Supergee, asked to list three books that changed his life, picks Catch 22, Stranger in a Strange Land and ILLUMINATUS!
I would pick ILLUMINATUS! too, but I don't know what my other two are yet.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
RAW and Madonna
I've been re-reading Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger 3: My Life After Death and I just finished the chapter on Orson Welles F Is for Fake and Madonna's movie, Truth or Dare. The Welles part is not a surprise, as RAW's interest in Welles is well known, but the Madonna part surprised me a bit. It's clear from the essay that RAW made an effort to find as many reviews of Truth or Dare as possible and that he made a point of watching her music videos (it's interesting to picture RAW, normally not known for his interest in pop music, earnestly squinting at MTV to spot moments of postmodern ambiguity in "Like a Virgin." Does anyone know how RAW got interested in Madonna?
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Audiobook of Finnegans Wake
Here is something for the James Joyce fns: Ubuweb has posted an audiobook of Finnegans Wake, in MP3s, read by Patrick Healy.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Sarah Hoyt accepting her Prometheus Award
Apart from any intrinsic interest, Sarah Hoyt is an interesting person. English is her third language, after Portuguese and French. She read Robert Heinlein in translation. Apparently Heinlein made a lasting impression on her; the book she won the award for, Darkship Thieves, is dedicated to Heinlein, and she named one of her sons "Robert Anson."
Robert Shea's Prometheus acceptance speech is here.
Robert Shea's Prometheus acceptance speech is here.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Optimist and Pessimism
I often read, and sometimes understand, Tyler Cowen's and Alex Tabarrok's blog, Marginal Revolution. (It's kind of like Overweening Generalist, with more economics.)
Tyler recently published a list of "About what I am optimistic and pessimistic," and it inspired a similar list from libertarian economist Bryan Caplan, which I thought was interesting and might interest RAW fans. Some of them relate pretty directly to RAW's ideas.
Caplan's No. 4: "4. I am a pessimist about life extension. The only path to centuries of healthy life (as opposed to mere simulation) is probably genetically engineering embryos - and it's too late for me and everyone I care about."
On the other hand, he thinks that in 100 years poverty will be gone and a major war will be unthinkable.
Tyler recently published a list of "About what I am optimistic and pessimistic," and it inspired a similar list from libertarian economist Bryan Caplan, which I thought was interesting and might interest RAW fans. Some of them relate pretty directly to RAW's ideas.
Caplan's No. 4: "4. I am a pessimist about life extension. The only path to centuries of healthy life (as opposed to mere simulation) is probably genetically engineering embryos - and it's too late for me and everyone I care about."
On the other hand, he thinks that in 100 years poverty will be gone and a major war will be unthinkable.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
More from Ted Hand on RAW
Some recent Tweets from Ted Hand (@t3dy). Hand's Twitter profile says he is "ex-Nova Cop digs Renaissance Magic Alchemy Gnosis+Angels, Discordia/Psychedelia/Pataphysica, SF Fantasy BodyHorror+VGame Theory, Music,Cats,Comedy,Detectives."
R.A.W.'s allegorical use of flames, ambulances, protest tactics as weird models of consciousness change in illuminatus! deserves more study.
R.A.W.'s "The Widow's Son" is one of his most successful experiment. Hilarious+highly readable, original use of "fake" footnotes, thrills...
I'm surprised I haven't seen more studies of R.A.W.'s The Earth Will Shake in the light of Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."
R.A.W.'s "Masks of the illuminati" has some weird joycean elements but they don't interfere with it being a ripping good suspense novel/trip
The R.A.Wilson nonfiction book I'm most interested in is Coincidance. Long fascinated with the hints/wonder if anybody's decoded his cabala.
R.A.W.'s allegorical use of flames, ambulances, protest tactics as weird models of consciousness change in illuminatus! deserves more study.
R.A.W.'s "The Widow's Son" is one of his most successful experiment. Hilarious+highly readable, original use of "fake" footnotes, thrills...
I'm surprised I haven't seen more studies of R.A.W.'s The Earth Will Shake in the light of Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."
