, mathematics, architecture and I Ching. The second volume presents a game involving gods, metals, planets and trees (particularly mercury and hazel), and considers the evolution of naming and classification systems in each subject area. Volume 3 explores connections between war, poetry, dance and cookery from before the dawn of man to the present day, through ideas of rhythm, order and what makes us human. A forthcoming volume will collect and challenge some notable examples of glass bead game moves from literature, the media, and other diverse sources, and will put into play a range of opening gambits intended to inspire further exploration and elaboration of the form by others, especially in more informal contexts. In the language of the game itself, in bringing the dreamer's concept into reality, these volumes do for Hesse's Glasperlenspiel what Gothic architecture did for Plotinus's light-drenched Enneads, what the Bolshevik revolution did for Marx's Capital, and what the World Wide Web did for Gibson's Neuromancer.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 - Introduction; Chapter 2 - The four domains of play; The sign of Mercury and Hazel; Metals and Mercury; Trees and the Hazel; Planets and Mercury; The gods and Mercury; Chapter 3 - Development of the game; A table of correspondences; Classification systems; Developments in chemical nomenclature; Developments in biological nomenclature for flowering plants; Developments in the study of religion; Developments in planetary science; The root of the tree; Chapter 4 - The Mercury and Hazel game; Move 1 English and Proto-Indo-European taxa; Move 2 Key characteristics of taxa; Move 3 Paradigm of sevens; Move 4 Alternative signature; Move 5 - Gravegoods to protect the dead; Move 6 The doorway to the underworld; Move 7 Many become one; Move 8 Common name to scientific naming paradigm; Move 9 Phylogenetic naming; Representation of the game as a mandalaA"; Representation of the game as a table of correspondencesA"; Game commentary; Chapter 5 - Select bibliography.

About the Author :
Paul Pilkington is a mathematician and musician on a lifelong quest to design a playable version of Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game. A trained classical musician from an early age, his journey has led him through a formal education in mathematics and information technology, and private studies in esoteric religion, ancient and oriental languages, linguistics, astronomy, architecture, and poetry, and residence and travel in the Middle East, China, India, Europe, and Central and South America.