Word: dices
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...been that) but as an aesthetic creed. Some of the best, as well as some of the worst, novelists of the '70s are carrying out French Surrealist Andre Breton's definition of art as "a cry of the mind against itself." In Luke Rhinehart's The Dice Man, a psychiatrist systematically freaks out, illustrating the advantages of what might be termed "planned madness." In Briefing for a Descent into Hell, Doris Lessing suggests that madmen may be mankind's front-running mutants-the pioneers of "inner space," the avant-garde of a superior race to come...
...BEAT NIXON? (Harrison-Blaine; $7) bears a certain resemblance to that perennial family favorite, Monopoly. Up to seven players choose the names of real candidates, including McGovern, Muskie and Lindsay, and set out to defeat another player, who is Nixon. They throw dice to advance their candidates around the board from Alaska to Florida in pursuit of electoral votes, which are won with money and something called media points. Although the game is deliberately weighted in Nixon's favor -he starts out with more money and media points than the others-the contest can be equalized if he lands...
...case of middle-age milgrims herself, and her pedantic husband is a desultory bedmate. From that time on, Luke has power and fate in the palm of his hand. He jots down options, usually from one to six, and abides by the roll of the dice. What the dice-ordained life gives Luke is a sense of euphoric irresponsibility and almost infinite possibilities. When the dice order Luke to jog up and down in his office clad in track shorts, the action merely enhances his swiftly growing reputation for eccentricity. But the command to role-play a homosexual means venturing...
Inevitably the novel itself is ruled by chance. Some sequences click, and others clunk. Much dice-induced motivation is suspect. Luke might have left his wife and children without ever touching the dice. Even when the plot dawdles, Rhinehart's language and humor exert their wiles. Though he leans more to wisecrack than to wit, he gets off fine mimicrys of TV talk shows, journalistic deepthink and professorial psychoanalytic jargon. Between sheets (the book is copiously copulative), Rhinehart works up a positively Joycean lather-blather...
Whenever The Dice Man lapses into missionary zealotry, prepare for rampant naiveté. Anarchy is not the joyous freedom that Rhinehart takes it to be, nor does the cure for civilization's discontents lie in an idolatry. However, the book could be a boon to games-minded hostesses. During a lull at the next party, try serving dice in the martinis...