RAWilsonFans.org back up again

The RAWilsonFans.org website, an archive of Robert Anton Wilson material, is  back online again after being down for a few days. 

If you aren't familiar with it, it's an archive of Wilson material, including a bibliography, interviews, essays, letters written by Wilson, material from some of his Maybe Logic Academy classes, audio and video. There's also a link on the home page to Martin Wagner's similar site, which offers additional material. If you don't know the sites, you owe it to yourself to check them out. 

RAWilsonfans.org was founded by Mike Gathers, who also has served as host for most of its existence (Joseph Matheny, another RAW fan MVP, was the host for a few years). Mike also serves as the current host. He gathered a great deal of the material himself. 

Natural Law online reading group, Week 14, more on 'I Opening'

Chad Nelson's post last week on "I Opening," the last piece in the Hilaritas Natural Law, was so good it might seem there isn't more to say. But I can't resist putting in my bit.

The publication date of 1972 (in Gallery magazine) is interesting, as it shows that Schroedinger's Cat was in the works for a number of years; as Eric Wagner notes in the comments for last week's post, the copyrights for the first Cat book is 1979, and then they are 1981 for the next two. And it's interesting to me that the story was written during or just after Illuminatus! was written, and employs the Illuminatus! prose cut up technique. Hugh Crane pops up sometimes as a pen name for Wilson in the "Playboy Forum," for example in this brief letter dating to 1970. , so it's a name that was used years before the Schroedinger's Cat trilogy. 

Knowing that the story was published in 1972, it was shocking to me to read, about Crane's death by gunshots, "in 1980, as he was coming out of his apartment for a morning walk in Central Park, and the wild-eyed young man stepped in front of him ..." (Page 227.) John Lennon was shot to death in 1980 outside of his apartment building, the Dakota; the murder took place very close to Central Park. 

I love this bit: "The great affirmation that 'All is joy,' in contrast to the Buddha's equally-true, equally-false, and now obsolete, 'All is sorrow' ... " (Page 228). "

I also liked this: "Eternity is another code word. I won't get any extension in time from these rites. What I get, and you're beginning to get, is a deepening. Not more minutes, but more fullness in each minute. That's eternity."

Chad's entry last week got more reader comments than most blog posts in the series have received. Oz Fritz wrote, "Brilliant way to end the book with this top notch essay on magick. Wilson gives away a lot here." Oz, can you spell out what some of what Wilson gives away? 

A couple of annotations: 

"many people wrote to him, telling him he was the greatest American since Robert DePugh ...." (Page 207).  I did not get the reference, so I looked it up. Robert DePugh (1923-2009), was an anti-Communist activist who founded a militant group called the Minutemen. no connection to the punk rock band. 

"You're gonna end up like Chaplin," (Page 212.) Despite his greatness, Charlie Chaplin's popularity in the U.S. dwindled to nothing after a series of sex and political scandals, see the Wikipedia article. 

" ... likely at any time to come to a worse cropper than Fatty Arbuckle." (Page 214). His career also was destroyed by a scandal, although apparently he was  not really guilty of anything. 

"a moderately renowned psychologist," (Page 219), Timothy Leary, I assume. 

This will likely be the last posting in the reading group, unless Chad or I (or anyone else) think of something else that ought to be said. Thank you to everyone who took part. 

  

Ongoing series on Alan Moore and Grant Morrison

 

Elizabeth Sandifer (Twitter account photo)

I don't plan to wade through this myself, as I am busy right now with other priorities and not particularly a fan of the author, but "Last War in Albion," an ongoing series of blog posts by Elizabeth Sandifer, is about Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, apparently exploring their work and their rivalry. I assume sombunall of you will be interested:

"Last War in Albion is an ongoing feature of this site, currently running on Mondays. It is an ongoing critical history of the British comics industry focused primarily on the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. Its primary narrative runs from the publication of Grant Morrison’s earliest professional comics work in 1978 through to the present day, although its style is characterized by frequent digressions both forwards and backwards in history.

