The Dice Man
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The Dice Man is a 1971 novel by American novelist George Cockcroft, writing under the pen name "Luke Rhinehart".<ref name="guardian2">Template:Cite journal</ref> The book tells the story of a psychiatrist who makes daily decisions based on the casting of a die.<ref name="guardian3">Template:Cite journal</ref> Cockcroft describes the origin of the title idea variously in interviews, once recalling a college "quirk" he and friends used to decide "what they were going to do that night" based on a die-roll, or sometimes to decide between mildly mischievous pranks.<ref>See Carrère, The Guardian, 7 November 2019, op. cit. Quoting that source: "The dice was a quirk the young George picked up in college. He and his friends used it on Saturdays to decide what they were going to do that night. Sometimes, they dared each other to do stuff: hop around the block on one leg, ring a neighbour's doorbell, nothing too mischievous. When I ask, hopefully, whether he pushed these experiences further as an adult, he shrugs his shoulders and smiles apologetically because he can tell that I would like something a little spicier."</ref><ref>For an account that describes the origin of the idea in the years between Cockcroft's teens and early twenties in a self-help effort to move him away from shyness and uptightness through risk-taking, in areas such as "what to read, where to go, how to react to people," see Adams, The Guardian, 27 August 2000, op. cit.</ref><ref>For an account that describes the origin of the idea in Cockcroft at the age of 16 years, likewise in an effort to move him away, first, from procrastination, and later, from shyness, see Gold, The Guardian, 4 March 2017, op. cit.</ref><ref name="guardian1">Template:Cite journal</ref>
At the time of its publication, "[i]t was not clear whether the book was fiction or autobiography", all the more because the protagonist and the alleged author were eponymous. Both were described as having the same profession (psychiatry), and elements of the described lives of both (e.g., places of residence, date of birth) were also in common,<ref name=guardian2/><ref name=guardian3/> hence, curiosity over its authorship have persisted since its publication.<ref name=guardian2/><ref name=guardian3/>
In 1999, Emmanuel Carrère, writing for The Guardian, presented a long-form expose on Cockroft and the relationship between author and legend, disclosing that he was a life-long English professor living "in an old farmhouse with a yard that slopes down to a duck pond", a husband of fifty-years, father of three, and a caregiver to a special-needs child.<ref name=guardian2/>
Publishing historyEdit
- Template:ISBN – September 9, 1971
- Template:ISBN – July, 1978
- Template:ISBN – April 13, 1989
- Template:ISBN – July, 1998
- Template:ISBN – December 15, 1999
- Template:ISBN – April 7, 2003
ReceptionEdit
The book was not initially successful, but gradually became considered a cult classic.<ref name="Fann2011"> Template:Cite journalTemplate:Better source needed </ref><ref name="guardian1" /> Writing in 2017 for The Guardian, Tanya Gold noted that "over the course of 45 years" it was still in print, had become famous, had devoted fans, and had "sold more than 2m copies in multiple languages".<ref name="guardian1" /> It initially sold poorly in the United States, but well in Europe, particularly England, Sweden, Denmark, and Spain.<ref name="guardian1" />
Cockroft continued the premise of the book in two other novels, Adventures of Wim (1986) and The Search for the Dice Man (1993),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and in a companion title, The Book of the Die (2000),<ref name="guardian3" /> none of which achieved the commercial success of The Dice Man.<ref name="guardian2" />
Kirkus Reviews wrote "[t]he odds are that this will be a winning combination and certainly his rowdy, seriocomic talent is splendidly displayed."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In popular cultureEdit
British band The Fall based the song "Dice Man" (1979) on this novel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> British New Wave band Talk Talk wrote the song "Such A Shame" (1984) inspired by this novel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> British musician Richard D. James used the pseudonym The Dice Man for the track "Polygon Window" (1992). Manic Street Preachers guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards cited The Dice Man as one of his favourite novels,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the band referenced Rhinehart in the lyric to their song "Patrick Bateman".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Season 4 of the Irish murder mystery TV show Harry Wild includes an episode inspired by the novel.