New Robert Anton Wilson collection

Bobby Campbell's latest Substack newsletter highlights a website I hadn't heard about until a couple of days ago: A collection of Robert Anton Wilson audio and video and transcripts. 

The Uutter collection of RAW material appears to have quite a bit of material. Bobby writes, "The bulk of it seems to consist of the usual RAW classics available all over, but with some genuinely surprising gems sprinkled in the mix :)))

"How about an audio recording of Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea in conversation, for example!"

At some point, it might make sense for RAWilsonFans.org to update by adding links to the Uutter site and to the Robert Anton Wilson Fans Germania site. 

 

Moby Dick reading group, Chapters 69-74

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 2 Portrait of Thomas Carlyle by James Albert McNeill Whistler

This week: Chapters 69-74, “The Funeral” through “The Sperm Whale’s Head.”

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger 

Chapter 69 

The final sentence, “There are other ghosts than the Cock-Lane one, and far deeper men than Doctor Johnson who believe in them,” makes me think of William Blake’s line, 

“May God us keep 

From Single vision & Newtons sleep” 

Wikipedia says, “The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762.” 

Chapter 71 

I don’t know what to make of “A long-skirted, cabalistically-cut coat of a faded walnut ting,” worn by the man who calls himself the angel Gabriel. It makes me think of Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus (“The Retailored Tailor”) which shows up repeatedly in Finnegans Wake. The Wake itself features a sailor who becomes a tailor, an s-t transformation suggesting Einstein’s space-time transformation. It also makes me think of Oscar Wilde’s essay “The Truth of Masks” which on the surface talks about costumes in Shakespeare, but Bob Wilson saw it as an essay about the masks oppressed people wear: gay people in Wilde’s London, colonized people, etc., and about the masks we all wear metaphorically. Living through the Covid-19 pandemic, I also think of literal masks. This brings us back to Melville’s “All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks.” (I read that line in a beatnik voice, man.) I find it an interesting coincidence that this chapter deals with an epidemic. 

Gabriel’s refusing “to work except when he pleased” makes me think of Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener.” 

Chapter 73 

"So when on one side you hoist in Locke’s head, you go over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant’s and you come back again; but in very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! Throw all these thunder-heads overboard, then you will float light and right."

This rejection of Enlightenment thinkers Locke and Kant seems to go along with the rejection of Dr. Johnson a few chapters earlier. I find it interesting that the TV series Lost included characters based on Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, David Hume, and Rousseau, as well as Richard Alpert and Mikhail Bakunin. The series also had an acknowledged Robert Anton Wilson influence. 

Chapter 74 

“Why then do you try to ‘enlarge your mind? Subtilize it.” I find it interesting that the second quoted sentence does not end with an exclamation point. 

Next week: Please read Chapters 75-81, “The Right Whale’s Head” through “The Pequod Meets the Virgin.”

 

 

New 'Tales of Illuminatus' Kickstarter coming this spring

Bobby Campbell completes taking a rare few days off for the holidays but has issued a new Substack newsletter, announcing a spring Kickstarter for the second Tales of Illuminatus comic book:

"The pre-campaign page for Tales of Illuminatus! #2 “The Invisible Crown” is now live over at kickstarter :)))

"JOIN UP HERE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bobbycampbell/tales-of-illuminatus-2-the-invisible-crown

"We’re still a ways away from officially launching, but I wanted to at least get the ball rolling, and today seemed like an especially appropriate day…"

Other news at the link, but that's all about Tales. I will keep everyone posted! 

Fake think tank created apparently using AI

Washington, D.C., is filled with think tanks that try to influence U.S. policy. I have sometimes at this blog cited the Cato Institute, which has views on the war on drugs that coincide with those of Robert Anton Wilson and many of his fans. 

The above photo is from the Beltway Grid Policy Centre, a think tank focusing on Asian issues, and apparently shows the think tank's staffers. But according to an article on Drop Site, the think tank is a complete fake, staffed by "people" who can't otherwise be found and apparently created with the use of an AI.

"Beltway Grid's lack of a physical footprint in Washington — or anywhere else on the earthly plane of existence — stems from more than just a generous work-from-home policy. The organization does not appear to require its employees to exist at all.

"That celestial quality begins at the top at Beltway Grid, which does not list an executive director, president, CEO, or any other leader, but does include 12 staff on its 'about us' page. None of those employees have any trace of experience—not just professional, but of even living in the world—before arriving at Beltway Grid."

More here.  Via Jesse Walker on X.com.

An AI project influenced by 'Prometheus Rising'

I don't know very much about AI, and I cannot evaluate MindBound Labs, a company founded in India by Kehur Ahuja. He is using an approach called "Recursive Insight Synthesis" to "to accelerate the evolution of ASI  [Artificial Super Intelligence]." This is described in his Substack. 

