'Bride of Frankenstein'

Theatrical release poster for 'Bride of Frankenstein' (public domain image). 

For Halloween, I'm trying to watch some of the movies on Jesse Walker's top ten best  horror movies list, and last night I watched Bride of Frankenstein (it's available free on Tubi). I particularly enjoyed the sets, which in many scenes looked like a particularly well designed haunted house. I am too ignorant to have heard of any of the cast except for Boris Karloff, but I admired how one of the actresses, Elsa Lanchester, played dual roles as Mary Shelley and as the title character. I was curious about the actress who played Henry Frankenstein's wife, Valerie Hobson, so I looked her up and discovered that one of her husbands was John Profumo, famous for a 1963 British sex scandal. 

Robert Anton Wilson's abortive sequel to Illuminatus! had the working title of Bride of Illuminatus. (If you are curious, the small bit he completed -- it doesn't blow me away -- is reprinted in Beyond Chaos and Beyond, the interesting compilation of RAW writings edited and published by D. Scott Apel.) I'm assuming RAW's title is a reference to the movie Jesse recommended; please correct me if I'm wrong. 

Bonus: Jesse's review of the movie:

"A young scientist named Frankenstein feels torn between a conventional marriage and a same-sex liason with his mentor, an old queen named Pretorius. The latter persuades the protagonist to reproduce with him through unnatural means. Upon succeeding, Pretorius proclaims himself "the bride of Frankenstein." Careless viewers assume he's referring to the couple's creation." (Source). 

Why wasn't Bride finished?

So, have you all read the excerpt from Robert Anton Wilson's unfinished sequel to ILLUMINATUS!, Bride of Illuminatus? It was published in "Trajectories 14," and you can get the PDF to read it yourself here. (Look on page 16).

I have to admit, I wasn't blown away when I read it. I expected it to be a little better. The jokes about feminists, e.g. "You will just have to make a few mental adjustments — as the sultan said the feminist" got a little old for me, and in general it did not seem very inspired.

Could it be that Wilson himself didn't think Bride was very inspired? Could that be why he didn't finish it? Or did everyone else love the excerpt more than I did?

RAW's 'lost' books

In the comment section for my July 3 post, sage RAW scholar Royal Academy of Reality 1132 says, "I keep waiting for the Library of Dreams to get in my copy of THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN. I've had it on reserve for weeks."

Haven't we all. RAW had originally intended to write five "Historical Illuminatus" novels, but the fourth, THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN, was never written, or at least never completed.

We're also in for a long wait for BRIDE OF ILLUMINATUS, the sequel to ILLUMINATUS!, although according to this Wikipedia article, an excerpt was published in Wilson's magazine, Trajectories. (PDF is here.)

TALE OF THE TRIBE, which concerned the Internet and no doubt other topics, also never came out. I would love to have read it.