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Hailing from Florence, Italy, Nich Mach is no stranger to the world of intrigue and back-stabbing, having even served on the city's ten of war council. All of this makes him the ideal candidate to write a book on winning Big Brother. Indeed, so popular has his book proved in his native Italy, that already it has been translated into 201 languages and distributed all around the world despite having a ban imposed on it by the Catholic church, who have excommunicated Mach. There is contention however, as to whether Mach intended the book to be a humorous satire on the back-stabbing shenanigans that went on in the series, or as a way of getting his previous publisher, Giovanni de' Medici, to support him again, seeing as the latter's son was to be a future contestant on the show.
The first chapter sets the tone for much of the novel with Mach outlining that fellow contestants must either be indulged or destroyed:
"Contestants must either be pampered or crushed, because they can get revenge by nominating you for small grievances but not for serious ones. So any injury a future-winner does to a fellow-contestant must be of such a kind that there is no fear of reprisal." He later goes on to advise would-be contestants that "there is no avoiding war with another housemate if it looms; it may only be postponed to your disadvantage thus it is most advisable that the future winner exposes his contender in front of the others by making the first move and so gaining ascendancy."
Mach is thought to have learned much of his advice from close study of one notable Italian Big Brother contestant Cesare Borgia, who went as far as to invite all of his rival contestants to a large banquet and then poison their food, in full knowledge that the poison he had used was a well-known form of food-poisoning. Upon the death of his rivals he was charged but later cleared in court whereupon he admitted that he had murdered them knowing that the double-jeopardy law prevented him from being re-tried. Italian Big Brother then refused to hand him out the prize money but offered to let him start in the next series with a fresh batch of contestants. Using a mixture of subterfuge and tactical allegiances (and one dubious death) Borgia made his way to the last three, where he was evicted by a freak misfortune having failed to guarantee the vote of his ally.
On this note, Mach raises an age-old Italian debate about the respective roles of what he terms "Virtue" and "Fortune". He comes to the conclusion that half of the potential-winner's future is controlled by fortune and the other half by themself, but he goes on to say that those who demonstrate extreme skill can actually manipulate fortune to their own advantage. Indeed for Mach the greatest virtue that needs be mastered is the art of hypocrisy. He cleverly suggests that the potential winner does not have to avoid doing bad things; rather that he should avoid doing them badly so that everyone can tell. He also suggests that wannabe winners need to feign that they are good people, while all the time spreading lies and deceit about their competitors because “the common people are always impressed by appearances.”
Mach’s novella is well worth reading if you fancy appearing on Big Brother. It’s an insight into winning in style and achieving glory rather than mere greatness. Add to all this the “underground” cult status that the book has attained since being banned by the Catholic church and you can see why this book is a hit. In short there is only one winner and that’s Nic Mach’s “The Winner”
The first chapter sets the tone for much of the novel with Mach outlining that fellow contestants must either be indulged or destroyed:
"Contestants must either be pampered or crushed, because they can get revenge by nominating you for small grievances but not for serious ones. So any injury a future-winner does to a fellow-contestant must be of such a kind that there is no fear of reprisal." He later goes on to advise would-be contestants that "there is no avoiding war with another housemate if it looms; it may only be postponed to your disadvantage thus it is most advisable that the future winner exposes his contender in front of the others by making the first move and so gaining ascendancy."
Mach is thought to have learned much of his advice from close study of one notable Italian Big Brother contestant Cesare Borgia, who went as far as to invite all of his rival contestants to a large banquet and then poison their food, in full knowledge that the poison he had used was a well-known form of food-poisoning. Upon the death of his rivals he was charged but later cleared in court whereupon he admitted that he had murdered them knowing that the double-jeopardy law prevented him from being re-tried. Italian Big Brother then refused to hand him out the prize money but offered to let him start in the next series with a fresh batch of contestants. Using a mixture of subterfuge and tactical allegiances (and one dubious death) Borgia made his way to the last three, where he was evicted by a freak misfortune having failed to guarantee the vote of his ally.
On this note, Mach raises an age-old Italian debate about the respective roles of what he terms "Virtue" and "Fortune". He comes to the conclusion that half of the potential-winner's future is controlled by fortune and the other half by themself, but he goes on to say that those who demonstrate extreme skill can actually manipulate fortune to their own advantage. Indeed for Mach the greatest virtue that needs be mastered is the art of hypocrisy. He cleverly suggests that the potential winner does not have to avoid doing bad things; rather that he should avoid doing them badly so that everyone can tell. He also suggests that wannabe winners need to feign that they are good people, while all the time spreading lies and deceit about their competitors because “the common people are always impressed by appearances.”
