Monday, September 22, 2014

Scalping of Occult Books

In a reply to Balkan's Blog on the topic of the annoyance of scalping, I wrote this:

What an interesting thread (personal wars aside). Apart from its own merits, it has elements in common with the thorny question of downloading pdfs when the books are no longer available from the publishers. Do you pay the scalper or do you pirate? Either way, the publisher loses nothing. Anyway, before I alienate everyone, let me describe my position;
I have a shelf of occult books, from Trident through Fulgur, Esoteric Endeavor, Scarlet Imprint, and several more. The value is astronomical at this point, compared to my other books, but these are a joy to own. Fulgur in particular fulfils my interest in all things Austin Spare, and its books are high-quality, even if they don't stretch to the luxuriousness of echt toadskin or - a particular weakness of mine - hand-marbled endpapers.
All of these publishers are performing an incredible service for booklovers everywhere, even those who might regard the subject matter as nonsense, from a scientific perspective. I did manage to avoid the SI injunction on 777 for Scarlet Goddess devotees only, but just because I'm not devoted daily to the Goddess, I am indeed devoted to this book, and have treasured it since.
I strongly believe that people who can afford these books should buy them from the publishers, even purchase in advance if it helps them to gauge demand and manage the budget. And I believe that to the tune of having bought at least 5 books direct from each of these publishers. However, times change, and so I have the following points to add:
(1) I have been known to buy spare copies here and there with the intention of later selling them - 1 x Picatrix from Ars Obscura, 1 Grimoire of Honorious from Trident I saw at a steal on Ebay, and a second copy of other books found at other sites when I thought these were being sold cheaply. So maybe 4 or 5 in total. Typically, I bought the book for $100, then sold for $300 2-3 years later. Yes, I have kept my own copies. The view I take is that a little reselling here and there ENABLES me to buy these books and thereby support the publishers.
(2) I do see some Ebay stores routinely selling occult books at high prices obviously bought for their stores. This angered me at first, but then, is this really any better than buying shares thinking that Apple might release a new phone and the price will go up? These arent SERIOUS shareholders; they are daytraders, dont care/dont know about the company, etc., but they do play some sort of arbitrage role in the market. Nobody likes carrion feeders, but they do have a role in the ecosystem. I'm not validating their actions here, but viewing it as a natural process, like many unpleasant natural functions. Ultimately (a) they do not take one penny from the publishers pocket, and (b) they do not drive the prices of the books up directly - if nobody wants to buy them, they will be stuck with them; the buyer, not the seller, determines the price. (c) Any half-intelligent book-lover will learn pretty quickly to go direct to the publisher.
(3) I did start collecting the deluxe version of Oryelle's Coagula series, but book II sold out so fast I missed it. Now I have Deluxe I and Regular II and III. So yes, it has affected me; and yes, I find it annoying in that respect. Some day I will indeed sell my Deluxe I and purchase a regular edition to even out the set.
(4) Piracy; my position has always been to buy from the producer where possible, but if one genuinely cannot afford to, it is permissible to make a copy for oneself; the logic is this; the publisher is not losing a sale, because I wouldnt have bought it anyway. I find copyright laws to be obscene in many other cases... people buying the rights for things they did not create.  Back to the scalper question.

So in summary, I guess it comes down to principles rather than laws:

(1) Are you helping or hindering the publishers in their heroic work?

If you help where possible (when you can afford it) and do not hinder, I think its probably OK.

The answer to scalping is for the publisher to produce more books; perhaps 1,500 rather than 1,000.

As a practical matter, to avoid the publisher being left with unsold books, I think the practical solution is to announce the book months in advance, and to take orders from all interested. After a few months, the publisher can order that number, plus, say, 500 copies, and let the scalpers scalp who they may; the people on the mailing lists will have had their opportunity to purchase at the publication price, the publisher is supported (and in advance, a useful advantage), and a few casual people will also have been able to buy it at the original price. So the price goes up later. Such is life. It benefits those serious collectors who wish to sell later also.
Another solution is to let good customers have 2 copies, as a reward for their support.  In a way, they are merely acting as minor distributors and helping to guarantee the sale of the print run in a timely manner.

