John Higgs on the contents of his subscriber-only book

John Higgs previously announced that he will publish a book of short pieces for everyone who had a paid subscription to his Substack newsletter, and in a new issue of the free version, he announced the contents:

"I’ve spent most of this month putting together the first Midsummer Annual, my forthcoming collection of new, rare and random pieces of writing. Everyone who has a paid subscription to my New Moon Letters will receive a copy of this in the post."

"I’m pleased with the variety of articles I’ve put together. It starts with a new essay on the English radical tradition and then goes on to cover Agatha Christie’s disappearance, Banksy’s Dismaland, Lynch’s The Straight Story, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Secret of Monkey Island, the Cosmic Trigger play and much more. It ends with my play H.G. Wells & the Spiders From Mars."

Also: " I like the fact that this will not exist online, and that the likes of Amazon will never know of its existence. The cover image and this mailing list platform aside, the only people involved in this are me, my wife who copy-edited, a local Sussex printer and the post office. There will be no digital versions - so no ebooks or audiobooks. It won’t be available in online or offline shops. It’ll just drop through your letterbox at midsummer, and that’s that."

John says, "And for those without a paid subscription - if you do decide to upgrade your subscription, there’s still time for me to add an extra copy to the printer’s order!"

More here. 

D. Scott Apel on his Alec Smart mystery series

A large chunk of the fiction D. Scott Apel has written consists of his series about California private eye Alec Smart. The five books (so far) of the series are The Uncertainty Principle?; The Infinite Mistress; Detective, Comics; Jobs of Work and Hollywood, Ending. (Scott has a habit of using commas in his book titles, so I've resorted to using semicolons in that title list to try to make each title clear). 

The Uncertainty Principle? is the first book of the series and I have listed the other titles in order. I asked Scott if he believes it is necessary to read the books in order. He replied, "The Alec Smart books can be read in any order, although there is a through-line of his relationship with his girlfriend that culminates in their marriage at the end of Detective, Comics. There's a difference between the order in which I wrote and published the books and the year in which they take place, but the books can be read in any order."

The Uncertainty Principle? is notable because it includes fictional depictions of Robert Anton Wilson, Arlen Riley Wilson and Philip K. Dick. Here is my interview with Scott about the book. 

Here is Scott's description of his guidelines for the series:

"Early on, when I began brainstorming these novels, I determined to attempt to follow a trio of requirements for any entry:

"First, each needed an odd plot. I got so sick of murders, serial killers, kidnappers, extortionists, heists, and so on -- the standard fodder in most modern mysteries -- that I wanted to come up with ideas that were as original as I possibly could. In The Uncertainty Principle?, for example, the plot revolves around a science fiction writer who hires Alec to find out why everything he writes comes true. In The Infinite Mistress, a ditzy North Beach dancer who's been being hypnotically regressed into "past lives" brings Smart the few facts she's recalled and asks him to determine whether her experiences are real or just fantasies. In Detective, Comics, Smart's client is a 13-year-old genius-level comic book magnate who hires him to retrieve a stolen Batman comic. And so on.

"Second, whenever possible, I wanted to base the characters on people I know. I'll admit this began as a necessity: In 1979, I had no idea how to create an original, realistic fictional character, but I realized I knew several people who qualified as unique characters and who I knew well enough that, with a bit of fictional enhancement, could serve as characters in a novel. You can see this easily in The Uncertainty Principle? in which Bob and Arlen Wilson, PKD, and Robert Heinlein become fictionalized -- not to mention "Casey Bragg," based on my old college friend Kevin Briggs, and "Sean Fox," my co-founder of our college humor magazine. Alec's lovely red-headed girlfriend Laurel was based on The One Who Got Away; if I couldn't land her in real life, I could at least create an alternate universe in which my alter ego could have a relationship with her. In The Infinite Mistress, Alec's client is based on Carol Doda, the first topless dancer in North Beach in the '60s, with whom I had a laughter-filled interview in the early '70s. She made such an impression on me that I used whole chunks of that interview as dialogue in the book. IM also introduced James J. Ferrette IV, aka "Jimmy the Ferret," also based on a friend -- my most outrageous friend. Although I had to add a bit of fictionalization to his resume, much of what is said about him was drawn from real life.

