I’ve recently started playing Book of Hours and very quickly that led me down on an interesting rabbit hole, and had more of an effect on my “physical world” experience (that to contrast with the in-game one) than most other games recently.
I’ve picked up Book of Hours after eyeing it for a while, I’ve played (though not very successfully) Cultist Simulator from the same team, and some of the creaters (I believe) are also behind Fallen London and Sunless Skies. They all move in a somewhat Victorian, somewhat occult or supernatural, often dreamlike world, which is a type or genre that I often enjoy.
A second, more personal aspect is that the game is (in a very reductionist way) a librarian simulator. My grandma was a librarian in a tiny Hungarian library, and I’ve spent quite a lot of time there as a kid. Ever since I have a lot of connections to libraries and I feel very nicely at home with them.
In the game (not really spoiler, I hope), “I” became the librarian of Hush House, an ancient place, where I collect, catalogue, learn from, and explore the various volumes I find (and film reels, music score, etc…) The writers of the game put a lot of effort into it, and all the volumes’ little one or two paragraph intros are very interesting, things that I would read…
And when I lifted my eyes from the monitor, I have my own pile of books around me, piles and bookselves of them, and about a dozen from the local (city, county, university, …) libraries even…
The in-game exploration turned me towards my own to-read list. And in the inner universe one has to add quite a few components (efforts, skills, memories, ink, inspiration from objects all around) to make use of those volumes, in real life it’s not that different. Absolutely no surprise there, since the game builds on real life experiences. But it also adds more than a touch of whimzy, and it made me think, which of my own books would fit on the shelves of Hush House?
Which of my own books would fit on the shelves of Hush House?
To my surprise, actually a large portion of them, and maybe the collection I’m building is somehow already in this area of searching for wisdom and understanding the world, and that’s the resonance that I’ve picked up.
Still, let’s select, curate a couple…
How to Read a Book
Mortimer J. Adler’s How to Read a Book got to be the first pick. It’s an excellent classic, and while I’m sure it’s very easy to underestimate the depth and breath just based on the title — “Isn’t that simple? Who cannot read a book?” It gives a lot of insights, support, and guidance, that a Reader can make their own, and get so much more out of the experience.
This feels like a “hidden knowledge in plain sight” sort of vibes, that I’m sure Hush House would appreciate. Just a hunch (as I’m still just picking up the Book of Hour / Cultist Simulator lore), but this might come under the aspect of Knock in the game (feel free to suggest corrections).
The Society of the Spectacle
I’m currently on a bit of a Situationist International binge, and Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle is a central piece to it. It has both the quality of being as if pulling back a veil (“I always felt like the world was like this!”) and also has a lot more than a shallow reading suggests. It feels a lot of our current world exhibiting the ills these philosophers and artists of the 1960s were exploring, just dialed to 11 (or even waaaay, way higher…)
Hush House would delight in inmasing the real powers moving the word and people’s actions. This feels potentially a book with a heavy Lantern aspect.
Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur
I’m a physicist by trade, and even as a software engineer now, that cannot be taken away from me. I am probably better software engineer than how good physicist I was, but if I got to choose — I’d head right back into the lab, very likely. Thus I have a bunch of physics books, mostly in quantum physics & cosmology; some I’m occasionally using to remind myself of what I’ve learned, some I’m using to learn things I haven’t properly done back at uni. Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur is more the latter, where I also admit, that my tools (my math, and some of the foundational knowledge) is not as sharp as it was, so I need to be re-initiated in some sense.
This aspect of going after the hidden knowledge of the fabric of our world, aimed at more than just the academics, does deserve to be on the shelves of Hush House, and would have visitors seeking it out. This I would place under the aspect of the Sky.
Mercies
I’m the first one to admit, that poetry is likely my least known style of literature. That makes it very important to get some experince and exposure to it. On a recent trip I’ve picked up Anne Sexton‘s selected poems Mercies, that I nominate here. I’m finding my way through there, savoring the very different operation of these words in my brain, than a novel. It goes very slowly, but wisdom needs effort too..
As much as I’ve read about her background, her tough life would (unfortunately?) also fit Hush House, and I can see visitors reading her volume in the windy corridors and a snowy gardens. I’d file this volume carries a strong Rose aspect.
There are many, many books I could have listed out, volumes I feel deserve a mention, but it’s better to read deeply a fewer good books, than reading the kitchen sink and not remember a word — maybe.
A quick honorable mention to for Umberto Eco’s Focault’s Pendumum (if there ever was a great book on real & imagined conspiracy, this would be Edge, I guess), Homer’s Odyssey (what a journey of all journeys, file it under the Grail aspect), and any number of philosophy books like Henri Lefebvre’s The Production of Space or Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation…
But now, as my in-game librarian gets somewhat wiser but struggles with the puzzles, I need to wise up and have some library deadlines: the rest of this weekend is ripe to be stay-at-home and bookish.