Where are the peace candidates in the current election?

Hillary Clinton 

Joe Scarry (a good resource on Twitter for anyone who wants antiwar news and commentary) has a blog post up about something that bothers me, too: There's been a real lack so far on antiwar candidates, of candidates for president who will speak about about the United States' policy of endless war. (Rand Paul disappointed many of us when he came out against the Iran treaty. I like his dad better.)

In fact, there's been little discussion so far of foreign policy. I covered a speech by Hillary Clinton in Cleveland last week. She spoke for about half an hour, and I wrote a pretty long article about it for my newspaper. You'll see that there's nothing in there about foreign policy. That's not because I left it out; I was eager to hear something about the Iran treaty, the Mideast. She never mentioned foreign policy at all, except in the tangential sense of comparing Republican candidates for president to "terrorists."

How do you read? A list of my addictions

Iain M. Banks

It's probably fairly apparent that I read a lot.

And my reading style tends to fall into two categories: (1) Reading, in a rather omnivorous fashion, a wide variety of nonfiction and fiction — really, a little bit of everything, with a marked preference for history and science fiction — and (2) a tendency to read another book by one of my favorite authors.

My tendency, since I was a teenager, has been that I will discover a favorite author, and then want to read as many books as possible by that person. In fact, for quite a few authors, I wound up collecting their books.

If you are curious, here is a list of authors in which I've attempted to read a great deal of their work, although in some cases, I've given up the job. This is NOT a list of the people I consider the best authors; it's a list of the authors I am addicted to (or have been addicted to), which is not exactly the same thing. For most of them, I can offer a pretty informed opinion on what their best books are. The first author on the list is probably kind of obvious, given the existence of this blog:

1. Robert Anton Wilson.
2. Tom Perrotta.
3.  Jane Austen.
4. Lawrence Block.
5. Jack Vance.
6. George Alec Effinger.
7. R.A. Lafferty. *
8. Philip Jose Farmer. *
9. Janice Weber.
10. Iain M. Banks.
11. John Higgs.
12. Kim Stanley Robinson. *
13. Vladimir Nabokov.
14. Richard Powers.
15. Bruce Sterling. *
16.  Richard Blake.
17. Martin Amis. *
18. Elinor Lipman.
19. Percy Bysshe Shelley.
20. Neal Stephenson.
21. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
22. Roger Zelazny. *
23.  Samuel R. Delany. *
24. Harlan Ellison. *
25. Gene Wolfe. *
26. Sinclair Lewis.
27. Robert Graves.

A few notes:

Usually I take my time in reading everything by a favorite author, preferring to know that there is a book or two for me to enjoy. This strategy failed with Jane Austen, however. After I read all six canonical novels (my favorites are Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion; Mansfield Park was the only one I didn't like very much), I read Lady Susan, the early epistolary work, and the two unfinished novels, The Watsons and Sanditon. There's nothing left. Similarly, although I've skipped the R.L. Stine book Perrotta ghostwrote, I've covered all of his novels and story collections. I have to wait for his new ones to come out to read another Perrotta.

The authors with an asterisk besides their names are the cases where I have given up trying to read every word they produced. I finished Delany's Dhalgren in college (I had trouble finding anyone else who could say that) but it was a Pyrrhic victory; I lost all desire to keep up with him. Roger Zelazny turned out to be uneven in his work, although I still read Zelazny novels I haven't gotten to yet. (In contrast, I've yet to find a Richard Powers or Tom Perrotta book that isn't worth reading.)

Kim Stanley Robinson has an asterisk because I don't like the direction his work has gone in, although I just read Aurora. For Gene Wolfe and R.A. Lafferty and Philip Jose Farmer, I realized after reading a great deal of their output that I didn't have to read every minor work they've produced and could be satisfied I've read the best ones.

My newest "acquisitions" are Janice Weber and Iain M. Banks and John Higgs and Richard Blake. Three our of four are Brits, but that may be a coincidence. Weber I'm a little bit behind on, but I will read her latest soon. The Richard Blake reading project is a little stalled because I want to read the Aelric books in order, and I can't find a library copy of Sword of Damascus or a Kindle version. Higgs I'm caught up on, except for the new one, which isn't out yet over here in the former colonies. Banks, I've mostly read the science fiction, but I'm almost done with Stonemouth.