"Finally, the third self-imposed requirement is that I wanted to use the series to memorialize places in Silicon Valley that I loved, many of which have disappeared. In UP?, I set a scene in Recycle Bookstore, where I worked for about 3 years, for example. (And related to Point 2, the gorgeous blonde who appears in that chapter was my then-girlfriend, and the trio playing Deathfuck 2000 were co-workers). A couple of scenes in The Infinite Mistress take place in an abandoned Western-themed amusement park in San Jose, where I worked during the summer between high school and college, but which was priced out by spiking land values and was torn down to become a condo complex. Jobs of Work includes a scene set in my favorite restaurant of all time, the Mexican eatery El Burro in Campbell, which went out of business in the late 20-teens, long after I'd moved to Hawaii. These places not only provide local color but also allow me to pay tribute to their passing.

"And a final addendum: There is one additional requirement I try to employ while writing any fiction, which also has three parts: Each paragraph (and if possible, each sentence) should serve at least one of these three functions:

1) move the plot forward; 2) develop the character; and/or 3) provide some local color (partly to assist the reader in visualizing the scene or location, and partly because of Point 3 above). I don't always live up to my own guidelines, particularly if one would force me to cut a good line or joke, but these guardrails are handy for keeping me on track from being (as I'm sure you noticed) overly verbose."

The Uncertainty Principle? includes a bookstore clerk character who is actually Apel's description of himself. But I asked Scott if the detective Alec Smart isn't also an alter ego of sorts. 

"Oh, yeah, of course, Alec is an alter ego. I've always thought of him as more extroverted than I am (since he goes out and runs around solving mysteries rather than sitting in his office writing about them) but not quite as smart as me (since I made up both the problems he has to solve and the solutions), which makes him vulnerable to occasionally saying and doing stupid things -- more than me, anyway -- I hope -- and occasionally failing to understand what's actually going on (which is essential to the plot of The Infinite Mistress, for example)."

All of the Alec Smart books remain available online. The ebooks from Barnes and Noble and from Amazon are very cheap. I am currently reading an ebook of The Infinite Mistress which cost me about $1. I assume everyone knows that you don't need a Kindle or Nook tablet to read such ebooks, you can use your smartphone with the Nook app (for Barnes and Noble ebooks) and the Kindle app (for Amazon ebooks). 

Rasa on Hilaritas Press, eight circuits and RAW's politics

I don't always get around to things I want to do, so I didn't listen to Rasa's appearance on the Liminal Currents podcast until yesterday, although it was released last November.

Rasa talks about the Eight Circuit model, something he seems to know a lot about, and goes into detail about RAW's politics but I particularly enjoyed his inside look at the origins of Hilaritas Press and how RAW books are put together there. The podcast was done as Hilaritas neared completion of A Non-Euclidian Perspective, so that is the example that is focused on. I know  how hard Rasa works on the books, based on the effort he put into my Robert Shea book, and I liked learning more about Hilaritas. Incidentally, Rasa mentions that there's been discussion about Hilaritas reprinting the original uncut three volumes of the Schroedinger's Cat trilogy. We can only hope! 

Liminal Currents also had an interview with Gabriel Kennedy about the RAW biography.  If you browse the podcast episodes, I see many focusing on magick, so this would be a good place to promote the RAW magick book when it comes out. 

Maybe Poul Anderson doesn't suck

 

Poul Anderson at Polcon, a 1985 science fiction convention held in Poland. Public domain photo via Wikipedia. 

