Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 21:52:29 +1000
From: P.Bains-AT-uws.edu.au (Paul Bains)
Subject: Re: Memories of a Sorcerer, 111 and a bit


Douglas,
Thanks for your first impressions. A few brief remarks...I don't think Ruyer
is still in print, in fact it's most unlikely. I mentioned Chaosmosis partly
because I co-translated it (with Julian Pefanis)and was curious to know if
it had had much of a reading in Paris. I once tried to see if there had been
any reviews of the book in France but to no avail. I'm amazed that it's so
expensive - seems like a rip-off! The French edition that I have is an
ordinary paperback, (how can it possibly be 350frs). Anyway the book is
available in English (Sydney, Power Publications, 1995) and is forthcoming
through Indiana Univ Press (Fall). In Australia its $14.95. It's not
directly related to our discussion at present although as a 'generalised
ecology' it'll probably make an appearance.
I don't want to comment much on Ruyer right now, I'll save that for a more
considered mail. Suffice it to say that I think he's very important to an
understanding of D/G's notion of a concept, and the brain as a state of
'auto-survol' independently of any supplementary dimension. D/G comment that
Ruyer carried out a double critique of mechanism and phenomenology which
cries out to be looked at. They've had a go. Maybe that's enough already. 
I agree that the presentation of Riemann spaces in 1000p is doing different
work altho point 4. p.488 seems to resonate: 'what defines a smooth space,
then, is that it does not have a dimension higher than that which moves
through it...' but I don't know what I'm talking about here so I won't
dribble on.
Just a little rave - If I take Ruyer ( and Whitehead and countless others
'seriously') I'm obliged to think of perception as a kind of sorcery
concerned with shifting the assemblage point of perception (as Castenada
calls it).
'Carlos Castenada's books clearly illustrate this evolution, or rather
involution...A man totters from one door to the next and disappears into
thin air: "All I can tell you is that we are fluid, luminous beings made of
fibers."(1000pl,p.249). 
I can't help but find Ruyer's 'fibrous structure of the universe', chpter
X1V, ringing bells here. There is a world of immaterial and/or transmaterial
'forces' that is pervasive and which innumerable traditions both
philosophical and/or 'spiritual' claim to work with. See the conclusion to
'What is Phil'-the plant is sensation in/for itself.
'For don Juan, sorcery was the act of embodying some specialized theoretical
and practical premises about the nature and role of perception in molding
the universe around us.' (Castenada, The art of dreaming, London, Aquarian,
1994, author's note).
Well that's enough quotes for now - perhaps forever.
Tell us more about this 'optics' of yours.

regards, pb. 11/9/95
ps.  Charles Stivale, I never did thank you for sending me the Guattari
interview. Thank you!


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