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diff --git a/essays/mock_risk_games.tex b/essays/mock_risk_games.tex index 8d8d325..19ffc05 100644 --- a/essays/mock_risk_games.tex +++ b/essays/mock_risk_games.tex @@ -145,14 +145,54 @@ your universe. gleaming wires. Segments of the lattice alternately burst into flame and cool off. You adhere to the chair as if it were part of you. With your hands holding onto the seat, you can move yourself and the chair forward by - +pushing the seat forward with your hands; you can move backward by +pulling backward; you can move up by pulling up on the seat; and so on. +The lattice is formed in such a way that in order to move from one cell to +the next, you always haave to turn to some extent. Flames immediately +spring up next to you, and you have to maneuver yourself through the +lattice to escape them. \end{enumerate} -\plainbreak{2} - -\textbf{[NOTE: TWO PAGES MISSING HERE IN SCAN]} +\item Play Game D in situations where you have to sit and wait. +\end{enumerate} -\plainbreak{2} +Note: The original version of \essaytitle{Mock Risk Games} was entitled +\essaytitle{Exercise Awareness-States}. It was written during April--July, 1961; and +read at the AG Gallery in New York on July 15, 1961. I subsequently turned +against amusemental compositions, and around June 25, 1962 I sent the +only copy of \essaytitle{Exercise Awareness-States} to the young musician Tom +Constanten, at 1650 Michael Way in Las Vegas. I later wrote Constanten +asking him to return the MS, but I never heard from him. The present revival +analyses the activity better than the original version did. I am unable, +though, to remember some of the most elegant misfortunes for the original +games (A, B, C); and it seems that they are permanently lost. + +In developing the original games---and the present games---I had two +objectives in mind. First, the experience of playing the games (as opposed to +reading or analyzing them) must involve or compel you, must be vivid and +immediate. Secondly, the misfortunes must be elegant, undreamed-of +"explosions" of the natural order. These objectives, though, do not +constitute a use for the games. The games can have many uses, beginning +with amusement; and it remains to be seen what the most significant use will +be. + +\midheading{Intrusions} + +A noise in an adjacent room may intrude on a person playing a mock +risk game, and affect his experience or state of being in a variety of ways. +Let us consider the effects of such \enquote{intrusions} on the player's state. There +are several kinds of intructions. \enquote{Distractions} are perceived by the player to +be unrelated to the game, and tend simply to take his mind off it. \enquote{Bogies} +are surprises which so fit in with the game that the player momentarily +thinks a freak misfortune has really begun; they tend to frighten the player +and halt the game. \enquote{Modulations} are changes in the player's state or mood +which may enhance the game; they are typically induced with drugs. + +The player himself can turn the radio on, bring in a cat, or otherwise +create distractions for himself. Here the object of study is how compelling +the game is. Through how much distraction can the game hold the player's +attention? Turning to modulations, the player can also produce them for +himself. from blundering into a radiation beam, you have to communicate pre-verbally to the other mind by every means from vocal cries to |