In the New Libertarian Notes interview, reprinted in A Non-Euclidian Perspective, Robert Anton Wilson offers his thoughts at the beginning  on his favorite novels, TV shows, music, etc., including this bit on three science fiction authors, Poul Anderson, Ursula K. LeGuin and Robert Heinlein:

CRNLA: How about Anderson, LeGuin and Heinlein?

RAW: I haven't taken Anderson seriously since 1968, when he wrote an account of the police-riot at the Chicago Convention which was totally false, according to my observations on the scene. I decided Poul loved the Vietnam War so much, that he could actually watch a cop hit an old lady and remember it as a young communist hitting the cop. I haven't bothered keeping up with Anderson's hallucinations since then. LeGuin is great already, and getting better book by book. Heinlein has been an idol to me for more than 20 years. He can do no wrong, no matter how much he loves wars and hates pacifists. (I'm the kind of anarchist whose chief objection to the State is that it kills so many people. Government is the epitome of the deathist philosophy I reject.)

What I am struck by here is that RAW is honest enough to admit he isn't really being consistent when he separates Anderson from Heinlein, about which more below. But is that justified on literary grounds? Does Poul Anderson suck? 

To be sure, the Vietnam War and the antiwar protests are a pretty bad issue to be wrong about, and that's not the only instance where Anderson ages badly. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison, was a landmark original anthology of SF stories with many really good contributions by famous SF authors. The Poul Anderson story isn't a story I cared for. The "shock ending" of "Eutopia" is that one of the characters turns out to be gay. 

So, can we apply RAW's "Ezra Pound rule" to Anderson? Despite strong political disagreements with Pound, RAW famously saw Pound as a valuable writer. Anderson is a very different writer, but is he good enough that we have to disagree with RAW's dismissal?

Before we get into the rebuttal, here is a fascinating bit of science fiction history: When two groups of science fiction writers took sides over the Vietnam War.

The June 1968 issue of Galaxy magazine (at the time,  when of the best science fiction magazines) ran dueling ads on the Vietnam War. One ad listed the signatures of science fiction writers who opposed the war. The other ad listed SF writers who wanted the U.S. to remain in Vietnam until U.S. objectives were met. A blog post includes the two ads, with background and commentary. 

The blog post, by Alex Cox (a movie director) compares the two groups of writers. "Comparisons may be invidious, but the 'anti-war' group is by far the better group of writers," he writes. 

"By far" seems an exaggeration to me. It is true that the antiwar group has more writers that I'm a fan of. I've read much of the work of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Thomas Disch, Philip Jose Farmer and Ursula K. LeGuin, for example, and I know many of the other names.

But the pro-war faction also has some talent. Some of my favorite writers are there, too, e.g. R.A. Lafferty, Jack Vance and Robert Heinlein. I like some of the other writers, too. And as you might expect from RAW's comments, Poul Anderson is listed in the hawk advertisement.

I've read quite a bit of Anderson's short fiction, but only five of his novels. I remember particularly liking Tau Zero, a hard science fiction novel that got a rave review from James Blish in F&SF. I also liked The Winter of the World, The Boat of a Million Years and Orion Shall Rise. The last Anderson novel I've read, one that I just finished, is The Star Fox. I read it because it won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, but I didn't think it was that great. 

When I did my recent "Ten by Ten" blog post, I noticed in the comments that Mark K. Brown, a big RAW fan who reads many of the same authors as I, had read at least ten Poul Anderson books. So I invited Mark to tell me what he's read and what he liked, and he obliged:

"I've read the complete Polesotechnic universe stories (which includes the van Rijn/Falkayn and Flandry stories), Tau Zero (my fave), Boat of a Million Years, The Avatar, Winners (strangely enough, this  is a collection of award winners), and all of the fantasies. The Broken Sword is the one I had him autograph at ConFrancisco. I enjoyed all of them and will be reading more of his books in the near future." (The Polesotechnic  series consists of seven novels, according to the Poul Anderson bibliography on Wikipedia, but it sounds like Mark is talking about more than that. "All the fantasies" would amount to 15 or so books. So Mark has read more than two dozen Anderson books). 

