Comments on: The Practical Alchemist

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 19:01:17 +0000

The text seems to reference multiple objects on each page, and I’ve taken those at hints at possible words to use on each page, that don’t indicate clearly which one is the correct one. Do you mean to say that the text points uniquely to the correct word on each page, in a way distinguishable from false leads?

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:59:36 +0000

There is definitely a distinct clue in the text on each page. I put a post-it note on each page and listed all of the word possibilities starting from beginning forward and then the end backwards. The cows behind the gate page was the trickiest for me, but I finally solved it… and THEN realized the very direct clue in each page of text!

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 13:39:04 +0000

I think the capitalization and antiquated language are meant to suggest the text of an old alchemical manual. I’m not sure how accurately it mirrors that kind of work, but I think that’s what it’s meant to suggest.

As far as the clues: We’ve long talked about “alchemist clues,” without ever giving the sort of full treatment I keep promising to give. But to put it simply (and keeping in mind that this is AS IT SEEMS TO ME), the lines in the text are meant to suggest things on the page, without distinguishing between correct things and incorrect things. A clue that seems to positively suggest an object could still be incorrect, and a clue that seems to negatively refer to an object could be correct. If these clues are helpful at all, it’s because, in the aggregate, they suggest potential words to continue the chain, sometimes drawing attention to the correct one. But there’s not a system in the clues to determine, a priori, which word is he correct one to choose to continue the chain. It’s like Manson is providing a bunch of opportunities for the reader to say, “Ah ha! He’s referring to this thing!” without actually leading them to the correct path–or an incorrect one–in a principled way.

(The reason we talk about “alchemist clues” in reference to Maze is because, outside of the 16-step solution, much of the cluing seems to function the same way, unpredictably pointing you right ways or wrong ways simply err orrerr orrerr orr

By: LA

LA — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 19:16:30 +0000

Does anyone have any clues about how to interpret the text ? Just seems gibberish, I looked up step 1 and then went back to the text and just don’t see what he is trying to do there. Some words are capitalized and some weirds are in weird old English is that supposed to mean something ?

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 21:11:45 +0000

I guess I see that page as the trickiest, and kind of the key to the whole thing, because it seems to have the fewest images, and therefore serves as a sort of chokepoint on unintended solutions. There are too many images in the book for Manson to try to account for every conceivable chain a reader might concoct, but he can safeguard his preferred solution by tightly checking the connections to one page. I think the snow page is that page, and I found its word to be by far the trickiest.

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 23:06:27 +0000

I’d love to have an answer that didn’t involve looking in the back of the book.

By: Beelzebibble

Beelzebibble — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 22:55:43 +0000

Ahh, yeah, that’s definitely another of the three I was talking about. For me, I pretty much had to just muscle my way through to the right word based on what I had so far and what was boiling down to become the only viable option on the next page. If you arrived at that word in another way that was more elegant and Manson-like, I’d love to hear about it.

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 22:50:39 +0000

It was the page with all the snow that I thought contained the tricky one.

By: Beelzebibble

Beelzebibble — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 22:38:22 +0000

Finally solved this! It took me nine attempts… seven of which were from this evening. As I expected, the dam burst at one point and I had a long string of successes on the third attempt, followed by a steady process of cleanup to nail down the last words I still needed to get the winning chain.

I’m honestly not sure which page Vance considers to hold “that” word, the one you need a Room 29-like stroke of intuition to grasp. None of them seemed to rely on such a kind of aha! insight as the upside-down door, as far as I gathered. But I’m very grumpy about three of the words in the chain, which struck me as utterly mundane and below the radar – the kind of word, I mean, that you wouldn’t even think to note down as a possible link since it’s too trivial. I’ll give one example among the three I’m talking about: one of the winning words is a body feature(s) that is present on just about every human figure in the book, and there’s absolutely no visual indication that THIS TIME, it’s relevant and needs to be considered as a potential link. You could maybe argue for a textual hint, but it’s a reach. And that happened twice more in this chain of forty-five (not body features specifically, but two other implausibly elementary words).

But they’re minor blemishes on what was otherwise a great puzzle-solving experience. This was months of fun.

By: vewatkin

vewatkin — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 02:59:49 +0000

Of course, or just post in the hangout.