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jdmagic357 Special user 737 Posts |
A very interesting read that I hope you enjoy,
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924087818823 If you like it say something nice. If you don't keep it to yourself.
Just cause they say it, doesn't make it true.
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afinemesh Inner circle Senseless gibberish that amounts to 2621 Posts |
If I don't like it, I'll be nice when I let you know it
"I've always been mental, I'm sure of it" Boris Pocus
"Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny". . .Bruce Springsteen |
jdmagic357 Special user 737 Posts |
Quote:
On 2011-05-07 13:48, afinemesh wrote: Fair enough but I'm not the author, as that would make me over 100. So be REAL nice as my heart can't take to much. OK?
Just cause they say it, doesn't make it true.
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Harley Newman Inner circle 5117 Posts |
Carrington was an intriguing character, involved it the psychical research of the early 20th century. This pamphlet was also part of the Boy's Book of Magic, published circa 1920.
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” -Mark Twain
www.bladewalker.com |
weepinwil Inner circle USA 3828 Posts |
Wow! Who wouldn't like this? I think it is great. Thanks for sharing.
"Til Death us do part!" - Weepin Willie
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afinemesh Inner circle Senseless gibberish that amounts to 2621 Posts |
Jdmagic357. Seriously, this is a great history lesson! Anything that relates to conjuring in different cultures I would find interesting. This is no exception.
"I've always been mental, I'm sure of it" Boris Pocus
"Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny". . .Bruce Springsteen |
jdmagic357 Special user 737 Posts |
Quote:
On 2011-05-07 16:45, weepinwil wrote: When it comes to me there Weep, they could find the tome useless and degrading somehow? I do however thank you for honoring my find.
Just cause they say it, doesn't make it true.
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weepinwil Inner circle USA 3828 Posts |
It takes a lot of work to find some of this stuff.
"Til Death us do part!" - Weepin Willie
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afinemesh Inner circle Senseless gibberish that amounts to 2621 Posts |
Some may not agree, but I find it hard to believe anyone would see it as degrading
"I've always been mental, I'm sure of it" Boris Pocus
"Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny". . .Bruce Springsteen |
ssucahyo Inner circle 1954 Posts |
Thank you for sharing this.
Very interesting. CC |
jdmagic357 Special user 737 Posts |
Quote:
On 2011-05-07 22:15, afinemesh wrote: Thank you to for supporting my find. As has already been said these thing can be difficult to acquire at times.
Just cause they say it, doesn't make it true.
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Pakar Ilusi Inner circle 5777 Posts |
Yes, thank you jdmagic357...
"Dreams aren't a matter of Chance but a matter of Choice." -DC-
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willem New user 78 Posts |
Thanks I really enjoyed reading it
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Matthew St. Cyr Special user The Dark Woods of New England 793 Posts |
Awsome find, man!
The Wonder Lies In The Dark Between The Stars. . .
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Stoltz Veteran user 400 Posts |
Thanks for sharing!
I haven't had a chance to read all of it, but you ought to know these sort of things are indeed deeply appreciated! |
jdmagic357 Special user 737 Posts |
Thank you all for your acknowledgments. I'm on the look out for more, and will of course post them when and if found. They are however, quite sparse. Thank you again.
Just cause they say it, doesn't make it true.
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Todd Robbins V.I.P. New York 2922 Posts |
For a great indepth review of street magic in India today, read Net of Magic. If you go to Google Books (http://books.google.com/books) and put in that title, it will come up.
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jfquackenbush Special user Out here on the desert 607 Posts |
When I was in India a couple of years ago I spent some time talking to a kid who was doing street magic on the road to Agra. He was probably fifteen or sixteen, he was doing the cups and balls with beautiful marble tea cups and he fooled me badly a couple of times. His English wasn't great, but he took a break while his friend who was a monkey trainer worked the crowd and we had an interesting chat in the language of gestures and a few words here and there. We wandered off the road aways so we could get some privacy. I was trying to get him to teach me one of the things he'd done with a burnt and restored silk neckerchief. I ended up doing a bill switch, changing a rupee note for an american dollar, then I showed him how to do it and gave him the gimmick in exchange for him teaching me the handkerchief routine. When I showed him the gimmick his eyes got huge and he just started laughing. He showed me something similar he used but that wasn't quite as clean as the common western TT and he was thrilled when I told him I'd give it and the US dollar to him in exchange for teaching me the thing I saw him do. I still haven't quite got it down as cleanly as he did it, but thinking back about it now because of this discussion, I think it was probably the best seven dollars I ever spent on magic in my life.
Mr. Quackenbush believes that there is no such thing as a good magic trick.
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Anverdi-museum Inner circle 1193 Posts |
Wow! Very cool, thanks for passing that along!!