R.A.W.'s "Masks of the illuminati" has some weird joycean elements but they don't interfere with it being a ripping good suspense novel/trip
The R.A.Wilson nonfiction book I'm most interested in is Coincidance. Long fascinated with the hints/wonder if anybody's decoded his cabala.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
An exchange on Twitter
Ted Hand: @17beowulf I'm sure there are a ton of closet RAW fans in English departments by now. We need more graduate students interested+brave enough
Ted Hand: @17beowulf It should simply be obvious that RAW was doing something really interesting when he applied Cabala and Semantics to Joycean prose
John Merritt: @t3dy Joyce & Pound's influence on RAW: two dissertations looking for authors. But RAW's too plebeian for snooty English departments.
John Merritt: @t3dy To you and I, yes. To theory addicted English professors, maybe not.
John Merritt: @t3dy The problem is waiting for the oldsters to retire, like the Yeats "expert" I know who won't touch "A Vision" or the G. D. stuff.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf Burroughs and Dick have prepared the way, I suspect. But I understand the pessimism. Might be quitting academic for good myself.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf I guess we need to encourage more students to publish papers addressing theory addict concerns with RAW, easy to do I'm sure
Ted Hand @17beowulf That's ridiculous. To refuse to study something your guy wrote? Golden Dawn is getting plenty of scholarly attention in rel.stud.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf illuminatus! would be perfect for an American Studies course on the 60's, but I like reading it as a critique of Hobbes+Ayn Rand.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf really we need to do linguistics to understand what he's doing when he plays around with post-joycean prose. interdisc. RAWstudy!
John Merritt: @t3d, Perhaps I'm too pessimistic. Detectives and SF were once off limits also. RAW uses tropes from both.
John Merritt: @t3dy Hammett's Continental Op is in Schroedinger's Cat.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf yeah I would love to see a study of Detective story in illuminatus! I like to compare it to Firesign Theatre Giant Rat of Sumatra
Ted Hand: @17beowulf since RAW was in some ways a card-carrying postmodernist, but especially since he misunderstood so much, he should be theory gold
Lots of other RAW observations recently from Ted Hand. I'll reprint some tomorrow.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf It should simply be obvious that RAW was doing something really interesting when he applied Cabala and Semantics to Joycean prose
John Merritt: @t3dy Joyce & Pound's influence on RAW: two dissertations looking for authors. But RAW's too plebeian for snooty English departments.
John Merritt: @t3dy To you and I, yes. To theory addicted English professors, maybe not.
John Merritt: @t3dy The problem is waiting for the oldsters to retire, like the Yeats "expert" I know who won't touch "A Vision" or the G. D. stuff.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf Burroughs and Dick have prepared the way, I suspect. But I understand the pessimism. Might be quitting academic for good myself.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf I guess we need to encourage more students to publish papers addressing theory addict concerns with RAW, easy to do I'm sure
Ted Hand @17beowulf That's ridiculous. To refuse to study something your guy wrote? Golden Dawn is getting plenty of scholarly attention in rel.stud.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf illuminatus! would be perfect for an American Studies course on the 60's, but I like reading it as a critique of Hobbes+Ayn Rand.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf really we need to do linguistics to understand what he's doing when he plays around with post-joycean prose. interdisc. RAWstudy!
John Merritt: @t3d, Perhaps I'm too pessimistic. Detectives and SF were once off limits also. RAW uses tropes from both.
John Merritt: @t3dy Hammett's Continental Op is in Schroedinger's Cat.
Ted Hand: @17beowulf yeah I would love to see a study of Detective story in illuminatus! I like to compare it to Firesign Theatre Giant Rat of Sumatra
Ted Hand: @17beowulf since RAW was in some ways a card-carrying postmodernist, but especially since he misunderstood so much, he should be theory gold
Lots of other RAW observations recently from Ted Hand. I'll reprint some tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Michael Johnson on free love and related topics
Michael Johnson, apparently partially inspired by the RAW essay reprinted here earlier this week, riffs on "Free Sex, Free Love, Sex-Politics and Neat Stuff Like That."
