Hilaritas releases 'Maybe Magick'

 

Hilaritas Press has released Maybe Magick, the new anthology of Robert Anton Wilson's writings on Magick. 

Here is the official blurb:

What if magick is neither supernatural nonsense nor solemn occult theater, but a practical way of tinkering with the machinery of perception? Robert Anton Wilson spent a lifetime investigating the confounding territories where magick, science, psychology, language, and belief overlap. Maybe Magick gathers essays, introductions and interviews charting three decades of exploration, tracing the evolution of a mind learning not to mistake certainty for evidence. The result is funny, provocative, skeptical, and occasionally liable to upend your favorite assumptions. Wilson does not ask you to believe in magick. He asks a more interesting question: what happens when you try it? 

The editors for the book were Mike Gathers, Oz Fritz, Dave Skelton and  Tom Clisson. Oz, Dave and Alan Chapman all wrote pieces for the book. Cover and design by Rasa. (I corrected an earlier version of the blog post in response to a comment.)

Having worked with Hilaritas for my Robert Shea book, I know how much work and care goes into producing a Hilaritas Press title, and I have heard enough from the editors to know a great deal of labor went into this new book. 

More information here, includlng endorsements and links to purchase the book. 

UPDATE: One more quick book note: All ebooks at OR Books are on sale for $2 until midnight today, including Operation Mindfuck by Robert Guffey and American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda by Ru Marshall.  You can read the Ru Marshall interview published here. 

Steve 'Fly' Pratt music links

Steve "Fly" Pratt has released two music recordings that tie in to the ongoing Tales of Illuminatus comic book adaptation by Bobby Campbell: The First Trip and, this year, K9 Rapture by DJ Flai, which was made available as part of the Tales of Illuminatus 3 packages. So if you supported Bobby's project, you may have heard the music. I bought K9 Rapture as part of my package. I'm going to listen to it today as I run my errands. 

Steve made lots of music available at other places. Much of it can be streamed at SoundCloud.  See also his Deep Scratch website and his music at Bandcamp. He also has a Patreon site. 

I also  own the Robert Anton Wilson Meets Steve Agaric Pratt album, here are the track notes for the album. 

New book with World War II revisionism

 

The historian and writer Thaddeus Russell has a new book out, Savior and Seducer: A Renegade History of the United States in the World, and as Robert Anton Wilson was interested in World War II revisionism, I thought the book might be of interest to sombunall of you. 

"The Case Against the 'Good War' Still Stands," the latest issue of Russell's Substack newsletter, written as a rebuttal to a bad review, outlines Russell's arguments about World War II.

"In the book’s World War II chapters ... I argue that American policy under Franklin Roosevelt transformed two regional wars, one in eastern Europe and the other in eastern Asia, into a global conflict that killed more than sixty-five million people. I also argue that American intervention ensured the fulfillment of the Holocaust," Russell writes.

"...much of the book’s discussion of World War II is devoted to Hitler’s ideology, which always included commitment to conquering all of Poland and western Russia for Lebensraum ('living space'). He claimed these territories as part of a 'Greater Germany' once inhabited by Teutonic peoples whom he regarded as ancestors of modern Germans. This was racial imperialism, to be sure. But as I also show, it was an imperialism that ended in eastern Europe.

"Hitler had for decades written and spoken extensively about his lack of interest in colonies outside Greater Germany, hoped for an alliance with Britain and the United States, and, according to virtually every historian of the Third Reich, invaded the West in the spring of 1940 only as a defensive measure to secure Germany’s western flank before advancing eastward."

Russell also contends, "American moves toward war through 1941 eliminated the Jews’ usefulness to Hitler as hostages against intervention while immigration restrictions blocked their escape. Whether the extermination decision came in the spring or fall of that year, I interpret this reversal of the emigration policy as a response to America’s de facto entry into the war. This is the basis for my argument that the six million would have lived had the United States stayed out of the war."

I don't know what to make of all this. I've put the book on hold at my local library. 

Hilaritas looking at publishing 50th anniversary hardcover edition of 'Cosmic Trigger'

 

The Hilaritas Press edition of the first book of the Cosmic Trigger trilogy. 

Cosmic Trigger; The Final Secret of the Illuminati, first published in 1977 and published in a new edition by Hilaritas Press in 2016, is one of Robert Anton Wilson's most popular and influential books. It's the first in three Cosmic Trigger books that RAW published. (The second one, Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth, also available as a Hilaritas edition, is a personal favorite of mine.) 

