What I read last month

November's reading, some of it in connection with being a judge for the Prometheus Award and the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award:

Singularity Sky, Charles Stross. Far future space opera from 2004, a lot of cool artificial intelligence stuff. I really enjoyed it. 

The Norman Conquest, Marc Morris. I often buy cheap history books when they go on sale for Kindle, and occasionally I find time to read them; this was good, well written and well-researched. Did you know that 10% of the population in Anglo Saxon England were slaves? The Normans get bad press, largely deservedly so, but one of the things the Normans did after conquering England was to abolish the slave trade. 

Gangster Hunters: How Hoover's G-men Vanquished America's Deadliest Public Enemies, John Oller. All about John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, etc., but also the FBI agents who tracked them down. A new book, hard to put down, suitable for people on your holiday shopping list who like true crime. The real Dillinger bears little resemblance to the character in Illuminatus! I interviewed the author and wrote a newspaper article. 

A Talent for Murder, Peter Swanson. A few years ago, I read The Kind Worth Killing by Swanson, and it was one of the best crime fiction novels I'd ever read. This is the third book featuring the characters Henry Kimball and Lily Kintner. 

Machine Vendetta, Alastair Reynolds. I've been hearing for years about Reynolds, supposedly a master of the new British space opera, and this new novel did turn out to be a good read. I will try to read more of his. 

Earth to Moon, Moon Unit Zappa. A memoir, mostly about growing up in Frank Zappa's household. Candid and fascinating. Here is a sentence about books in Frank Zappa's personal library that might interest some of you: "The books belonging to my father have strange words like 'Sufism' and 'Kabbalah' or long titles like Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated or Science: The Wealth of Nations or Science: Novum Organum."

Jechidah reviews 'The Bumper Book of Magic'

At the Jechidah blog, Apuleius Charlton reviews The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic by Alan and Steve Moore, and recommends it to everyone.

When I am trying to do a summary of a fairly long blog post, I sometimes struggle to find an excerpt that accurately conveys the whole. But I think this sentence gets the point across: "It may be the best single expression of magic in theory and practice extant."

The review goes into detail about the different sections of the book, such as "Things to Do on a Rainy Day" and “Old Moore’s Lives of the Great Enchanters.” Read the whole thing. 

'Moby Dick' online reading group chapters 21 – 34

 

AI illustration by Paula Galindo. 

By OZ FRITZ
Special guest blogger 

This week: Chapters 21 “– 34, Going Aboard” through “The Cabin-Table”

Chapter 21 puts us right at the borderline of land and sea. Ishmael and Queequeg arrive just before 6 a.m. in the misty dawn to board the ship for departure. They meet resistance at this membrane from Elijah, a Prophet in Moby Dick as well as in the Bible. Two chapters earlier, Elijah had given them a vague and sinister warning about signing up to ship out with Captain Ahab. The Pequod receives onboard her final supplies before casting off on a three year excursion to hunt whales. “It was now clear sunrise.” The voyage begins on Christmas day.

Melville had an excellent education growing up in New York City in privileged circumstances. He was well-read and well-traveled. Moby Dick seems an early attempt to write the Great American novel while simultaneously expanding out to encompass the entire world. On another level, it reads as a profound treatise on the inner life – magic, spirituality and mysticism; framed as the classic model of a journey into Unknown territory encountering monsters, Leviathans and who knows what other challenges to their sanity sailing the seas of the Unconscious.

The Bible appears a transparent major influence in Moby Dick. We’ve already been through a sermon on Jonah and the Whale in a church modelled off a whaling vessel. The Biblical Ishmael is considered the ancestor of Arabs and a Muslim Prophet. His name means “God has hearkened.” Ishmael reputedly lived to the age of 137. 137 = “a receiving; the Qabalah.” Ishmael adds to 151. 151 = “TETRAGRAMMATON OF THE GODS is one TETRAGRAMMATON”, which seems another way of saying “God has hearkened.”

