A green Eris

Adam Gorightly's latest Eris of the Month (pictured) is a mash-up of Eris and Pepe the Frog; the latter is apparently some kind of symbol of the alt-right.

"I immediately screen-capped this Eris/Pepe mash-up because you know how these things have a tendency to disappear. This turned out to be a wise move because shortly afterwards our Green Skinned Lady of the Golden Apple was deleted for some reason," Adam explains.

If you are confused about Pepe and how he/it kind of relates to Discordianism and Operation Mindfuck techniques, Adams has the full rundown. Also, you get to learn how to write "Hail Eris!" in Russian! 

New RAW biography nearing completion

Propaganda Anonymous, resting briefly from his labors as a musician and literary biographer. 

Tweet from PropAnon: "Nearing completion of Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson I must've written 23 drafts by this point #Bob."

This is the new RAW biography from Gabriel Kennedy, which will be published by TarcherPenguin. It's good to hear that it's coming along.

Here is my blog post on the original book announcement, and here is my interview with Mr. Kennedy.   

Also, I hope you saw the recent post about PropAnon's Grant Morrison interview at Boing Boing. That article says the new RAW bio will be out in 2018.

Cosmic Trigger's original artist

Dangerous Minds has a new piece up by Martin Schneider about John Thompson, who did an early cover for Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger and many interior illustrations that have been used in many of the editions of the book, including the new Hilaritas Press edition. "As brilliant as he was, even Bob Wilson benefited greatly from having his ideas visualized in such a simpatico manner. John Thompson, a noted figure from the San Francisco comix scene, and someone very interested in mysticism and spirituality, was the ideal person to bring the visionary material to life," Schneider writes.

Hat tip, Michael Johnson.

Email to the Universe Discussion Group, Week 2!

The Santa Cruz shore during the Robert Anton Wilson memorial service; one of the boats is Wilson's family, preparing to scatter RAW's ashes as the same location off the boardwalk as his wife, Arlen. I am told the scene is similar to what RAW could see from his balcony in the scenes mentioned in the haiku. Photo by Branca Tesla. 

By Gregory Arnott, guest blogger 

(Pages 1-37 of the Hilaritas Press edition, up to location 782 of the ebook).

Before saying anything else, I’d like to say that the “note” on page three is perhaps one of the most elegantly succinct statements of Robert Anton Wilson’s philosophy that captures his years of experience and wonderment. “I don’t believe in anything, but I have many suspicions.” Michael asks the reader to ruminate if RAW’s theory of “intelligent design” has any analogs; to my knowledge his proposition is similar in its operation to certain theories that point out that consciousness may be an emergent property of matter and the ponderings of Jacques Vallee and Charles Fort.

Claude Shannon,  mentioned in the "Note."  (Creative Commons photo via Wikipedia).

Michael’s introduction also asks us to consider the meta-models as a type of yoga. While I have very little hands on experience with any of systems that RAW says he is indebted to, I do remember thinking it was curious that he didn’t say anything about Crowley or Leary who had been in so much of his earlier works. Perhaps this acknowledgement is part of a shift away from those men and their influence.

Part One begins with three quotes. One of which is from my favorite television series, The Prisoner.
Considering the footnotes and the subject matter I believe that “The Passion of the Antichrist” was included by RAW in this volume because the threats to our civil liberties haven’t passed but simply changed. Sadly parts of this essay are still all too relevant as we still live in a de facto Christian nation. Anti-Islam rhetoric is at an all-time high in our nation as our Commander-in-Chief, who had called for a national ban on Muslim immigration (which was received with cheers by his supporters), currently on his Armageddon tour of the Middle East.

One part of the essay that isn’t as relative today is that atheism isn’t exactly the daring philosophy that it was for Madalyn Murray in the Fifties. Indeed the virulent rhetoric of typified by the New Atheists mention by Mr. Johnson in the Introduction had made atheists into something of a joke on the internet. Sam Harris is also a well-known bigot who proves that you don’t have to be Christian or Jewish to be prejudiced against Islamic people. If the bullying tactics of the New Atheists can be traced back to Murray does that make her a less sympathetic character? And does her character matter?

Netflix recently released a film based on Murray’s activism and her murder mentioned at the end of the essay. It, like Time and Newsweek, also steals the title “The Most Hated Woman in America.” I watched it this past week and enjoyed it myself. Much of the discussion about Murray centers on her personality and accusation of moral ambivalence. Elsewhere RAW even notes that Murray could be unpleasant and even mocked him on occasion for his beliefs.