See this passage in a recent Substack newsletter for why I am bringing this to your attention:

"I am deeply grateful to Robert Anton Wilson for inspiring me to develop this approach. In his seminal book Prometheus Rising, specifically in Chapter 14 titled “THE METAPROGRAMMING CIRCUIT,” Wilson explores the concept of "meta-programming awareness." He writes:

“Korzybski even claimed that the use of mathematical scripts is an aid to developing this circuit, for as soon as you think of your mind as mind1, and the mind which contemplates that mind as mind2 and the mind which contemplates mind2 contemplating mind1 as mind3, you are well on your way to meta-programming awareness.”

"This idea struck me deeply. The recursive layers of self-reflection that Wilson describes—the contemplation of mind1, mind2, and mind3—resonated with me as a profound way of thinking about both the mind and the process of knowledge generation itself. It became clear that this recursive structure could be applied not only to the mind but also to the development of ASI."

More here. 

Hat tip: Rasa, who received an email from Mr. Ahuja.

New Mycelium Parish News

The new Mycelium Parish News has been released, documenting Discordian doings, mostly in Great Britain. I plan to order my copy soon. 

Ben Graham, in his latest newsletter:

"Then just after Christmas I received my copy of the 2024 Mycelium Parish News, put together by James Burt and Dan Sumption at Peakrill Press and documenting the activities of our extended creative circles, plus related interesting things, over the previous 12 months. in some ways, the MPN makes me think of the regular Whole Earth Catalog that provided a valuable link to physical, spiritual and artistic resources for the hippy counterculture of late 60s/early 70s America and beyond.

"The MPN includes capsule reviews and links for books, zines, newsletters like this one, blogs, websites, podcasts, films and music. There are also pieces on recurring events in the physical world, and a look back at some key countercultural happenings of the past year. If this risks triggering FOMO, there are short articles by guest contributors suggesting ways to get involved with such things in 2025, or start your own. So the Parish News is equally a valuable historical document, a list of exciting things to catch up with, and a spur to future activity. Long may it continue!"

Robert Shea reference in RAW novel

Robert Shea in 1977 (via Wikipedia). 

I have been participating in the online discussion group for The Sex Magicians over at the Jechidah blog, and I thought I would mention something there that I noted in a blog comment over there. The sex novel, made available last year by Hilaritas Press, has a reference to Robert Shea.

One of the characters in The Sex Magicians, in Chapter Seven, is named "Josh Dill." He's an editor at Playboy magazine. 

Shea of course was a Playboy editor, working on the Playboy Forum (as was RAW). And "Josh the Dill" was Shea's Discordian name. See the Adam Gorightly blog post, "The Early Discordians Revealed!" 

An observation on James Joyce's 'Ulysses' [UPDATED]

 

Aaron Gwyn (X.com photo)

I recently discovered writer and professor Aaron Gwyn on X.com, he has lots of opinions on books we've talked about here. Here he is on Joyce's Ulysses: "James Joyce’s ULYSSES isn’t an 'acquired taste.' It’s a novel that introduced a new way of tasting, seeing, smelling, and hearing to the World. That sensory revolution has affected almost every piece of media since 1922: it’s even affected mediators who are clueless to this fact."

Here is Gwyn's list of his ten favorite novelists:

1. William Faulkner (He says start with As I Lay Dying.)

2. Cormac McCarthy 

3. James Joyce

4. Vladimir Nabokov

5. Denis Johnson

6. Marilynne Robinson

7. Herman Melville

8. John Williams

9. Thomas Bernhard

10. Philip Roth

His ten favorite novels (link):

1. BLOOD MERIDIAN, McCarthy

2. ABSALOM, ABSALOM!, Faulkner

3. MOBY-DICK, Melville

4. ULYSSES, Joyce

5. LOLITA, Nabokov

6. THE SON, Philipp Meyer

7. MOLLOY, Beckett

8. GILEAD, Marilynne Robinson

9. TREE OF SMOKE, Denis Johnson

10. STONER, John Williams

Finnegans Wake thread. 

UPDATE: Advice for first time readers of Finnegans Wake. 

Moby Dick online reading group, Chapters 60-68

Whale meat for sale in Norway. (Creative Commons photo, source.) 

This week:  Chapters 60-68, “The Line” through “The Blanket”

We are now about halfway through Moby Dick. So we are making progress in quite a long novel.

Chapter 60 "The Line"

Some of the "nonfiction discussions of whaling" chapters don't do much for me, but I thought this was a wonderful chapter, full of vivid details and great descriptions of the dangers of whaling. So many great sentences, such as:

"Thus the whale-line folds the whole boat in its complicated coils, twisting and writhing around it in almost every direction. All the oarsmen are involved in its perilous contortions; so that to the timid eye of the landsman, they seem as Indian jugglers, with the deadliest snakes sportively festooning their limbs."

