The diceman - you are not only yourself!

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The Diceman (Luke Rhinehart)

I would like to tell you something about this book, because I think that it has a lot to do with some aspects about which we have been talking about in the seminar. And because I think it is a very unusual and interesting book.

In `The diceman´ the main character, a psychologist who does not believe in his own profession anymore, begins making big and small decisions in his life by rolling the dice. Check out the wikipedia page and Luke Rhinehart for details and a complete summary. [1]

What Rhinehart´s (not his real name by the way) basic idea is, is to replace democratic decisons by a sort of `anarchy of the mind´. He says that everytime you do something, you make a decision that considers all possibilities but will favor the one that makes most sense, seems to be the most sensible, etc. But what about the back of your mind where the possible alternatives are waiting? he reckons life would be much more interesting if these alternatives have a reasonable chance, let´s say of 5% or 10% or the 6 on a die... Not before long, he uses the dice all the time and, obviously, gets into a lot of trouble. It is funny of course, but there is a serious aspect, too, and when one begins to imagine what would happen if one tried it oneself, well... The book explores the `dark side´ of human beings and can really let you have doubts about how real reality is. The book is apparently being sold more than ever before and there are some interesting bands and other artists who have references to the book in their work. [2]

Parallels to Roleplaying and other Games

In my opinion, the results of living the way the main character does in the book are similar to what we can experience (in a more limited way of course) in roleplaying and possibly other games of similar genres. In games we play other characters with motives completely different from what we regard as being ours, this is what Rhineharts character does, too, only in the real world. In pen and paper roleplaying, it is quite common for players to choose characters that have very different attributes from their own. A very correct person might want to play an evil wizard, for example. Most computer games give a sort of `alternative personality´ to the player, be it `god´ in simulation games such as `Civilization´[www.civilization.com] or `action hero´ in ego shooters. In the `Sims´ we can manipulate lives and try doing things (or better, make figures do things) that we never would dare to do ourselves.[3], [4], [5], [6]. Also, there is the simple fact of the dice. Dice imply a game being played, and letting chance decide what he will do is a very radical and very real game, so basically the diceman turns his life into... a game.

Michael Sk.

Related topics

Non-linearity and repeatable reading

The difference between on the one hand linear literature and life, and on the other hand between hypertextual literature [7] and simulations is that you can rerun or reread your story from a specific point, but choose another path this time: for example in Kim Newman's (1999) "Life's Lottery". [8] Wouldn't it be nice if The Diceman would read different each time, and really depending on the throw of a dice (the reader's in this case)?

"Jeder Schüler kann in der Physikstunde durch Versuche nachprüfen, ob eine wissenschaftliche Hypothese stimmt. Der Mensch aber lebt nur ein Leben, er hat keine Möglichkeit, die Richtigkeit der Hypothese in einem Versuch zu beweisen. Deshalb wird er nie erfahren, ob es richtig oder falsch war, seinem Gefühl gehorcht zu haben."

- Milan Kundera, Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins