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A_GAME_OF_DUMAS

                                              October 30, 2005

     Quoting "The Club Dumas" (1993),
     by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, p.314
     (the mastermind expounds):
                                                 CLUB_DUMAS

     "Congratulations ... You've managed to
      play the game right to the end. ...

     "Yes, game.  Suspense, uncertainty, a
     high level of skill...  The possibility
     of acting freely yet according to rules,
     as an end in itself.  With a sense of
     tension and pleasure at the difference
     from ordinary life..."  These were not
     by own words, but Corso wouldn't know
     that. "Do you think that's an adequate
     definition?  As the second book of
     Samuel says: 'Let the young men now
     arise, and play before us.' Children are
     the perfect players and readers: they do
     everything with the utmost seriousness.
     In essence, games are the only
     universally serious activity.  They
     leave no room for skepticism, wouldn't
     you agree?  However incredulous or
     doubting you might be, if you want to
     play, you have no choice but to follow
     the rules.  Only the person who respects
     the rules, or at least knows and applies
     them, can win. Reading a book is the
     same: you have to accept the plot and
     the characters to enjoy the story."


  p. 355:

     A candle went out with a hiss,
     having burned down on the
     charred frontispiece of _De
     occulta philosophia_ by
     Cornelius Agripa.

     He looked like a player before
     a strange board, pondering his
     next move.


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