Very little has been written on the subject of Unseen Universal Imagery-aka-"accidental imagery" in nature. One of the few serious works on the subject was "Natural Likeness" by John Michel, in which Michel dedicated a portion of that book to Richard Shaver's Rogfogo.
But the idea of Unseen Universal Imagery --UUI-- brings to mind the "fata morgana" and spontaneous appearances of Jesus Christ on water-stained tenement walls. Thus did accidentalism eventually become a dark cloud hanging over Shaver's Rock Book research. It became the hammer with which Shaver's critics pounded his beloved Rock Books into gravel.
Even Shaver's steadfast Rogfogo disciple, W.G. Bliss came to the conclusion in later years that UUIs are found in literally ALL natural objects, as it is part of an ubiquitous natural phenomenon. It was this discovery that made Bliss change course in his own research, exchanging rocks for the wood he had been burning in his stove (see Bliss' article on "Woodfogo," in this ish).
In any case, Shaver stuck to his guns. He of all people, could see the difference between accidentals and "the real thing."
However, controversy over the notion of accidentalism, was and still is at the core of Shaver's Rock Book theory. It was a topic Shaver wrestled with until his death in November, 1975.
Any serious student of universal imagery should read John Michel's book (though copies are hard to find now) and possibly some of Antonin Artaud's and August Strindberg's work. If you have lingering questions in your mind about the Rogfogo...are they purposeful, are they accidental, are they accidentals on purpose...then continue on, dear reader... stay close to the path, however. You might just lose your way along this slippery slope of fringe science.
Most of Shaver's typos are included in the following excerpts from Shaver's correspondence.
Letter to W.G. Bliss 12/13/71 "You can do the same thing with dropped oil colors on water you know...and the guy who used to make my covers on Amazing Stories used this method of making sci-fic pictures constantly..and quite successfully "But as to understanding it...few men ever do actually understand what their eyes can see but their mind fails to comprehend. "Accidentalism is a very dig-dag ding-dong field. More people have gone nuts thinking about it than ever got sane by finding why they were nuts to start with. "There is a deep connection...the ancients used this process of making pictures alright..but THEY CONTROLED IT!
"It is in fact due to INTEGRATIVE force patterns...whether controled or uncontroled...and in fact it exists..in the same way gravity exists..without much consent from the governed...gravitation without willy-nilly consentation. (This is expertese jargon, dont try to understand it) "The ancients used this force under precise control to make pictures in conjunction with several other methods to create books which can be projected from three-di solids into the open air. We have little scientific understanding to grasp this whole process...to understand it we have to start at the beginning and create frost pictures under perfect control...for a million years of slow perfectional development to really do as well as they did with it.
"I have a suspicion..and a rather strong one..that...when the first space ships appeared upon earth's fair horizon..there was a very peculiar world of wild uncontroled life here...without much pattern or much rule and not any hereditarily fixed behavior patterns..that is..a cat-like animal would eat grass and lay eggs...and this sort of thing might change in the next generation into a grass-like animal that ate cats and bore young..etc etc.
"If you never thought about all this you wont know what I mean...but I have peered into the insides of rocks for some 17 years and you only just started, so you better listen.
"Anyway..one of the first things to do when you colonize a planet is to lay down some ground rules. Technically this consists of dropping some projecting mech into the bed rock of the planet..which project ro-mech images and directives..and the "wild" life begins to assume some order and have hereditary behavior patterns ingrained etc. etc.
"Actually this works out to visible state in frost patterns and these are the actual field images created by ground-rules mech. "This sort of thing is what is meant in the Bible when it says "God createed the earth and all things etc etc." They..the space settlers..actually DID lay down patterns around which life grew henceforth...determining ones and for all the KINDS of life that could, would and should evolve BECAUSE they had to do it to live among it.
"You cant raise buffalo if they are going to give birth to all sorts of sports constantly some of which will prove to be too much for any planet to handle.
