An interesting philosophy book

I have been reading an interesting book that I had my wife give me for Christmas: Hellenistic Philosophy by John Sellars. 

If you aren't familiar with the term, "Hellenistic" doesn't simply mean "Greek." The Hellenistic period is a specific time of ancient history, from the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) to the death of Cleopatra in 30 B.C. In other words, it covers the time after the heyday of the Greek city state and figures such as Pericles and before the complete Roman takeover of the Mediterranean. The period is when the successors of Alexander ruled a huge swath of territory in southeast Europe, northern Africa and Asia, imposing a Greek speaking elite.

As Sellars explains in his book, the Hellenic period saw the rise of Epicureanism and Stoicism, and a revival and reinvention of skepticism, also known as Pyrrhonism. There were other philosophies active, too, although Sellars concentrates on those three. Plato's Academy kept going during this period, although it went through a skeptical phase, Cynics were active and Aristotle also still attracted scholars. Sellars, if you don't know him, is an expert on ancient Greek philosophy who has written quite a few books. Most are about Stoicism, although he also wrote a good, short book about Epicurean ethics, Fourfold Remedy, which I read last year.

My main motive in wanting to read the book is my strong interest in Epicureanism; I wanted to learn more about the milieu from which it emerged. But the book also offers an outline of Stoicism, which has experienced a recent revival of interest, giving Sellars a market for  his books that goes beyond college students studying philosophy.

But a nice bonus for RAW fans is the focus on skepticism. Robert Anton Wilson had many influences, but in a sense he also was a modern skeptic. His model agnosticism and "maybe logic" was opposed to certainty and ideological dogmatism. 

So it's interesting to read about philosophers  of skepticism and how some of their thoughts seem to prefigure some of RAW's.

Here is one of the passages in the book, in the chapter  on "Knowledge," where Sellars is talking about how Metrodorus interpreted Carneades. (They were two figures in the Academy in this period, when it was going through its skepticism phase.) "On that view, Carneades was thought to have held that a wise person could hold opinions about some things so long as they do not assent to the truth of those opinions." To my ears, this sounds a bit like RAW's saying, "I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions."

If you want to read a book that focuses solely on ancient Greek skepticism, Sellars suggests reading Ancient Skepticism by H. Thorsrud. 

Robert Anton Wilson (and Joseph Matheny) on Tubi

Most of my American readers should be familiar with Tubi, the website/app/TV channel which offers movies and TV shows. The programs are free and supported by commercials. 

Via Reddit's r/Robert Anton Wilson site, I recently learned that Robert Anton Wilson: The "I" in the Triangle, a documentary nearly two hours long, is available now on Tubi. 

The credits list Joseph Matheny as the director and one of the "stars," along with RAW, so I asked Joseph for more information, and he responded with helpful notes, as it his wont:

"That's the I in the Triangle talk I sponsored and had taped in my friend's occult bookshop in 90.  A younger me makes an appearance, doing a whimsical introduction. It is also available for sale on DVD, etc., on my friends' Original Falcon's website, and free to download from places like Archive.org and YouTube. 

"It was a lot of fun, and Bob and I hung out for a few days, and he taught me how to make a martini, using a method and formula he picked up from reading about W.C. Fields. I use that recipe and method to this day. This was before Bo moved to Santa Cruz. He was still living in LA. Of course, he and Arlen would move to Santa Cruz to be close to his kids. 

"Here's some pics of that visit. We're hanging out at Nina Graboi's, (my downstairs neighbor) smoking some hash I had scored."

'Finnegans Wake' reading group has begun

The Finnegans Wake reading group for 2026 on Reddit has begun. It's handy for people who have never tried a reading group and don't have one physically nearby. I am trying to get caught up, and as the organizers point out, it's not too late to join and get up to speed. (This is one of the two reading groups announced as part of Bobby Campbell's Maybe Night). 

Here is the information and schedule for the readalong. You can also access the schedule directly.  The actual reading group posts are at Finnegans Wake on Reddit. 

