The Genii Forum

Corrected version:
Friends, sorry I am late in taking part in the discussion about the so called "card problems"of Hofzinser. Actually if you compare the Sphinx editions af 1922/1923 you will find that all the Hofzinser tricks described there were called "problems". Probably because Ottokar Fischer who included these tricks there wanted to make them sound more interesting. Maybe he did not want to call them just "tricks"
In German the word "Kunststck" is much more efficient describing a magic feat than the English word "trick". The first ist "a piece of art" and has more value, the second is "just a trick". It sounds like nothing but a trick.
In the poor S.H.Sharpe translation and in the later on edited second and third prints by Karl Fulves the reader does not find even the headline Ottokar Fischer included in his book "Kartenknste" on page 216, reading:
"Karten-Experimente,
die als Hofzinsers Erfindungen gelten, wofr jedoch authentische Belege fehlen."
It translates as:
Card-experiments which are considered Hofzinser's inventions but for which authentic proofs are missing.

In the poor translation it is just expressed in a short sentence on the page before. Many readers have overlooked that sentence probably anyway too.

Read the correct text of the "trick" about "The Canged Aces" in one of the next GENIIs.

Contact: magicchristian@chello.at

The sentence about the lack of authentic proof is in the Dover edition of the Sharpe translation. Maybe when the unauthenticated "Experimente" were published in the Sphinx they were presumed to be problems requiring solutions. Sharpe uses the term "experiment" both for the explained tricks and for the ones without methods, as in the German. Presumably it was an erudite-sounding word which seemed fashionable in the late 19th century Scientific Age.

I look forward to your Genii article (any idea when this might appear?), and also to your book, which Reinhard Mller has kindly offered to obtain for me. I can hardly call myself a Hofzinser scholar, but I do find it all very interesting.

In the Sphinx magazine most of the known Hofzinser tricks were described by Singleton/O. Fischer and called "problems". There are no extra unsolved tricks described.
In April 1922 the headline reads the first time: Professor Hofzinser's Card Problems folowed by "Synonymous Thoughts", First method...
Maybe a headline written by the editor to give a more interesting introduction which caused a lot of confusion later on as we can see now.

Problems with Problems

Can I remove a little bit of the problem with the word problem in connection with HOFZINSERs effects?
My dictionary tells that problem could mean also puzzle in a transferred sense.
In many titles of effects in the German magic literature there is to find Das Rtsel der (=The Puzzle of the).

Reinhard

I know plenty of modern performers that prefer the word "EFFECT" to "TRICK" it gives what we do a more mature sound, could the slogan " Silly rabbit "tricks" are for kids " have anything to do with this current usage

two cents

Ken