With the 50-year anniversary of the publication of Cosmic Trigger I looming, Mike Gathers has  suggested that something should be done to mark that anniversary. Rasa was pleased by the suggestion and has decided that a new hardback edition, with some sort of extra features, would be a good idea. Ideas for what to have in the new edition are now being discussed. 

Halloween reading update

I've finished the two books I planned to read for Halloween. A few comments:

Twice As Dead by Harry Turtledove is an urban fantasy, set in Los Angeles in the years following World War II. The protagonist is a mixed-race detective. There are vampires, ghosts and other supernatural beings. The detective has a talking cat who periodically kills rats that are sent by the detective's enemies to snoop on him. I thought it was one of Turtledove's better books.

The Return by Walter de la Mare has a protagonist who falls asleep at a graveyard. When he wakes up and returns home, he and others discover his face has changed to resemble the person who was buried where the hero took his nap. There is not much else that actually happens in the book and the reader is left wondering if the protagonist is experiencing everything he describes or suffers from mental illness. At first I was a little disappointed by the book, but then I started noticing how atmospheric and poetic many passages were.  I started marking them. 

"After all, what is every man?" he talked on; "a horde of ghosts -- like a Chinese nest of boxes -- oaks that were acorns that were oaks. Death lies behind us, not in front -- in our ancestors, back and back, until -- "

Another passage:

The still grave face beneath the shadow of its veil had never turned, though the moon poured all her flood of brilliance upon the dark profile. And once when as if in sudden alarm he had lifted his head and looked at her, a sudden doubt had assailed him so instantly that he had half put out his hand to touch her, and had as quickly withdrawn it, lest her beauty and stillness should be, even as the moment’s fancy had suggested, only a far-gone memory returned in dream.

One of the characters is named Herbert Herbert, so I wondered if Vladimir Nabokov referenced the novel when he named the main character in Lolita Humbert Humbert. But whereas Humbert Humbert liked very young girls, Herbert Herbert surrounds himself with very old books. 

De la Mare also wrote ghost stories and I plan to hunt them up. 

Christina Pearson update

 

RAW daughter Christina Pearson, who runs the RAW Trust,  is still facing open heart surgery, now scheduled for Oct. 27 at last report. I wanted to note that the Gofundme to help her has exceeded its goal, as people have rallied around her, but the site is still taking donations, if you can afford to help. 

Preorder the new RAW book

Over the last few years, I have bought many books from Hilaritas Press, the publishing imprint for  the Robert Anton Wilson Trust. Many of these books have been editions of RAW's works, but many also have been works by other writers. What I've almost always done is buy the book as soon as it was released.

This time, I am doing something different. I have preordered Maybe Magick, the latest compilation of RAW's writings, due for release Oct. 31.

I don't suppose that my one order will make much difference, and several preorders by other fans likely won't make much difference, ether, but preordering books  helps  them become a success. As ChatGPT explains, "the biggest reason is that preorders can influence how publishers, bookstores, and the media judge a book's prospects for success. A preorder is more than a promise to buy a book: it can help build momentum before the book even reaches store shelves." Follow the link for a longer explanation.

Here is the Amazon page to preorder. Here is the Bookshop page.  You can also preorder from Barnes and Noble. 

Of course, I will still cover the full announcement when the book is released. 

'What the world needs most is a little more tenderness'

 

The above is probably from Rasa. Posted on Bluesky by Klaster Chaosmos, who posts a lot of Discordian/RAW-related material. 

Hilaritas podcast: Prop Anon on 'Quantum Psychology'

 

"Guest host Zach West chats with Gabriel “PropAnon” Kennedy, author of Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson which he’s now recording as an audiobook. Zach and Gabriel spend most of the episode unpacking Quantum Psychology as Wilson’s attempt to change how we talk, perceive, and argue."

Related links here. 

The new Damien Echols book

Damien Echols has a new book out. As he was one of the writers invited to contribute to the Hilaritas Press edition of Sex, Drugs & Magick, I thought there might be some interest among RAW fans. 

The book is The Alchemy of the Broken Blade: Forging Inner Transformation from the Fire of Experience and it features a forward by Mitch Horowitz. Here is some of the book blurb:

"The Alchemy of the Broken Blade is a field manual for those walking through the fire. It is for anyone who’s been shattered―by trauma; by grief; by the long, slow erosion of purpose in a world that worships distraction; that demands everything and gives little back. The Alchemy of the Broken Blade weaves a path for personal transformation through ritual, discipline, and relentless presence.