And:

"But why say more? All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side."

The next few chapters are certainly bloody affairs. The vegetarian readers among us must feel validated by the chapter in which Stubbs munches his whale steak, a dinner lit by whale oil. 

I am not a vegetarian but I don't believe I have ever eaten whale meat, and I'm not sure I would feel comfortable munching on it. According to the Wikipedia article on whale meat, eating whale generally seems to be on the decline, e.g., "In Norway, whale meat was a cheap and common food until the 1980s. It could be used in many ways but was often cooked in a pot with lid in a little water so that broth was created and then served with potatoes and vegetables, often with flatbrød at the side," and "In modern times, whale meat is rarely eaten in Japan. A 2005 poll commissioned by Greenpeace and conducted by the Nippon Research Centre found that 95% of Japanese people very rarely or never eat whale meat."

A Wikipedia article on whaling in Norway says, "Recently, the Norwegian whaling industry has met increasing difficulties because of falling demand and weak recruitment. Norwegian anti-whaling groups seem to prefer to hold a low profile and watch over the slow death of the industry, instead of raising their voice and polarizing the debate." It also says, "According to opinion polls by Opinion in 2009 and 2010, about 80% of Norwegians have eaten whale meat. About 32% ate it once or twice a year. 7% (2009) or "under 5%" (2010) of Norwegians eat whale meat often (more than once a month)." And also, "The number of active Norwegian whaling boats has dropped from 350 in 1949 to around 20 in 2016 and 11 in 2017." But hundreds of (minke) whales are still  caught every year. 

In the comments for Oz' entry last week, Oz in the comments quotes a Cary Loren essay on Charles Olson and Ezra Pound: "Olson’s great themes can be found in the ultra-individualist, anarchist and transcendentalist style of Melville."

It seems interesting that in the last paragraph of "The Blanket," Melville goes from discussing whale blubber and explaining the blubber's property of providing insulation to provide a lecture on the value of individualism: "It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter’s, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own."

Next week: Please read Chapters 69-74, “The Funeral” through “The Sperm Whale’s Head.”

Official news link list updated

One of the useful features of this website (or so I perceive) is the "Official News" link list at the right side of the page, where I put recent publication announcements from Hilaritas Press. Unfortunately, I got behind and missed the last three books. I have now put up links to the most recent announcements (for Mavericks of the Mind, Timothy Leary's Terra II and The Sex Magicians), so it is all caught up. I am re-reading The Sex Magicians now (for the online reading group at Jechidah) and hope to read Terra II soon.) I do want to get to Mavericks. 

Of course, when Hilaritas makes an announcement, I blog about it, but I hope to keep the link list caught up, too. Rasa never announces a book's publication until it is actually ready to be released, but I am expecting more news this year. 

Saturday links

Udaipur in India. 

 Discordian Camden Benares in a 1980s news program. At Historia Discordia, somehow I missed this earlier, thanks to Jesse Walker for pointing it out. 

Matthew Yglesias: "The fact that Biden got 100 times more scrutiny for ending a failed war than any of his predecessors got for continuing it will never cease to infuriate me."

Nebraska has legalized medical marijuana. 

Did Romeo really love Juliet? 

Good news from 2024. 

How to visit India. 

Public domain book news

I mentioned in a recent post that more classic novels, ones published in 1929, would be coming into the public domain. 

Standard Ebooks, which puts out carefully edited free ebooks of classic books, has just announced it is immediately putting out editions of 20 books which have entered the public domain this year.

See the link for the full list, but it includes The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis and Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. 

The 1920s were an exciting time in American literature and the decision by Congress to allow books to start going into the public domain again have made many books available free. More books by Ernest Hemingway will be coming into the public domain, but in the meantime, Standard Ebooks has The Sun Also Rises and a short fiction collection as well as the new book.  The Sinclair Lewis offerings now included Dodsworth, Babbitt, Elmer Gantry, Arrowsmith and Main Street. 

What I read last month

Only three books this time, low for me, but I did also read large chunks of Moby Dick and The Sex Magicians for the two online reading groups. In fact, I need to read more Moby Dick today!

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, Arthur Clarke. Another reason I read fewer books this time was that the Clarke book is very long, 966 pages in paperback, and I was determined to finish it by the end of the year. It apparently has every piece of short fiction he ever wrote. A large number of the stories hold up, and I really enjoyed the book. The only section that disappointed me was the section of the final stories. "A Meeting With Medusa" and "The Wind From the Sun" are really good, but at the end of his career, Clarke also wrote many rather slight short-shorts that essentially traded on his name.