"The structure of Last War in Albion is an ongoing serial, with each entry following directly from the end of the previous one. Topics are often covered over two or more posts. Jumping around will thus produce some confusion, although hopefully a pleasant and entertaining level.

"The nature of this project means a lot of crawling around through the archives and trying to piece together timelines of decades old events. This at times requires tremendous practical help, and several people have provided various forms of material support in writing this project. To wit, I would like to extend special thanks to Meredith Collins, David Dovey, Ben Hansom, Andrew Hickey, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, Lance Parkin, Alex Reed, Matt Feltman, Roger Whitson, Anna Wiggins, and, of course, Jill Buratto. 

"The blog versions of Books One and Two were written prior to Morrison’s use of they/them pronouns."

Hilaritas to publish Leary's out of print 'Terra II'

Original cover for Terra II

Hilaritas Press, the publishing imprint of the Robert Anton Wilson Trust, will reprint Timothy Leary's book, Terra II: A Way Out. The book dates from 1973 or 1974 and concerns efforts to get into outer space and contact higher intelligence. It was originally published as 1,000 copies and never reprinted, so the Hilaritas edition will make it available again.

I reported in October 2021 that Hilaritas was trying to obtain the rights. That has been done, and Rasa is now working on the book. It's impossible to say when the book will be out; Rasa always simply releases the book when it is ready, and it's difficult to know in advance what snags might come up. It does seem like a good sign that production has begun.

It does look like a number of Hilaritas Press publications currently are in the works. Among the titles that have been publicly disclosed, besides the new Leary, are the next three scheduled Robert Anton Wilson new editions: The Walls Came Tumbling Down, Reality is What You Can Get Away With and Chaos and Beyond. I am hoping for an announcement on Walls soon. Work also is being carried out on the new RAW book that is focused on Aleister Crowley, fueled by the discovery of a 72 page manuscript. There is also a "secret" book project that has not been announced yet. 

Pete Carroll's business tips

Prop Anon, continuing his efforts to make Maybe Logic Academy class materials available, has posted information on all five weeks of Pete Carroll's "Chaos Magic in Business" class at Prop's Chapel Perilous website. 

"In the Spring of 2006, Peter Carroll taught a five-week course called 'Chaos Magic in Business' at the Maybe Logic Academy. When I saw the advertisement for the course then I was curious as I’d never thought about applying magic to your business. However, after reading Carroll’s explanation of how Chaos Magic can help you create and then maintain your own business, I became interested in taking the course," Prop explains.

Hilaritas podcast features Sascha Engel

The latest Hilaritas Press podcast, released today, is an interview with Sascha Engel. The blurb says simply, "In this episode, Mike Gathers chats with Sascha Engel about the themes of his book, Breaking the Alphabet and the tyranny of the written word." Engel has an official website, which offers this: "Sascha's an author of anti-civilizational prose and poetry and founder of the now-defunct Ireland-based journal Strukturriss. After pursuing an M.A. in Political Theory and a PhD in Political Economy, Sascha's interest in things other than economics was awakened by the chance find of an 'ancient technology' section in a bookstore in Corvallis, Oregon, and he's never looked back since. Find him experimenting with ancient lettering systems pre-dating the Latin alphabet, or just wandering about in County Cork, Ireland."

The official website for the episode has useful links and suggestions on where to find the podcast 

As I noted earlier, the podcast for Feb. 23 was supposed to be an interview with John Zerzan, but the episode was canceled and replaced. 

The podcast host, Mike Gathers, recently issued "Men's Work," another episode of his Intelligence Increase newsletter on Substack. 

A RAW fan announces a new grant program

Jim O'Shaughnessy

What would happen if a wealthy Robert Anton Wilson fan used his money to try to make the world a better place? It seems as if we are getting at least one answer to the question.

