Steve Pratt publishes new 'Tale of the Tribe'

At the end of TSOG: The Thing That Ate the Constitution, Robert Anton Wilson outlined his plans for a book, Tale of the Tribe.

He never completed it, but Steve "Fly" Pratt published a book on the subject late last year, and now has just released a new edition, Fly On The Tale of the Tribe: A Rollercoaster Ride With Robert Anton Wilson. It is on Amazon and available to his Patreon supporters. 

Steve explains, "Late last year I hastily self-published this book about influencers on Robert Anton Wilson and about the tale of the tribe. Recently, new additions, chops changes stops, and spins were edited in. I must confess, the text was a little messy before, now it's straightened out somewhat I'm happy to spread the word."

Excerpt from the "Note From the Author" in the book:

"Sticking to a slightly strict interpretation, in the attempt to be precise from the get-go, the tale of the tribe is taken here to describe three things:

"1. An unfinished, unpublished book by Wilson.

"2. The 8 week class called Tale Of The Tribe led by Wilson in
2005.

"3. An epic poem including history, two examples of such a magnum opus are the Cantos of Pound, and Finnegans Wake by Joyce. Each a wild jungle of experimental language, global epics in a whole new style, to be explored with an open mind over a long period, and to challenge aesthetic, ethic, historic and moral prejudice at the same time. Complex authors their complex work to deal with it. This ain’t a coca-cola ad."

Cover by MVP Bobby Campbell.

I have a copy of the new edition (I'm a Patreon supporter) and hope to read it soon.

RAW on what artists do

Photo by Vuitton Lim on Unsplash

A movie theater is the best place to learn the true meaning of Plato's parable of the prisoners in the cave, who accept shadows as reality. Every artist who moves us, from a movie maker to Beethoven or Shakespeare, is a bit of a hypnotist. In this sense, that seemingly stupid and mechanical contraption we call "society" must rank as the greatest artist (or hypnotist) on the planet. -- Robert Anton Wilson

(Cited in Facebook by James Heffernan. From Cosmic Trigger 2: Down to Earth, the "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" chapter. Heffernan is the author of Nonlocal Nature: The Eight Circuits of Consciousness. )

Beethoven/Kerman reading group, Week Eighteen

By Eric Wagner, guest blogger

Kerman Week 18 – Op. 135

This week please finish the book and listen to Op. 135 and the last movement of Op. 130. Please comment on this week’s reading.

I hope all goes well. People often roughly divide Beethoven’s work into three periods. The quartets fall into these periods quite nicely. At the end of each period he tends to look backward and compose in a somewhat Haydnesque manner. One can see this in Symphony #2, Symphony #8, and both works in this chapter, Op. 135 and the new ending to Op. 130.

Pg. 362: “Muss es sein” means “must it be?” “Es muss sein!” means “It must be!” Bob Wilson plays with this in Schroedinger’s Cat.

Pg. 362-363: Pantalone, Spavento, and Brighella come from commedia dell’arte. Melusine refers to a water spirit. I had forgotten that Proust’s narrator compares Gilberte to Melusine. Wikipedia says “Melusine appears to have inspired aspects of the character Mélisande, who is associated with springs and waters, in Maurice Maeterlinck's play, Pelléas et Mélisande, first produced in 1893.  Claude Debussy adapted it as an opera by the same name, produced in 1902.”

Pg. 373: I like Riezler’s notion of seeing both versions of Op. 130 as organic. This reminds me of model agnosticism. The two versions of the quartet seem like two universes. One doesn’t have to prefer one to the other or question the artistic validity of the quartet as a whole as Kerman does. Of course, Kerman does a great job of illuminating the wonderful things Beethoven does in both versions of the quartet.

Pg. 375: Kerman says of contemplating the Beethoven quartets, “it has a way of shutting out other prospects.” Often when I finish this book, I don’t know what to listen to next. I consider these quartets as perhaps the greatest music ever written. Where does one go from here?

Pg. 376: I love the reference to “chthonic powers” – very Lovecraftian.

Pg. 379: When he discusses the personalities of individual quartets, it reminds me of how Crowley discusses getting to know the 78 tarot cards as individuals over the course of a lifetime.

As Schroeder would say, only six days until Beethoven’s birthday.

RAW reviews 'Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Growers Guide'

Another big discovery by Martin Wagner: Robert Anton Wilson's book review of Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Growers Guide by Terence and Dennis McKenna (writing under pseudonyms), published in August 1976.

A couple of excerpts:

Only narcs and the major drug dealers, that oddly symbiotic alliance, can possibly oppose the self-evident intent of the authors, which is to teach the reader how to make pure, undiluted, 100 percent safe neurochemicals at home, and thereby avoid the hazards of the black market.

