My notes will refer to the page number in the Dell edition.
Dedication: "To Graham, Jyoti and Karuna." Graham might be the name of Wilson's son, but the other surviving children when the book was published were Christina and Alexandra. (Patricia, known as Luna, had died, as described in Cosmic Trigger.) Can anyone help me out? UPDATE: In the comments, Rarebit explains that Karuna and Jyoti are Christina and Alexandra.
Note: The Great God Pan is by Arthur Machen. The King in Yellow is by Robert W. Chambers. The two titles may be downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg (and other sources, such as Amazon).
"no wife no horse no mustache" page 4. Phrase that recurs in many of RAW's works. As Joe Malik explains in Schroedinger's Cat, he ran across an article of the same title in Reader's Digest and then refused to read it, reasoning that no real article could be as interesting as the mysterious and evocative title. As I documented, there apparently really was such an article.
"Sir John Babcock" page 5: A descendant, one assumes, of the Babcocks featured in the "Historical Illuminatus" books.
"what manner of man is he" page 5. There are images of Aleister Crowley wearing a turban. Crowley wrote Clouds Without Water, the "accursed" book that bothers Babcock.
"he was wearing a turban and seemed some loathesomely obese Demon-Sultan" page 5. Image of Aleister Crowley.
"the Russian," page 7. Lenin.
The Black Brotherhood, perhaps not the usage intended, but the name of a group that opposed the persecution of the Cathars. About the Cathars, see Robert Shea's novel, All Things Are Lights.
"Stately, plump Albert Einstein", page 12. This passage echoes the beginning of James Joyce's Ulysses.
"Nur der wahnsinnige ist sich absolut sicher" page 20. Only the madman is absolutely sure.
"The figure that staggered into the shadow-dark Rathskeller ... " page 21. Echoes H.P. Lovecraft as Wilson earlier echoed James Joyce. Notice for example the use of the word "eldritch."
"The boy's mother was Lady Catherine (Greystoke) Babcock" and subsequent sentences, Page 27. This sounds like a nod to Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton family, which ties various characters in fiction (such as the Greystokes, e.g. Tarzan's family) into one family. Farmer and Wilson were fans of each other's work.
Suggest supplemental reading: "Joyce's Influence on Masks of the Illuminati," essay in Eric Wagner's An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson.
30 comments:
Hi, I've wondered this before and googled it a while ago. As you'll probably remember like I did; Karuna and Jyoti are Wilson's first and second oldest daughters; he refers to them in Cosmic Trigger as such around the time when Luna levitates.
I've always felt the events in Inverness were partially inspired by John Keel's "The Mothman Prophecies." Like the Verey's harrowing experience the events in Point Pleasant, WV (not too far down the river from where I am) concerned mysterious lights, Men in Black, and an "awful" flying creature. It seemed that the world had been turned upside down or that we had all fallen through the looking glass according to Keel which surely would have pleased Wilson. Also Keel is one of the closest writers on the UFO phenomena to Jacques Vallee who Wilson talks very highly about in "Cosmic Trigger."
The reference to Crowley as a "demon-sultan," the dancers and the pipers around him, and the Old Ones are all mimicking Lovecraft. Specifically Azathoth who is often referred to, at least in "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" as the demon sultan and surrounded by tuneless pipers.
"Not the Almighty" and "I nearly reached India" are both foreshadowing events in the book. I believe "Not the Almighty" is a book written by Hagbard Celine in "Illuminatus!"
Wilson likes using the "Ithaca" template from "Ulysses" in his writings. I know Joyce said that was his favorite chapter, I wonder which one was Wilson's. (Mine's "Circe" or "Scylla and Charybdis.")
I wonder how much it would have made the old man laugh to hear about the Pope resigning. I think another thing that worth noting is that Wilson betrays his disdain for Communist (or at least Bolshevik) and Darwinian philosophy here. Both are narrow, materialistic, and have no time for the "silly" metaphysical and psychological nuances that "Masks" is concerned with.
I apologize for leaving a string of comments but that is a reflection of how my mind just reviews, reflects, and remembers points.
For me, one of the most intriguing and important parts of the opening section of "Masks" is where Wilson states that both Joyce and Einstein escaped the "normal constrictions of ego" by thinking very hard on what it was like to be a woman and a photon respectively. There's a quote in the last chapter of "Ulysses" where Molly Bloom mentions that Leopold 'knew what it was like to be a woman' which, along with the whole chapter which is one of the best depictions of a human mind in writing, is where I assumed Wilson found the main evidence for that statement.
