Statement of Purpose
By Wesley James
Welcome, the publication you are now reading is the first of what is intended to be a continuing forum for serious discourse on subjects magical. It will explore Magic as a performance art, a commercial craft and as a supporting avocation for those not actively engaged in the commercial and/or artistic aspects of our endeavor. In addition, these pages will offer a source you can come to depend on for the honest review of products offered for sale to the magic community. To a considerable extent I, your editor, will generate these reviews, at least initially. Readers are, however, encouraged to weigh in with their responses as well. Those responses will be treated in a novel way. Purely subjective responses will be considered only in the context of other subjective responses. Thus, if ten readers write to say, "Joe Doakes new tape is garbage" and eight readers write to say, "Joe Doakes new tape is great," none of the individual letters are likely to see print. If, however, just one reader writes to say, "I felt ripped off because all the material on the tape had already appeared in Joe Doakes Lecture Notes and the ads didn't reveal this fact," you may well see it here. If such a statement is substantiated, you have the right to know. You may agree that such a tape is a rip off or you may think it a tape you want to own to see if the material plays as well as it reads. The knowledge will be yours to use as you see fit. You will also see reviews of conventions, acts, TV appearances and anything else that may seem relevant to me or you.
These pages will not be limited to subjects of interest to me. It will also provide a platform for any of a plethora of subjects you, the readers, deem meritorious. If, for example, Jerry Andrus, or any of his compeers, wish to explore the "honesty in magic performance" theory, they may do so, however frivolous I may think the matter. If Jeff McBride, Eugene Berger, Max Maven or even Mundoka wish to explore matters relating to "Bizarre Magick", they will have access to these pages. They may state their case here even though I find little of merit in the movement and think it walks a fine, too-often-crossed line between condescending egotism and out right charlatanism. In short, theater turned inward instead of outward.
By now you may be stifling a yawn. You've read, or at least assumed, most reviews, articles, even monographs had honesty as a goal. You've also seen enough overblown presentations. If you're truthful with yourself, your experience has told you that reviews have rarely been honest, truly critical or particularly informative. At least, you may think, you got a good "trick" for your reading effort, well maybe. That won't happen here. We won't be publishing effects, routines, sleights or moves. There'll be no blueprints or construction projects and, of course, no ads. You won't read these pages for the latest dealer offerings. These needs are quite adequately overloaded by existing sources.
From these pages you will get honesty. The honesty that comes from anonymity. I recognize only to well that anonymity is a controversial approach to achieving candor. I have been warned by those I most trust and esteem that the negative associations people have with anonymous writers will hurt my reputation. They warn that people mistrust anonymity. They further warn that the freedom to be honest that is my goal in instituting this policy can too easily become a license. That license can be used to attack, malign or slander. I grant that these potential problems are real. I also believe they exist for any publication and that they can, to a considerable extent, be guarded against. I will concertedly endeavor to do so.
My name is Wesley James. Some of you know me. Others of you have read my books, seen me lecture or own my lecture notes. Some will have seen my contributions to other publications. In any event, over time you will come to know me as an editor and in some measure a person. You may also come to know me as a writer, but you may not always know. I may from time to time write for this publication under one or more nomes de plume. Moreover, everyone else who publishes in these pages, who wishes to, will be anonymous to everyone except me. Only those who specifically request the use of their real name will have it used or revealed. Each contributor will have a name assigned to them. At the same time, only real individuals whose identity can be authenticated will have access to this pulpit. Your assurance of anonymity will afford you the freedom to be honest. The fact that I will know who you are and control access to these pages will hopefully insure that those with obvious agendas are denied the opportunity to abuse these pages and the trust I hope they will earn. In other words, to deny the afore mentioned license. Dealers will not be allowed to publish reviews in praise of their own products. They will be permitted to defend their products against criticism from others. Dealers are also free to write on other subjects but not to review products.
I should explain that my use of a pseudonym as a writer is purposeful. In my role as editor my function will be fundamentally referee and fact checker. In that capacity, my opinion on a subject will be irrelevant. As a writer and an individual I am as entitled to an opinion, bias and a decided point of view as anyone. Anonymity will allow me both roles.
The balance of this issue will be devoted to a sampling of the type of articles you're likely to see here in future issues. You should not, however, assume that they reflect the tone or position of the publication. Ultimately, you'll dictate such matters.