151 also = “The Fountain of Living Waters (Jeremiah xvii 13).” Of course, our adventure takes place in the watery world. The “Fountain of Living Waters” will turn up literally, in the eponymous chapter 41, “Moby Dick,” when Ishmael mentions the story of the Arethusa fountain in Syracuse, Sicily “whose waters were believed to have come from the Holy Land.” Arethusa is a nymph in Greek mythology who symbolizes “the untamable essence of the feminine nature.”

My understanding holds that Kabballah came into existence through esoteric Hebrew scholars and mystics searching to unlock or decode secrets found in the Bible. Melville seems to have known as much about the Bible as Aleister Crowley. It follows that Kabballah turns up in Moby Dick as part of the Biblical influence. The very first thing we read in the novel suggests this:

“Etymology

(Supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher to a Grammar School.)

[The pale Usher – threadbare in coat, heart, body and brain; I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world. He loved to dust his old grammars; it somehow mildly reminded him of his mortality.]

Usher is derived from Ush meaning “to enter into.” In the Bible, ushers were doorkeepers serving the temple. Right from the get-go we’re told we’re in School. His coat, heart, body and brain suggest the four common neurocircuits. Reminded of his own mortality can suggest working on higher consciousness (via lexicons and grammars) to survive that mortality. However, he’s already dead. The initial communication in Moby Dick comes from a dead guy. 

The “queer handkerchief” with all the flags perhaps foretells the international composition of the crew of the Pequod which gets delineated in chapter 40.

The first alternate language spelling of WHALE is given in Hebrew as the letters Tau and Nun final to give “Tan” from Job 7:12 “Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest watch over me?”

Tau = The Universe and Nun = Death in the Tarot.

In the next section, “Extracts” which consists of various quotes and accounts of whales throughout history, literature and mythology, the 11th quote is from Rabelais, a noted Cabalist and major influence on Aleister Crowley and James Joyce among others (the influence of The Whale in Finnegans Wake will be examined later). The 13th quote comes from Spenser’s The Fairie Queen, a classic of magick literature.

In this week’s chapters, after the Pequod sets sails, we encounter several new characters and learn more about others. Also, we have discussion about metaphysical aspects of life on the ocean and the endeavor of whale hunting. Chapter 23 briefly tells of Bulkington and his spiritual relationship to the sea where we are told the highest truth resides. Chapter 24 gives a vigorous defence of whaling by Ishmael who invokes various historical characters to support his argument. This continues into chapter 25 where we find some discussion of the magical act of anointing in relation to the coronation of kings and queens. Ishmael wonders if the act of anointing might apply to the inner as well as the outer.

Chapters 26 and 27, both titled “Knights and Squires” introduces us to the Pequod’s senior crew, Starbuck, Stubb and Flask in that order. The chapter title suggests the story of Don Quixote who imagined he was a knight errant. Cervantes, the author of said story, has his “stumped and paupered arm” clothed with “leaves of finest gold” by God at the end of chapter 26, Starbuck’s chapter. John Bunyan, author of the spiritual classic The Pilgrim’s Progress gets mentioned in the same breath. The Pilgrim’s Progress tells of journey into the Unknown in search of communion with God. I read it for the first time recently based on a favorable mention by Crowley combined with finding a copy for a buck at a thrift store. I highly recommend it if one is able to get past the overtly Christian trappings. It seems relevant to understanding one metaphor behind Moby Dick. Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States gets mentioned heroically in the same breath as the other two, but I have no idea why?

Stubb appears next in the chain of command at the beginning of chapter 27. His many confrontations with death by getting close up to the monsters he hunts “converted the jaws of death into an easy chair.” Coincidentally, this also occurs with bardo training which confronts death in less dangerous situations. Just as Starbuck is an inveterate coffee drinker, Stubb likes to constantly smoke. Last, but not least, we meet Flask. These three, Starbuck, Stubb and Flask command the smaller boats that go after whales when spotted. They comprise the “Knights” in Melvilles medieval metaphor. Next come the “Squires,” the men who steer the smaller boats and help with the harpooning. They work in close conjunction with the Knights. Queequeg is Starbuck’s squire. Tashtego, a Native American, squires for Stubb. He’s compared to “the Prince of the Powers of Air” which seems an analogy straight out of the Cabala. Daggoo, a gigantic African native “was the Squire of little Flask who looked like a chess-man beside him.” Daggoo gets compared to Ahasuerus, an ancient Persian king who appears in the Bible. 