Jim O'Shaughnessy, the Wall Street investor and investment guru, often mentions RAW on his Twitter account. He was last mentioned at this blog when he interviewed a putative "new RAW" on his podcast, has announced the first two O'Shaughnessy Fellowships awarded by  O'Shaughnessy Ventures, LLC.

"Dr. William Zeng will use the O'Shaughnessy Fellowship $100,000 grant to pursue open-source quantum computing," a press release says. "Nat & Martha Sharpe will use the $100,000 O'Shaughnessy Fellowship grant to study and make documentary films of alternative childhood education schools."

Zeng's research sounds as if it might be of interest to RAW fans.

"Dr. Zeng will use his fellowship period to study how emerging quantum technologies can explore foundational questions in quantum mechanics. For example, this next generation of experimental tests will probe fundamental aspects of nature by considering what it means for something to be an observation / some-being to be an observer."

The grant to the Sharpes also sounds interesting.

"Nat and Martha will use their Fellowship grant to investigate and document how we can prepare kids for a future where no career is safe. Is self-directed learning the answer? What happens when we let kids learn whatever they want? Nat and Martha Sharpe will use their fellowship to film and share the stories of the people who embody these questions."

About the grant program: "OSV launched the Fellowship Program on 1 January 2023. It is a one-year program for ambitious people who want to build something great. Fellows will receive a $100,000 equity-free grant and access to OSV's network of founders, investors, and experts to support them in bringing their projects to life. OSV will award Twelve Fellowships in total."

More here. 

The fellowships are only part of what O'Shaughnessy Ventures, LLC does, see the website. 

Robert Anton Wilson on AI and automation

As we discuss "I Opening" in the Natural Law reading group, a precursor to the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy, a blog posting by Bunnyworks Studio notes that many of the current issues raised by AI are anticipated in the trilogy:

"Having your human workforce replaced by machine labor should be a reason to rejoice. You don't have to work anymore and can dedicate your valuable time to more fulfilling activities like games, literature and art. Of course, this is not the actual case in the world today, nor was it during most of humanity. The flaw is the fact the people whose workforce is replaced don't receive any form of compensation or share of the profit, which is either as high as it was before or even increases due to the introduction of new technology.

"One of the most interesting ideas/visions of a non-dystopian future adressing this very issue I once found in a trilogy of books by American author and Discordian Robert Anton Wilson (1932 - 2007), called the "Schrödinger's Cat" trilogy."

Hat tip, Nick Helweg-Larsen. 

Natural Law online reading group, Week 13, 'I Opening'

Photo by Sander Sammy at Unsplash.com

  [I really like the entire Hilaritas Natural Law book, hence this reading group, but I think Chad's discovery and reprinting of "I Opening" is a particularly amazing gift for RAW fans. When I decided to do the reading group, Chad Nelson, the book's editor, offered to do a guest post on "I Opening," and of course I agreed. Here it is. — The Management.] 

By Chad Nelson
Special guest blogger

It seemed appropriate to conclude the new edition of Natural Law with something unexpected. After all, that’s the general flavor of the book’s main essay and its companion pieces: weird, contrarian, surprisingly information-dense. 

RAW once described his work as an attempt to put LSD into the intellectual water supply. Patrons of RAWIllumination and other longtime Wilson fans have probably built up a tolerance though, so the ideas presented in this book, although profound, may no longer shock our consciences like they did when we originally encountered Wilson. I hope ending the new Natural Law volume with Wilson’s lesser-known 1972 essay "I Opening", represents a flashback of sorts. There were other reality-shattering essays that could have gone in its spot, but I liked ending it with this one for a lot of reasons.

I often wonder what the ultimate practitioner of Maybe Logic, guerrilla ontology, neurological relativism, anarchism, and “that jolly flavor of nihilism — Discordianism,” might look like, and how they’d navigate life. Surely there are countless varieties of such a person, and Hugh Crane is unmistakably one of them. RAW’s “Reichian Rebel” (as Crane is described in Gallery magazine's synopsis of the piece) seems to be a blend of a half dozen or more of the different esoteric traditions and intellectual outcasts that influenced Wilson. Some elements of "I Opening" even seem autobiographical.