The Last Murder at the End of the World, Stuart Turton. A mystery novel but also a science fiction novel, about the last remaining survivors of a world apocalypse. Pretty good, something to read if you want something different. A nominee for the Prometheus Award, so that's why I read it. 

The Fourfold Remedy: Epicurus and the Art of Happiness, John Sellars. A short outline of Epicurean philosophy, recommended by Emily Austin, a philosophy professor who writes about Epicureanism. Austin is the author of Living for Pleasure, probably the best modern introduction to Epicureanism. 

Books read, 2024

As in past years, I am posting what I read during the year. I read about the same number of books every year; 59 this year, versus 49 last year, 54 in 2002. 

A couple of the books this year are re-reads, i.e. Cosmic Trigger 2, the third book of Lord of the Rings.  I also re-read the first tour Matthew Scudder novels by Lawrence Block, I'll likely continue that project this year.

My favorite fiction this year was Mania by Lionel Shriver, Playground by Richard Powers and Arthur C. Clarke's collected stories. Good nonfiction books included Gangster Hunters and Chapel Perilous. The Peter Swanson books are recommended if you like murder mysteries, but first read the previous book in the series, The Kind Worth Killing. 

1. Theft of Fire, Devon Eriksen.
2. Queen Wallis, C.J. Carey.
3. Lion of Light: Robert Anton Wilson on Aleister Crowley, Robert Anton Wilson.
4. House of Gold, C.T. Rwizi.
5. Tending the Epicurean Garden, Hiram Crespo.
6. The Kind Worth Saving, Peter Swanson.
7. Julia, Sandra Newman.
8. Black Hats, Steve Wire.
9. Prophet Song, Paul Lynch.
10. Ohio Jazz: A History of Jazz in the Buckeye State, David Meyers.
11. Lord of a Shattered Land, Howard Andrew Jones.
12. The Long and Winding Phone, Helen Marketti.
13. Liminal by Cameron, Cameron (Joseph Matheny).
14. Sviatoslav Richter: Pianist, Karl Aage Rasmussen.
15. 1941: The Year Germany Lost the War, Andrew Nagorski.
16. The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder, Lawrence Block.
17. Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe, Judith Herrin.
18. Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science, Benjamin Breen.
19. The Sins of the Fathers, Lawrence Block.
20. Reality is What You Can Get Away With, Robert Anton Wilson.
21. Mania, Lionel Shriver.
22. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler.
23. Swim Among the People, Karl K. Gallagher.
24. Time to Murder and Create, Lawrence Block.
25. The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien.
26. In the Midst of Death, Lawrence Block.
27. Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults and Cover-ups, Robert Anton Wilson.
28. A Stab in the Dark, Lawrence Block.
29. The  Magician, W.  Somerset Maugham.
30. Hello Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio, Anthony Rudel.
31. Epicureanism, Tim O'Keefe.
32. A Midwestern Heart, Poems, John Kropf.
33. The Vineyard of Liberty, 1787–1863, James MacGregor Burns.
34. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present, Christopher I. Beckwith.
35. On the Nature of Things, Lucretius. (Ian Johnston, translator). 
36. The Travels of Marco Polo. Translated, with an introduction, by Ronald Latham.
37. In the Belly of the Whale, Michael Flynn. 
38. A Dead Marshal, a Manless Wedding and a Forgotten Baseball Team: Three Episodes in the History of Miami and Ottawa County, Oklahoma, R.H. Coiner Jr.
39. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante.
40. The Sex Magicians, Robert Anton Wilson. 
41. One of the Good Guys, Araminta Hall.
42. Self-Help Is Like a Vaccine: Essays on Living Better, Bryan Caplan.
43. The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned, John Strausbaugh.
44. Selected Poems, James Tate. 
45. Cosmic Trigger 2: Down to Earth, Robert Anton Wilson.
46. Playground, Richard Powers.
47. A Few Days in Athens; being the Translation of a Greek Manuscript Discovered in Herculaneum, Frances Wright.
48. The Demon Breed, James H. Schmitz.
49. Polostan, Neal Stephenson.
50. Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson, Gabriel Kennedy.
51. Singularity Sky, Charles Stross.
52. The Norman Conquest, Marc Morris.
53. Gangster Hunters: How Hoover's G-men Vanquished America's Deadliest Public Enemies, John Oller.
54. A Talent for Murder, Peter Swanson.
55. Machine Vendetta, Alastair Reynolds.
56. Earth to Moon: A Memoir, Moon Unit Zappa.
57. The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, Arthur C. Clarke.
58. The Last Murder at the End of the World, Stuart Turton.
59. The Fourfold Remedy: Epicurus and the Art of Happiness, John Sellars.