Customer Reviews

Postmodern Magic: The Art of Magic in the Information Age

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't like Chaos Magic, and for years I've seen this book on shelves and haven't purchased it because I suspected it was more of the same tripe that Peter Carroll popularized in the later decades of the twentieth century. I was so wrong.

This book is solid gold. While there are some things in it I disagree with, Patrick Dunn presents the information every magician *must* have if they are going to be successful in their magickal endeavors. His style is smooth, entertaining, and he presents everything I wish I had known when I was starting out in my magickal career sixteen years ago. If I had started with this instead of Donald Michael Kraig's Modern Magick, I'm sure I'd be further along in my Work today.

This book is not a genre-specific approach to performing magick, as it may appear to be. It provides the basic processes of every magickal path, a strong philosophical understanding of the information exchanged in ritual workings, and intermediate-to-advanced information as well. While I suggest it more to beginners, long-time practitioners will find nuggets of gold on every page as well. Reading this book spackled up the cracks in my understanding on some aspects of magickal theory that have eluded me for years.

It's an excellent companion for Agrippa-esque ceremonial magicians, Solomonic practitioners, and even Golden Dawn or Thelema initiates looking for more practical information that won't be found in the dogma so prevalent in initiatory systems. And it's so much easier to read than Regardie or Crowley.

This book has not received the appreciation it deserves in the occult community. I strongly recommend it to anyone who practices magick.

This book presents a fairly straightforward system of magical practice which draws on such diverse sources as the Golden Dawn, classical Greek magic, Zen Buddhism and Chaos Magic. It is a suitable read for those who have had little or no magical experience, as well as for more experienced traditionalists who might find that some of its material could provide new perspectives. Readers who are highly experienced in modern magic techniques might not find anything new, but might still find this an enjoyable read.

The active, daily practice of magic in the real world is encouraged, as is a great deal of creativity in the construction of rituals and working tools. Each chapter contains practical exercises pertaining to its subject matter, including topics such as evocation, divination, astral travel, and linguistics. Further questions for study and research are also presented in the appendices.

In my opinion, the most notable and enjoyable feature of the book, is the way in which semiotics, and communication theory are woven into the magical system. I have long believed that an understanding of both of these disciplines is vital to the successful practice of magic, and I was pleased with the way in which each was presented. Not too much information for a newcomer to these respective concepts to digest, but enough to provide a useful foundation for further exploration. I do disagree with Dunn's dismissal of memetics as merely a metaphor, and his aversion to applying scientific principles to magical study, but these are small matters of conflicting opinion which did not spoil my appreciation of the book overall.

The chapter on occult networking includes guidelines for etiquette, as well as a survey of various types of magical groups, which although somewhat brief could be very useful to a solo practitioner who is looking to meet others with whom to work.

From the beginning, this book captivates through ample use of humor backed with an informative, comprehensive dialogue that the author forms with the reader. Although it seems to be written for beginners, Postmodern Magic is open-ended enough to allow for the practicing mage to branch off and form his/her own ideas. Instead of lauding this book as a manual to be used for magical reference, I see it as a physical embodiment of an informal teacher/student discussion about magic. Many people have trouble "learning" from an instruction book; however, Patrick Dunn's Postmodern magic interacts with the student, encouraging personal growth and experience over "how things ought to be."

I should have written this a long time ago. I got it the day I saw it and haven't been dissapointed.

It has the backbone of modern magick with out all the fluff. I'm into those books. Straightforward techniques for getting things done.

I love his technique for creating mes. I had an idea for a long time of creating a servitor in the form of a floppy disc (yeah, that's my age) and having it 'copy' some skill or knowledge and then downloading it into me. He actually did it and it's a great way of learning something.

I also agree with him that some of the more dramatic chaos techniques aren't always the best way to accomplish something. Nothing wrong if that's what you want to but it's not the only way.

He also does a bit of decent debunking (servitors out of control, auras as the human magnetic field, magic as the same as quantum physics) which I think is long overdue in the magic community.

I particularly like his chapter on Magic in the streets and using glamours. Long a favorite subject, along with servitors. Also the understanding of how to call spirits in a calm, rational way rather than the traditional, almost hysterical method is something I've thought of before but this is the first time I've seen it put out so clearly.

Personally, I like his sense of humor and the writing is much better than most, which does make sense given his day job.

The best I can say about this book is that when I play my game of the ten magic books I can have if I had to whittle (way) down my collection it that this would definitely be one of them.

Thanks Patrick.

Patrick and I have both taken issue with the shoddy scholarship in Pagan writings when we have conversed throughout the years. There are far too many instances of books which make claims where not only do they seem unreasonable, but you can not discern whether the author came to this conclusion from some other source, from personal experience, or simply to sell books.

When I heard that Patrick was being published, albeit by Llewellyn, a company once known for publishing absolutely anything, I was thrilled. I rushed out and bought the book right away. I was not disappointed. His book is well documented, far beyond 95% of Pagan books on the market, yet it was not drowning in references to the point that any non-scholar lacks interest in reading the book. In fact, this book was difficult to stop reading. The information was relevant and stated in a manner which was rather easy to understand. As a reader of this book, I was drawn into the book and really felt as if I were a part of the conversation that the author was having with the reader.

I say throw those crappy DJ Conway books off your shelf and replace them with Dunn. Llewellyn finally has a more high quality author to offer.

