Minecraft Poet Releases Art Into Public Domain After Mind-Bending Psychedelics Experience: 'I'd Rather Give My Art Away Than Sell It'

This article by Joana Scopel was originally published in El Planteo and appears here with permission.

In case you didn't know, the building video game "Minecraft" ends with a poem that touches on themes such as dreams, the universe and ultimate meaning. Julian Gough, the man who wrote the poem, is now putting his work into the public domain as an act of love for humanity.

What led him to make this decision? A heroic dose of psilocybin truffles.

"I hadn't taken psychedelics in decades and felt it was time for a midlife reset," Gough recounted.
After consuming psychedelics completely legally in the forests of the Netherlands, the author had the desire to make this poem public so that everyone would be free to read it and use it as they wished. This revelation originated from the bitter taste left in his mouth by the evolution of his relationship with the creator of "Minecraft," Markus Persson.

"I wrote a story for a friend. But in the end, he didn't treat me like a friend. And I'm hurt," Gough recently said in a Substack explaining why he published his poem.

In addition, Gough, who is an Irish writer and author of several novels and a children's book, said he never signed a contract with "Minecraft" creator Markus "Notch" Persson or Microsoft MSFT, which acquired the game for $2.4 billion, allowing him to pass the poem into the public domain without much trouble.

The Origin Of The Minecraft Poem

According to Vice, at the time Gough was a "struggling" artist and Persson was looking for someone to write an ending for his already successful video game. In 2011, the creatives connected and, according to Persson, hit it off and became friends.

"I wrote it by hand, and as I did so, sometimes my wrist would speed up and I'd see the words just appear on the page in front of me, without my conscious mind having any idea what the next word would be," revealed Gough in his Substack. He also said he felt as if the universe flowed through him as he sat down to write a narrative ending for the survival-creation game.

"Then the universe (or my unconscious, or Thalia, or the ghost of Philip K. Dick) dictated the ending, I polished it up a bit and handed it to Markus," he added.

Persson did not hesitate to make use of the poem in the game. Once players defeat the Ender Dragon, the poem shifts for about 9 minutes at the end of "Minecraft."

Also, according to Gough, Persson sent him money and a contract assigning the rights to the final poem. However, the latter refused to sign it. "I let them use the story, even though there was no contract, because I liked Markus and I liked the fact that a lot of people were reading the story," he said.

"Sure, many millions simply played creative mode and never made it to the end; but many millions played survivor mode, and they did; more and more as time went on. It was a tremendous privilege to be able to reach such a large audience with my words," the poet added.
In 2014, when the company was about to sell "Minecraft" to Microsoft in a multi-million dollar deal, they needed Gough to sign off on the end. Despite his refusal, they sold the game anyway and Microsoft continued to use the poem.

A Message From The Universe Received Under The Effect Of Mushrooms

Back to the mushroom trip that convinced Gough to release the rights to the poem....

"I just said to the universe 'okay, forget what I want; just give me what you think I need' (...) And it gave me, to my great surprise, advice about Minecraft and Microsoft... and about you," said Gough, who at the time was under the effect of magic truffles that he himself had collected in the forests around the Dutch town of Apeldoorn.
According to Gough, the idea that his friend wanted him to sign over the rights to his poem pained him. Although Persson made billions of dollars from the game, Gough acknowledged that the reason he was upset was not the money. It was that he had let the money keep him from enjoying the love he had received in creating something that so many people enjoyed.

"(...) I often got Twitter direct messages and emails, and messages through my website, telling me how much the Final Poem had meant to people," he said. "I had to allow people to say thank you; I had to accept whatever gifts people wanted to offer in return, because too much charge was building up along that blocked circuit. I had to complete the circuit. Let it flow," Gough expressed openly.

Now, Gough announced that he is officially using the CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license for the poem. That is, anyone can use it for whatever purposes they wish. It can be remixed, reused and even marketed and sold by anyone, including Microsoft, who according to Vice declined to comment on this story.

"You can do this for free and read everything for free, because I want to continue to live in a gift economy, if possible," the poet told Substack. "I like it; I'd rather give my art away than sell it; it serves ideas better because they reach more people, and it makes me feel better, happier; freer," he finished.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

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