Oh, my goodness, and he can write. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from Tricks of the Mind, but I am fairly sure that I did not expect to open it and suddenly find myself a hundred pages in, having memorised the names of all of Shakespeare's plays in chronological order and enjoyed every moment of it.
Other things I have learnt from this book: a technique for remembering names (I am so bad with names, so this is wonderful), a technique for remembering lists of words or information, a technique for remembering numbers (the example number was 876498474505773498724, and I didn't just have to look that up) and how to apply it to cards in a deck or football scores, quite a bit about hypnosis, a couple of tricks and, as I have said, the fact that Derren Brown can really write. He is humorous and articulate and so intelligent, and much of the book reads like a comfortable chat in his living room, and I just wish it were five times longer. Had I not already fallen for him to a fairly embarrassing degree, his writing style would have won me over.
Oh, dear, I'm such a fangirl.
If I ever meet Derren Brown, I am going to tell him that I believe all books should be written by him. Or possibly I am just going to yelp and run away. We'll have to see how it goes.
To be honest, I always expect a certain gap in quality between a fandom-related book and a good non-fandom one, and I expect my love of the fandom to have to fill in that gap. Tricks of the Mind, I believe, would be a bloody good book even had I never heard of this Derren chap before, and I recommend it enthusiastically to anyone with an interest in the mind, magic, hypnosis, memory improvement, sentences like 'Allow me, my beautiful but ill-informed bitches, to explain', or entertaining and interesting non-fiction in general. I can confidently say that I have never enjoyed a work of non-fiction more.
(The memory techniques are so much fun that I keep wanting to find things to remember. I am not even kidding.)
In other Derren Brown-related news, I have decided that the Jo Whiley segment in the second series of Trick of the Mind (tragically, I have been unable to find it online) may possibly be my favourite clip from anything he's done. The trick itself, although impressive, is not as remarkable as many of the things he does, but that is more than made up for by the fact that Jo slaps him four times (I rewound to rewatch this more times than I'd care to admit), then asks whether she can slap him again and comments that she 'always thought Derren was quite kinky'. And then he asks for a kiss. And it's basically the best thing ever.
Also, the zombie game segment is terrifying, largely because Derren sends a guy to sleep without even being in the room and then gets the guy's friends to help kidnap him. If I ever fall unexpectedly unconscious whilst in your company, I hope you will not help some random man bundle me onto a wheeled bed and take me to a seemingly deserted building. Well, maybe if it's Derren Brown. But I'll be (unconsciously) expecting you at least to ask him some questions.
The fact that so many of you are discovering Derren Brown as I do is making me absurdly happy. It's always nice when I get into a fandom I can easily communicate to you through web clips and the like. SHARE IN MY JOY. MY FEAR AND MY JOY.
Other things I have learnt from this book: a technique for remembering names (I am so bad with names, so this is wonderful), a technique for remembering lists of words or information, a technique for remembering numbers (the example number was 876498474505773498724, and I didn't just have to look that up) and how to apply it to cards in a deck or football scores, quite a bit about hypnosis, a couple of tricks and, as I have said, the fact that Derren Brown can really write. He is humorous and articulate and so intelligent, and much of the book reads like a comfortable chat in his living room, and I just wish it were five times longer. Had I not already fallen for him to a fairly embarrassing degree, his writing style would have won me over.
Oh, dear, I'm such a fangirl.
If I ever meet Derren Brown, I am going to tell him that I believe all books should be written by him. Or possibly I am just going to yelp and run away. We'll have to see how it goes.
To be honest, I always expect a certain gap in quality between a fandom-related book and a good non-fandom one, and I expect my love of the fandom to have to fill in that gap. Tricks of the Mind, I believe, would be a bloody good book even had I never heard of this Derren chap before, and I recommend it enthusiastically to anyone with an interest in the mind, magic, hypnosis, memory improvement, sentences like 'Allow me, my beautiful but ill-informed bitches, to explain', or entertaining and interesting non-fiction in general. I can confidently say that I have never enjoyed a work of non-fiction more.
(The memory techniques are so much fun that I keep wanting to find things to remember. I am not even kidding.)
In other Derren Brown-related news, I have decided that the Jo Whiley segment in the second series of Trick of the Mind (tragically, I have been unable to find it online) may possibly be my favourite clip from anything he's done. The trick itself, although impressive, is not as remarkable as many of the things he does, but that is more than made up for by the fact that Jo slaps him four times (I rewound to rewatch this more times than I'd care to admit), then asks whether she can slap him again and comments that she 'always thought Derren was quite kinky'. And then he asks for a kiss. And it's basically the best thing ever.
Also, the zombie game segment is terrifying, largely because Derren sends a guy to sleep without even being in the room and then gets the guy's friends to help kidnap him. If I ever fall unexpectedly unconscious whilst in your company, I hope you will not help some random man bundle me onto a wheeled bed and take me to a seemingly deserted building. Well, maybe if it's Derren Brown. But I'll be (unconsciously) expecting you at least to ask him some questions.
The fact that so many of you are discovering Derren Brown as I do is making me absurdly happy. It's always nice when I get into a fandom I can easily communicate to you through web clips and the like. SHARE IN MY JOY. MY FEAR AND MY JOY.