This book seems to take a lot of flak because it boils down a lot of different practices and paradigms to their most basic principles - what kinds of symbols there are and how they are used. If you're a dedicated practitioner who pays attention, takes notes, and then sits down to figure out the commonalities of a lot of different magickal and philosophical systems, you'll probably figure out a good bit of this book on your own. This book also covers a topic that many texts gloss over: What to do with the techniques and how to apply them in a practical manner. If you're not working as part of a group or don't have someone instructing you, this can be daunting. If you're just starting out on any active path, this book will probably be of great use to you. If you've been practicing for a while and you're looking for something new to read, you might find the perspective this book is written from refreshing.

I've been practicing magic for over 20 years. This book comfirms some of what I've been doing. Read over half the book in one day. Was making sigils by page 54. I love this guy. I think he might be the next Cunninghan.

For the most part I enjoyed this book. The author impressed me with using footnotes, which is definitely a step up from the majority of occult books out there. A lot of his advice and ideas are practical and useful for beginning magicians. All of the exercises in the book are ones I'm familiar with, as it's written for a beginner to intermediate audience, but they are useful to work through. I particularly liked the invent your own magical language exercise, which reminds of TOPY speak, and also Spare's alphabet of desire technique. The questions at the back of the book were handy and useful for processing information and extending the ideas in the book further, which is again a rarity and something I applaud Mr. Dunn for doing.

The author's focus on semiotics and symbolism is a fresh perspective and will offer readers food for thought and action, should they follow through on doing the exercises. Also Mr. Dunn does a good job of covering a wide range of occult techniques and presenting them from a symbolic perspective.

However, while I did like this book, there are some issues with it, which I find problematic. I would have liked to have seen an integrated system of in-text citations such as APA to get a better sense of the sources he draws on. Also he does not, imho, draw on enough available sources. As an example his paradigm piracy in chapter one doesn't cite Josh Wetzel's work, which given that Mr. Dunn lives in Illinois, is surprising, since Wetzel's work is available there, although in limited print. He never defines the term postmodern, which given the title of the book, is rather important. Also beyond providing his own definition of semiotics, he doesn't draw on any semiotic theory. A brief introduction to semiotic theory complete with some references to semiotic theoriticans for curious readers would have been nice as well as drawing on the most updated semiotic work. His influences seem to draw more from Saussure's work than anywhere else, but again without a reference list, that's only a guess.

The other issue I had was his focus solely on magic as a symbolic reality, with him throwing out the energy/spirit models because they couldn't be "proven". Given that he is drawing on a social science background, his focus is ultimately on what he knows as a social scientist, and yet his stance as a social scientist frequently seems to take the magic out of magic. Ironically at times he comes off as contradicting his view that magic is entirely and only a symbolic reality that can be worked with. As an example he worries about whether cutting a tree would hurt it, and yet earlier argues that everything, even a physical cat you look at is just a symbol. If that's the case, the tree is just a symbol, so why worry if it can be hurt? The argument that symbols and reality are one and the same is intriguing, but also dangerous in terms of leading a magician toward solipsism.

In the end, the book is worth checking out and reading for some intriguing ideas. Keep a bit of salt and skepticism on hand and try his paradigm out, but also do some further research into semiotics on your own. I'd give this book 3 and a 1/2 stars out of five.

As the Postmodern Condition is more apparent in our IT-based society, it is natural that magic as well should develop according to social norms. Dunn brings up an excellent point of view... except he is not able to support his opinions at some parts and it leaves the reader feeling a tad bit peckish after reading.

The largest problem I have with the book is the premise of the "Information Magical Model." According to this model, magical creativity is "stored in information" and is "broadcasted throughout the universe." Okay, interesting take, but how is that different from the psychological model. Now it may be my own bias after researching a bit of phenomenology, but isn't information processed by some sort of system that is equal to consciousness? The "Semiotic Maps" are all just basic linguistic structures built with associations that is no different from the psychological methods of Dion Fortune. The entire idea of "tuning into magical creativity" seems to me another form of the psychological model, so here I am quite bothered.

Another problem I had with the book was the lack of depth. Now, this does not mean that it is not thorough analysis of what IS presented (although I was bothered by the previous point), but Dunn does not seem to bring in other models that are worth exploting. It seems to be an overly rash book that covers the basics slightly and finds itself poor of further discussions. And other ideas that cannot be ignored within the Postmodern scene. For example, I would love to see the application of Deconstruction within occult systems as well as phenomenological analysis, power-structure analysis, and MORE LINGUISTICS!! Hermeneutics deserve a special place within this project, especially when it comes to deciphering Hebraic texts...

However, the overall quality of this book is fantastic. The attitudes of the Postmodern Hodge-Podge (De)Creator is consistent... I just wish someone would come up with a response to Dion Fortune's challenge on the necessity of discipline and mastery over one system before moving on to the next. (Chaos Magicians... shouldn't we at least try to go beyond dabbler stage?) I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a new system of magic... although those experienced within Contemporary Critical Theory will find it somewhat lacking in nutrition.

As an educated witch (I have BAs in English and Linguistics, and post graduate work in Education),I have searched long and hard for a work that could marry my rational and magickal thinking together, and Postmodern Magic is the book. It is well written, humorous, unapologetically intelligent, and practical, and it contains exercises that appeal to both magickal and non-magickal persons. The list of reading material at the end of the book is almost reason alone to buy it, and at last I have found a defined set of magickal paradigms with which I can live comfortably. I have a huge library of Pagan and Wiccan literature, but this is my most thumbed and worn out book, and the one I pick up over and over again. As far as I'm concerned, this book is a must-have for anyone who is interested in real magic. Patrick Dunn takes it out of the realm of superstition and ignorance into the halogen light of the 21st century.