Mach’s novella is well worth reading if you fancy appearing on Big Brother. It’s an insight into winning in style and achieving glory rather than mere greatness. Add to all this the “underground” cult status that the book has attained since being banned by the Catholic church and you can see why this book is a hit. In short there is only one winner and that’s Nic Mach’s “The Winner”
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Hailing from Florence, Italy, Nich Mach is no stranger to the world of intrigue and back-stabbing, having even served on the city's ten of war council. All of this makes him the ideal candidate to write a book on winning Big Brother. Indeed, so popular has his book proved in his native Italy, that already it has been translated into 201 languages and distributed all around the world despite having a ban imposed on it by the Catholic church, who have excommunicated Mach. There is contention however, as to whether Mach intended the book to be a humorous satire on the back-stabbing shenanigans that went on in the series, or as a way of getting his previous publisher, Giovanni de' Medici, to support him again, seeing as the latter's son was to be a future contestant on the show.
The first chapter sets the tone for much of the novel with Mach outlining that fellow contestants must either be indulged or destroyed:
"Contestants must either be pampered or crushed, because they can get revenge by nominating you for small grievances but not for serious ones. So any injury a future-winner does to a fellow-contestant must be of such a kind that there is no fear of reprisal." He later goes on to advise would-be contestants that "there is no avoiding war with another housemate if it looms; it may only be postponed to your disadvantage thus it is most advisable that the future winner exposes his contender in front of the others by making the first move and so gaining ascendancy."
Mach is thought to have learned much of his advice from close study of one notable Italian Big Brother contestant Cesare Borgia, who went as far as to invite all of his rival contestants to a large banquet and then poison their food, in full knowledge that the poison he had used was a well-known form of food-poisoning. Upon the death of his rivals he was charged but later cleared in court whereupon he admitted that he had murdered them knowing that the double-jeopardy law prevented him from being re-tried. Italian Big Brother then refused to hand him out the prize money but offered to let him start in the next series with a fresh batch of contestants. Using a mixture of subterfuge and tactical allegiances (and one dubious death) Borgia made his way to the last three, where he was evicted by a freak misfortune having failed to guarantee the vote of his ally.
On this note, Mach raises an age-old Italian debate about the respective roles of what he terms "Virtue" and "Fortune". He comes to the conclusion that half of the potential-winner's future is controlled by fortune and the other half by themself, but he goes on to say that those who demonstrate extreme skill can actually manipulate fortune to their own advantage. Indeed for Mach the greatest virtue that needs be mastered is the art of hypocrisy. He cleverly suggests that the potential winner does not have to avoid doing bad things; rather that he should avoid doing them badly so that everyone can tell. He also suggests that wannabe winners need to feign that they are good people, while all the time spreading lies and deceit about their competitors because “the common people are always impressed by appearances.”
Mach’s novella is well worth reading if you fancy appearing on Big Brother. It’s an insight into winning in style and achieving glory rather than mere greatness. Add to all this the “underground” cult status that the book has attained since being banned by the Catholic church and you can see why this book is a hit. In short there is only one winner and that’s Nic Mach’s “The Winner”
The first chapter sets the tone for much of the novel with Mach outlining that fellow contestants must either be indulged or destroyed:
"Contestants must either be pampered or crushed, because they can get revenge by nominating you for small grievances but not for serious ones. So any injury a future-winner does to a fellow-contestant must be of such a kind that there is no fear of reprisal." He later goes on to advise would-be contestants that "there is no avoiding war with another housemate if it looms; it may only be postponed to your disadvantage thus it is most advisable that the future winner exposes his contender in front of the others by making the first move and so gaining ascendancy."
Mach is thought to have learned much of his advice from close study of one notable Italian Big Brother contestant Cesare Borgia, who went as far as to invite all of his rival contestants to a large banquet and then poison their food, in full knowledge that the poison he had used was a well-known form of food-poisoning. Upon the death of his rivals he was charged but later cleared in court whereupon he admitted that he had murdered them knowing that the double-jeopardy law prevented him from being re-tried. Italian Big Brother then refused to hand him out the prize money but offered to let him start in the next series with a fresh batch of contestants. Using a mixture of subterfuge and tactical allegiances (and one dubious death) Borgia made his way to the last three, where he was evicted by a freak misfortune having failed to guarantee the vote of his ally.
On this note, Mach raises an age-old Italian debate about the respective roles of what he terms "Virtue" and "Fortune". He comes to the conclusion that half of the potential-winner's future is controlled by fortune and the other half by themself, but he goes on to say that those who demonstrate extreme skill can actually manipulate fortune to their own advantage. Indeed for Mach the greatest virtue that needs be mastered is the art of hypocrisy. He cleverly suggests that the potential winner does not have to avoid doing bad things; rather that he should avoid doing them badly so that everyone can tell. He also suggests that wannabe winners need to feign that they are good people, while all the time spreading lies and deceit about their competitors because “the common people are always impressed by appearances.”
Mach’s novella is well worth reading if you fancy appearing on Big Brother. It’s an insight into winning in style and achieving glory rather than mere greatness. Add to all this the “underground” cult status that the book has attained since being banned by the Catholic church and you can see why this book is a hit. In short there is only one winner and that’s Nic Mach’s “The Winner”