Chapter 28 brings us to the book’s central human character, the enigmatic, mysterious, mythopoeic, strangely marked and scarred Captain Ahab. He tends to be regarded as the personification of obsession and evil like his Biblical counterpart, Ahab the King of Israel who “did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him” (1 Kings 16:30), but he’s a much more complex character. A couple or so chapters later we’re told he has a conscience. In this chapter we find out that a certain whale chomped off his left leg. He didn’t replace it with a wooden peg leg, but with ivory carved from the jawbone of a sperm whale. In one sense, Ahab is part whale. Counter to his dour disposition, he’s observed, more than once, almost smiling. 

Shakespeare seems up there with the Bible as a profound influence on The Whale. Chapter 31, “Queen Mab” gives a little tour of Stubb’s subconscious life when he describes a dream he had to Flask of Ahab kicking him with his ivory leg. No mention of Queen Mab in this short chapter but those familiar with Shakespeare and people who know how to google know that she is a fairy in Romeo and Juliet, a miniature creature who rides her chariot over sleeping humans helping them “give birth” to dreams.  

Chapter 32 “Cetology” provides a literary taxonomy of whales. Ironically, the Sperm Whale was once known by the English as the Trumpa. Sperm whales, like Moby Dick are the largest whales. Their name is a misnomer having nothing to do with male reproductive cells, but rather named for a waxy substance called spermaceti used in ointments, textiles, cosmetics and industrial lubricants. At the chapter’s end, Melville declares that he’s leaving his cetological system unfinished. He justifies this then reveals the scope of what he’s trying to accomplish: 

“For small erections may be finished by their architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me from completing anything. This whole book is but a draught – nay, but the draught of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience.”

Next week: please read Chapters 35-42, "The Mast-Head" through "The Whiteness of the Whale."

A particularly dire 23

The band Chicago, back in the day. Public domain photo, more information). 

Many RAW fans have picked up on his fascination with 23 and use the number for screen names on the Internet. I've used the number sometimes, too, but one thing I've noticed that is the 23 often crops up in rather dire ways.

I recently read an interesting new book called Gangster Hunters by John Oller about famous 1930s gangsters such as John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd (here is an article I wrote about the book) and I noticed some 23s in that book, connected with serious events (for example, Bonnie and Clyde were shot to death on May 23, 1934). 

I recently ran across a pretty bad 23 I hadn't noticed before.

One of the first rock concerts I ever attended, back in the 1970s, was when I went with friends to see the band Chicago in Oklahoma City. (I still like early Chicago, but not the later version). When I saw the band, it had a guitar player named Terry Kath, and I remember reading about a couple of years later that ha had died of a gunshot wound.

I looked up Kath on Wikipedia the other day, and here are the events of May 23, 1978: 

"Kath enjoyed target shooting and by 1978 was regularly carrying guns. On Monday, January 23, after a party at the home of roadie and band technician Don Johnson, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, Kath began to play with his guns. He spun his unloaded .38 revolver on his finger, put it to his temple, and pulled the trigger. Johnson warned Kath several times to be careful. Kath picked up a semi-automatic 9 mm pistol and, leaning back in a chair, said to Johnson, 'Don't worry about it ... Look, the clip is not even in it'. His last words were, 'What do you think I'm gonna do? Blow my brains out?' To calm Johnson's concerns, Kath showed him the empty magazine. Kath then replaced the magazine in the gun, put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. Apparently unbeknownst to Kath, the gun had a round in the chamber. He died instantly from the gunshot, eight days before his 32nd birthday."

The event was so traumatic the band considered disbanding. According to Wikipedia, Doc Severinsen, leader of the old "Tonight Show" band, (older people like me will remember him) helped persuade the band to keep going. 

RAW Semantics on the 'excluded middle' [UPDATED]

F.A. Hayek (mentioned in Brian's post, and in the comments). Creative Commons photo, details here. 