It is indeed a splendid dream. Imagine: every Head in the country begins growing his or her own magic psilocybin mushrooms. Funny fungi sprouting everywhere. Millions, then billions of golden-headed darlings bringing the most ancient Mayan secrets to meta-phase nervous systems, coast to coast. The local distributor of mescaline-cut-cut-with-garbage, which he calls LSD, pounds on the door desparately, “Hey, I’m selling blotter at 10 cents a hit this week” — and nobody answers.

And

The only thing wrong with this book, aside from the price, is that they forgot to mention that you should always absolutely in every case whatever the circumstances play Beethoven’s Ninth during the third hour of the mushroom experience. With earphones and your eyes closed. Then o dearly beloved may you find the Gold of the Philosophers, the Stone of the Wise, the Medicine of Metals, the Rosy Cross, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness. Io Pan Io Pangenitor Io Panphage Hagios Hagios Hagios IAO.

Daisy Campbell on 'Pigspurt' and other matters

"The first #MuMufication brick is laid by @DaisyEris on the pyramid stone for the #ToxtethDayOfTheDead #PeoplesPyramid. She is watched over by Jimmy Cauty, Bill Drummond, @GreenFuneralCo and procession participants. #KLF" (caption from @violetmaze on Twitter)

The Herald, a Scottish newspaper in Glasgow that dates back to 1783, runs quite a nice long article on Daisy Eris Campbell by the paper's theater critic, Neil Cooper. Applause to Mr. Cooper for doing quite a good job. He explains the Toxteth Day of the Dead, which I've seen mysterious references to on Twitter (see brief video, above) and also explains why the final performance of Daisy's "Pigspurt's Daughter" will be in Shetland (on Dec. 10):

The Lerwick date for Pigspurt’s Daughter came about after Campbell “put a call out to various seekers and spores.” One of these was Jeff Merrifield, whose connections with Ken Campbell date back to his tenure at Bolton Octagon running a touring community company. This later morphed into The Ken Campbell Roadshow, whose ranks included Sylvester McCoy and Bob Hoskins.

Merrifield went on to work with the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool, and is the company’s official chronicler. He also wrote a biography of Ken, called Seeker! Now a long-term resident of Shetland, where he creates artistic capers of his own, Merrifield’s invitation to bring Pigspurt’s Daughter to Lerwick was a no-brainer.

“Me and Dad always wanted to go to Shetland to see Jeff,” says Campbell, “but we never made it. Now we’ve contrived to bring Pigspurt’s Daughter there on his birthday with his best mate. I don’t think I’ll make any money, but it’s being done for magical reasons.”

Online reading groups in 2019

We've been doing online reading groups at this blog for years, generally with pretty good participation, and archiving them so that anyone who reads the book after the reading group is done can go back and read the blog posts as he/she reads the book. (I don't know how often anyone does this).

2018 has been something of an anomaly for the blog, as we have covered two books that were not written by Robert Anton Wilson: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (which, aside from its intrinsic interest to serious readers influenced RAW's The Widow's Son) and we are winding up Eric Wagner's discussion of Joseph Kerman's The Beethoven Quartets. 

For 2019, I suggest we return to Wilson, with the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, or at least with The Earth Will Shake and The Widow's Son. All three books (including of course Nature's God) have been published in definitive editions by Hilaritas Press and it seems to me they deserve some love and attention. I'm particularly fond of The Widow's Son and think of it as a neglected book. We could maybe start with The Earth Will Shake in February and go from there.

This suggestion is not set in stone; you could make a case, for example,  for Prometheus Rising, also available in republication from Hilaritas, and also worth a discussion group. I'm open to ideas and discussion.

"Their" self help books, and "Ours"

Via Marginal Revolution: Tim Harford's list of his favorite self help books. 

I always feel like I'm not getting as much done as I'd like to, so I will particularly look at his top two recommendations, Designing Your Life and Getting Things Done.

But looking at the list also reminded me that two of Robert Anton Wilson's books, Prometheus Rising and Quantum Psychology, also are treated as "self help" books by many of his fans.

Note that there is a Quantum Psychology online discussion group archived at this site (look at the bottom right of the page); we probably need to do Prometheus Rising sometime. And see Caroline Contillo on "How Quantum Psychology Changed My Life." 

Prometheus Rising and Quantum Psychology have both been republished in definitive editions by Hilaritas Press.