"You have to limit life to live in it...just as you have to limit an art work by laying down limitations before you start...you have to say..I am going to paint a thought about a certain thing and draw a line around it..and work without all the rest of the possibilities in order to obtain a comprehensive limited art work. "The limitations of life they put in the bed rock in ways no use to explain to you...and after that...a silica crystal is always a silicon molecule crystalizing in a certain shape.
"Before that..it didnt have to act that way...and it would, in fact, and actually..change and become something also because there was no determiner field present...is deep stuff but its true.
"When they focused the scopes on a planet, that planet contained images of several kinds that TOLD the captain just how far away it was in the same way a split-image finder does on a camera..when the images go together into one they KNOW they are in focus..and how far away it is precisely. "MAN is the shape he is because of this sort of work not in any way understood today at all, at all. BUT it was not accidental, it was all on purpose. "In fact, I suspect some accidentals..like when you see a picture of a tiger on the wall and when you get closer it turns out to be a bouquet of chrysanthemums...are not in fact accidents at all..but something much more profound and deep and not accidental. "Nuts"
From a letter to Rodney Jurgens, 12/12/74
"Reason is lack of conceptual grasp of what you are looking for and
why it is different from all the natural pictorials and you have to
pin down this difference to know what you are doing in magnification.
"This accidentalism exists in everything.. grass, trees, photos of
cliffs..everything on earth can make an accidental picture .. and the
plants behind JohnyCarson are far more interesting as antique knights
and Mayan heads thanthey are as plants... on TV.
"To distinguish between accidentals and the real thing can be quite
discouraging ..and the tendency of most minds to see what they wish
to see is displayed in their tendency to shoot at moving brush and
kill each other when hunting deer.
"First you learn to see what IS there, then you have to put yourself
in the place of the ancients and realize exactly what they are doing
when they make a rock book... and also it might be wise to study some
microfilm books and similar modern condensations into small size.
"Rock books are all-over patterns that make sense..that reverse
differently and perfectly in a way that accidentals do not reverse..
and unlike single examples of accidentalism.. like fairies in grass..
you will find all of the parts are pictorial and just singles are
always accidentals ... multiples are for real.."
How to Differentiate Between Accidentals and Rogfogo Images, a la Shaver: "Cut a dozen newspaper pictures out of the newspaper and remove the captions. "Spread them out upside down on the flat surface and step back until they get a bit fuzzy. "They will in every single case assume a NEW identity and the two men in the truck turn into an eagle eating a fish while the overturned garbage can becomes a moon rocket...etc. "they become accidentals so easily one learns something about the paraphenalia of identification by picture. "one learns that anything is an accidental if it's out of focus. "NOW analyze the pictures for the little parts that make them non-accidentals and you find that in each case less than five percent of the total print area is made up of determiners.
"Determiners are parts that decide WHAT the picture is about.
"Then if you study this five percent of area you find that in each case this five percent is the features of man...or the EYES of an animal...the FACIAL parts of the creatures...insect or whatever.
"Now if you carry on this way for a few days of real study, you have graduated from accidentalism into determinism in the art world.
"NOW you know how a few lines become a person when you add an EYE or a NOSE or a MOUTH.
"Now practice this until you LEARN what makes a picture...is almost always one small triangular area called "face"...and when you LOSE FACE you have no identifying marks left.
"Proceeding from that, I come to learn that "man" is an accidental sort of imaginary animal himself and will hence join the Unicorn in the legendary land of no return.
"Practice this until you catch on, please."
"Now, you have stumbled upon something over which I have in fact puzzled and considered and otherwise mentruated mentabolically:
"When the frost is on the pumpkin it is also on the window, making of all things, fantastic pictorials.
(this one thanks to Brian Tucker):
"To begin with ... I had the same trouble in the beginning and could
get beautiful pictures out of magnifing [sic] a leaf in the fall just
turned yellow and gold and red... and this can be confusing.
"I want to expatiate on the difference between accidental pictures and on purpose photos of genuine things.
If you will actually follow directions you might catch on.
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