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Thursday, November 18, 2010

A moment of RAW synchronicity

Wednesday, the day that part two of my David Hartwell interview ran, I was listening to podcasts as I drove home from work. One of them was a Cato Daily Podcast interview with William Patterson, author of an important new biography of SF great Robert Heinlein.

Now, in my mind, the Patterson book is connected with Robert Anton Wilson. The editor of the book was David Hartwell, and if Hartwell didn't actually co-write the book, he at least did some very heavy editing. I was only able to get to finally interview Hartwell because we both were present at this year's World Fantasy Convention, and I only got to attend the convention because my old friend, Brett Cox, offered to let me stay in his room. To pay Brett back, I wanted to buy him a book in the huckster room. Brett is a huge Heinlein fan (and a real scholar of Heinlein's work.) I wanted to get Brett something I knew he would enjoy, so I bought him the Patterson biography and got Hartwell to sign it.

So as I say, the Patterson book is connected to RAW in my mind, but I'm rational enough to understand that's not a connection anyone else would make. So I was really freaked out when the interviewer in the podcast, Caleb Brown, suddenly brought up Robert Anton Wilson and Wilson's ILLUMINATUS! trilogy in the middle of the interview.

The podcast would likely interest any SF fan. It can be listened to or downloaded here.


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