But the essay isn’t about atheism or Ms. Murray, is it?

Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1983. Creative Commons photo by Alan Light. 

After another haiku that ends with the sumptuous image of “buttermilk clouds” RAW introduces the reader to the one law of economics. I couldn’t think of any exceptions -- did anyone else have any luck?

“The Celtic Roots of Quantum Theory” is classic RAW that comes from roughly the same period as Cosmic Trigger II and Coincidance which is why its themes and material seem so familiar. I’ve been a fan of Bishop Berkeley ever since reading Borges’ "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" and becoming interested in the often mentioned “Berkeleyan idealism” that help explain the fantastical happenings in that story. I can attest that Berkeley helps one lose their grip on consensus reality.

One thing that RAW brings up a few times in the essay is the relationship between New Agers and Quantum physics that has led to so many terrible books and a widely accepted documentary that was actually made by a cult in Seattle that believes a middle aged woman is channeling an ascended master. ("What the Bleep Do We Know!?" –also available on Netflix) As someone who has spent too much time reading about occultism I try to avoid talking about Quantum physics. Everything I know about the subject is due to RAW or Alan Moore and both of them would probably ask me to do a little more reading before opening my mouth. So I’m happy to leave this open to the more scientifically minded among us.

The final quote by Dennis Kucinich (the true Democratic candidate of 2008) is reminiscent of John Higgs Stranger Than We Can Imagine which ends with a discussion of evolution of corporations into personhood and how this dooms all of us. The situation has degraded since 2005.

This post was brought to you by Netflix and pessimism. Let’s try for something more lively next week when we’ll get to discuss Black Magic and Paranoia.

(Next week: Pages 38 to 53 of the Hilaritas Press edition, e.g. to the end of the "Black Magic and Curses" essay.)

Daisy Campbell appeals for help selling tickets

Cosmic Trigger, the Play is getting many good reviews, but it needs to sell more tickets to break even, Daisy Campbell reports in her latest announcement. 

Perhaps a more positive way of putting it is that tickets are still available for all but the final show, despite all of the good reviews. I cannot afford to hop on a plane and go to Great Britain, but this is a great opportunity for many people.

Daisy says:

Look, I'll come to the point. We're at squeaky bum time. We need to sell 323 more tickets (or near enough) in order to break even.

The show's been a critical success, and audience feedback has been incredible - but we do need to Find The Others to be in the black. 

The final show on Saturday 27th is sold out - please help us to sell out the rest! 

If you know even just one more person who really ought to see this show, then please - march them to the nearest online device, go to www.thecockpit.org.uk/cosmictrigger and book now!

Another British event

John Higgs comments, "Will be part of Chapel Perilous at the Willowman fest in Yorkshire mid-June, should be a wild few days."

The bad news about the Soundgarden singer

Chris Cornell. Creative Commons photo via Wikipedia. 

Yesterday when I woke up and turned on my computer, I saw a report that Chris Cornell, 52, lead singer of Soundgarden, had died. He was only 52. Could it be fake news? I checked credible news sources, and it was true.

I don't own any Soundgarden albums, but I checked out the Down on the Upside album from the Hoopla Digital library service and downloaded it to my cell phone, mainly on the strength of the fact that it has my favorite Soundgarden song, "Blow Up the Outside World," and I listened to the tune as I drove to my first errands. I had never paid much attention to the words, but this time I noticed the opening lyric: "Nothing seems to kill me no matter how hard I try." I usually enjoy synchronicities, but this time, not so much.

 I'm not a Chris Cornell expert and I don't know what his issues/problems were. I always liked Robert Anton Wilson's life-affirming philosophy. I like the quote from this interview: "It is a great privilege to be conscious in this universe. Those who understand, shine like stars."

Here is the Butterfly Language blog on Cornell. 

You can also read Carolyn Contillo's piece, written for this blog, on how reading Quantum Psychology helped her deal with depression.  

PropAnon and Grant Morrison discuss RAW

Grant Morrison at the 2006 ComiCon (Creative Commons photo via Wikipedia). 

Although I try to keep an eye on Boing Boing, here is something that I am afraid I missed at the time: A long interview of comics heavyweight Grant Morrison (The Invisibles, etc.) by Propaganda Anonymous, e.g, Gabriel Kennedy, who is hard at work on a new biography of Robert Anton Wilson, due out from Tarcher next year. When I finally saw it, I was impressed by how long it was, and how much of it was devoted to RAW. (There's also plenty about what's new with Morrison, including the TV shows he's been writing for TV, such as his adaption of his graphic novel Happy, and his adaptation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.)