I realize I don't have enough women, but the ones I've listed I love -- they're not there for affirmative action purposes. I don't love Sue Grafton, but I've read about half of her Kinsey Millhone books and will probably finish the series. I've read a lot of Connie Willis. I probably need to read another Allegra Goodman to see if I like it as much as The Cookbook Collector.

Harlan Ellison was almost left off the list because I realized early on I was never going to try to read all of the work he wrote in the 1950s, before he reached his stride. That said, I've read an awful lot of Harlan Ellison and still do so, so I decided he belongs on the list. I feel no compulsion to try to read all of Mark Twain, but I've read a lot of him. I've read a fair amount of Charles Dickens while leaving many works out. I've read a lot of Sinclair Lewis, but nothing before Main Street.  He's on the list  because I've steadily chipped away at him and read quite a few of the not-famous novels. (Work of Art is quite good).

Some favorite "genres": Russian science fiction (in translation), science fiction in general, books of history on the "fall of Rome/"Dark Ages"/Byzantium/Late Antiquity, ancient history.

An Autonomous Agent on Prometheus Rising

A blog called An Autonomous Agent (I found nothing on the site to identify the man or woman who writes it) tackles Prometheus Rising. and references Alan Watts. "Wilson explains how tunnel-realities are formed:

“Whatever the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves”

"And he makes it clear that his book is itself a tunnel-reality written in English to appeal to the third circuit semantic logic of the reader."

I enjoyed exploring the site and its various sections and links; the person who does it has a lot of interests. I had never heard of AudioPhile Linux and there's a lot of beautiful stuff to look at. The image I used to illustrate this posting is from the site.

Hat tip: TimothyLearyFutique on Twitter, i.e. R.U. Sirius, who uncovers a lot of interesting stuff.

Finland considers basic income guarantee

Charles Murray, who wrote a book on his basic income guarantee plan 

While it hasn't been a major issue in the U.S., the idea of replacing the welfare system with a basic income guarantee apparently is being seriously discussed in Europe. As I've written before, Robert Anton Wilson is among those who suggested that it would be a good idea.

In Finland, for example, the various political parties are talking about it, according to this article in the Helsinki Times.  Excerpt:

If some  people have their way, you might soon be receiving a monthly payment from the State of Finland. You won't have to apply for it or prove that you need it. In fact, it doesn't matter if you are destitute or a billionaire. Simply by living in Finland you would be eligible. This is the so-called basic income.

The basic income is designed to be paid to every person, regardless of need. In its pure form it would be enough for anyone to live frugally. With a basic income all other transfer payments would cease. There would be no more child allowances, student stipends, unemployment benefits, housing assistance, disability payments or pensions. All such programmes would be unnecessary, because every person would automatically receive enough to cover basic living expenses.

I also found another article offering background on the Finnish situation.

Meanwhile, Switzerland is apparently going to have a national referendum in 2016 on a basic income guarantee proposal.

Earlier this year, I wrote about Charles Murray's In Our Hands, his book about the basic income guarantee.

John Higgs talks about his new book

John Higgs

John Higgs' big book, Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century came out today, and to celebrate, let me point you to a recent interview with Higgs which I think illustrates why many Robert Anton Wilson fans will want to track down a copy. (The interview is illustrated with photos of Aleister Crowley and the Emperor Norton.) Excerpt:

So where did the idea come from?

The idea behind the book is that we're very comfortable with all the innovations and discoveries up until the end of the 19th century; photography, electricity, agriculture, democracy – as a whole, we're fairly happy with these and understand how they work. Then we get to the turn of 20th century and we get relativity, existentialism, modernism, quantum mechanics and all these things that are fairly terrifying for many of us, so we back away from them. Which results in some of us in the 21st century looking at the world through 19th century eyes and not fully making sense of it all. We need to take on board everything we learned from the 20th century and not shy away from it all.

All along the watchtower, secret masters kept the view

Robert Allen Zimmerman aka Bob Dylan. Who knows what They call him? 

At Reason's Magazine's Hit and Run blog, my favorite source of political insight, Jesse Walker veers from the usual sorts of topics to write about musician Bob Dylan's evangelical phase. (I like Dylan, too, but Jesse is a bit more of a completist than I am.) The occasion is a new book about Dylan, which Walker wrote a blurb for. But when I read Jesse's post, I wasn't expecting this bit: 

It also includes a bonus for any aficionado of strange conspiracy theories: In their interview with one of Dylan's former personal assistants, Dave Kelly, he relates a bizarre tale in which a mysterious man supposedly wormed his way into Dylan's entourage while the singer was playing a series of shows in San Francisco in 1979. According to Kelly, the stranger went out to dinner with Dylan and concert promoter Bill Graham for several nights, with Dylan assuming the man was a friend of Graham's and Graham assuming the man was a friend of Dylan's. The fellow then allegedly explained that he was a representative of "The Fifty-Five Families," an Illuminati-like group that had sent him to keep tabs on the musician.

