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Muzz Regular user 175 Posts |
Not long ago I saw the Castle Notebooks for sale on ebay. One of the pictures showed the inside of one of the pages. Obviously these pages are the reproduced pictures of the original notebooks. From what I could see of the picture they looked really difficult to read and barely had any drawn diagrams explaining sleights thoroughly. Is this the case? If so the book must be quite difficult to read/follow. Or was the picture I saw not a good representation of the book as a whole?
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Mike M Loyal user 244 Posts |
What you saw was accurate. They are hard to read.
I would have preferred that they typed the notes and redrew the illustrations. Instead, they went for the cheapest way to reproduce them- ala scanner. |
GeorgeG Special user Thousand Oaks, CA 977 Posts |
I guess the idea was to keep it original to the actual notebooks. Remember these were intended as notes Bruce kept for himself and not a detailed written manuscript for a textbook on magic. Some work and basic knowledge needed to understand and use the material inside.
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LeConte Special user Bay area 830 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-12-22 09:12, Mike M wrote: All I can say is wow.
Drive Carefully
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Muzz Regular user 175 Posts |
LaConte, what are you saying wow to? It could be to a number of different things!
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sleightly Elite user New Hampshire 500 Posts |
These books were never going to reproduced in anything but facsimile (and if Bruce had had his way they likely would never have been produced at all). Going the "cheap" route is an inaccurate statement, as reproducing handwritten pages by scanner requires a lot of time and intense effort (one has to deal with smudges, bleed-through, differing colors of ink/pencil and deteriorating pages). I can attest to that having realized all the facsimile work for "The Lost Notebooks of John Northern Hilliard".
L&L certainly could have hired a typist to retype the material and an illustrator to redraw the figures (although Bruce's drawings are, for the most part, very clear), but in re-setting the text in a standard book format (rather than trying to recreate the layout on the notebook pages) they would have also had to re-write the text which would have required interpretation without access to the source. While annotated material can be very helpful (especially from someone intimate with the subject such as Gene Matsuura was with Slydini), it can easily overtake the voice of the subject. This was very unlikely to happen and would have delayed publication for years, if ever... In the process many decisions would have been made about what to include and what to leave out leaving the project expanded, yet incomplete. What L&L did produce is a snapshot in magic history through the eyes of an insider, professional performer and extreme magic enthusiast who chronicled the material he saw and appreciated. It is left up to the reader to discover what, and why, Cervon found material to be important and, absent access to the performer, a chance to explore the mind behind the magic. Are the books ideal representations? No. There are limitations of production as well as incomplete information notated by Cervon, but the finished set contains powerful material and strong magical ideas yet to be realized in full performance. The journey is, in this case, its own reward. If you work through the notebooks and share some of the material with audiences (instilling your own voice), for the most part you will be performing material that no one else is doing sharing something unique in the process. |
Muzz Regular user 175 Posts |
Thanks for that Sleightly, you have provided some valuable insight there. I have just purchased all five volumes and am looking forward to receiving them. From what I hear, even though they may be a difficult read, they are extremely rewarding!
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LeConte Special user Bay area 830 Posts |
Sleightly your post is excellent. It sums up nicely many of the factors involved in the production of these amazing and little discussed books. You are literaly holding in your hands, untouched, the legendary Castle Notebooks. What you take from that is up to you, however, as far as a way to bring the books to the market, without a large printing, what more would you want?
I understand the price is very high for a set of books that are not a smooth or easy read, or in a standard format that we find most magic books. While this might turn some people off, for the 500 people who own each volume, I'm sure the preservation of the purity of the notes is the most important thing. No one was being cheap or lazy in the production of these books. Thank you for your hard work Linda Cervon! We owe you a tremendous debt for your efforts in bringing these to market. We know the books might never have been released without your involvement in the project. Thank you, thank you, thank you...... A complete set of the Castle Notebooks would be the pride of any magicians library, and an immense tomb of reference, study, exploration, and most important personal creation. ,
Drive Carefully
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PapaG Special user 851 Posts |
There's a complete set of new Castle Notebooks for sale. PM if interested.
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Arman.V New user Los Angeles 30 Posts |
Click on the link that says Notebook page 47. http://www.brucecervon.com/Pages/Notebooks.html
I don't know if the rest of the book is structured like that because I don't have it,but that looks pretty confusing to me... -Arman |
Gordon Special user Chicago 692 Posts |
Well, that's a page that shows the end of one trick, and the start of another. But it is fair representation of the look of the books.
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