Talking with Dan Robinson of Danny and the Darlings

Dan Robinson

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about Jukebox Musical by Danny and the Darlings, an official soundtrack for Tales of Illuminatus No. 2. The album consists of punk rock style renderings of various 1950s rock and roll tunes. In that post, I annotated the songs and provided a link for downloading the album. The download is free, although a vintage-style collector's item cassette tape also can be purchased. 

But when I wrote the post, I was a bit frustrated because I could not find much information on the Internet about Wilmington, Delaware musician Dan Robinson, the Bobby Campbell pal who was behind the project. So via Bobby I got contact information for Dan, and he agreed to talk to me about his main rock band, The Headies, and his Danny and the Darlings side project. Read on!

RAWIllumination: Could you tell me a little bit about yourself and about your band?

Dan Robinson: My name is Dan Robinson and I’m from Wilmington, Delaware. I’ve been writing and playing my own music since I was 15 years old, back in the late 1990’s.  I’m both self-aware AND a punk rocker, a huge fan of super hero comics, old cartoons, and all rock and roll. 

I used to be evangelical about rock and roll.  I see it as the true American religion.  I spent my 20’s giving super-liminal instruction, intended to share the freedom that I felt that the music had given me… what I had seen.  But I realized that the subtleties of what I was shown are difficult to share, and like certain Buddhists who shall remain nameless I rejected dogma and moved into metaphor to express that which is difficult to express.  I called this Meta-Pop.

My main gig is singing and playing guitar in the Headies, a punk band with power-pop and bubblegum tendencies.  We’ve been playing together since 2008, and we’re all best friends.  All of us write and the sum of our albums reflects the interaction of five positive personalities.  We just finished recording our next full-length album, out this spring on vinyl LP from Bloated Kat Records.

But the Headies consists of real people with real lives outside of rock and roll.  I needed a little bit more… I needed 24 Hour Rock and Roll.

Danny and the Darlings is my solo project in which I write everything and play all the instruments.  This way every step I take is a rock and roll step.  I’m inspired by the sidewalks in my neighborhood, every sacred brick, every blade of grass so holy.  Sometimes I get so into writing I think god is telling me what to sing. 

RAWIllumination: Can you tell me how "Jukebox Musical" came about and became an official tie-in album for "Tales of Illuminatus No. 2"?

Dan Robinson: Bobby Campbell and I have been causing trouble together since ‘98, co-creating comics and general guerrilla rock, always with an eye towards the romantic and hopeful.  He asked me to record “Rock Around the Clock” as a plot device for issue two.  (We’ve always “soundtracked” our comics, an affectation lifted from Chynna Clugston’s “Blue Monday” and Jim Mahfood’s “Grrrl Scouts” etc…) 

The idea was that the song would appear in the narrative as well as on a somehow magical mixtape that’s circulating and exists BOTH in the story and in the world of the reader.  Earth Prime haha.

My background in rock and roll has led me to this moment.  I populated the cassette with first wave gems, not the biggest hits but meaningful numbers that spoke to me.  Fan fiction of the first chapter in a holy book.

The Headies 

From left: Grant Robinson - keyboards and vocals, Todd Purse - drums, Danny Robinson - vocals and guitar, Billy Frolic - guitar and vocal and Justin Vavala - bass guitar. "This was taken at our practice space (Todd’s garage) in North Wilmington, Delaware 12/24, before we played the Newark Punk Rock Flea Market."

RAWIllumination:  Is there a particular Headies album you want to recommend to someone new to the band?

Dan Robinson:  If I had to pick one Headies album to share I’d say Growing Up in the Multiverse… my overall favorite group of songs and we’re all very very in the pocket.  Meta-Pop has been our most popular record, but Multiverse could be our best.

RAWIllumination: You say that rock and roll is a religion for you. Who are some of the important "gods of rock" in your pantheon?

Dan Robinson: I used to say that I feel about the Ramones the way religious people feel about Jesus.  They were sent to save us.  The first album is a promise fulfilled, the ultimate modernist rock and roll album, utterly reverent towards what came before, what they were building on, but distilled, truer, spritely.  The world is a better place for it.

But what came before?  LITTLE RICHARD.  Without whom none of this is possible, but the entire first wave… sure Elvis, but Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran.  It didn’t need to be a phenomenon or the zeitgeist to have the value it presented…. a real freedom, not “won” by an army.  A freedom they couldn’t even imagine.  