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Faster New user Texas 57 Posts |
Hereward Carrington wrote a few other very interesting books. My favorite is "Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism" (also available for online reading or PDF downloading at http://www.archive.org). It's a very large tome and probably most won't want to "waste their time" with it as it deals primarily with the mediumistic seances of the late 1800s and attempts to expose the frauds who preyed upon those who'd lost loved ones.
Bear in mind the culture of the period was far different than ours is now. People actually believed, for example, that a medium supposedly tied to a chair and enclosed in a small cabinet stocked with horns, guitars and tambourines had NOTHING to do with the playing of those instruments when the cabinet door was closed and the medium was left to his own resources inside the cabinet. People actually believed that materialized "spirits" had to start from within such a cabinet (with the medium inside) and, with the lights out and in total darkness, the "spirit" would exit the cabinet in glowing white, walk around the audience seated in chairs and then be REQUIRED to return to the cabinet, open the door, step inside and close the door in order to return to "the spirit world." Etc. Despite how dumb that may sound to us, at the time it made perfect sense to audiences. The majority of the book deals with how all these stunts were pulled off. Some of the methods moved right on into mentalism and are still used today, especially slate writing. Oh, and blindfold driving, except back then it was horse and carriage. To get the most out of this volume, one has to study it, not read it. Unless you're doing an escape artist routine, for example, the information on how to get out of the strongest rope ties or how to rig handcuffs might seem useless to the modern mentalist or stage magician. But think again. Couldn't you adapt the rope escape secrets? Rather than having yourself tied to a chair, couldn't you have your audience tie up a prop in such a way that they're sure you can't get inside for the remainder of the routine? And under such thinking, what would be the impact to your audience if, while walking back to the stage with the tied-up prop, you slipped your hand into it (despite its being tied shut), inserted something and exited your hand without the ropes appearing to have been disturbed? All before you got back to the stage and turned again to face the audience! One of my favorite humorous items in the book was a description of an early Swami Gimmick. Without giving away details on what that is or why it's used, I'll just describe the construction. Take a short length of spring steel, curved, and fashion one end to fit between your thumbnail and the underlying flesh. The steel will naturally bend over the tip and pad of your thumb. At the opposing end, which should terminated at the base of the pad of your thumb (just above the first joint), you fashion the end of the steel into tiny little barbs that stick into, but not through, your skin. A useful writing medium (chalk, lead pencil, grease pencil, soapstone, etc.) is pressed into a hole in the steel halfway between the two ends. There are ingenious means for writing on slates, which to my knowledge no longer are used today. Means and methods of gaining information about your sitters, non-verbal codes for 2-person acts and a wealth of other information. Etc. What the book is NOT is a "Here's a neat effect, and here's how to do it." It's not a trick book. It was a serious attempt at pleading with the American (and British) public not to fall for the fraud of these so-called mediums who were so anxious to take money under false pretences. It was an attempt to expose the fakes as just that—fakes. The practice back then wasn't what it is today, which is primarily entertainment and somewhere in the backs of their heads the audience knows it isn't real. In the time this book was written, people actually believed all this stuff was 100% real and the fakers were all too happy to tell them it was real (and take their money so they could talk to their recently-dead son or daughter, etc.). Therefore, you're going to have do your own thinking as to how you can use the information in this book. If you need a book laid out in the "Here's a trick, here's how you do it" mode, then don't bother with this one. The book, as far as I know, has 2 scan sources. One is Google, the source coming from the NY Library. The other is University of Michigan, coming from another university library (in Minnesota, I believe). There is also an OCR scan. If you are the kind to buy the print-on-demand versions of these old books, I recommend for this one: 1. The UofMichigan scan as being the cleanest with the most steady margins (pages are orthogonally straight and tend to have equal margins from page-to-page). However, there is one page missing (388, I believe) which can easily be printed by yourself on your own printer. It's simply the case that 388 is missing from the print-on-demand book. It's not missing from the PDF scan itself. Available from Amazon. 2. The Google scan. Margins tend to start floating and there are more smudgy, thick-lettered pages than you'll find in the UofM scan. While most of the book is fine, the entire thing looks like a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. You'll be dealing with fighting the typeface in order to read it, rather than getting on with the reading itself. Also available at Amazon. 3. OCR. Don't even bother. The pages were scanned and the software attempted to determine which letter was which, and did a typical half-bass job of it. No human has attempted to correct the software errors. Unreadable in my opinion. You may also want to check out other volumes by Carrington, as well as references found at the Society for Psychical Research (of which Carrington was a member) at http://www.spr.ac.uk. Lot's of oldies stuff to be found here having to do with spirits, death, mentalism, etc. Lastly, Carrington was also a contributor to "Mahatma" magazine at the turn of the 20th century. Ebook versions of that collection are likewise available and may prove enlightening. Richard |
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