Geek Syndicate Issue 8 | Page 9
Geek Syndicate
Image © Harper Collins, 1999
Book -The Dice Man (Luke Rhinehart)
Overview: The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart is
the story of a psychiatrist who decides to see if
letting his life choices be dictated by a dice roll
helps him lead a freer life. It sends him down a
very dark path that reveals the baser side of his
nature and destroys his life as he once knew it.
Image © Harper Collins, 1999
Why I love it: I think I love it because it is incredibly interesting how we limit ourselves by
our own view of the world. The dice are used
to push the envelope, and while they send Luke
to the depths of depravity, they can only, after all, choose from the options given to them.
Maybe I like it because I can’t help wondering
if in another pair of hands, they would give
better results. It is also darkly thrilling to think
that they turned a relatively conventional man
into the raping deviant he ends up becoming.
Or was he that all along?
Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmundson in Bottom
Can one live by throws of the dice?
TV -Bottom
Overview: Bottom is a BBC TV series starring
Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as Richard
Richard and Eddie “Elizabeth” Hitler, two shirt
wearing thugs idly trying to make their way
through life with the least effort possible, and
the maximum amount of booze, birds and fun.
Why I love it: It makes me laugh like nothing
else I’ve seen. The comic timing between Richard and Eddie and the writing is just brilliant
and I feel like laughing at them even when
they are silent. Their crappy flat looks rancid
and the food they eat, scrapes they get into
and crimes they commit are just mad. At least
once an episode they will fall out and end up
beating each other up in a cartoon violence
kind of way; I guess they are the live action
version of an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon from
The Simpsons. I also find myself quoting them
at any opportunity which always brightens my
day a little, even if lost on the person I might
be talking to. Thank you for reading, and might
I say, that’s a smashing blouse you are wearing!
9