Christmas with the Wilsons

From left: Rasa, Christina Pearson, German radio journalist Maximilian Netter, Marlis Jermutus

The RAW Trust newsletter that announced the availability of a replica of Bob Wilson's spiral ring, which I blogged about yesterday, also contained a piece by RAW daughter Christina Wilson about her Christmas memories. Excerpt:

Looking back, it seemed that there were always catastrophes that occurred on a regular basis on holidays – like the time my father (Bob) was perched on a ladder putting the star up on top of a fully decorated 6 foot tree, only to have the ladder slide into the tree, and down the whole kaboodle went! It was QUITE the show -- Bob yelling, the cat meowing, dog barking, my baby sister crying, Arlen (my mom) rushing in and adding to the hysteria… ah, yes!

Read the whole thing. 

RAW estate releases spiral ring replica

The Robert Anton Wilson Trust has announced that a replica of Robert Anton Wilson's spiral ring is now available, as a ring or as a pendant.

From the announcement:

Our silversmith in Rhode Island has given us a reasonable deal on reproducing exact replicas of Bob's sterling silver spiral ring, and we are ready to take orders! When you order online, you will tell us your ring size. If you don't know your ring size, we've included easy instructions on the order page for figuring that out. Each ring will be separately ordered as soon as you complete the online form. Please be patient. It will take some number of weeks for the ring to be finished, sent to us and then packaged for shipping. The first ring orders should be shipping out in January. The price for one ring is $123, the same as the price for the pendant.

Rasa models the pendant. 

Much more at the link, including other celebrity models (such as Martin Wagner), some mystery models, an excerpt from Cosmic Trigger II explaining the ring and a special message from Christina! 

Kerman/Beethoven reading group, Week Seventeen

Cover of the Grateful Dead's "Blues for Allah." 

By Eric Wagner, guest blogger

This week please read sections 4 and 5 of chapter 10 (pg. 325 - 349) and listen to Op. 131. Please comment on this week’s reading.

I hope all goes well. On pg. 325 Kerman discusses Tovey’s ideas about normality. Tovey and Kerman use the word normal in a very different way than Bob Wilson did in “Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal." In fact, the theme of normalcy (in the Tovey sense) runs all through the analysis of this quartet.

Pg. 331: Kareol refers to a famous house in the Netherlands built for Julius Carl Bunge, a big Richard Wagner fan. According to Wikipedia, “there were many tiles in the house with pictures referring to the opera Tristan und Isolde.” (Of course, Wagner called Tristan und Isolde a music drama, not an opera.) I like how Kerman calls the opening fugue a “great machine”.

Pg. 332: I look forward to the film Dominant Preparation with a Vengance with Bruce Willis as Beethoven. “Allegra molto vivace, motherf---er!”

Pg. 334: Dorabella and Fiordiligi – two sisters in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutti.

Pg. 346: Wagner’s “stupendous fiddler” makes me think of the fiddler on the cover of the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah.

Pg. 346 – 347: Tovey makes Beethoven and Wagner’s powers of modulation sound like mutant superpowers.

Daisy Campbell/Neal Stephenson news

The details for tickets for the last UK performance of Pigspurt's Daughter Dec. 10 in Shetland are now clear: Tickets are 10 pounds, at the door only. See flyer above. Follow Daisy on Twitter. 

Neal Stephenson is my favorite living writer, perhaps some of you also like him. He has a new novel coming out in June 2019, information here. 

Saturday links

An Edward Pera film of Robert Anton Wilson asking, "Who Is the Master Who Makes the Grass Green?" See first link. 

Language affects our perception of colors. 

Jacob Sullum on the IRS attack on free speech advocating marijuana legalization. I had a previous post about this on Sunday.

When writers respond to bad reviews. 

Psychedelic Prophets: The Letters of Aldous Huxley and Humphry Osmond. A new book.

The second thunderword in Finnegans Wake may be a loud fart. PQ posted this on Nov. 23 and refers to page 23 of the book.

The first film adaptation of Frankenstein.

Long podcast takes on RAW

Harland Grant

The Dawdler's Philosophy is a podcast that features a scientist, Harland Grant, and a scientist, R.T.P. McKenna, "addressing Big Ideas both original and derived."

The podcast has just launched a new series, "Haunting the Margins," addressing marginalized thinkers, and the first one, lasting two hours and five minutes, is about Robert Anton Wilson. Topics covered include model agnosticism, how thinkers get marginalized, "correct answer machines" and other topics familiar to RAW fans.

The discussion is generally sound, although (1) as Rasa points out at the website, RAW was not, in fact, Jewish and (2) model agnosticism does not mean all models are equally sound. It's more about using a model so long as it is useful, but discarding it if you find a better one.

The podcast is available on iTunes, so many podcasting apps should be able to pull it in.