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Monday, February 11, 2013

The PKD and RAW canon

I was on the road Sunday but still managed to spend some time using Twitter for its best and highest use -- discussing Robert Anton Wilson. The exchange of Tweets started with Ted Hand, reliably one of the better reasons to be on Twitter. The exchange went like this (I have tinkered with the chronology by putting Ted's Philip K. Dick Tweet first, although it actually followed his RAW tweet:

Ted Hand: PKD must-reads: Ubik, Eldritch, Valis trilogy, RFA, Castle, Androids, Scanner, Time Out of Joint, Crap Artist, Martian Time-Slip, Maze, Flow

Ted Hand: RAW must reads: all 3 trilogies (Illuminatus!, Schr. Cat+Historical) Cosmic Trigger, Prometheus Rising, Crowley+Cabala articles, Coincidance.

Me:  I'd have to add Masks, Illuminati Papers, CT2 & Email to Universe.

Ted Hand: Masks and Papers are pretty essential, glaring omissions, yeah. I left the latter two CT's off, what's in #2 that you dig?

Me:  I like the multiple plot lines, the Buddhism, the renunciation of suicide, straightforward prose. Really different from other books.

Gary Acord: While I think it best to read all 3 CT's, if I had to pick just one, I agree with Tom, CT II really hit me the most.

Comment: While I enjoyed Cosmic Trigger 3 (particularly the Robert Shea tribute) it didn't strike me as quite as essential as the other two.

I also liked this exchange Sunday:

M1K3Y: Turns out it takes a whole lotta effort and energy to free yourself of the civilizational myth you're birthed in. Who knew?

Ted Hand: Robert Anton Wilson used the metaphor of a gravity well to explain this difficulty. I think it apt.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I don't think Wilson AND LEARY's use of the term gravity well was metaphor; I think it was another way to think aout where you are. We are litterally, not figuratively, @ the bottom of a gravity well. Leary and Wilson seam to have thought this a fact worth considering existentially/ontologically. Correct me if I'm wrong!