The Broken Sword  is a very well-regarded fantasy novel. Gregory Arnott, another reader I trust, read it a few years ago. He wrote (personal correspondence): "I enjoyed The Broken Sword. It is pretty intense and incestuous which impressed me, as someone who was fostered on George R.R. Martin. I really enjoyed the different, and I dares way more accurate, depiction of Norse beliefs in a fantasy novel. I'd recommend it and it makes quick reading."

Since Mark and I both liked Tau Zero, and it was nominated for a  Hugo, I looked up what  won that year, 1971. It was Ringworld by Larry Niven, which is considered a classic. Niven, by the way,  also was one of the "Galaxy hawks," as was Jerry Pournelle, who co-wrote some of Niven's novels.

What the opinions of writers and critics?

In The Hugo Winners, Volume II, the editor,  Isaac Asimov, paid tribute to science fiction writers who had been prominent in the field for many years; he mentioned Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance and Gordon Dickson, then added: "Still, for a combination of quantity and quality, I would like to nominate good old Poul Anderson." 

John Clute would largely agree. He is prominent SF critic, from Canada, who I admire a lot. (He sat across from me once at a convention banquet. It was probably a bigger thrill for me than for him, but he patiently gave me a couple of hot takes when I posed questions). The SF Encyclopedia's  entry on Anderson is written by Clute. Some sample quotes from Clute: "His generation's most prolific sf writer of any consistent quality," "Perhaps unique among the top rank of American sf writers of his generation in that his fantasy work – he wrote a large number of fantasy tales – is also of considerable significance," Brain Wave is great, and "Out of the welter of remaining book titles, four singletons and Anderson's final ambitious series can be mentioned as outstanding." (Tau Zero makes the singleton outstanding cut, while the "ambitious series" is the four book Guthrie Family series that begins with Harvest of Stars. The second book of the series, The Stars Are Also Fire, won a Prometheus Award.)

I should mention that Anderson (aside from a stack of Hugo awards, Nebula awards, SFWA "Grand Master" designation etc.) is much-honored by the Prometheus Award, which I've participated in for years,  much as Robert Shea did: Six awards, plus a "lifetime achievement" award). 

Applying  the "Ezra Pound" rule, it seems that Poul Anderson may be a valuable writer. 

Footnote: If you happen to be a fan of ebooks, watch for sales. At any given time, a couple of the novels are on sale for $2, so you can build up a classic library cheap if you keep an eye out. As I write this, the Last Viking Trilogy is $3 from Barnes and Noble, while Hrolf Kraki's Saga and The Corridors of Time are $2 apiece at Amazon. 

An occult book museum, with an online library

The Embassy of the Free Mind. Creative Commons photo, information here. 

The Recomendo newsletter, which I subscribe to, has an item about an occult museum and library that I thought sombunall of you would want to know about.  From the latest newsletter, an entry by Claudia Dawson: 

"Recently when I was in Amsterdam, I went on a private rare book tour at the Embassy of the Free Mind. The embassy houses one of the world’s largest collections of Hermetic and occult books, and they’ve digitized thousands of manuscripts that you can read online for free. But if you’re in Amsterdam, I definitely recommend booking a guided tour. I chose the tour that focuses on alchemical texts, but they have others on magic, witchcraft, and Rosicrucianism. I didn’t get to touch any of the books, which is understandable, but I did get to smell one that was hundreds of years old and it was glorious.

 — CD"

Here is the Wikipedia article. It was opened by Dan Brown, the author. 

Progress being made on RAW magick book

I own most of the books in the Hilaritas Press catalog. This is one of my favorites. 

