TEZCATLIPOCA is generated on the day of the Autumn Agony. He is generated by the Gods who have, via the year's four Agonies, entered into Laughter alive. In the year's time, as many as 24 Gods might have entered into Laughter alive. Then again, it is possible that no Gods whatever have entered into Laughter alive. If any Gods have entered into Laughter alive, however, that many aspects of Tezcatlipoca are generated. Each aspect is understood as one face of the same entity. Tezcatlipoca, for this reason, is always spoken of as singular, despite the likelihood of his various aspects.

Tezcatlipoca is figured by way of a poll. Once the Autumn Agony is concluded, Game Officials make thirty thousand random phone calls, and one question is asked of whoever answers the phone: Who is the new Tezcatlipoca? The respondent may respond as he likes, or he may just hang up, but he is made to know that his response will only be registered if a Game Official knows of the individual he has nominated. The gist is that he must nominate someone who is to some degree famous—this may be a sports figure, a politician, an actor, a singer, a game-show host, anyone who is famous enough to have his name recognized. After the thirty thousand calls are completed—and this should be accomplished within 3 days time—the nominees are ranked in order of the number of nominations they have received. Let's say that four Gods have in the past year entered into Laughter alive; in this case, the top four Tezcatlipoca nominees would be appointed to the position of Tezcatlipoca.

To nominate Tezcatlipoca when one has not been called is an exercise in futility.

Ten days after the Autumn Agony has been concluded, on God Country Ficklish, Tezcatlipoca is appointed. The appointment is made on an hour-long television program entitled Crushing The Babies. The first half hour of Crushing The Babies concerns the previous year's Tezcatlipoca. This Tezcatlipoca is strapped to parallel gurneys. They may hold hands if they like. Each has an IV through which a lethal injection will be administered. The first twenty to twenty-five minutes are simply the televising of Tezcatlipoca waiting for the injection. Spectators can watch and listen as Tezcatlipoca sympathizes with and/or glorifies himself. It is expected that Tezcatlipoca will behave in such a way as to convey the full wondrousness of his magical life. Then the injection is administered and spectators witness that which allows for a rebirth of Tezcatlipoca to seem possible.

The second half hour of Crushing The Babies concerns Tezcatlipoca's rebirth. Spectators are afforded, in the second half of the program, a full half hour of visual and audio clips of the new Tezcatlipoca. Who Tezcatlipoca is will not have been publicized before this time, nor will Tezcatlipoca have been located and/or confined in any way.

Each of Tezcatlipoca's aspects is subsequently provided with a Staff of ten very capable Game Officials. When Crushing The Babies is over, each Staff seeks out its subject, whose movements it is from now on responsible for. Tezcatlipoca's Staff are meant to maximize Tezcatlipoca's authenticity, which is to say, his being full of health and curiosity in a public space. In a best case scenario, Tezcatlipoca is able to touch many people with the unique urgency of his person.

The question Tezcatlipoca asks himself is: What to do? Those who are not Tezcatlipoca are not able to ask this question, or not in the same way that he is able to ask it. Answers to the question vary widely, though they are held together by the conspicuous finitude of his reign—or perhaps more significantly, by the conspicuous absence of infinitude in his reign. It is this radiant lack of infinitude that distinguishes him most dramatically from spectators.

Because Tezcatlipoca is generated by the successful movement of Gods, he is himself considered Godlike, and it is considered the height of foolishness to deny him his desires. Thus, if Tezcatlipoca asks you to take off your clothes, or to make him a sandwich, it is best to comply. Tezcatlipoca's requests will often have to do with his own pursuit of pleasure—a pursuit that, again, has been made significant by the finite nature of his reign. Other requests will no doubt stem from his understanding that there is no time like the present, and from his being radically disengaged from the conventional senses of accomplishment. The bottom line is that Tezcatlipoca goes where he likes and does what he wants to do, barring murder. (Tezcatlipoca is never destructive of others in such an explicit and childish way; his identity hinges on decisive violence coming toward and through his own person, and he is not able or willing to allow the decision of this violence to seep out into others. If an aspect of Tezcatlipoca commits murder, that aspect is confined to a cell until it is time for Crushing The Babies, at which time he is strapped to the gurney as if he had done no wrong.)

Tezcatlipoca is understood to be a manifestation of Agony itself, and the only manifestation of Agony that exists in the public sphere, which is to say, in real space, outside of a Parlor's television screen, and outside of the Day Of Gambling in which it is otherwise confined. It's a real treat, therefore, to come into Tezcatlipoca's presence. That said, his Staff always ensures that he is not mobbed or made to feel as if a situation is out of his control. Those unable to respect the orders of his Staff, or the orders of Tezcatlipoca himself, are subject to considerable prison time.


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