Prop Anon discusses the upcoming RAW biography

 

Prop Anon aka Gabriel Kennedy is interviewed in a new episode of the podcast Spotlight On. It should be available wherever you get your podcasts, but I've also obviously posted the video, or you can read the transcript.  The focus naturally is on Robert Anton Wilson, and Prop's new book about RAW, due out in February. The title is Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson. I can't wait to read the book, but the interview is a nice preview. The podcast has been around for awhile -- I notice it is episode 23 of the ninth season. The show is hosted by Lawrence Peryer.

I also learned a bit more about Prop, too: " I was born in Long Island, New York, and was raised by two Irish immigrants who came to New York and opened bars. So, I was raised in a bar family. I have many memories of sitting at the end of the bar while my parents were working and observing people in that setting. I was always around stories in a way; listening to people speak at the bar as a young kid was educational."

Matt Cardin cites RAW

Matt Cardin (from his official website)

Writer Matt Cardin, mentioned before at this site,  cited RAW in a posting on X, hat tip Charles Faris:

I hold the whole matter of the daimon muse or inner genius—which I talk about and write about all the time—in a permanent liminal hyperspace.

Our epistemic position makes it flatly impossible for us to know the literal truth or untruth of the daimon muse hypothesis. Robert Anton Wilson's stance of model agnosticism pointedly applies to this matter. 

What we can know for sure is that there is incontrovertibly the sense of another intelligence accompanying our ego self and rational mind "from behind." In other words, the sense of it is definitely real and not in question. Any interpretations we apply to this, whether in terms of the "unconscious," the "daemon," or anything else, are only that: interpretations. The datum of the experience itself remains primary.

Not tangentially, this same impossibility of final certainty applies to any and all totalizing interpretations that we place on ourselves, the world, and reality as a whole. As a matter of self-evident truth, we can never stand apart from our subjectivity, our first-personhood, to comment with objective finality on any of this.

Or rather, and to say the same thing differently and more deeply: The only final stance is one of truly absolute objectivity, from which position the entirety of the cosmic drama, including both its subjective and objective realms or aspects, is all a collective wave pulse of mere appearances. Our own creativity, consisting of the dream of being a separate self that exists in perpetual relationship with a personal creative daemon, occurs within and as a component of that.

Update of sorts on 'Illuminatus!" TV series

Back in 2019, I posted the news that an Illuminatus! TV series was in the works. Not much has been announced since then.  

Rasa was asked about this on Facebook recently and replied, "That particular deal they mention in that news story fell apart, but there is still an option out on Illuminatus!, so something may yet come together."

There's more discussion at the link. 

New book on UBI

Robert Anton Wilson, who sometimes described himself as a libertarian who didn't hate poor people, was quite interested in the UBI, or the Universal Basic Income, the idea that the government would guarantee a certain level of income for everyone, largely  replacing other welfare programs.

There's a new book out about the UBI: Universal Basic Income: What Everyone Needs to Know, by Matt Zwolinksi and Miranda Perry Fletcher. It's endorsed by UBI proponent Andrew Yang: "A complete, thorough, and practical breakdown of UBI. Whether you're a supporter or a skeptic, Zwolinski and Fleischer's work is a must-read." 

Here is an excerpt on the difference between the UBI and a negative income tax (another idea RAW was interested in). Also from the book: Four arguments against a UBI,  and here are six arguments for a UBI. 

'Lion of Light' reading group continues

 

My "to do list" today includes doing the latest reading assignment for the Lion of Light reading group at Jechidah.  New entries are being posted every week, but it's not too late to grab a copy and get caught and participate, weighing in with comments. I suspect I am repeating myself, but Oz and Gregory are working very hard with their entries; this is a great chance, not to be missed, to learn about Aleister Crowley's influence on Robert Anton Wilson. 

The posts give the page numbers in the book for each reading; I bought the Kindle version, and I've finally figured out how to get my Kindle to list the page numbers. Touch the top of the page, touch the "Aa" and choose "More" to get options for "Reading progress."

Another Philip K. Dick movie, or a TV show, on the way?

First edition hardcover. 

Jesse Walker on X: "A movie or TV version of one of Philip K. Dick's best books, THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH, may be on the way: https://filmstories.co.uk/news/exclusive-philip-k-dick-novel-the-three-stigmata-of-palmer-eldritch-copyrighted-by-netflix/ (Yes, I know: We already have EXISTENZ.)"

Here's the first couple of sentences from the report Jesse links to:

"Joining the likes of Blade Runner, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly, Philip K Dick’s 1964 novel The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch could soon become a film or TV series.

"Thanks to an anonymous tip-off, Film Stories did a search of the United States Copyright Office’s records, and discovered a tantalising entry. On 23 March this year, Netflix Entertainment LLC completed a short-form option agreement with the late author’s estate, meaning it now has the rights to adapt The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch into a television show, film, or some other kind of production."

New John Higgs audiobook

 

Announcement from John Higgs: "After a mere 18 years wait, my first book I HAVE AMERICA SURROUNDED: THE LIFE OF TIMOTHY LEARY is finally available on audiobook (in the UK - US follows next year). Read by me. Tune In, Turn On, Click Here."

New Ada Palmer interview

Ada Palmer (University of Chicago Faculty portrait) 

If you enjoyed my long Maybe Day interview with historian and novelist Ada Palmer, you might also enjoy Tyler Cowen's long interview with Palmer, which has finally been released as a video, a podcast and in a transcript.