Lou Reed said, “Rock and roll is so great, people should start dying for it. The music gave you back your beat so you could dream. A whole generation running with a Fender bass…”

The Velvets and the Stooges and the MC5 and the New York Dolls.

It was thick in the air back then.  More people could taste it.  But it never ever goes away.  And what’s the problem with being a true believer???

Best Lookout Records band - The Mr. T Experience.

Most formative band for me - Plow United 

DAN ROBINSON DISCOGRAPHY

ninja attak - “my first time” 7” (1996)

ninja attak/the Crash split 7” (1997)

Power of IV - “Walking Distance” LP (1999)

Power of IV - “Slight Rebellion Off Madison” LP (2002, rereleased 2024)

Power of IV - “Massive Psychic Damage” 7” lathe cut picture disc (2025)

Endless Mike Jambox - “Another Hot Freshy-Freshy” LP (2005)

THE HEADIES

“It's a Superman's World” EP (2008) 

“Sugar and Spice (and Everything’s Fucked)” LP (2008)

“Black Bubblegum” LP (2010) 

“Impostors” split 7” w/the Boys Club (2012)

“Meta-Pop” LP (2012)

“Last Show at My Parent's House” Live Album (2013)

The Headies/Plow United split 7” (2015)

The Headies/Wringer split 7” (2015)

“(Every Little Thing Breaks My) Punk Rock Heart” 7” (2015)

“Growing Up in the Multiverse” LP (2020)

“Meanwhile…” EP (2024)

 and upcoming!

“Contempo Casuals” LP (2026)

DANNY AND THE DARLINGS

“Heavy Cream” EP 2024)

“Operation: Golden Goose” LP (2024)

“Wilmington Optimist” LP (2025)

“Jukebox Musical” cassette (2025)

Michael Johnson on RAW and plant intelligence

Michael Johnson has a major new essay up, "Robert Anton Wilson on Plant Intelligence, (Part One?" which I recommend to everyone who reads this blog. Here is the opening bit:

A poor kid born three years into the Great Depression, near Brooklyn, who contracted polio as a child and was enamored of Weird Tales and mathematics and poetry, you might think Wilson would not be a good candidate to develop a pantheist, vitalist, panpsychist point of view. He was not a hiker (the polio), but in the 1970s in Northern California he and his wife Arlen were very much involved with modern paganism and definitely did magickal rituals in Berkeley and met other pagan artists and intellectuals in the redwoods in Northern California. What was the trajectory? How did he develop this mystical outlook?

The Allen Ginsberg centennial

Allen Ginsberg in 1979 (Creative Commons photo, more information). 

Allen Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926, so as Eric Wagner remarked on Facebook, June is the Ginsberg centennial. 

The Wikipedia bio will fill you in on the writer RAW called "our major living American poet," in Coincidance.  

New books in public domain include 'As I Lay Dying'

Each year, a new batch of books (and other creative works) enter the public domain. This year works published in 1930 enter the public domain. 

This year, the books that go into the public domain include As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (RAW was a Faulkner fan) and Standard Ebooks already has an edition out.  Here are 20 new books offered by Standard Ebooks, including The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, The Castle by Franz Kafka and mysteries by Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie. 

'Non-Euclidean' in 'Reason' magazine

 

Reason magazine, in the March issue, publishes a review of A Non-Euclidean Perspective: Robert Anton Wilson’s Political Commentaries 1960-2005.

The short piece by Brian Doherty, a noted historian of libertarianism, begins, "The works of Robert Anton Wilson, especially the Illuminatus! trilogy, were an alternative path to libertarianism, in the late 20th century. His influence has been less appreciated than that of his fellow novelist Ayn Rand, whose apodictic certainty based in ancient Greek philosophy he hilariously lampooned via the made-up novel discussed within Illuminatus!, Telemachus Sneezed."

There isn't a posting yet at the Reason website I can link to, but Rasa has posted it on Facebook. 