Last, but hardly least, this forum is currently foreseen as a quarterly but it may become a bi-monthly or even a monthly. The quantity and quality of your participation will dictate our publishing schedule. Feel free to copy it for interested parties by way of introduction. You should not make copies of copies. This should not be considered a license to copy this or future issues in quantity. Copying of future issues is strictly prohibited as long copies of an issue remain available. Availability of back issues will be indicated on the back page of each issue. If there is any doubt contact us before copying.
A CALL TO ARMS
The magic fraternity has, over the years, been serviced by a wide variety of what have generously been called "magazines". These six to eight page periodicals have included such venerable efforts as The Jinx and The Phoenix and more recently Pallbearers Review, Richard's Almanac and Apocalypse. None of these publications ever achieved circulations of 1,000. Most have had considerably fewer readers. All of these, what I will term "trick journals" or "trickazines", have featured effects contributed by members of the fraternity. The stock and trade of these and other such works were their subscribers who; motivated variously by ego, self-aggrandizement, vendetta or altruism; contributed their "creative" efforts. None of these trickazines ever averaged more then 500 readers per issue. The marketplace for magic periodicals is clearly limited.
This venture, MAGICAL PROVOCATEUR, will, in all probability, never approach half the number of readers of the trick journals because we will offer no tricks. Most brothers in the fraternity don't care enough about magic to read a publication that offers them no new miracles to inflict upon their "friends", relatives or innocent bystanders. They don't want to read or think about the issues these pages will raise. Fewer will willfully pay money to have their belief systems challenged. Perhaps a small handful will be moved to do something about the actionable issues MP will advocate. With this full awareness, that the words and ideas we posit will fall on few ears, and that most of them will be deaf you may wonder how we justify the effort. In a word, "hope". It is the hope that a few may be moved to thought and action that make this anything but a Sisyphusian labor. I believe that revolutions begin from the minds of a few visionaries. Those few, by communication, open the minds of others who influence still others till awareness reaches critical mass. It is my hope that we can ask the questions and raise the issues that will open enough minds to fuel that critical mass.
If you are satisfied with the current state of "the magical arts". If you are satisfied that your profession/avocation is generally regarded as a third class, at best, performing art when it isn't being disregarded as a phase that children find of passing interest, if your satisfied that your friends think of you as something of an embarrassing joke, then this discourse will not interest you. Your ability to disregard the low status magic has earned as an entertainment, justly or unjustly, are so much a part of the problem that their is little hope of convincing you that it needn't be this way. The best thing you can do for our pursuit is to get out. But you won't. You will find the words of this journal, admittedly flawed in many ways, as much ado about nothing. You will rationalize, trivialize and deny the sad truth of magic's inexorable decline. Some of you may be beyond all reach and beyond all reason.
I am convinced this not true of all of the fraternity. Some will respond to this call to think, discuss, argue and develop solutions to the sorry state of affairs. Some of you will feel, however vaguely, that magic has stagnated and become irrelevant and will feel compelled to ask why. Some will be moved to breathe life into the solutions that can be discovered. Some will contribute little beyond the price of their subscriptions to this journal. To all of you, whoever you are, you are the hope for magic's tomorrow. From your ranks will arise the visionaries. You are to become officers in the army that will fight to save our old and honorable if somewhat tired and maligned "art".
Unfortunately, among your ranks are traitors and spies to the movement. You are the ones who will loudly argue that we are beating a straw man. You will rail about how appreciative your audiences are and how all you friends respect your magical skills. You will deny and decry the issues this journal raises while photocopying its pages to present to all willing to accept them. After all you can't expect them to attend you as you hold court if they don't have copies. You are the great enemies to magic because you endeavor to close minds and harden hearts for the benefit of your ego. You've been destroying magic for years but I am hopeful that we will vanquish you.
This call to arms would not be complete without a special appeal. We want those of you who care about magic and want to see it improve as subscribers. We want you who enjoy thinking and talking about magic theory as subscribers. We want the few who can empower intelligent actions that can help the cause. Finally, we want those who would like to be a constructive part of the dialogue that should ensue from the issues we raise as subscribers. If you are any of those types of individuals sit down right now and right a check for $20 for the next four issues. Don't send for a two or three year subscription because I can't guarantee that we can survive more then one year. Mail your check to Wesley James, 100 Ocean Parkway, Suite 2H, Brooklyn, NY 11218. The future of magic is in your hands.