Well, if the Illuminati are keeping an eye on Bob, maybe he can deny he's a member. 

More from Jesse on conspiracy theories, the Illuminati, etc. 

This year's Prometheus Award winner

Daniel Suarez

Yesterday's posting on the Hugo awards reminded me that I had forgotten to post about this year's Prometheus Award, given by the Libertarian Futurist Society. I regret forgetting to do that, because Influx by Daniel Suarez is a really good technological thriller that deserves to get some publicity.

Here's a summary from the official press release:

Influx, the fourth techno-thriller by Daniel Suarez (Dutton Adult, Feb. 20, 2014), dramatizes the evils of totalitarian government control over people’s lives by depicting a government so concerned about politically destabilizing and potentially dangerous innovations that it creates the Bureau of Technology Control to manage the introduction of new technologies. Inventors who don't follow their edicts are sentenced to a high-tech prison with fiendishly oppressive use of new technology. To end the impending new dark age, the prisoners must fight ruthless individuals already living in our future and armed with mind-blowing genetic technology.

I'll just add that if you are looking for a thoroughly entertaining thriller that also has substance, your search ends here.

As a member of the LFS, I'm pleased to give Suarez some recognition, because his previous finalist, Kill Decision, also was a really good book. I need to get around to his other books. (His books are available as audiobooks, the way I consumed them, as well as in print).

The other finalists this year for the Prometheus Award were The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin (TOR Books), Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett (Knopf Doubleday)  and A Better World, by Marcus Sakey (Amazon, Thomas & Mercer.) All of them are good books, and as I noted yesterday, the Liu Cixin novel just won the Hugo.

Hugo Awards announced

As I have written before over the Hugo Awards controversy (for example here), I thought I should provide an update. The 2015 Hugo Awards have been announced, with "No Award" winning in several categories, the one where the sad/bad/mad/rabid Puppies have bloc voted to get their nominees in. The left/and or people outraged by the block voting organized their own bloc to make sure no one would win.

My thoughts: (1) the best novel winner was The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu. It's a fine novel. (Read my interview with the translator.) Last year's winner was Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie, also a very good book. (2) I would have preferred that the voters consider each nominee, even in the "contaminated" categories, and vote their conscience, knowing that "No Award" was a possibility, but obviously this was a minority opinion and (3) How will the awards be reformed to take some of the politics and bloc voting out of it? I haven't seen any reports on that yet, but obviously changes need to be made. It would also be nice to address Eric Flint's criticisms, referenced in the link above, that it isn't the 1940s anymore and the fiction categories should be modernized to reflect that.

Book reissue with RAW intro

New Falcon sent out an announcement this weekend that it's reissuing The Illuminati Conspiracy: The Sapiens System by Donald Holmes, M.D.

I know nothing about the book, but Jesse Walker, who also got a copy of the announcement, wrote to me and said, "Wilson's introduction to this book is much more substantial than most of his intros."

From the publisher's page on the book: UFOs, Mafiosos, Presidents and Popes. Conspiracies, secret societies, murder, money, suicide, sex, and scandal. As Robert Anton Wilson says in the Introduction: “As soon as we find evidence of human beings on this planet, we find evidence of secret societies. If there...is one big jumbo conspiracy governing this planet, it must be...of non-human origin.” “One day a noted psychiatrist found himself having an experience which his training and background would either deny, or characterize as pathological. Since he had the presence of mind to write down the information he was receiving from an ‘unknown’ source. The results of this experience are intelligently and brilliantly written. The ideas are startling and may just be the Truth.” Who is In Charge of This Planet? Is it revolving, or going sideways? Who are we and where are we going? Dr. Holmes lets us in on the secret. I am glad someone had the courage to let the cat out of the bag with such a large bang.” —Robert Anton Wilson, Ph.D.