So not a black or white response, but then, grey is the natural colour of magic :)

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

The Armchair Occultist

All too often, I read someone pouring scorn on those who read books and never actually get stuck in to calling up demons, or whatever the book calls us to do. This is as shortsighted as claiming that people who watch travel shows and never actually go anywhere are wasting their time.

While it is true that it is better to travel than to read about travel, nevertheless it is infinitely better to read about travel than not to even think about travel. As any occultist worth anything knows, travelling on the astral plane (including reading books about foreign places) has its value. Sometimes, in fact, the book experience can be even greater than the real thing; compare, for example, a tale of intrigue set in Venice by moonlight with sitting in St. Mark's Square surrounded by tourists. Now I have been to Venice twice, and I dearly love the place; there are real-life facets to the place that you will never find in books - sleepy squares with cats strolling across them, a child riding a tricycle that stopped me in my tracks - shocking me into realizing just how accustomed I had gotten to a life without traffic - markets bustling with strange fish - but nothing in real life Venice really compared with the mystique of books I have read and movies I have seen - Death in Venice, the comfort of strangers, and so on.

Having been to many rituals, I have to say most were a huge disappointment, not living up to my expectations by a huge margin. As I said before, clearly I dont have the right friends who invite me to the right sort of rituals. But then the alternative is to realize that the rituals conjured up by the books in my library are an unfair comparison. Simply put, reality cannot compete with the world of the imagination - of the magical. No matter how many kids buy "Harry Potter" magic wands (tm) and wave them in the air, nothing competes in that experience with reading the books.

Exploring the world of the imagination is in fact the very core of the magical experience, and you're far more likely to get joy out of that than standing in a chalk circle and gesturing at a triangle.

To those of course who succeed in calling up demons, I wish you the best. But not everyone has your skill. Reading books and conjuring things up in our imaginations is the farthest many people will ever go.  But what a journey that is.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Bookshelf; the perversions of a bibliophile

After a rather difficult year, I find myself doing one of my periodic life assessments - a magical retirement, or a period of silence, if you will; I am surrounded by the detritus of lives past and enticed by new interests. Should I write a fugue? Do more writing on my books, perhaps even finish one? Change careeers and sell more of my time for money? One of the events I see moving towards me is a change in accommodation at some time in the future, and so my library, once a comfortable nest to keep out the barbarians, is beginning to look a little like a heavy load I'm carrying around.

There is of course the expensive section, which will largely be retained no matter what. Quality books define something about me that has always been core to my personality. I have bought these when rich and when poor, and sometimes, buying a second copy and later selling it has even provided a little more cash to buy more. This section is largely populated by Grimoires, Austin Spare books and books that are best described as Sorcery, mostly recently published by publishers who take publishing such books very seriously, as indeed they should.

Then we have sections on Sacred Geometry, Myths, Psychology, Religion, Magical Languages and Symbols, the usual Aleister Crowley and Kenneth Grant, Shamanism, Mysteries of the Past, before we finally frill off into Kitchen Witchery and whatnot. Thats of course not counting my fiction and science sections.

Frankly, I believe that I could honestly lose about 60% of my books and retain a strong core. But of course writing books leads to the inevitable excuse "but I might want to consult that book someday". Then there are the books I just want to be around, all those cheap and rather repetitive and imitative sorcery books. Its just so hard to know where to start. Perhaps 10% of my collection I haven't even read yet, largely because although I want to know whats in them, they will take some slogging through - "The White Goddess" is a fairly typical example, as well as some books by Eliade, etc.

They will likely find my corpse under a mountain of books; probably those that find me will not know or care of the value the books hold, and donate them all to Goodwill or a public library, to be sold off as junk to Christians, who will buy them to burn.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.