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Monday, August 30, 2010

ILLUMINATUS! literary reference watch

I have been reading the online serialization of L. Neil Smith's novel, CERES. The novel is the sequel to the same author's PALLAS, which won the Prometheus Award back in 1994. A few paragraphs into Chapter Seven, I came across this sentence:

As the ionopter approached the little town of Curley’sGulch — white houses, picket fences, and a tall church steeple (Our Lady of Discord, as it happened, Reformed) — nestled in the lower folds of the rim range, Jasmeen nudged Llyra awake and the two of them strained to see everything at once.

The reference to the church of "Our Lady of Discord, Reformed" is almost certainly a reference to the Discordians in ILLUMINATUS!, the Greek goddess Eris, and the Roman equivalent of Eris, Discordia.

As I've noted, other references to Robert Anton Wilson's work have cropped up in Smith's work.