A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I plan to re-read Masks of the Illuminati in 2013 and asked if there would be any interest if I hosted an online discussion of the book. Reaction was positive, so now it's time to talk about how to do this. I will offer suggestions below, and you can tell me if they are reasonable or need to be modified.
Masks seems like a good introduction to Robert Anton Wilson's fiction; the newbie can commit to just one book, rather than having to tackle a trilogy. It's also a relatively conventional book, at least compared to Illuminatus! or the Schroedinger's Cat trilogy. Some of you have suggested it's a good introduction to his work. At the same time, there's plenty of substance for serious RAW fans.
Like all of RAW's fiction, it remains readily available. You can buy a trade paperback or get a digital edition on Amazon. There's a Nook version, too. Or you can hunt up a cheap used copy (Amazon will help you do that) or check it out of the library. (Checking out books from the library is a good way to support helping your favorite writer become known. Books that are checked out are less likely to be "weeded out" from the shelves when a library buys new books.)
In any event, it seems like a good idea to give people a reasonable time to hunt up a copy of the book, particularly if someone cannot afford to buy a copy, so how about if we begin the week of Feb. 17?
Then there's the question of the pace to set, and how to host the discussion.
I don't want to rush through the book, but I don't want to drag out the discussion for months, either. Would eight weeks be reasonable, e.g. a pace of less than 40 pages a week, or is that still a bit too fast?
I think perhaps the form of the discussion could be like this: At least once a week, I will post about a section of the book. Everyone is invited to post comments. All of the "Masks" posts will be tagged, so that it's easy to look at them all together, and I also will post all of the links together in one place, as I've done with the Quantum Psychology discussion. I reserve the right to put up additional Masks posts during the week, either with my own thoughts, or using a comment that I want to "promote" from the comments into a separate blog posts. I may also consider emailing questions about aspects of the book to some of my favorite bloggers, then posting a link to their posts, if they bite.
What do you think?
10 comments:
Sounds good. If anything, I would read it more slowly, but 40 pages a weeks sounds ok.
Works for me!
A most righteous plan.
I have my copy and am ready to go!
"Masks" is actually my favorite novel along with Steve Moore's "Somnium" and John Crowley's "Little, Big." I've reread it every Christmas for the past six years or so as a treat to myself. I'd love to join in the discussion.
If anyone can remember, please email me with any thoughts that come up about pages 338-343. I have so much to say about what he's doing there, but it all seems...not cool at all. To say it. You'll see what I mean when you get there.
Hi michael,
I had to run to my parent's house to find my Dell edition to see what pages you were on. Why that passage doesn't seem "cool at all" is Einstein, Joyce, and Babcock are all going through the Nun phase of that night's trip or initiation. The sexual themes, those concerning garters and homosexuality, are common anxieties that Babcock's mind goes over all throughout the book. The garter ties into Crowley's excellent "The Star and the Garter" which is quoted at the beginning of Part Five. The theme of the garter admonishes Babcock and the reader that "enlightenment" isn't some exulted goal to be reached by completely divorcing themselves from life and the "baser" aspects thereof as religion and some forms of mysticism try to teach us. This was a big part of Crowley's teachings as well...God is in the details, in the text so to speak, or in the everyday. To quote Alan Moore, via the angel Boo Boo, in the Tiphereth issue of Promethea "Gold," the lesson that Jesus teaches us is that there's light at the very bottom. Then again a big part of Babcock's initiation is learning that sexuality isn't the base and dirty thing he believes it to be. The mockery of his homosexual urges and fear of those urges is a criticism of the attitude of the day, and a fear which regrettably continues into our age. Crowley of course had homosexual relationships and hinted a homosexual practices in some of his works and Joyce dwells on homosexuality in his novels.
The parts about Eduard Einstein and Lucia Joyce refer to Einstein and Joyce's failings a human beings. Though brilliant neither was perfect...I don't know that much about Eduard Einstein but Lucia Joyce is one of the most luminous figures in history and had a very complex relationship with her father. Carol Loed Schloss has an excellent biography out "To Dance in the Wake" that details Lucia and James' relationship. I actually named my daughter Lucia after her. She was an experimental dancer, a student of Isadora Duncan, who had a failed love affair with Samuel Beckett, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, likely as a result of early mishaps in life. Despite her mania and spending part of her life institutionalized in NAzi-occupied France and interned in Northampton's St. Andrew's Hospital she stuns with the vivacity of her very being. If you've ever heard Alan Moore's "You Are My Asylum" she is references in the second verse. Her dancing with Eduard probably references her career.
One of the biggest themes of "Masks," or at least one of the biggest themes I picked up on is that life, magic, whathaveyou isn't perfect and won't make everything better. Remember that Babcock still has to go see Jung to deal with his problems even after being exposed directly to Crowley. It's a cycle and for better or worse on of the stages of that cycle concerns, death, horror, sorrow, etc.
That part actually has some of the funniest lines in the book as well. I especially like the one about Joyce sniffing girl's bicycle seats. Moore does a fantastic job reading the excerpt about Osiris and Dracula rising from the grave. As a side note I believe the "Tarot towery" is a reference to Yeat's choice of residence which he believed would bring him the lightening bolt of inspiration as in the XVI atu.
I just had time to skim the section so I can go and find it in the older edition I have at home if this isn't satisfactory or helpful.
Also we have to note that in the next couple of pages the beauty really comes out with some of the best passages in the book,
"Glory to thee from gilded tomb..." on page 344
and
"The Cup of Our Lady,..." on the next page. By purging themselves on these sexual hangups, their earthly anxieties, their future failings, if even only for that moment in time...those guys sitting in that room staring into eternity, they have come to the holiness of it all.
Damn it. This is what comes of typing before thinking...I took the "not cool at all" out of context and ended up doing the thing that wasn't "cool at all." I'm sorry that I jumped the gun and posted here. Also I caught a few typos and incomplete thoughts. I guess I just got excited.
Hopefully most of us has read it and this isn't too big of a spoiler.
Sounds good! 40 pages a week should be enough. I don't know how busy I'll be on the 17th, but I'd love to take part in this.
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