Adventures of Wim or Whim is a book by George Cockcroft

George Cockcroft

George Cockcroft is an author who writes under the pen name Luke Rhinehart.-Biography:George Cockcroft was born in the United States, son of an engineer and a civil servant. He got his BA at Cornell University, and his MA at Columbia University. Subsequently he got a PhD in psychology, also at...

, written under the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 Luke Rhinehart. It was published (as Adventures of Wim) in 1986, and was sold as "The sequel, well almost, to The Dice Man

The Dice Man

The Dice Man is a novel published in 1971 by George Cockcroft under the pen name Luke Rhinehart and tells the story of a psychiatrist who begins making life decisions based on the casting of dice. Cockcroft wrote the book based on his own experiences of using dice to make decisions while studying...

". This version is no longer in print. A "major reworking" of the book was later published under the title of Whim in 2002.

Plot summary

The book takes Luke's style to its logical conclusion, as the entire book is made up of sections taken from other, fictional books. The preface to the book claims that it was written in Deya, Majorca, in 2326. According to the book, an entire industry has grown up publishing books about a Montauk named Wim - including The Gospel According to Luke (Luke Forth, not Luke Rhinehart) and the screenplay of a movie. The screenplay is possibly in there as a result of Luke Rhinehart's continuing frustration in trying to get The Dice Man turned into a good movie. Adventures of Wim, then, is an effort to create a new interpretation of the story of Wim, drawing on the many previous efforts, and so providing a multi-faceted and whimsical account of 'one of the greatest figures in the 20th and 21st Century'.

A boy is born of a virgin mother and is named "Wim" (in Adventures of Wim) or "Whim" (in The Book of the Die and Whim): Montauk for "Wave Rider". He is pronounced to be the saviour of the Montauk nation by his tribe's navigator, and educated in their ways. Sadly, the humans steal him away and attempt to educate him in more useful skills, such as American Football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

. Wim, also known as "He of Many Chances", proves to be an inefficient saviour, as God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 sends him on a quest for Ultimate Truth. This does not seem to be something that will benefit his tribe terribly, but the navigator isn't one to stare down the barrel of a lightning

Lightning

Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...

 gun, and sends him on his way. After a long and arduous search, Wim finds ultimate truth (in a tomato

Tomato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...

), and with it the cure for the sickness of the human condition

Human condition

The human condition encompasses the experiences of being human in a social, cultural, and personal context. It can be described as the irreducible part of humanity that is inherent and not connected to gender, race, class, etc. — a search for purpose, sense of curiosity, the inevitability of...

.

Main themes

This book contains a much more open view on philosophy previous books. The book ties in with the views of The Dice Man, but in a softer and more accepting way, and with more paths to enlightenment.

Literary significance & criticism

"Anarchic, hip, subversive and comic..." "One of my favorite reads of the year... Pure entertainment"
"Zany, bizarre, inventive... often touching."

Release details

• 1986, UK, Grafton Books ISBN 0-246-12769-4, Pub date 22 May 1986, hardcover (as Adventures of Wim)
• 1987, UK, Grafton Books ISBN 0-586-06752-3, Pub date 19 November 1987, paperback (as Adventures of Wim)
• 2002, USA, AuthorHouse ISBN 1-4033-4799-9, Pub date 2002, hardcover (as Whim)
• 2002, USA, AuthorHouse ISBN 1-4033-4798-0, Pub date 2002, paperback (as Whim)