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Friday, August 19, 2011

What are the core classics?

The Library of America has gotten more interesting in later years, featuring work by H.P. Lovecraft (I read that anthology for Halloween, a couple of years ago), Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., although so far they've skipped Robert Heinlein, which I would think would be an obvious choice.

Anyway, I like to fantasize that someday there will be Library of America editions of Robert Anton Wilson, and even that those folks will call me for suggestions on what to include. (No doubt that will happen any day now.)9

So,what to choose? It seems to me some of the best stuff would be ILLUMINATUS!,the Schroedinger's Cat trilogy, the first two Historical Illuminatus books and the three Cosmic Trigger books. I do like several of the anthologies, but I guess my thinking is they wouldn't release enough volumes to include everything. What would be your picks?

9 comments:

Eric Wagner said...

I think I would want to include some shorter works: The Illuminati Papers, Natural Law, and Reality Is What You Can Get Away With. I would definitely want to include Prometheus Rising as well. Lastly I would want to include a novel, so Masks of the Illuminati seems like the best choice as a stand alone work as opposed to part of a trilogy. Would that make the book too big?

Eric Wagner said...

Oh yeah, I'd also want to include the "Brain Books" essay from Trajectories and "How to Make It as a Writer" from Starship or Algol from around 1977.

Oz Fritz said...

I wanted going to say "Masks of the Illuminatti" also. Something from "Coincidance" would be nice too - one of the Joyce pieces or one of his cut-up experiments.

If RAW's Introductions to other books can go in, I suggest the one from "The Eye in the Triangle" by Regardie, and the one from "Visions in the Stone" by Gold.

BrentQ said...

Royal Academy: Are those essays online?

Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson) said...

SatoriGuy: "Making It As a Writer" is at http://www.rawilsonfans.com/articles/writer.htm

(Link is at March 7 entry on my blog)

Anonymous said...

I am about half way through Masks of the Illuminati and am just enjoying the hell out of it. I've read about half of Raw's work and Masks is defiantly one of my favorites along side the obvious classics.

Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson) said...

Probably "Masks of the Illuminati" should be included. I plan to re-read it soon.

Eric Wagner said...

You can find the great "Brain Books" essay here thanks to Mike Gathers: http://www.rawilsonfans.com/articles/brainbooks.htm .

Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson) said...

Or you can buy "An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson" by Eric Wagner, where the "Brain Books" essay is reprinted.