"Bestselling author Damien Echols delivers a practical tool kit for personal transformation and healing, not based on theory but on lived experience. He shares a spiritual practice born from extremes: From a wrongful conviction that led to death row, solitary confinement, spiritual breakdown, and resurrection, Echols spent years clawing his way out of despair and into a life he could stand inside again. And through that process, Echols discovered a path―not clean or easy but sacred."

The author's bio begins, "Damien Echols is an American author who first became known as one of three teenagers, the West Memphis Three, wrongly convicted of a triple murder in 1994. DNA evidence secured his release from death row in 2011, after which Echols authored several autobiographical and spiritual/magickal books."

Shakespeare news update

A possible portrait of Christopher Marlowe. (Source). 

Fascinating article from the Guardian: 

"Dramatic new evidence concludes that the play Edward III should be added to William Shakespeare’s canon, and also that it was a major collaboration with his contemporary rival Christopher Marlowe.

"The history was published anonymously in 1596, and it has long been thought that Shakespeare wrote at least a few scenes. However, Dr Rory Loughnane, a leading scholar and co-author of the research, told the Guardian that computerised textual analysis pushed the case 'beyond any reasonable doubt' that the Stratford-born playwright was the principal writer."

Here is a sentence from the article I particularly enjoyed: "The researchers used various forms of computerised linguistic analysis in comparing Edward III with securely attributed works by 10 dramatists active between the late 1580s and the mid-1590s. In one test, 23 segments – 'the lion’s share' – were identified as being written by Shakespeare, while nine segments were classified as Marlowe, whose works include Doctor Faustus."

Shakespeare of course was born on April 23. 

David Lee's assumption, and mine [UPDATED]

The Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Creative Commons photo, source. 

The David Lee essay I referenced yesterday had a sentence that jumped out to me: "Well, judging by nearly everyone (but not all) the people I've ever met on the Discordian scene, I'd assumed anyone handling RAW's legacy would be fairly politically Left, and on board with proper climate science."

The assumption that everyone who is a RAW fan is a leftist seems uninformed. But when I make that remark, I am really pointing a finger at myself.

I got interested in RAW when I was in college. I was in a small group of Libertarians at the University of Oklahoma. We were all big fans of the Illuminatus! trilogy, which came out in the 1970s, when I was in college.

I assumed at the time -- and thought for many years -- that most, or at least very many, RAW fans are libertarians. Launching this blog about 16 years ago taught me this was not true. In Britain particularly (David Lee is British) RAW fans tend to be Labour Party types. There are a few British libertarians, but apparently only a few. In the U.S., there are in fact plenty of RAW fans among libertarians. But it's not clear to me that they outnumber people into magick or Bernie Sanders fans. 

It took me awhile to realize that Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea attracted a wide range of weirdos, rather than just the sort of weirdos I hung out with in college. Do other RAW fans make that same mistake? 

UPDATE: In the comments, Brian Dean says he "strongly doubts" that British RAW fans tend to be Labour Party types, and I acknowledge that if he and other British fans insist upon this, they would know better than I would. 

Monday links

 Michael Johnson on secret compartments in books. 

Dave Lee on Robert Anton Wilson and the yoga of hope, an essay he says was rejected for the upcoming RAW book on magick.  

Libbie Grant on  "The 13 Best Weird Literary Novels."

Edrith on 31 science fiction books to read, novels and collections. 

"Nonetheless, we have to hold our noses and vote for Democratic candidates, at least at the Federal level. The country is safest when the same party doesn’t control the White House and both houses of Congress."

My contribution on the My9albums meme. also see above. Also, Jesse Walker's version. 

Another reading group, 'The Classical Style,' has been indexed

 

For years, we have had online reading groups at this blog, with posts that discuss a book a section at a time  and comments by other readers. In each case, I have put together links for each book, so that if you want to read it later, you can read the blog posts  and the comments. All of those links may be accessed by scrolling down the right side of this page.

I spent some  time today creating a page with links for all of the posts by Eric Wagner about The Classical Style by Charles Rosen, so now that's available, too. 

Here are other online reading  groups, indexed by links: Illuminatus!, Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, Natural Law by RAW (the Hilaritas version), Prometheus Rising by RAW, Nature's God by RAW, The Widow's Son by RAW, The Earth Will Shake by RAW, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, The Beethoven Quartets by Joseph Kerman, Email to the Universe by RAW, Cosmic Trigger by RAW, Coincidance by RAW, Masks of the Illuminati by RAW and Quantum Psychology by RAW. Read or re-read one of these books and see what the rest of us had to say about it! Again, look at the right side of the page and scroll down to find the book. 

