As opposed to say, my copy of The Book of Thoth, one of the few surviving books I have from the 1980s, which despite being a mere paperback bears the proud stains of coffee, beer, absinthe and the effects of it being used as an all-purpose ‘table’ as I hitch-hiked around the UK. Which for me, means that they’ll never actually get read.
These “talismanic books” need handling carefully though (like mint condition comics) which means, I think, that one doesn’t leave them in the bathroom, take them to the pub, skin up on them or read them whilst eating spaghetti. Presentation is a secondary consideration, although this does mean that I do end up buying some quite lovely books inadvertantly after previewing their contents on Google Books. Generally, I buy books because of the content. It was, I agreed, quite beautiful – and thereby hangs one of the problems I have with this whole notion of “talismanic books”. “Isn’t it a beautiful production?” said the publisher. Xoanon Sales Protocol, accessed 19th May, 2010 It is our hope that by such means we may attempt the placement of our works in the hands of an honourable and appreciative readership. We likewise reserve the right to remove individuals from the list or withhold our works from the unsuitable. Given the nature of our publishing we reserve the right to offer specific non-public titles to customers of good report.
Some specialist presses – Xoanon for example, actually make a point of saying that they’ll only sell their books to “suitable people”:
Slowly, it began to dawn on me that this wasn’t just an ordinary sales pitch, that I was being offered an entry, of sorts, into a sort of exclusive club – a person whom the publisher deemed to be of sufficient “seriousness” to be worthy of appreciating this hallowed tome in all its glory (subtext: we don’t offer this sort of thing to yer average Joe Bloggs occultist – only to special people) and the publisher was quite taken aback that I wasn’t responding appropriately. I did ask the obvious (although slightly taking-the-piss) questions about whether having the book present on my coffee table (which at the moment would mean actually having to buy a coffee table) would render me more effective, attractive, or cause my bank to suddenly offer me a better mortgage rate and was informed that it wasn’t that sort of talisman. This led to an interesting conversation, touching on medieval European attitudes to books as talismans – which could end up with the “talismanic book” being completely shredded and used as an ingredient in spells and so forth, and a brief exchange about the worship of books in some strains of Tibetan tantra. Posted by Phil Hine in Occult | May 19th 2010 | About poster:Īttending a recent occult soiree, I was offered the chance to acquire one of those deluxe, bound-in-vellum, limited edition, “this isn’t just a book, it’s a talisman” offerings which seem so popular nowadays.