Illuminati behind rap video's disappearance?

A reporter at the Daily Dot with the byline "Fruzsina Eördögh" (it's the usual spelling, I guess) reports that the Illuminati may be behind the mysterious disappearance of a music video for Tupac Shakur's video, "Hit Em Up."

The Daily Dot article explains, "The Illuminati is said to be an all-powerful secret society, whose members include top CEOs of banks and even former United States presidents—and is a favorite  of conspiracy theorists.

"The Tupac conspiracy videos assert Tupac was killed by the Illuminati because he was becoming too powerful, or because he had changed his “thug life” ways. Some videos include security footage purporting to show Tupac being beaten by security guards, and not rival rappers."

RAW anthology from Polish record label

From the comments in the Oct. 16 posting -- thanks whoever you are -- a Polish record label has released "From Earth to Sirius," a compilation of tracks dedicated to Robert Anton Wilson.

From the Web site (Google English translation):

"Sirius - dog planet - the brightest star in the night sky, located in the constellation Canis Major. Known since antiquity. In many cultures left its mark on the shaping of particular worldview, beliefs, religious formation centers. The ancient Egyptians worshiped as a deity of Sirius, created their own calendar based on his cycle, closely associated with the flooding of the Nile before the summer solstice. Therefore, to build their own temples so that the star's light was visible from the altar.

"In the twentieth century, interest in the magical aspect of Sirius is not weakened. Through Discordians group of RA Wilson and T. Leary at the head of the myth is still alive ...

"Compilation of "From Earth to Sirius", dedicated to RA Wilson - one of the greatest scientific philosophers turn of the century - wise, przenikliwemu, full of humor and optimistic man , is an attempt to reinterpret the myth known to man for millennia."

I know zip about Polish pop music. Polish composers are very important to the modern classical music scene -- Gorecki, Lutoslawski, Penderecki, and probably a bunch more I'm not remembering right now. So I'm going to guess this might be a cool anthology.

New RAW article

To make it easy to find, and for future reference, I have posted a separate link in "Feature Articles and Interviews"  to the RAW article, "Anarchism and Magicks in the Light of Interstellar Neurogenetics," which is in No Governor, Issue No. 2. That's the article where I drew the two quotes in the post for Oct. 27.

A very Discordian 'No Governor'

Issue No. 2 of Robert Shea's zine "No Governor," just posted under Feature Articles and Interviews, has contributions from Robert Anton Wilson, Kerry Thornley and Gregory Hill.

Two quotes from RAW on getting into outer space

Both of these quotes are from an article published in 1975:

Although it sounds spooky to say it, there is a real neurological link between the space-explorations of the 1960s-70's and the Hedonic revolution also occurring.

Every form of social experimentation is now illegal on Earth; methods of control and surveillance are improving yearly, monthly, even daily. All the long-hairs will be barbered; all the revolutionaries jailed in the Gulag or California archipelago! All the free, wild animals made extinct; all the soft earth covered with concrete; all the swingers led back to Calvinist or Stalinist domesticity. 

Both quotations are from "Anarchism and Magick in the Light of Interstellar Neurogenetics," an essay I'll make available shortly.

The three periods of RAW?

In the midst of a good-sized blog post ruminating on political corruption, Michael Johnson writes, "The middle period writings of RAW (which I consider as 1975-1985, with 1959-1974 the first period and 1986-2005 the third and last, not that anyone had asked) contains an abundance of non-Euclidean political writing, by which he meant that he saw value in left-libertarian and traditionally anarchist thought, and individualist-"right" libertarian ideas."

I am asking, in the sense that I hope Johnson will elaborate, but I agree that RAW's writings fall into three periods, because I've noticed a similar division in tone and content. The "middle period" (my favorite period of RAW's writings) are more optimistic, more overtly libertarian (although RAW espoused libertarian ideas, on and off, for the rest of his life), and more heavily in debt to Timothy Leary. The middle period also encompasses most of the fiction and all of the really good novels. The Widow's Son, a favorite of many of us, came out in 1985. Nature's God (1988) is certainly worth reading, but it's not one of his best. Thereafter we get nonfiction. The Historical Illuminatus series was never finished and the Bride of Illuminatus project apparently did not get very far.

As I continue to dig up old RAW articles, I am particularly excited when I find something from the middle period.

Like an author? Check him out

I live in the Cleveland area. I thought I'd share some searches I ran today in the online catalogs for CLEVNET, a consortium of northern Ohio libraries that includes 35 public libraries including the Cleveland Public Library, and for Cuyahoga County Public Library, which serves metropolitan Cleveland and has 28 branches.

Number of Robert Anton Wilson works listed in the CLEVNET catalog: 21. Number of Robert Shea items: five, but just three titles.

Number of Robert Anton Wilson books held by the Cuyahoga County Public Library: None. Number of Robert Shea books: None.

Libraries have a limited amount of shelf space. They constantly buy new books, which means that old ones have to be culled from the collection and gotten rid of in some way (sales by library volunteer groups, sealed in boxes and thrown away, etc.). The easiest, most logical way to cull the collection is to get rid of the books that haven't been checked out in awhile. If you want your favorite writer's books to remain available in public libraries, check them out.

A few words on copyright

Some weeks ago, a reader who follows the blog wrote to me and asked if I have permission from Robert Anton Wilson's estate to post the articles that I place here.

I haven't had any contact with RAW's daughter, although I've tried to email her. So I can't guess what she might think of this blog.

However, almost all of the articles that I post on this site, and the interviews (other than the material I create myself) are obscure  pieces that have sat, forgotten, in obscure journals for many years. In some cases, I have the permission of the original publisher to reprint the piece. In other cases, I would not know who to ask. In all cases, I believe I am helping the estate by bringing to light material that could be published in a later book.

I don't believe in publishing material that's available from a RAW book that's in print. I don't link to sites that circulate pirate electronic editions of books that are in print. I support RAW's children by buying new editions of books that are in print (I've bought several books in the last couple of years) and I urge everyone else to do the same.

If you can't afford to buy RAW's books, or as many as you would like, there are still ways to support his writing and his place in the literary canon. I will talk about that tomorrow.

Have a Lovecraft story read to you

This is the time of year to listen to spooky stories. So in honor of RAW's interest in H.P. Lovecraft, and the fact that the Cthulhu Mythos appears in ILLUMINATUS!, here's a link to listen to Lovecraft's "Nyarlathotep." Hat tip, @t3dy on Twitter.

James Bond's 23, and ours

At the Oz Mix, Oz Fritz looks at the 23 glyph "as a viable and extremely useful technique for brain change."

Excerpt: "Like many fans of Robert Anton Wilson, when I first encountered his works and for several years after, I began having lots and lots of unusual coincidences with 23. Too many to write off as selective perception though there were some that fit that category. I usually regarded them as an indication of my awareness of a new life as a spiritual being, evidence of going in the right direction."

Definitely a read the whole thing post.

Pynchon reading group

Over at alt.fan.rawilson, a group of Robert Anton Wilson fans are reading Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day. It started a few days ago, but they haven't gotten very far, so it isn't too late to join in.

Eureka! They found Archimedes' lost books

On the theory that somebunall Robert Anton Wilson fans might be interested in lost lore, here is a New York Times article about the discovery of two "lost" works by Archimedes, and a related story about the discover of "lost" speeches by the Greek orator Hyperides.

Maybe I don't watch Colbert enough?

Tweet from Ted Hand: "How many people see the fnords for their first time watching #Colbert these days? First effective translation of illuminatus! to video? #ows"