Like all of us, Crane was the opposite of a static individual. He is multiple and malleable (he “seemed to be a verb,” as Wilson liked to quote Fuller). The story take us through Crane’s evolution as he experiments with deliberately induced brain change. Throughout, we witness Crane move through various phases: from atheist to “religious nut”, de Sadian “sex maniac” to devoted husband, heir apparent to Houdini to disgraced nightclub act, to name a few of them. Along the way, Wilson inserts Crane into all sorts of historical events, like a subversive Forest Gump. In Crane, Wilson gives us a character willing to evaluate almost every form of cultural conditioning and decide for himself whether to regard them or not. In doing so publicly, Hugh Crane is simultaneously the freest man and the most despised. 

Is this the destiny that awaits anyone as bold as Crane in real life? If so, is it a life worth living?

I really appreciated Bobby Campbell’s analysis of the Guns and Dope Party in his recent interview with Mike Gathers. In short, Bobby suggests the Guns and Dope Party is yet another of RAW’s efforts to get us to think for ourselves. It’s sort of the ultimate trickster maneuver: to present an idea so incisive, yet taboo, that Wilson followers are almost guaranteed to parrot it before giving it a second thought. Perhaps there’s an element of that teaching in "I Opening." One must figure out a proper balance between individuality and truth-seeking on the one hand, and coexistence on the other. As heroic as Hugh Crane is, pushing back against every societal norm is fraught with social peril. Contrary though it may be to the romantic brand of free-thinking we’ve learned from Wilson, there may actually be a time and place for falling in line and self-censorship. So what is the right balance between rebellion and conformity? It beats me. It is an interesting paradox many of us grapple with — you really can’t have one mode of being without the other.

Wilson may not have intended for "I Opening" to be as profound as I’m making it (although Crane’s story is later expanded in the Schrödinger’s Cat trilogy, which Wilson hints may be a “ shamanistic manual in the form of a novel”). Regardless, I think RAW’s fiction gives us a depth that’s not always available through his non-fiction. At the end of "I Opening," we come to learn that after Crane’s murder, his disciples (a “cult”) exhibit odd behavior: visiting Crane's murderer in prison, petitioning for his clemency, expressing tolerance for his ideas, and “answering questions with maybe” and he [Crane] was seeking / we are seeking”. Perhaps this is a metaphor for the middle ground we ought to seek as we go about our lives equipped with Wilson’s teachings. 

I first read the Hugh Crane material in Schrödinger’s Cat, which came early on in my RAW journey. At the time I read it, most of the references to other historical renegades and occult philosophies were lost on me. But as I continued to read Wilson’s other work, and those he was influenced by, I began to pick up on the meaning of those obscure references. For instance, it only recently occurred to me that much of Crane’s story parallels the real life adventures of Aleister Crowley. I was also initially unfamiliar with the concept of ego dissolution (described in Crane’s prison notes), a concept I now understand is an experience that binds so many ancient spiritual traditions — helping me understand the meaning behind the title "I Opening." I’m sure I’ll continue to find others, which is another reason I’m always fond of revisiting this story.

Is is OK to edit classic texts?

Roald Dahl in 1954 (public domain photo).

I've spent much of the weekend, as part of my duties as a Prometheus Award judge, reading Widowland by C.J. Carey, an alternate world dystopia, set in 1953, which depicts a Britain which has lost World War II and is occupied by the Nazis. (In Carey's version, the 1939 nonaggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union has continued, and the U.S. apparently never enters the war.) 

The novel's heroine lives in London and her job is to rewrite the texts of books to make them fit better with Nazi ideology. Much of her work involves toning down the outspoken thoughts and behavior of female characters in classic novels such as Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre.