I probably need to figure out a way to make it easy to find all of these reading groups. Maybe I will put up a list. 

The next online discussion group will be for the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy. That will start in January, using the one-volume edition; more details soon. 

Oz Fritz on Hermetic material in Schrödinger's Cat.

Diagram from the new Oz Fritz blog post

In January, we will start an online discussion group on Schrödinger's Cat. Oz Fritz isn't waiting for the discussion of this seminal RAW work to begin; he has a new blog post up, "Robert Anton Wilson, The Rosy Cross and The Night of Pan," which discusses RAW's use of Cabala in the work. Oz remarks,

"This may seem fanciful to those who don't know Wilson or wish to deny his Cabala. The book Maybe Magick, scheduled for release at the end of this month (October, 2026) has a couple of articles (at least) that illustrate the complexity of his Cabalistic reckoning. Another example can be found in the introduction I wrote for Lion of Light."

And in the same post, Oz calls the trilogy a "Manual of Shamanism."

I'll have details up soon about the planned reading group. 

'Tales of Illuminatus' Kickstarter fulfillment completed [UPDATED]

 

Bobby Campbell has announced that the trade paperback of the first three issues of the Tales of Illuminatus trade paperback of the first three issues  (pictured) and the paper edition of Skeleton Key #1 (Michael Johnson's zine of commentary) have been mailed to people who had them included in their Kickstarter packages.  I'm pretty sure that completes fulfillment for all of the people who supported the project with their pledges for the third issue. UPDATE: See Spookah's comment. 

The Beatles available for everyone

The Beatles in August 1966, the month Revolver was released (with disc jockey Jim Stagg). Public domain photo, source. 

I've had trouble finding anybody else  yet who thinks this is a big deal, but I think it's a big deal! If you live in the U.S. and you have a library card for a public library, you can likely listen to any Beatles album or song you like, for free, without advertising.

The reason for this is that most public libraries in the U.S. offer Hoopla Digital, a product accessed via a smartphone app or website that offers streaming movies, TV shows and music albums, along with digital books and comic books. While Hoopla offers many (but not all) classic rock artists, including the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Led Zeppelin and The Who, it did not have The Beatles (although it had solo albums by former Beatles.)

A few days ago, however, Hoopla suddenly announced it had the rights for the Beatles. I immediately checked out Let It Be (Super Deluxe) (57 tracks), Revolver (Super Deluxe) (63 tracks) and Rubber Soul (Super Deluxe) (68 tracks). I didn't listen to any albums, super deluxe or otherwise, I just reveled in being able to listen to songs such as "Drive My Car," "Norwegian Wood," "Rain" and "Nowhere Man" over and over again. 

A couple of posts on this blog of possible interest: "Yellow Submarine bleg,"  (see the comments), "I think I know where the yellow submarine in 'Illuminatus' comes from" and "Why 'Revolver' is the best Beatles album for RAW fans." 

A Joseph Matheny manifesto

In his latest newsletter, Joseph Matheny provides a look at what he's attempting with his latest work in progress, Art is War. 

"ART IS WAR, and I have never been more convinced of that than now. If you are an artist, this is your call to arms (your art is your praxis).

"Be a ronin instead of joining and supporting the feudal castles, i.e., the corporate raiders taking over the world of art, such as Disney, A24, and a plethora of other similar parasites.

"Seek out and support independent artists and/or make your own.

"Form art groups and, instead of falling for the old divide-and-conquer tactics corporate feudalists use to keep us separate and weaker, support each other. Bind together."

More here, including book notes, links and information about a new book, anonymously written, on "The joy of being nobody." 

Update from Ben Graham

British Discordian writer Ben Graham, who recently announced the completion of the novel Savage Jubilee and a new edition of the previous novel in the series, Electric Tibet, has an update in his latest newsletter:

"Thanks to everyone who’s pre-ordered copies of my two interconnected novels, Electric Tibet and Savage Jubilee. Although they won’t be officially published until January 14, 2027, I’ll be sending out the first batch of pre-orders in the next few days. All pre-ordered copies are signed and hand numbered, and you can get them exclusively at bleedingcheekpress.bigcartel.com - if you’re buying both books, don’t forget to use the code UNDERGROUND23 at checkout to get a £5 discount."

At the link, there's an excerpt of the first few pages of Savage Jubilee. 

New Jesse Walker podcast

A recent photo of Jesse Walker posted on Facebook. Wait, we found somebody who still uses a typewriter? 

