Mad Reality vs Aurelius

Title: A Metaphysical Stumbling

James Ayford “Mad Reality vs Aurelius”

Reviewed by Kelsey Britt

10/17/14

8:45pm

A reading of "Mad Reality vs Aurelius" is not complete unless you have a dictionary, a translator, and someone who understands string theory. This short novel tries to do a lot in its 30 pages, and ends up confusing even itself. It sounds as though someone wrote the book in Spanish and then used Google translator to turn these metaphysical theories into English, all the while trying to paint this picture that there is no such thing as an actual reality, only the ones we create for ourselves. 

If you can take the time to work through the messy English and half-baked analogies, you can start to see that there is some really interesting thought behind all of this. It seems that James Ayrford aligns with the ideas and reality that Aurelius accepts, and as such, both men attempt to attack standard religions as being realities that the proponents push on other people. Ayrford and Aurelius wage this pseudo-war on religion by claiming that they have studied many universes and have come to see the truth in the “mad realities” in which we live. This, however, is a very difficult point to get across when Ayrford is saying at the same time that all realities are subjective to those that own them; making himself seem just as bad as the priests that purport the things he disagrees with. 

There was a lot of deep thought put into this book, and for that I appreciate it. However, I found myself taking a very long time to make it through these thirty pages with my sense of the story intact. I wish I had been able to read it in its native language, as I would hope that it would make more sense. As it is, I’d rather keep my money in my pocket, and maybe thumb through this one at the book store.

* I give Mad Reality vs Aurelius, 1 out of 5 stars. 

Kelsey Britt