One thing I noticed again is that the original title was probably The Devil's Masquerade, which I like. Presumably changed for commercial reasons.
I actually remembered "No Wife No Horse No Mustache" from Reader's Digest before encountering it in Wilson. Must be a more powerful mantra than I had guessed.
Supergee, Can you give me a citation on the original title? I like it better, too, but I'm sure there was commercial pressure to put a reference "Illuminatus!" in the title.
That's a guess. There's the poem where each quatrain ends with the phrase, and it's an obvious theme in the discussion on the train.
Rarebit Fiend,
Please post all of the comments you like. That's the idea.
Haven't read Wagner's Joyce essay in "Insider's Guide to RAW" yet but noticed plenty of Ulysses echoes in this opening bit.
The "stately, plump" as well as the Q&A from Ithaca, the stream of consciousness in Joyce's mind, the catalogue of items, headline from Aeolus, etc and this was a wonderful line (pg 21) for such a historical fiction novel: "I will always remember you for giving me the concept of quantum language. It may be the key to this impossible novel I'm trying to get started..."
Really enjoyed the time-space passage locating Bahnhofstrasse on p. 17 too.
Note states that both the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and OTO were (and are) quite real. The former had disbanded; presumably RAW includes various successor groups?
The Great God Pan, The King in Yellow, and Clouds Without Water are all real books and the quotations from them are accurate. But RAW quotes the fictional play The King in Yellow. Perhaps that is the "hidden joke"?
Quote from Regardie's Golden Dawn wasn't written by Regardie.
The first appearance of the nickname Nessie in the OED comes from 1945, and Loch Ness monster from 1933. So there are some anachronisms here. But with Crowley's association with Loch Ness, who could resist?
I know that Crowley considered the A.'.A.'. to be a continuation of the G.D. and that the outer order was actually called the Golden Dawn. Of course that was only the name of the outer order in the original order as well.
I've only read a couple of Chambers' stories in Lovecraft anthologies but is the fictional "King in Yellow" quoted within the actual book? Perhaps that's where the quote is derived from.
I wondered about the hidden joke too? Didn't get it but at least Wilson let us know right up front that there are hidden treasures waiting to get discovered.
Crowley used the pseudonym Rev. C Verey when he published Clouds without Water. He also made up The Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth.
The number 68 appears on the first page. It also turns up on the first page of Illuminatus! Maybe just a coincidence?
Hearing the word "overnight" in the train wheels (p.9) foreshadows one of the themes in Masks - passage through the dark night of the soul you could call it. The suicides at the very beginning allude to this theme as does the book title Clouds without Water.
I've never had the chance to read Bulwer-Lytton. Sounds like it might be interesting.
George Cecil Jones (p.34) initiated Crowley into the Golden Dawn. Later he and Crowley created the A A.
One of the interesting things about Bulwer-Lytton in "Masks" is that Wilson doesn't mention "Zanoni" or "A Strange Story" which are his two most occult novels and are mentioned by Crowley in his recommended reading for the A.'.A.'.. I've read both "The Coming Race" and "Zanoni" which are entertaining at least and Gary Lachman makes a convincing argument that Bulwer-Lytton wrote the occult textbook of the nineteenth century when he penned "Zanoni." It's odd that Wilson specifically mentions "Last Days in Pompeii" and "Rienzi" which were both popular in their time and are all but forgotten today.
Reader's Digest just went bankrupt again. No wife, no horse, no mustache, no money.
Thanks for the recommendations Rarebit, I had no idea. I suggest that RAW intentionally substituted Bulwer-Lytton's pop commercial books for his occult books to "bury the dog deeper" or to make another mask. There seems to be multiple levels of buried secrets. For instance, you have the very obscure reference to the Crowley's intended 6 month Abramelin ritual with the chapter title and following headlines (p.3): constant suicides = much meditation and prayers, ie many self-administrated ego-deaths. New Horrors at Loch Ness = the demon Crowley's magick at his Boleskine House on the shores of Loch Ness which he bought to do the Abramelin practice. The third headline indicates the effectiveness of the practice - Journal = journey by this reckoning.
Then you have the Bulwer-Lytton misdirection which you pointed out for a lesser buried secret. Finally, there's the completely explicit unburied secret, as for example the top of p.32 (Dell) that starts: "might one dare to believe..."
