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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

When Bob met Ayn

Robert Anton Wilson recounts in Cosmic Trigger 2 that he went through an Objectivist phase, and once actually met Ayn Rand. The episode is recounted here. I blogged about the episode here. 

Daisy Eric Campbell asked on Twitter is there was any other documentation about the encounter. I ran a couple of quick searches, couldn't find anything, and then checked a couple of reliable databases -- Michael Johnson and Eric Wagner.

After wishing me a happy 11/12/13, Eric passed this on:

I remember hearing Bob talking about “being summoned into the presence” (meeting Ayn Rand) in a talk in Dallas in 1987. He said he started to write some equations on a chalkboard to prove a point and she said (Bob did a Russian accent), “I do not approve of modern mathematics.” Bob said this led him to his theory that Princess Anastasia had come to America, changed her name to Ayn Rand, and created a new religion to combat communism. He said her degree of imperiousness must have come from her royal background. (Yes, of course I think he intended this in jest.)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Great, Tom. And well done posting on 11/12/13 at exactly 1.23!