This sounds pretty good. From Jesse Walker:

"I went on a podcast hosted by a couple of ex-CIA guys. It was about 30 minutes of them asking me questions about one of my books, then about 20 minutes of me asking them questions about life in the CIA."

The book of course is Jesse's The United States of Paranoia. The podcast is called Mission Implausible, here's the link to Jesse's episode. 

Bonus link: Judy Woodruff interviews Jesse on how conspiracy theories shaped America. 

'War on some drugs' update: Murder at sea

Jacob Sullum, senior editor at Reason magazine

Jacob Sullum, routinely excellent when writing about what Robert Anton Wilson called the "war on some drugs," has a new piece up at the Reason magazine website, "How Murdering Suspected Drug Smugglers Became the New Normal."

Sullum discusses the Trump administrations policy of "remotely killing 227 people in cold blood without any semblance of due process" (as of late August this year) and then goes into detail about just how immortal and illegal the program is. As you might expect, the same people who bombed an Iranian girls school insist they are never wrong when they order a boat strike. 

My Halloween reading this year

 

I enjoy Halloween, and each October I try to do Halloween-related reading. 

Last year, I did well. I read a sprawling old Gothic novel, Melmoth the Wanderer, by Charles Robert Maturin. Very atmospheric. 

This year, I am about halfway through Twice As Dead by Harry Turtledove, a fantasy about a detective in Los Angeles, a few years after World War II. It has vampires, ghosts, etc. Not really scary, but Halloweenish and fun. 

Before the month ends, I hope to get to the Standard Ebooks edition of The Return by Walter de la Mare.  

As Brett Cox mentioned in a recent blog post, A Night in Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny also is a possible Halloween read. "There are people who reread it every October, a chapter a day for 31 days," he noted. 

Michael Johnson's 'Illuminatus!' skeleton key

The skeleton key zine, left, with the trade paperback of the first three issues of Tales of Illuminatus! Bobby Campbell illustration. 

Folks who purchased certain packages of items in the Kickstarter campaign got a nice bonus: Illuminatus Skeleton Key #1, by R. Michael Johnson. it's a pretty hefty publication, 44 pages along, and it explains both the ongoing adaptation by Bobby Campbell and also many of the allusions the original trilogy. Michael says he has read Iluminatus! about 20 times and he is the ideal person to tackle such a project.

I haven't received my paper copy in the mail but I have downloaded my PDF version and I have been reading it. I assume at some point it will be available as a standalone, but I haven't spotted it yet at, for example, the Weirdoverse gift shop on Etsy. 

Here is a bit in Michael's essay about how immersive the original trilogy was:

Consider: when you sit with a text - comix, films, novels, whatever - when you’re engaged with the text...you’re gone, man. For the time being you’re “in” another world - the “world” of the novel, comic, or film...and what is “reality,” then, anyway? Sure, your engagement with other worlds doesn’t negate your primary reality - you know, the one where you gotta get out of bed and brush your teeth? That one? It’s as real as it gets, no? But notice how “real” certain texts seem to you when you engage with them in all those times which are spent in non-primary “reality.” Are these Other Worlds a threat to my primary “reality”? This is something we are all faced with, all the time, though we might not annotate it this way. Or so I submit to you as something true: when we leave our primary reality for the realities contained in books and other media: our minds meld with these alternate realities. 

Certainly for many people (such as me), reading Illuminatus! was a life-changing experience. I know a guy back in Tulsa who has a very fancy edition of Lord of the Rings, and he told me he re-reads it every year. At this point, my friend must really have Frodo,  Gandalf, et al. in his head! 

Lots  more Michael discussion of Wilson and Shea at the Overweening Generalist Substack. 

Eric Wagner's P.G. Wodehouse recommendations

The Standard Ebooks cover of Leave It to PSmith. 

Eric Wagner noticed on Goodreads that I had read a P.G. Wodehouse novel and commented on it. As I knew Eric has read a lot of Wodehouse, I immediately took advantage by asking for his recommendations. Here is what he sent me:

"I thought about what Wodehouse novels to recommend earlier today. Code of the Woosters and Leave It to Psmith seem to top the list. Since you've read the former, I would recommend the latter. I love Leave It to Psmith. Oz Fritz also enjoyed that novel. I've taught that novel a bunch. I also love Psmith in the City and Luck of the Bodkins. Wodehouse considered Mike his finest book because he felt he had captured the feel of a cricket match in it. I loved that book (published in the USA as two volumes: Mike at Wrykyn and Mike and Psmith). Many Americans don't like that novel as much as I do, however. I also love the Jeeves, Mulliner, and golf short stories. 