Hilaritas Press has had a book in the works for awhile that will reprint some of Robert Anton Wilson's most significant writings on magick. I recently got an email from Oz Fritz that mentioned he has been "been reading a lot of old RAW articles" to help the other editors working on the book and that the material is "a lot of fun." Oz added, "A lot of good material there."

I know sombunall of you have been waiting for the book and this sounded like encouraging news so I wrote to Rasa for an update, and he obliged: 

"Three editors and myself have been working a lot on the project (Mike Gathers, Dave Skelton and Oz Fritz are the editors). It will be a collection of some 30 essays. The working title is: Maybe Magick: Notes from an Evolving Nervous System. It occurs to me that it will be a nice complement to Sex, Drugs and Magick and Lion of Light."

That sounds encouraging, too. Rasa never announces a publication date -- he works on the book until he thinks it is ready, and then he puts it out -- but it sure sounds like things maybe are taking shape.

In the meantime, check out the large online catalog of available Hilaritas Press books, which I think suggests that Rasa won't delay the title once it's ready. There's also a PDF document of the catalog that visitors are invited to download. 

I see 30 titles, not all of them by RAW, and I think I own all but 3 or 4. And of course, I had a lot of RAW books before Hilaritas even began as the publishing imprint of the RAW Trust. 

More Bobby Campbell news

Bobby Campbell has released a newsletter full of news.  

-- The Kickstarter for Tales of Illuminatus No. 3 is fully funded. But pledges continue to June for everyone to get their goodies.

-- Bobby reviews a new Alan Moore collection that has a bunch of stories you've probably never read.

-- As I mentioned here earlier, Bleeding Cool and Grant Morrison like Bobby's comic book adaptations of Illuminatus! (Bobby: "If you told me 20 years ago I'd be working on an Illuminatus! comic book that Grant Morrison had publicly proclaimed as "brilliant!" I would not have been surprised at all, because I used to be an arrogant brat with delusions of grandeur. I still am, of course, but I used to be too!")

-- Bobby has a touching new comic about growing up with his older brother.

Read the whole thing for even more news!

Tales of Illuminatus No. 3 Kickstarter has lauched

 

The Kickstarter for Tales of Illuminatus #3 launched on Thursday as scheduled. 

Bobby Campbell's announcement at the Kickstarter site has details on the new issue. He's bringing in characters from other RAW novels, such as Sigismundo Celine from the Historical Illuminatus series (he's the guy at the piano). Bobby hopes to get the third issue out by July, but August is a more realistic goal. A trade paperback will be issued with the first three issues. A "skeleton key" zine with commentary by Michael Johnson is planned in the fall. There's a new poster that's going to be issued and there are related soundtrack albums that I've mentioned before in this space. And so on.

The pledges this time offer a dizzying array of options. Along with the various preset packages of rewards for backers, there is a pretty long list of available add-ons. I struggled with all of the options and Kickstater's clumsy system and finally took one of the packages when I pledged.

One point that seems important to me is that Bobby has put together pledge amounts that can meet any budget. Everyone can take part. And you don't have to feel any obligation to pledge more than you can afford; Bobby has already met the pledge goal of $777. The pledges already were more than $1,000 as I wrote this. 

Hilaritas podcast features Jordan Gruber

Here's the blurb: "Renaissance Wordsmith—writer, editor, and coach Jordan Gruber.  Founder of the Enlightenment.Com website, Jordan recently co-authored with James Fadiman, Your Symphony of Selves (on healthy multiplicity), and Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance."

Jordan Gruber has a Substack and an official website. 

 

Michael Johnson on RAW and math

 

A tesseract. The hypercube is unfolded into eight cubes. Source. 

Michael Johnson's latest Substack piece, "Robert Anton Wilson and the Laws of Form," explores RAW's interest in mathematics, with a particular focus on G. Spencer Brown’s 1969 book Laws of Form. 