Here's a bit of the interview:

You previously mentioned to me that Masks of the Illuminati is your favorite Robert Anton Wilson book. Why is that?

The characters are great – and the way he brings them to life with research and details, Joyce and Einstein, each using his special talents to solve this quintessential modernist occult mystery. There's the gripping, twisting plotline that also doubles as a magical initiation. It's operating on so many levels. It's so brilliant, too, I think because it's self-contained, unlike Wilson's epic trilogies. It would make a great film. David Fincher should do it. The other one I really like is The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles - that's when I came back to reading Wilson in a big way but he never finished that series -

Much more here. 

Wednesday links

Stage and screen siren Kate Alderton, recording her Cosmic Trigger podcast. She's Arlen and Miss Portanari in the play. Photo from her Twitter account. 

New Cosmic Trigger podcast, featuring Alastair Fruish, Oliver Senton and Kate Alderton.

John Higgs review of Fruish's new one sentence novel. And here is video of Fruish reading from it.

Cary Grant, the LSD years.

Batman comic — an Illuminatus! reference?

PQ interviews Bruce Woodside about Waywords and Meansigns and Finnegans Wake.

Is this our guy? Probably not

Martin Wagner, the Austrian RAW fan who has been digging up RAW rarities in much the same fashion as the RAW fans mentioned in yesterday's post, wrote to me recently to tell me that the Jan. 19, 1981, issue of Asimov's SF Magazine had a rare work of short fiction by Robert Anton Wilson, "Island Man," attributed to one R.A. Wilson.

Martin wrote, "Island Man is a very unusual piece of work from RAW. I really would doubt that it's his if it wouldn't be listed at The Internet Speculative Fiction Database  and other sources. I guess that's why he has published it as R. A. Wilson."

Excited by the idea that RAW had published a story in a SF magazine that made the cover, with cover art by well-known SF artist David Mattingly, I immediately bought my own copy off Amazon, and it arrived in the mail Monday. I took the above photo from my kitchen table. But I was disappointed when I opened the package and looked the yellowing pages, once the property of Mr. W.E. Harrison of Dallas, Texas.

My own opinion is that Martin was correct to doubt that it's RAW. It doesn't read like RAW's writing, and the biographical note attached to the story in the magazine attributes it to a writer living in a place where RAW never lived: "The author tells us he's a college graduate of scanty means whose time is mostly absorbed by writing. He has neither potted plants nor pets, although there is a cat who visits occasionally, and lives in a small Indiana town. This story is his first sale."

The issue dates from the earlier days of the magazine, when George Scithers was the editor. Scithers died in 2010.

My own theory is that the story was written by a guy from Indiana who never developed much of a career, and that Scithers carelessly published a byline that too closely resembled one of a better-known writer.

I looked more closely at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, wondering who to blame, and found this, under "Disclaimer":

"The ISFDB is an online open-content collaborative bibliographic database, that is, a voluntary association of individuals and groups who are developing a common resource of human knowledge. The structure of the project allows anyone with an account, an Internet connection, and World Wide Web browser to alter its content. Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by professionals with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate, or reliable information."

Email to the Universe reading group, Week One

We begin the discussion of Email to the Universe by Robert Anton Wilson with the "Introduction" by R. Michael Johnson, a new item exclusive to the just issued Hilartas Press edition of the book. Please chime in with comments to this post. Greg Arnott takes over in our next episode; for next week, please read pages 1-37 in the Hilaritas Press edition, which in the ebook takes you up to location 782, the "Thoughts to Ponder" from Dennis Kucinich, my former Congressman. 

If you aren't familiar with him, Michael Johnson is a musician (plays guitar), music teacher, writer, blogger and RAW scholar who lives in northern California. He comments on this blog as "Michael," and writes at the Overweening Generalist blog.

Richard Rasa, who is directing the Hilaritas Press reprint series, says that Michael's piece provides the book with the introduction that Rasa believes the book has always needed. And indeed, Michael's introduction serves a dual purpose: It gives the reader the inside scoop, largely unknown even to many RAW fans, of how the anthology of previously-uncollected pieces spanning 45 years came to be assembled, and it also provides an overview to the book. (The book does have quite a bit of material written especially for it, including the valuable "Note" at the beginning which we'll cover next week.)

