Description
“Literature can be liberation or litany. It can shock us into new life or lull us in the old. THE BOOK OF THE DIE is a collection of essays, proverbs, parables and nonsense intended to help free us from patterns which dam our lives–damning being considered undesirable. It is intended to be dipped into at random, the Ultimate Unanswer being present everywhere at any moment. Sooner or later, by Chance, the lucky reader will discover what this nonsensical book is all about.
Each section contains a variety of material–proverbs, parables, quotations, cartoons, poems, meandering essays, scenes from movies, contributions from other people who have played with the dice, and six options for dice living.
But dicing is only one of many ideas in this book. Taoist sage, the Zen master, the Hindu yogi, the Sufi mystic, and even the Christian ascetic share one common purpose: the destruction of the self, liberation from the illusion of a separate and controlling identity. All agree with the philosophy of die-ing: man must give up his illusion that a self can control life; he must let go; he cannot live until he has died.
This is a Book of Wisdom and, as is true of any book of wisdom, contains a lot of bullshit. Not to worry. Luke is merely trying to introduce the human race to an entirely new way of looking at life and society and so shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Politicians are serious. You’re not one of them, are you?
THE BOOK OF THE DIE was published by Harper-Collins in the U.K. in 2001, in Poland in 2001, and in the United States by Overlook Press in April of 2002.
