Author The "Cheese Factor"

[Xenophon]

As used by Michael Webb, the phrase refers to an author/mage's inventing flamboyant background for himself as a way of garnering attention. Webb thus excuses Anton LaVey's claim to have shagged Marilyn Monroe. So too does Kenneth Grant do some special pleading for Madame Blavatsky's known truth-tailoring. Evola---not a forgiving man---winked at Crowley's "showmanship."

One question here is whether there is anything magickally viable about doing this? To mine jaundiced eye, indulging the cheese factor is marketing, (im)pure and simple. One might attract attention, but the next step seems to be disenchantment. It's like seduction: when your date finds out your Corvette is a cheap-plastic chassis on a VW bug's frame, she's going to wonder what other claims are inflated. Second, the mage would seem to need to ask himself whether he wants to attract pupils who are thusly forgiving of crass deceptions.

So, is there a more forgiving but still viable way of looking at the cheese? I recall Miguel Serrano broke with Nimrod De Rosario because the latter wrote "historical fiction" which genre Serrano took as "spreading lies." That's harsh, but why not be so in the case at hand?

 

[Khoren_]

To be honest, one of the main things that makes me discount a magician entirely is their amount of cheese.
Sure, you can exaggerate a little bit, everyone does, but if you straight up lie about a spell "working" or not, that's breaching on LARP and makes me really discount most of what you've told me about your spiritual work.

 

[stratamaster78]

To quote Crowley - Let success be thy proof.

That can apply to your own record keeping and being truthful to yourself but could also apply to being truthful to others who would potentially be students.

I’m not sure there is much to be gained by falsely playing up various accomplishments and especially in today’s digital age where it’s a lot easier to dig into a person’s past

A person could also deceive themselves by creating this backstory that inflates their own Ego to the point that they believe their own deceit.

A bad reputation is hard to overcome for modern authors/teachers I would think.

 

[Xenophon]

To be honest, one of the main things that makes me discount a magician entirely is their amount of cheese.
Sure, you can exaggerate a little bit, everyone does, but if you straight up lie about a spell "working" or not, that's breaching on LARP and makes me really discount most of what you've told me about your spiritual work.

I tend to agree. Which is why it's troubling to see respected writers on magick (and magi in their own right) making excuses for their elders. I recall reading about a Westerner practicing Zen back in the 60's. A fellow monk told him, "Yes, roshi drinks too much. But his teaching is first rate." If feet of clay there be, call 'em feet of clay. Which brings the discussion back to the suspicion that marketing is the egregore besetting much magick.

Post automatically merged: Aug 27, 2024

To quote Crowley - Let success be thy proof.

That can apply to your own record keeping and being truthful to yourself but could also apply to being truthful to others who would potentially be students.

I’m not sure there is much to be gained by falsely playing up various accomplishments and especially in today’s digital age where it’s a lot easier to dig into a person’s past

A person could also deceive themselves by creating this backstory that inflates their own Ego to the point that they believe their own deceit.

A bad reputation is hard to overcome for modern authors/teachers I would think.

Yes. Backstories can possess the storyteller himself. I recall a video of a martial artist who claimed to be able to floor opponents with force of "chi" alone. He failed the challenge and then said something like, "Well if you don't believe in my power, it doesn't work!"

 

[stalkinghyena]

cheese factor is marketing,

I once complained to a my commercial art teacher in high school, who had a degree in marketing, about Mentos commercials. I couldn't the song out of my head to the point where I was resentful. I mean, the Mentos jingle was bad enough that it aided in insomnia.
His response was, "But you remember it."

So

One question here is whether there is anything magickally viable about doing this?

The memory, cheesy or not, carries a current with it. Something "magical" gets passed along that current which in its subtle nature is more important than the flamboyant transmission. It survives, like it or not. Like larvae - like maggots, Gen X disappointment based values be damned. It's manifest power is that people will make excuses, if not for the sake of the perpetrator, then for the power of the current. Even haters serve that power. The fun part is that they don't even know it.

I could give a fig if old "Uncle Anton" was a lion tamer or a crime scene photographer or if he banged a celebrity. He could have cared less if I did, anyway. But I saw a picture of him in smiling pose with Sammy Davis, Jr. wearing an upside down pentagram. That's chedder on my burrito.

I also think al lot of these stories are funny as fuck.

A bad reputation is hard to overcome for modern authors/teachers I would think.

Maybe because there is too much competition? We consumers are industrialized to the point of pickiness as being definitive. But I think it's still true that "A sucker is born every minute."

 

[Xenophon]

I once complained to a my commercial art teacher in high school, who had a degree in marketing, about Mentos commercials. I couldn't the song out of my head to the point where I was resentful. I mean, the Mentos jingle was bad enough that it aided in insomnia.
His response was, "But you remember it."

So


The memory, cheesy or not, carries a current with it. Something "magical" gets passed along that current which in its subtle nature is more important than the flamboyant transmission. It survives, like it or not. Like larvae - like maggots, Gen X disappointment based values be damned. It's manifest power is that people will make excuses, if not for the sake of the perpetrator, then for the power of the current. Even haters serve that power. The fun part is that they don't even know it.

I could give a fig if old "Uncle Anton" was a lion tamer or a crime scene photographer or if he banged a celebrity. He could have cared less if I did, anyway. But I saw a picture of him in smiling pose with Sammy Davis, Jr. wearing an upside down pentagram. That's chedder on my burrito.

I also think al lot of these stories are funny as fuck.


Maybe because there is too much competition? We consumers are industrialized to the point of pickiness as being definitive. But I think it's still true that "A sucker is born every minute."

That is a pretty good couple of arguments for extra cheese on one's Whopper.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Anything that strengthens your belief in the person or in the artifact, strengthens your belief in the magical system. So magicians bend the truth (sometimes way past breaking point) and lots of grimoires claim to be handed down from hundreds/thousands of years ago/secret ancient knowledge/dictated by a supernatural being etc.

I mean, who wants the "wisdom of the gods" that was only written a week last Tuesday?

 

[Xenophon]

Anything that strengthens your belief in the person or in the artifact, strengthens your belief in the magical system. So magicians bend the truth (sometimes way past breaking point) and lots of grimoires claim to be handed down from hundreds/thousands of years ago/secret ancient knowledge/dictated by a supernatural being etc.

I mean, who wants the "wisdom of the gods" that was only written a week last Tuesday?

Andrew and John, after they knocked off fishing for the day. The Prophet's (SAWS) cousin Ali, for another. See kid, you gotta get in on the ground floor.

Post automatically merged: Aug 28, 2024

An apology about the original post: I wrote "Michael Webb." I meant "Donald Webb." Stupid mistake and token of creeping senescence. (There. I made it through that without saying, "Who Moved My Cheese?")