One of Michael's remarks inspired me to re-read one of my favorite Robert Heinlein short stories, "'=And He Built a Crooked House-'". The story made a big impression on me when I first read it in high school, and I still like it. It's available here. 

'Mycellium Parish News 2025' is an inspiring catalog of creativity

My copy of the 2025 Mycellium Parish News arrived in the mail yesterday, and it's the most inspiring publication I've read in months.

A joint production of two people, writer James Burt and Peakrill Press publisher Dan Sumption, the Mycellium Parish News is an annual compendium of Discordian publications and doings, particularly focusing on the British scene but with plenty of American stuff, too. It's a 42-page pamphlet. Maybe 25 percent of the listings are for productions I've mentioned here, but most of this was new to me.

The listings are divided into "Transmissions" (short pieces by the likes of John Higgs), books, Peakrill Press books, zines, links to websites (such as this one), podcasts, music, films, groups and events. Lots to check out.

Perhaps I should offer an example. Here is the listing for James Burt's work:

Microfictions

Parish News editor James sends out a short story every week or so. For the last two years, he's produced an advent calendar of horror stories. In 2026 he will release his horror novella Swedish Pizza. 
https://microfictions.orbific.com
https://eris.orbific.com/372

As you can see, James and Dan offer their own short URLs to make it easy to use their guide. I assume it's just coincidence, but I love it that the short URL for my own Robert Shea book is eris.orbific.com/404. In other words, the Internet link is the dread "404 not found" number.

As I went through this, I kept finding what I would describe as "found Zen koans."  Under music, there's a listing for "Music for Funerals and Bricklaying Ceremonies." Under  books, "Lori Emerson is founder of the Media Archeology Lab, 'a museum dedicated to obsolete technologies'."

You won't find as much interesting weirdness anywhere else. 

The 2025 Mycellium Parish News may be ordered from Etsy. If you are in the United States, it may take a bit longer to get to you than advertised. Please try to be patient. 

Monday news and notes

 

I have long been fascinated by Janice Weber, who has had a duel career as both a noted novelist and as a classical piano performer. Her latest, a slow-burn thriller named Meat Cove, skillfully melds several plots that come to a climax toward the end of the book. The book is somewhat reminiscent of her two-book "Frost the Fiddler" series from early in her career, but I think she's gotten better at writing thrillers. Here is the review from Kirkus, which also likes it. As of now, the Kindle is still $3. 

I own some of Weber's recordings and many of her books. The recordings are interesting and generally not the same old recordings everyone else does.  Here's the official website. 

Trump's psychedelic order. As I've covered other news about psychedelics here, I'll not that Trump has signed an executive order that aims to expand the use of ibogaine and other psychedelics for mental health treatment. Here is the coverage from Reason magazine.  An NPR article also mentions psilocybin. Mike Gathers did a Hilaritas Press podcast on his experiences with ibogaine. 

Tales of Illuminatus No. 3. Note that April 23 is the scheduled launch of the Kickstarter for Tales of Illuminatus 3. I'll  have full coverage. Here is the prelaunch page. 

Mark Frauenfelder on 'Natural Law'

 

Mark Frauenfelder's Book Freak newsletter has a new piece out on Robert Anton Wilson's Natural Law essay:

"Shortly after I bought it, my wife Carla and I heard that Wilson and Timothy Leary were doing a joint book signing somewhere in Los Angeles. We gathered up as many Leary and Wilson books as we had — which was a lot — and headed over. When I handed Wilson the Loompanics edition of Natural Law, he looked up at me and said, “Where the hell did you get this?“ He seemed genuinely surprised that anyone would own it.

"Here was the author, astonished that a reader had found his own book. It confirmed what I already suspected: Natural Law is a deep cut, even by Wilson’s standards. That’s why it’s the first book for our new Deep Cut Edition — subscriber-only posts about books that are obscure, strange, or underrated enough to deserve special attention."

I subscribed so I could read the whole thing, though you could read the first part for free.