"I also love the whole Blandings series."

Oz Fritz adds, "Yes, I also highly recommend Leave It to Psmith. I found it brilliant and very funny."

I got interested in Wodehouse when Gregory Arnott sent me a copy of Code of the Woosters. 

Many Wodehouse books have entered the public domain, including quite a few of the titles Eric recommends. See for example these listings at Standard Ebooks. 

Christina Pearson needs help [UPDATED]

Christina Pearson (with friend)

UPDATE: The surgery had to be postponed to Oct. 27 . Details here. 

Robert Anton Wilson's daughter, Christina Pearson, who runs the Robert Anton Wilson Trust, was scheduled to have open heart surgery today and has asked for help with expenses with a Gofundme appeal.

Here is her posting on Facebook:

"Dearest friends and family of heart! 

"I am heading into open-heart surgery day after tomorrow, and am asking for your emotional, mental, spiritual & financial support as I go through this. I’ve been quiet lately, for which I apologize as I know at least some of you like to get updated ♥️. About my going’s on… 

"It’s a long story which I hope to share soon, but right now I am working to reduce financial stress so my recovery goes as well as possible as I do still need income from working but will not be able to work much for at least the next two months! 

"So if you can assist without it being a burden, it would mean the world to me and I will deeply appreciate it! 

"All my love, in All ways!"

Christina Pearson

Another writer I like to promote: Roger Zelazny [UPDATED]

 

Lord of Light, the best-regarded novel by American science fiction writer Roger Zelazny, has recently been nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. This was good personal news for me, as it gave me all the excuse I needed to read it again. I finished it late Sunday night. I read my autographed paperback copy, signed by the author after the science fiction club I belonged to brought him to the University of Oklahoma. 

Zelazny has long been a favorite of mine. When I lived for years in Oklahoma, it felt like many of my favorite writers were from Cleveland -- Zelazny, Harlan Ellison, George Alec Effinger -- although by the time I finally moved here, all of them were gone (Zelazny was dead, the other two had long moved away). 

My Zelazny top five:

...And Call Me Conrad/This Immortal
Lord of Light
Isle of the Dead
The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny
The Dream Master

Ken Gammage's top five:

Lord of Light
Isle of the Dead
Nine Princes in Amber
The Guns of Avalon
Jack of Shadows

Ken: "Before I tell you my Top 5, let me clarify I am not ranking them by some illusory objective quality. These are just my favorites, easy for me to choose based on number of re-readings." Also: "Arriving at a Top 10 would be trickier but would probably include Doorways in the Sand."

Ken is a San Diego fan and writer who has been a friend for decades. 

Roger Zelazny by F. Brett Cox is a good critical study. (Brett is a writer and scholar and an old friend. Official website. which has a podcast on the Zelazny book that I'd missed.)

(When I was a teen, Brett and Ken had a bicoastal fanzine.) 

UPDATE: I sent a link of this blog post to Brett, and he chipped in with his top five list, with a few comments: 

"Lord of Light
The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth and other stories
Nine Princes in Amber
A Night in the Lonesome October
"He Who Shapes," "Home Is the Hangman," "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai"

"Lord of Light is, well, Lord of Light. The Doors of His Face collects almost all the early stories that helped make his reputation, including "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," which, in retrospect, may have had more of a long-term impact on me than any other sf story. When I first read it, Nine Princes in Amber didn't affect me as much as Zelazny's other stories, but revisiting it when working on my book, I found it a strikingly effective novel. 

"A Night in the Lonesome October may seem an odd choice, but at least it's not colored with any nostalgia--I confess I had never read it until I starting writing about Zelazny. It's a delightful novel in its own right, and it's pretty much the only one of Zelazny's works outside the Amber series that has its own subfandom--there are people who reread it every October, a chapter a day for 31 days. And it means a lot because it was Zelazny's final standalone novel and showed he could still try something new and make it his own.

"The last book on the list doesn't exist, of course. But I wish it did. I really think a book that collected those three excellent novellas--one each from the 60s, 70s, and 80s--would be a perfect Zelazny retrospective and also a great introduction to Zelazny's work for anyone not previously familiar with it."

Brett was sitting next to me at the 1986 Worldcon when "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai" won a Hugo. We were both very pleased. 

Literary links:

Michael Johnson on the odd wanderings of books. 

The 2026 souvenir book, a free PDF download for everyone, for the 2026 Worldcon in LA. 