Mark Brown's RAW-related reading

Mark Brown posts on Facebook what he read the previous month. Here is what he listed:

Reads and Rereads finished in December:

The Magus by John Fowles  12/6  

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler  12/9

Every Day is a Good Day by Robert Shea, ed. by Tom Jackson  12/12

Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon  12/18  

Dare by Philip Jose Farmer  12/21  

The Dead Man’s Knock by John Dickson Carr  12/24

I usually post what I read last month, but in a sense I have already done that; in December I read the last five books in yesterday's post.

Except for Fowles, I have read books by every author on RAW's list. But what I am struck by is that every author on Mark's list has a Robert Anton Wilson connection. The Fowles novel is one of Wilson's favorites. RAW was a fan of Chandler, Farmer, Sturgeon and Carr.  Sturgeon was a RAW fan. (This blog post has been updated to confirm that RAW was a Sturgeon fan.)

I am having to do this on my phone; I will update this later and fix the formatting. What did you guys read last month?

Books read 2025

Every year I list the books I read in the past year, and that's below, in the order that I read them. A few observations:

-- I read about the same number  of books each year. I read 58 in 2025, 59 in 2024 and 49 in 2023. Some of these are re-reads, such as Moby-Dick and The Great Gatsby. 

-- My volunteer work as a judge for the Prometheus Award and Prometheus Hall of Fame Award takes up a significant amount of my reading, 18 books or so in the past year.

-- I read four Hilaritas Press books last year, including my own Robert Shea book and a re-read of The Sex  Magicians. Buying most Hilaritas Press books is a significant part of my "Robert Anton Wilson activism." Hilaritas Press needs the support of your wallet; it's part of keeping RAW's legacy alive.

-- Favorite fiction I read last year: midnight's simulacra, Lake of Darkness, Moby-Dick, The Great Gatsby, Cloud Atlas, The Great When. Favorite nonfiction: The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium, Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties, Kumano Kodo: Pilgrimage to Powerspots, Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All. But I liked most of the books I read, many of them quite a bit. 

1. Alliance Unbound, C.J. Cherryh and Jane Fancher.
2. Love and Loss: The Short Life of Ray Chapman, Scott Longert.
3. Cancelled: The Shape of Things to Come, Danny King.
4. Terra II ...A Way Out, Timothy Leary.
5. Knowledge, Reality, and Value: A Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy, Michael Huemer.
6. Interstellar MegaChef, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, 
7. Waffle Irons vs. the Horde, Dr. Insensitive Jerk.
8. midnight's simulacra, nick black.
9. The McCartney Legacy, Volume 1: 1969-73, Allan Kozinn.
10. Invasion! Rome Against the Cimbri, 113–101 BC, Philip Matyszak.
11. Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky.
12. Beggar's Sky (Rich Man's Sky Book 3), Wil McCarthy.
13. The Glass Box, Michael Straczyki.
14. Epicurus and His Influence on History, Ben Gazur.
15. Moby-Dick or, The Whale, Herman Melville.
16. Shepherds Among Us: A Poetic Memoir, Trenda Geller.
17. Shadow of the Smoking Mountain, Howard Andrew Jones.
18. The Crying of Lot 49,  Thomas Pynchon.
19. Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London’s Lost Artist, Phil Baker.
20. Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life, Emily Austin.
21. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
22. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium, Anthony Kaldellis.
23. Every Tom, Dick & Harry, Elinor Lipman.
24. The KLF: Chaos, Magic, and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds, John Higgs (the updated edition.)
25. Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.
26. Lake of Darkness, Adam Roberts.
27. Eight Million Ways to Die (Matthew Scudder, #5), Lawrence Block.
28. Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age, Ada Palmer.
29. Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories, Frederik Pohl.
30. Xen: The Zen of the Other, Ezra Buckley (Joseph Matheny).
31. Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties, Lucy Moore.
32. Sell More Books! Book Marketing and Publishing for Low Profile and Debut Authors: Rethinking Book Publicity after the Digital Revolutions, Steve J. Miller. 
33. The Sound of Utopia: Musicians in the Time of Stalin, Michel Krielaars.
34. Keys to a Successful Retirement: Staying Happy, Active, and Productive in Your Retired Years, Fritz Gilbert. 
35. Salt, Adam Roberts.
36. The Sex Magicians, Robert Anton Wilson.
37. The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism, James Warren.
38. The Book of Forbidden Words: A Liberated Dictionary of Improper English, Robert Anton Wilson. 
39. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley.
40. The Star Dwellers, James Blish.
41. Kumano Kodo: Pilgrimage to Powerspots, J. Christian Greer and Michelle K. Oing.
42. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, Philip K. Dick. 
43. Cloud Atlas, David K. Mitchell.
44. Every Day is a GOOD Day: Robert Shea on Illuminatus! Writing and Anarchism, Robert Shea.
45. Vineland, Thomas Pynchon.
46. The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told, Bill Janovitz.
47. All the Humans Are Sleeping, John  C.A. Manley.
48. Don't Try This at Home: Convention Reports, David Langford.
49. Melmoth the Wanderer, Charles Maturin.
50. For Emma,  Ewan Morrison.
51. Operation Wandering Soul, Richard Powers.
52. A Non-Euclidean Perspective: Robert Anton Wilson’s Political Commentaries 1960-2005, Robert Anton Wilson.
53. Vanishing World, Sayaka Murata.
54. The Crooked Hinge, John Dickson Carr.
55. Powerless,  Harry Turtledove.
56. The Great When, Alan Moore.
57. Days of Shattered Faith, Adrian Tchaikovsky.
58. If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. 