I love the concept of clandestine bookstores, which apparently existed in 18th century France. Palmer: "Remember that the 18th century is a moment when the clandestine bookshop is a major, major thing ... the same underground bookshops sell all underground materials, which means an underground bookshop sells pornography, and it also sells Voltaire and Rousseau, and it also sells diatribes criticizing the king, and it also sells radical Jansenist theological pamphlets about whether the Holy Spirit derives from the Father and Son equally or from the Father alone."

This bit about Voltaire is fascinating: "I’ve also thought about a choose-your-own-adventure biography of Voltaire because there’s that amazing moment when he’s barely in his early 20s, and his father almost decides to arrange him to be banished to South America. Imagine the world where, instead of Voltaire being in France, Voltaire is in South America — both how different France would be and how different South America would be."

Cowen has a very popular blog, so he'll get a big audience for his interview. I'm frustrated more people haven't read mine, but I don't know what to do about that. 

Welcome to the Hotel California

 

I could not help myself from posting this photo of California rock stars, from 1976, in honor of the fact that Robert Anton Wilson lived much of his life in California. From left, David Lindley, Don Henley, Don Felder, Linda Ronstadt, Glenn Frey, Governor Jerry Browne, Randy Meisner, Dan Folgelberg, Joe Walsh and Jackson Browne. Via Jesse Walker, who reposted it on X and joked, "Telling my kids that this is Reagan with the Rat Pack."

Lennon-McCartney and Wilson-Shea

 

John Lennon, left, and Paul McCartney, top, with other members of their band (public domain photo). Robert Shea decided to grow a mustache to follow their example. 

Most Beatles fan likely will recognize that the John Lennon-Paul McCartney partnership, in songwriting and in running the Beatles, was a synergy that created something greater than what either could do on their own.

I would argue that the Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson partnership that created Illuminatus!, launching literary careers for both of them, was a similar happy partnership, even if they never collaborated again.

Here is a mailing comment Shea wrote to Wilson in his Golden APA zine:

"I was stunned by your comment [to] Kevin, wherein you say you brooded over why you couldn’t finish a long book and then, collaborating with me, finished one. You see, I’ve been going around telling people that I never completed a book project before writing Illuminatus! and it was my collaboration with you, and your example of joyful productivity that taught me how to write and finish novels. I never realized that Illuminatus! was a breakthrough book for both of us. I guess I sort of assumed that you had never before written a book simply because you hadn’t gotten around to it, whereas I, who had started a number of novels and never finished any, had a 'problem'.”

Coming soon (I hope) my Robert Shea anthology

Robert Shea, with the manuscript of his excellent historical novel, Shike. 

As a comment to Sunday's blog post, Spookah writes, "Do you mean that you are putting together a Robert Shea anthology? If so, would that be just for yourself, or are there plans on getting it published somehow?

"One can only appreciate the efforts you make in keeping Bob Shea's work and memory alive, Tom."

I am in fact working on a Kindle ebook anthology of Robert Shea's nonfiction to be published by Anecdota Press, my imprint; see "Ebooks I've Published" at the right side of this page for my first two titles, Pause, Play — A Higher Consciousness Handbook, K.P. van der Tempel and War is the Health of the State, Randolph Bourne. 

I announced the Shea anthology in a posting on Maybe Day this year, but I haven't talked too much about it. The tentative title, unless I think of a better one, is Every Day Is a GOOD Day: The Nonfiction of Robert Shea, and the content is essays and interviews, not unlike many of RAW's books. ("Every day is a good day" is a slogan he often used in zines for The Golden APA, where many of his zines were circulated.) I'm doing this with the permission of Mike Shea, Robert Shea's son and literary executor, who maintains the official Shea website.  I have more than 65,000 words so far, and I feel like I'm getting close to having a finished draft. It will still need to be edited and I need to write an introduction and do some other bits, but I am hoping to be done in a new weeks.

It turns out Shea wrote quite a bit about anarchism and libertarianism, writing, science fiction, Illuminatus! and many other topics. I hope people will find the book interesting. 

Another RAW fan

The controversial antiwar writer Caitlin Johnstone apparently is a RAW fan, or at the very least is familiar with his work.

For example, here is the article "The Healthy Way To Hold A Conspiracy Theory" on her website, which cites RAW on reality tunnels. 

She recently moved websites, her latest website is here. 

A RAW home, and a mailing comment

 

Above photo posted on X by Adrian Legg,  who writes, "Bob's old residence address in Dalkey, County Dublin, looking splendid @RAWilson23."

Unrelated: 

I've been plugging away on my Robert Shea anthology, and part of that work is going through old issues of "Tlaloc Grinned," the fanzine Shea wrote for The Golden APA. (The title of the zine is an Illuminatus! reference; early in the trilogy a woman named Sasparilla "either saw, or imagined she saw, a sinister kind of tight grin, or grimace, cross the face of the gigantic statue of Tlaloc, the rain god.") Much of Shea's zines consisted of mailing comments, i.e. comments about zines written by other members of the apa (such as Arthur Hlavaty, founder of The Golden APA). (For more on the Golden APA and Shea's and Wilson's participation in it, please see this interview.) In one zine, Shea refers to "Tlaloc Grinned" as "The apazine of Pre-Columbian Pan-Secular Pagan Humanism." 

Anyway, when Shea died and Wilson wrote about him in Cosmic Trigger 3, Wilson recalled his visits to Shea's home in Illinois after Wilson had left Chicago.

So I thought I would share a mailing comment Shea wrote to Wilson in the January 1988 issue of "Tlaloc Grinned": "Chicago seemed more like home to us, too, with you visiting. I get more interesting, new ideas in a few hours of talking with  you than I get in six months of my day-to-day life."