Adam Gorightly discusses his new book

 

Author and historian of Discordianism Adam Gorightly, frequently featured at this blog over the years, has a new book out, Agent of Disruption: The Many Lives of Fred Crisman.

Adam's blurb for the book: "An international man of mystery with alleged intelligence agency connections, Fred Lee Crisman left behind a Walter Mitty-like legacy populated by flying saucers, assassination conspiracies, and alleged encounters with those nasty little inner-earth dwellers known as the Deros.

"Strap in yourself in for this long strange trip down memory lane to Maury Island, Dealey Plaza, and all points in between as we explore the many lives of Fred Lee Crisman, a true agent of disruption."

Available at various online locations, such as Amazon, Walmart and Bookshop.org. Here is a biography of the "true renaissance man of the lunatic fringe" (his description, not mine!) and you can also find out about his other books. 

I asked Adam to take a few questions about his new book, and he obliged:

RAWILLUMINATION: What made you decide to write a whole book about Fred Crisman? Did you realize there was so much craziness it would take a whole book to tell the story?

ADAM GORIGHTLY: The inspiration to write a book on Crisman was what similarly motivated me to write my Kerry Thornley bio, The Prankster and the Conspiracy. I first became aware of Thornley in the early ‘90s from a chapter in Jonathon Vankin’s Conspiracies, Coverups, and Crimes, and became fascinated with Thornley’s story that he had known Oswald in the Marines, and was actually writing a novel based on Oswald prior to JFK’s assassination – not to mention the many conspiracies Thornley become associated with over the years, as well as having been a founding member of the Discordian Society. Jon Vankin, at the time, mentioned he was considering writing a bio of Thornley, and I eagerly awaited that prospect, but Vankin never got around to it. So, as time wore on, anytime I came across any new Thornley material I would file it away (this was long before I was gifted the Discordian Archives), and I also corresponded with Thornley. So, when it became evident that  Vankin wasn’t going to write a Thornley bio, I decided to take on the task, as by that point, in the late ‘90s, I’d came across enough source material that I felt I had enough to at least start the project and see where it led. 

This was similar to the case with my Crisman bio. I was first introduced to the legend of Fred Crisman by way of Kenn Thomas’s Maury Island UFO: The Crisman Conspiracy, published in the late 90’s  and became intrigued by Crisman’s story and the many legends surrounding him in conspiratorial lore, so I started filing away anything new I found on Crisman just out of general curiosity, initially – until it got to the point where it seemed I had enough material to embark on a book project. I felt that although Thomas’s book had a lot of great material in it, that he had still only scratched the surface in telling the story of one of conspiracy culture’s favorite mystery men. Like with the Thornley bio, I eventually found myself at a place where I had enough background material to at least start the book… you never know exactly where these projects will lead – but in the case of both books I think I was able to bring something new to the table.

RAWILLUMINATION: Have your interests shifted somewhat from Discordianism to UFO stuff?

ADAM GORIGHTLY:  I hadn’t really considered that – shifting from Discordianism to UFOs – but I can see how it might appear that way when looking at the chronology of my books. However, writing on these two subject areas – Discordianism and UFOs – has really been going on simultaneously the last decade and a half, it just took longer for the UFO related books to come to fruition, as I was developing both of those titles (A is for Adamski: The Golden Age of the UFO Contactees with Greg Bishop, and Saucers, Spooks and Kooks) at the same time (in the early 2010s) that I was working on Historia Discordia (and writings for the HD website) and Caught in the Crossfire: Kerry Thornley, Lee Oswald and the Garrison Investigation, which I guess you could qualify at least partially as a Discordian related book . The “Discordian books” took precedent at the time, basically because of contractual agreements. 

But I don’t look at it that way – as clumping the books I have written over the last decade and a half as fitting into those two narrow categories – Discordianism or UFOs. What it boils down to, at least to my way of thinking, is that the majority of my books chronicle the exploits of counterculture or subcultural figures,  as around these figures certain mythologies has been built, such as a Kerry Thornley or a Fred Crisman, who some believe were super spies who orchestrated the Kennedy assassination dance party. In a sense, I am in some cases demystifying certain aspects of their stories, and at the same time uncovering further mysteries that will perhaps never be fully unraveled and explained. It’s always a journey…and you let the destination determine itself. 

My latest book on Crisman  isn’t really a UFO book, per se, although I cover the Maury Island incident in great depth. The book is my attempt to unravel the many tall tales surrounding Crisman and the mystique that has grown around him over the years as a sort of Forrest Gump of Conspiracy, much in the same manner that Thornley as well has become a larger than life character in conspiracy culture.