More discussion on Cosmic Trigger 2

Charles Beard

Tyler Cowen sometimes "reprints" a comment on his blog to make sure people don't miss it, and I do that, too, sometimes. I liked both of the comments on my blog post the other day about Robert Anton Wilson replying to a critic, and so I'm using them in this blog post about Cosmic Trigger Vol. 2, Down to Earth:

Michael Johnson: I love the content, tone, ideas, and the form of CTII.

RAW once said that most readers will not discern anything about form, and if you want them to pay attention you have to tell them. Most of his ideas about form he got from Pound, I think.

RAW said CTII was "a Buddhist book" in an interview in 1994 with James Nye, collected in Email to the Universe, pp.225-226:

Q: In your second volume of autobiography, Cosmic Trigger II, there is a hint of resignation. You say that you would like to be shot into space and listen to Scarlatti. Have you given up on mankind?

RAW: That book was an attempt to present different sides of my personality as they've developed over time, and so you get the past mixed up with the present. The past does not always unfold chronologically. It's the same with ideas - some I held for a long time, some I held for just one afternoon. The book's an attempt to show there is no consistent ego. It's a Buddhist book. So the resignation was just a mood that George Bush {Sr.} put me in around the time of the Gulf War.

Chad Nelson: I think CTII is probably my current fave too. Partly because of my own bias in liking RAW's political commentary. I believe it was in II that he discusses his being introduced to the individualist anarchists and revisionist historians like HE Barnes and Charles Beard.

Tom Jackson: Cosmic Trigger II is a memoir, but it reads like a novel, with several plot strands that eventually come together. While RAW is obviously the main character, you learn a lot more about Arlen, RAW's mother, the nuns at his elementary school and other formative persons in his life. The chapters are very short and the prose is very clear.

I haven't gotten around to reading the revisionist historians that RAW and Chad mention, but I did read Jeff Riggenbach's book about them. So much to read, so little time! And there is also something about RAW's interest in Buddhism.

Christian Greer on the state of scholarship on Discordianism

Christian Greer 

Christian Greer has a very interesting piece, published on Adam Gorightly's Historia Discordia site,  on "The State of the Art of Research on Discordianism." It's worth a few minutes of your time — the article is concise and not terribly long —and even the footnotes are interesting.

Greer's conclusion is that scholarly research into Discordianism has been fairly dismal so far; it has failed to recognize the wide variance among editions of the Principia Discordia, for example, or the fact that Discordians used the Principia in a much different way from the way Christians, Moslems, etc., use their "holy text."

The handy Adam Gorightly video, below, which I've reproduced before and which Christian mentions in one of his footnotes, discusses the various editions of the Principia.

RAW replies to a critic

A gentleman who reads this blog wrote to me yesterday and shared a couple of links with me (I didn't know if it was OK to give his name.) He shared a couple of links with me, including this piece from Disinfo.com, which referenced criticism from Jay Cornell (in a review of Cosmic Trigger 2: Down to Earth) that Robert Anton Wilson's work is marred by "predictable ’80s pop leftism or nostalgic sentimentalism about the ’60s” and that “his trickster act needs updating.”

I enjoyed Wilson's reply so much, I thought I would share it with you:

“I never respond to that kind of criticism. First, nobody can be objective about his own work, and you make a fool of yourself if you pretend that you can. Second, if perchance my work has anything of lasting value, it will go on, as it has gone on for two decades, getting reprinted continually, and Cornell can’t stop it. On the other hand, if my work has no real lasting value, it will eventually all go out of print, and I can’t persuade people they ought to buy it to make me happy.”

As I've said before, I really like the second Cosmic Trigger book.

Wilson, Leary in Berkeley Barb

A cover from the Berkeley Barb

Via Jesse Walker, I learned that there are searchable digital archives for the Berkeley Barb. , the prominent California underground newspaper.

My search for "Robert Anton Wilson" at the digital archive site yielded 191 hits; 189 for the Barb, and two for a publication called "The Rag." A "Timothy Leary" search provided 271 results. I had trouble getting things to work today; I wonder if the servers have become overloaded because the site has been publicized.

This is kind of a nice illustration, by the way, in the difference between "closed" research materials and open materials. I could obtain digital copies of Robert Shea's fanzines from the University of Michigan and get them posted, both on my site and the official Robert Shea site; and  I can't easily go through the archival materials on Leary at the New York Public Library. I can run searches for RAW in the Berkeley Barb; it will be awhile before I can make it to the Ransom Center's RAW correspondence with Hugh Kenner.