Michael Johnson with a California writer, in the writer's apartment

Michael created the alt.fan.wilson Usenet group, which was an early place for RAW fans to hang out online. Michael explains, " I’d been online for a few months and discovered Usenet. After a few days I wondered if there was a Wilson group. There wasn’t, but there was an option to start one, and it was apparently so easy to do that even I was able to do it. I posted to myself, feeling a tad absurd, but then someone showed up - I forget who - and wrote, “I can’t believe there’s a newsgroup for RAW, this is cool! I just kept posting little things - miniblogs? - and eventually there was a small but ardent community."

The Usenet group later morphed into the thriving Robert Anton Wilson Fans group on Facebook. created by Dan Clore at the suggestion of Brian Shields. 

In his intro, Michael explains that Mike Gathers discovered that he could find "lost" articles by RAW by searching on eBay. The two Michaels began spending quite a bit of money, and time, acquiring old men's magazines, old occult publications and other periodicals. They were joined in the hunt by Eric Wagner, Dan Clore, Marc Lutter, Ted Hand and Jesse Walker. Eventually, at Gathers' suggestion, the pieces were digitized and posted at rawilsonfans.com. The site is now rawilsonfans.org, and Gathers is the current site host.

Although Michael doesn't make a point of noting this, Robert Anton Wilson did a pretty bad job of keeping track of keeping track of his past publications, correspondence and other papers. And so, when RAW put together Email to the Universe, he drew on the hard work of the two Michaels and the other people I have just mentioned, using many of the best pieces that had been tracked down and posted to the website. 

Since that time, other work has come to light and been posted at rawilsonfans.org, including pieces that I or some of my correspondents have found. 

I recently posted photos of some of the folks mentioned above, and I should tell you a bit more about them if their names are unfamiliar to you.

I've introduced Michael Johnson to you, and I've tried to make it clear what a vital role Mike Gathers played in the "secret history" of Email to the Universe that Michael  outlines.  Eric Wagner is the author of An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson. Dan Clore runs Robert Anton Wilson Fans on Facebook. Ted Hand lives in the San Francisco area and regularly interacts with RAW fans via his Twitter. Jesse Walker is an author and an editor at Reason magazine. I can't tell you much about Marc Lutter and have never corresponded with him. Lutter is German and was formerly in touch with Michael. 

You can learn a lot about "RAW fandom" by checking out Robert Anton Wilson Fans on Facebook, see also RAWnet at Hilaritas Press or read some of the posts in this blog; there is no one place that can capture the phenomena. 

The back story of Email to the Universe isn't Michael Johnson's only topic. Michael also shows off his unsurpassed understanding of RAW's ideas and recurrent themes. For the most part, I don't want to recapitulate that here; read the piece and post  your comments.

But I did want to draw attention to one sentence I highlighted in my Kindle copy of the book, where Michael writes, "Earlier in his career Wilson wrote about longevity and human immortality; in this work, he writes about death." 

This is a good observation, and it connects to what Oz Fritz has pointed out, that Wilson made no attempt to cryonically preserve his brain, as he did with his daughter Luna's (as described in Cosmic Trigger), but instead more or less accepted his death. See this final post on his blog, shortly before his death, where he wrote:

Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.

Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd. 

Art for Michael's blog created by Bobby Campbell. 

'10 Vital Questions' from Butterfly Language

Butterfly Language blogger (and author and editor) Val D'Orazio (current portrait posted at her blog)

I can't cover every provocative or interesting post from Butterfly Language as Val is a very prolific writer, but "10 Vital Questions For You About The Future" seemed particularly interesting to me.

Any one of these questions would be worth a separate blog post. Here's one that she poses:

IV. Do you think that the great advances “just around the corner” in halting the aging process, cybernetics, genetic engineering, and so on are actually meant for the common people at all?

I may be more optimistic on this than Val is. New technology always begins as a plaything for the rich, and then becomes available to everyone else.

The other questions include ones on sex, work, privacy and politics.

I'm currently reading The Chaos Protocols by Gordon White, which Val reviewed and strongly recommended. 

Review of a play in London

As the rave reviews continue to roll in for the Cosmic Trigger play in London, I thought some of you might enjoy reading a piece about an earlier play in Britain. From the June 1977 issue of Playboy magazine comes this article about the Illuminatus! play,  It's a nice piece, but uncredited. Does anyone know who wrote it? And is it true that Sir John Gielgud did the voice of FUCKUP?

The young lady on the cover is Patti McGuire, who married tennis great Jimmy Connors.

Thanks to Martin Wagner for sending this to me.