Ken Burns, RAW fan

 

Ken Burns. Creative Commons photo, source. 

Ken Burns,  the famous documentary filmmaker, is back in the news again for his new TV series about the Revolutionary War, which I have not seen yet, but want to. 

Something I did not know, until recently, is that Burns is a fan of Robert Anton Wilson and was an Illuminatus! fan back in the day. 

Rasa, who of course runs the day to day affairs Hilaritas Press and the RAW Trust for Christina Pearson, mentioned Burns in a recent email chain.

"Hampshire College, my alma mater, had a reunion in October, and while there I met up with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, one of the college's more famous alums. I gave him a copy of our RAW Memes book, and I just got back this nice letter," Rasa explains.

Burns wrote, in a letter dated Dec. 16, "Thank you for the gift. I have no idea how much Wilson's ideas have meant to me once I devoured the Illuminatus Trilogy in the 70s. Love,  love his thinking." The letter closes with some friendly remarks for Rasa.

One thing I have in common with Ken Burns (other than knowing Rasa) is that I like the RAW Memes book. I bought it right after it came out. Details at the Hilaritas  website.

Happy new year to everyone! 

The Templars and the Assassins, in one book

 

A British historian, Steve Tibble, takes on both the Templars and the Assassins in a new book. Of possible interest to Illuminatus! fans of course, also the Templars figure prominently in Robert Shea's All Things Are Lights. The full title of Tibble's book is Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood.

Here is the publisher's blurb:

The story of the medieval world's most extraordinary organisations, the Assassins and the Templars.   

The Assassins and the Templars are two of history's most legendary groups. One was a Shi'ite religious sect, the other a Christian military order created to defend the Holy Land. Violently opposed, they had vastly different reputations, followings, and ambitions. Yet they developed strikingly similar strategies–and their intertwined stories have, oddly enough, uncanny parallels.   

In this engaging account, Steve Tibble traces the history of these two groups from their origins to their ultimate destruction. He shows how, outnumbered and surrounded, they survived only by perfecting "the promise of death," either in the form of a Templar charge or an Assassin's dagger. Death, for themselves or their enemies, was at the core of these extraordinary organisations.   

Their fanaticism changed the medieval world–and, even up to the present day, in video games and countless conspiracy theories, they have become endlessly conjoined in myth and memory.

Michael Johnson on smart plants

 

Photo by Sergey Shmidt on Unsplash

Michael Johnson takes on a fascinating topic and shows off his erudition with his latest Substack newsletter, "On Plant Intelliegence And/Or Consciousness." 

"If it turns out to be slam-dunk correct that trees, plants, bushes and all their cousins, were intelligent all along? Why it’s just damned embarrassing at the very least. On the other hand, with the way we’re heating up the planet, the plants may all just be muttering to each other that it’s only a matter of time before the Golden Age of Cretacious II and the mammal parasites are mulch."

Michael promises, "I will get to Robert Anton Wilson’s experiences with plant mysticism in a future article."