Inspirational sentence: "Feel free to use these lines from me and Woody Allen if you're trying to hookup with someone at the airport." You have to read the post to get the context.
Inspirational sentence: "Feel free to use these lines from me and Woody Allen if you're trying to hookup with someone at the airport." You have to read the post to get the context.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Death of Charles Percy
U.S. Sen. Charles Percy has died. NY Times obit is here.
Percy is mentioned in The Universe Next Door, the first book of the Schroedinger's Cat trilogy, in the Boston Cream Pie chapter, describing Benny "Eggs" Benedict's attempt to cope with the grief from the murder of his mother:
Then, one day looking through the old files in the newspaper morgue, Benny found an interview with Senator Charles Percy given in 1970, two years after the murder of his daughter. "For the first year after the murder," Senator Percy said, "my whole family lived in terror."
(Page 20 of the omnibus volume; page 32 of the 1979 Pocket Books first printing.)
Percy was a U.S. senator from Illinois when Wilson lived there as an editor for Playboy magazine. Grief over the murder of his own daughter is one of the major themes of Wilson's trilogy. (Hat tip: Michael Johnson in altfanrawilson.com).
Percy is mentioned in The Universe Next Door, the first book of the Schroedinger's Cat trilogy, in the Boston Cream Pie chapter, describing Benny "Eggs" Benedict's attempt to cope with the grief from the murder of his mother:
Then, one day looking through the old files in the newspaper morgue, Benny found an interview with Senator Charles Percy given in 1970, two years after the murder of his daughter. "For the first year after the murder," Senator Percy said, "my whole family lived in terror."
(Page 20 of the omnibus volume; page 32 of the 1979 Pocket Books first printing.)
Percy was a U.S. senator from Illinois when Wilson lived there as an editor for Playboy magazine. Grief over the murder of his own daughter is one of the major themes of Wilson's trilogy. (Hat tip: Michael Johnson in altfanrawilson.com).
Sunday, September 18, 2011
No Governor posted
I have posted a copy of the first issue of Robert Shea's fanzine, No Governor, here. I'll also post a link under "Feature Articles and Interviews." As I mentioned yesterday, it includes a Robert Anton Wilson article.
My thanks to the University of Michigan library, and to Mike Shea, who gave me permission to post it.
My thanks to the University of Michigan library, and to Mike Shea, who gave me permission to post it.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Robert Shea's No Governor
Robert Shea, the co-author of ILLUMINATUS!, published an anarchist fanzine called No Governor. The Labadie Collection shows issues 1 through 11, published from 1975 from 1990. I don't know if this is a complete collection. It is my belief that Robert Anton Wilson was a frequent contributor; I do know that RAW wrote an article, "Free Love, Sexism and All That," that was published in the first issue, which I'll post a PDF of tomorrow.
If anyone has a complete collection and is willing to turn them into PDFs, that would be cool. I have obtained permission from Shea's estate to post the zines.
If anyone has a complete collection and is willing to turn them into PDFs, that would be cool. I have obtained permission from Shea's estate to post the zines.
Friday, September 16, 2011
What to name after RAW?
Officials in Pittsburgh are talking about naming a bridge after David McCullough, a writer who has twice nabbed the Pulitzer Prize. (The city already has bridges named after Andy Warhol, Roberto Clemente and Rachel Carson.)
Which prompts today's question: What should be named after Robert Anton Wilson?
Which prompts today's question: What should be named after Robert Anton Wilson?
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Carl Oglesby has died
If you are reasonably familiar with the works of Robert Anton Wilson, you will recognize the name Carl Oglesby, the writer and political activist. RAW appeared to be particularly found of The Yankee and Cowboy War: Conspiracies from Dallas to Watergate.
Oglesby has died, age 76, from cancer. Here are some obituaries, all worth reading: from Jesse Walker; a writeup in the Boston Herald; and one in the New York Times.
Oglesby has died, age 76, from cancer. Here are some obituaries, all worth reading: from Jesse Walker; a writeup in the Boston Herald; and one in the New York Times.
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