Also this weekend, news broke that the publisher of classic children's author Roald Dahl has made hundreds of changes in the original text of his books to bring them in line with modern sensitivities, including eliminating the word "fat." (Dahl died in 1990). 

I will note that the Robert Anton Wilson Trust's publishing arm, Hilaritas Press, has taken a much more conservative approach. Obvious mistakes such as misspelled proper names are corrected, but for instances where the text might seem outdated, the approach taken has been to publish supplementary material, not to rewrite Robert Anton Wilson's words. 

News and notes

1. I've put up a collection of links on the right side of this page for the online reading group for Natural Law: Or Don't Put a Rubber On Your Willy at the right side of this page, for the convenience of anyone who wants to easily find an entry, or maybe read the book at a later date. It's never too late to post a comment. 

2. I felt the advertising was becoming too obtrusive for this blog, so I've reduced it. Specifically, I didn't like the way Google was putting an ad in the middle of the latest post. I don't mind having a bit of advertising here, as I have various costs associated with the blog, but I don't want it to get in the way of readers.

3. The planned Feb. 23 originally planned Hilaritas podcast interview, with John Zerzan, apparently has been canceled. 

Brian Dean explains his new book for RAW fans

 

As planned, Brian Dean at RAW Semantics has put up a post, explaining why his new book, Lazy Person's Guide to Framing: Decoding the News Media, would be of interest to Robert Anton Wilson fans. The first couple of paragraphs lay out the thesis:

" 'Models and muddles', 'semantic maps', belief systems, etc (RAW’s favoured lexicon) – I regard as synonymous with cognitive frames. Both approaches (RAW’s and framing) refer to experiential symbolic constructs (what else is there to talk of?) – language and metaphor as brain 'software', grounded in notions of embodied cognition (as opposed to disembodied reason).

"Both have a (post-)modern worldviews perspectivism that sometimes seems mistaken for anything-goes subjective relativism, and which presents 'challenges' to an ancient 'objectivist' view/habit that still seems prevalent nearly everywhere. Both can facilitate insight, tolerance and irony on tricky matters of politics, media, culture and ontology."

Brian has closely studied cognitive scientist George Lakoff, and tries to popularize it for the average reader — "it’s written especially for idlers." Perhaps  the analogy here may be with Alfred Korzybski's work; Science and Sanity, a weighty tome that RAW said he read in a weekend, seems too much for many, and other writers tried to make it easier for people to understand him, including RAW. See the popularizers Michael Johnson writes about.  Michael mentions at least six books that sought to popularize Korzybski, including Language in Thought and Action by Samuel Hayakawa, about which he writes, "Language In Thought and Action is a delightful read, and will make you "smarter" right away. However, if you decide then to look at his source - Science and Sanity - you will probably be STUNNED by all the math and science."

Brian's book is available at the UK Amazon, and also at the American one. I also gave a bit of background on the book when Brian announced it. 

The Hilaritas podcast on Kropotkin

 

I finally got around to listening to last month's Hilaritas podcast, in which Mike Gathers interviews anarchist writer and activist Wayne Price about Peter Kropotkin, the prominent Russian anarchist. I've posted the YouTube version above for your convenience, but the official website has useful links and offers suggestions on where to get the podcast. 

The podcast, about an hour long, features Price explaining Kropotkin's ideas and discussing anarchism in general. As Mike explains, Kropotkin's article about anarchism for Encyclopedia Brittanica is credited with sparking RAW's interest in anarchism. 

There's no discussion in the podcast about RAW's views on anarchism or about Illuminatus! coauthor Robert Shea, who published an anarchist zine, No Governor. 

This month's podcast, scheduled for release on Feb. 23, will continue the discussion of anarchist ideas by featuring an interview with John Zerzan. 

I've listened to all of the Hilaritas podcasts, but if you are new to them,  you can look at the podcast page and get started by finding one that has a topic of interest to you.