Adam Gorightly

RAWILLUMINATION: The cover of the new book reminds me of Peter Max. I saw it about the time I read that Peter Max had died. Were you a Peter Max fan?

ADAM GORIGHTLY: Yes, Peter Max is exactly what I had in mind for the cover, I think partly because some of the more intriguing or colorful aspects of Crisman’s story happened during the swingin’ 1960s and ‘70s. The book cover was illustrated my friend Chris Graybill, the director of the Saucers, Spooks and Kooks film.

RAWILLUMINATION: I notice that, at least for now, your new book is only available as a paperback. Will there be an inexpensive ebook at some point, to satisfy cheapskates like me?

ADAM GORIGHTLY: Yes, there will be a kindle available soon. Probably in a month or so.

RAWILLUMINATION: What is going to be your next project?

ADAM GORIGHTLY: Hard to say what my next project will be, but I have plans for a James Shelby Downard bio at some point…assuming I get around to it. But it’s really the same process I described above - when I finally get to point of having enough material to write another book, whatever that may be, then I will take that plunge. So, there’s nothing specific I’m working on at the moment, though I have piles of files waiting to be exploited.

Now with no advertising

 

Piccadilly Circus in London. Photo by Tânia Mousinho from Unsplash. 

I don't know how many of you have noticed, but RAWIllumination is no longer showing advertising.

Some months ago, I decided that the ads on this blog were too intrusive, so I changed the layout to keep advertising but to make sure the ads didn't really get in the way of reading the blog. At some point, through no action of mine, the ads got disconnected completely and disappeared from the site.

Google now has a notice in the settings, "There is an issue with the AdSense details you originally used to connect this blog. You can reset the connection by using the button below to remove AdSense, then return to this screen and follow instructions on how to reconnect."

I wasn't getting much money from ads, anyway, so I lean toward just keeping them off. I'd be interested in any feedback. 

What we read last month

As usual, you are invited to share in the comments what you read last month.

What Mark K. Brown read:

The Politics of Ecstasy by Timothy Leary  9/7   
The Origins and History of Consciousness by Erich Neumann  9/13   
Little, Big by John Crowley  9/15   
City of a Thousand Suns by Samuel R. Delany  9/18   
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell   9/21   
Between Planets by Robert A. Heinlein  9/24   
The Classical Style: Hayden Mozart Beethoven by Charles Rosen  9/29  
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz  9/30  

I asked Mark what he thought about the Crowley (I have been meaning to read John Crowley) and he wrote, "Excellent! I highly recommend it.

"It's funny. I had remembered it was really good, but not how good. It should appeal to many readers of your site."

I didn't do as well as Mark, but I did read five books:

Transmentation | Transgression: Or, a Spark on the Eve of the Five Hundred Year Burn (The Formation Saga Book 2), Darkly Lem.
A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from History's Most Orthodox Empire, Anthony Kaldellis
Trogs: A Second American Revolution (The Dust Mites Saga: A Second American Revolution), James Alton Bacon.
Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change, Jeffrey Foote and others.
Crossing: A Transgender Memoir, Deidre Nansen McCloskey, 

Seems like I read a lot of science fiction and a lot of books about the Roman Empire. 

Kickstarter for "Saucers, Spooks and Kooks" Blu-ray

 Saucers, Spooks and Kooks was a recent book about UFO disinformation by Adam Gorightly. It's been made into a movie. Now there is a Kickstarter to produce Blu-ray and VHS tape versions. 

"We are taking Saucers, Spooks and Kooks out of the digital matrix and pressing it into the definitive physical formats it deserves: a premium, boutique-quality Blu-ray and an ultra-limited, analog VHS tape. 

"This is an artifact of high-strangeness that you'll want to hold in your own two hands, this Kickstarter is the only way it gets manufactured."

More information at the link.

Kyle MacLachlan on David Lynch

Kyle MacLachlan at the Cannes film festival. (Creative Commons photo by Georges Biard, source). 

While I've never found any evidence that Robert Anton Wilson was a Twin Peaks fan (Robert Shea was), many RAW fans (such as me) loved Twin Peaks, so I thought I would share a couple of interesting articles.

The New York Times ran a nice profile of MacLachlan in which he talks about Lynch.  When I read it, I found an older article I had missed, "How David Lynch Invented Me," penned by MacLachlan. Excerpt: 

"He was drawn to mystery because he understood mystery as a conversation — a collision of differences, interpretations, perspectives. Not a message sent down from an all-knowing source.

"A mystery leaves room for other people to get in there. It is two-way communication."