396. The X Pipe – Peterson Connection
UPDATE, 1:47pm CST: There was a glitch in the Google Form. Gigi says it is open again. I can’t tell you how happy I am to report The X Pipe and Other Mystagogic Stories for the Pipe Smoker will be available from Smokingpipes.com in just a few weeks. Clocking in at 364 pages, this is not your typical easy-reader pipe book—it’s crafted from start to finish for the thinking man, even more so since since Charles Peterson and his P-Lip and NAP Patent Systems play important roles, as do the Irish Illuminati (see Post #276). As the back jacket cover reads, "The X Pipe is a blend of pipe lore, historical fiction and contemplative practice, aged, pressed, stoved and sliced into seven stories of two pipemen on a quest to discover the maker of a mysterious pipe in the Vatican Secret Archives"—and yes, before you ask, there really is a Vatican Secret Archives. The novel’s quest unfolds (like everything else in the world of pipes and tobaccos) over several decades as the main characters put their puzzle pieces together in a journey taking them back in time and across the globe. They range from Pipe Shrine House at Mesa Verde, across the ocean aboard the last convict ship to Australia, join two others for an idyllic pipeman’s holiday across Europe, then back to the 19th century Imperial British Fort George on the Indian coast, back further to J. S. Bach’s 18th century Leipzig, forward to Boston for black cake with poet Emily Dickinson, and finally to a Christmas adventure in Vatican City. WHY “MYSTAGOGY?” While I hope there’s something entertaining and edifying for everyone, the book is actually intended for the pipeman who has finished his “catechism” or basic instruction in the art of smoking and ready for something more. The word for “something more” is “Mystagogy”: “to lead through the mysteries: advanced instruction which follows introductory guidance.” If you’re reading Peterson Pipe Notes, then you’re probably the pipe smoker I’m writing for. PIPE LORE "Pooh never idolized the White Spot." Like you, I’ve been absorbing pipe lore ever since I began smoking a pipe in 1974. For the X Pipe I wanted to craft a story that embodies the most important issues we face as pipe smokers. My approach is to “tell it slant,” like Emily Dickinson suggests, that is, to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. That is, there’s a lot of dialogue between various pipe smokers on what they think works and what doesn’t work, but in the end it’s left up to you to decide. These issues feature most prominently in ch. 2, “The Five Laws of Pipe Companioning” (a revision and expansion of my little 2013 book) and ch. 4, “The Bad Smoke,” but are found throughout the book. BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN HISTORY AND FICTION I’ve been a fan of the fiction of Jorge Luis Borges and Thomas Pynchon for so long that I can’t help crafting my own…