P.4 the Devil's Acres - Boleskine House, Crowley's home on the shore of Loch Ness, rumored to be haunted. Was purchased by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.
P.13 "Laird of Boleskine who's here to climb mountains." One of Crowley's many titles for himself. He was a pioneering mountaineer who made many ascents in the Alps, although largely unrecognized by the stuffy Alpine Club of London.
P. 20 Lorelei - murmuring rock, the narrowest point in the Rhine river. A mythical siren sits atop the rock, long blonde hair flowing, and unknowingly draws men to their doom.
P. 20 "Eat and ye shall be as gods." Recalls Crowley's Liber XV, the Gnostic Mass: "There is no part of me that is not of the gods."
P. 20 From deep 'neath the crypt at St. Giles
Came a shriek that re-echoed for miles
The vicar said, "Gracious!
"It's Brother Ignatius!
"He's forgotten the bishop has piles!"
P. 26 penny-farthing bicycle on the lawn of Babcock manor. In The Prisoner TV series, the penny-farthing is a symbol of control and conspiracy, wheels within wheels, big cogs and little cogs.
P.27 Dr. Babcock died in 1904, the year Crowley received The Book of the Law, announcing the New Aeon.
P. 27 "green thoughts in a green shade" from The Garden by Andrew Marvell
Meanwhile the Mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness:
The Mind, that Ocean where each kind
Does streight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other Worlds, and other Seas;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green Thought in a green Shade.
I asked Bob if he wrote Masks with five sections because of Joyce's Portrait. He said no, he did it because of the Law of Fives. For this read through I've decided to listen to Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, which has five parts. Bob never mentioned this work, so far as I know, but I have section one on now for Part One.
I recommend this recording: http://www.amazon.com/Horenstein-Beethoven-Solemnis-Schubert-Symphony/dp/B004PABBY0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361313527&sr=8-1&keywords=missa+horenstein
Merry Widow Waltz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY0h9GUTUnY
In 1988 Bob asked me why Einstein had a green sweater on page 12. For years I tried to figure out some Kabbalistic reason for this. I asked Bob the reason twelve or so years later and he told he didn't make the sweater green for any special reason. He'd just pulled my leg.
He did a similar thing in Coincidance, saying the book had a secret structure. He told it me years late it did not. This might explain the hidden joke in the note at the beginning of this novel.
pg. 16 Song "Die Lorelei" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra5W8gkzU0A
For me, "overnight overnight overnight" for the sound of the train echoes "Who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars, racketing through snow toward lonesome farms and grandfather night" -Allen Ginsberg
Stephen Colbert mentioned "Allen Ginsberg on peyote" on his show last week.
pg. 27. Wilson makes John Babcock Tarzan's cousin. In Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Phil Farmer makes Leopold Bloom related to Tarzan.
Not only did Dr. Babcock die in 1904, the year of the birth of the Book of the Law, he died June 16th, 1904 - Bloomsday.
From what Eric writes, it appears RAW practiced guerilla ontology outside of literature as well.
RAWs fiction often turns up elegant Cabalistic exegesis. I suspect he put sombunall of it there intentionally.
Mask = 121 = 11 squared. 11 reads as the general number of magick or energy tending to change in 777. Apt correspondence for a book that explicates magick.
THE CASE OF THE CONSTANT SUICIDES reminds me of a Sherlock Holmes detective story. Constant Suicides gives us the C - S combination that turns up elsewhere in RAWS oeuvre. I sum CS as 68 because I break from tradition and correspond C with Cheth. Traditionally, C corresponds with Kaph which gives a sum of 80 for CS. 80 links to the Tower tarot which used to be known as the House of God. Crowley gives "the opening of the eye of Horus" as one meaning for this card. I also associate it with the breaking down of the emotional armor that Reich talks about. I wrote a blog about the significance of 68. Both interpretations seem applicable.
The word "constant" shows another cs combo at the beginning of each syllable which suggests "wheels within wheels" which someone mentioned earlier.
Typo alert:
Mask = 121 = 11 squared. 11 reads as the general number of magick or energy tending to change, in 777.
Left out the comma after change which would change the meaning of the sentence. 777, of course, refers to Crowley's Qabalistic dictionary
RAW names P.J. Farmer by name as genealogist of the family later in the novel.
"a mystery more terrible than anything in the tales of Poe or Conan Doyle"
"a crew of insectoid servitors that only a Dore or a Goya could depict"
Examples of a common device in weird fiction. More will come--
Post a Comment