Responding to an anonymous comment on my recent blog post about RAW fans migrating to Bluesky, Brian at the RAW Semantics blog pens a new post, "Libertarian..? Scandinavian..? Excluded middle..!!"

Brian argues that RAW wanted a middle path between hard right economics and totalitarian socialism and lists several ideas that RAW promoted that most RAW fans would be familiar with, such as a universal basic income and the negative income tax. Brian sees one current country as a possible example of an "excluded middle":

"Sweden seems the best example, to me, of the 'Scandinavian' model, having rated highly over a long period (eg years/decades) on various economic and social well-being indicators (at the time RAW commented – some changes have occurred since then, so I’m writing about some of these things in the past tense; but it remains a stable mixed system of tech capitalism and extensive welfare benefits). Elsewhere, RAW has descibed this type of system as a 'mixed economy”' rather than as 'socialism' presumably because it combined strong private business sectors with 'humanitarianism, social conscience, equality, egalitarianism, and environmental concern' (to quote the chapter on Sweden from The Seven Cultures of Capitalism, by Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars)."

Brian is at Bluesky, by the way. 

UPDATE: Brian says I missed his point, so please read his comments below and the full post I linked to. 

Hilaritas Press upcoming titles update

I don't always know what's in the works at Hilaritas Press -- I only knew about Mavericks of the Mind when the publication announcement was released -- but three additional Robert Anton Wilson titles are in the works. Rasa reports:

"We’re working on a few projects, but nothing very close to being finished. Just this week I started working in earnest on Beyond Chaos and Beyond. Scott Apel, from the beginning, told Christina that he wanted to publish it via his imprint, The Impermanent Press, but just for a year, and then hand the publishing rights over to Hilaritas Press. That year ended in the middle of 2020, so you can see, there was no rush to move it to Hilaritas Press. Scott got a few extra years of royalties, so that’s nice. I am kinda eager to place it next to its cousin, Chaos and Beyond. BC&B is a thick book, some 450 pages, so it’s a bit of work to prepare the file – getting everything formatted properly – I try to be very careful, so it takes time.

"Still nothing to report on Eric’s RAW and Joyce book and on our RAW Politics book. These things have their own schedules." (He's referring to Eric Wagner's upcoming book). 

Rasa in his rock star days

 Many of you know Rasa from his work with Hilaritas Press, you know of his current band, Starseed. But back in the day, Rasa was a rock musician with a band called Sweet Smoke. 

A rare concert tape has emerged of Rasa's old band. Rasa explains (in a social media posting):

"A couple weeks ago I got a link to a video of the band I played with in Europe many years ago. The video, probably recorded on a Super 8 movie camera with notoriously poor sound quality, was cool to see, but the audio quality was atrocious. I gave the audio to Grammy award winning sound engineer Oz Fritz, who is also an expert in the world of Robert Anton Wilson, and he did an amazing job of fixing up the audio. It's still pretty rough, but at least you can make out what the band was playing.

"Enormous thanks to Oz for the enhanced audio, and to my band mates Andy (bass) and Jay (drums) who worked for a couple years to try to find and make a digital copy of this old movie. It seems strange in today's world where everyone has a video camera in their pockets, but we think this is the only known video of the band. There were three albums released by EMI, and one bootleg audio from a concert in Heidelberg circulating online now, but not a lot else recorded, sadly.

"At first Andy and Jay were unsure of where this was, hence Jay's first labeling "somewhere in France." We later figured out that this must have been in a gig we did as a special private party that was held in the 2nd floor banquet room in the Eiffel Tower. That was a trip, taking all our equipment up the Eiffel tower's elevator and setting up with an amazing view of Paris all around us."

In an email, Rasa adds, "I was thrilled to get this video as we didn’t have any video of the band. I was told that Jack Moore, who made this video, who was a contact for the band at EMI, later gave the recorder used in this video to The Rolling Stones to play with. There are a lot of bizarre Jack Moore stories from those days. There are lot of bizarre stories, period, from those days! Just playing in the Eiffel Tower was a trip!"

Tom again: Oz can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Grammy was for Mule Variations by Tom Waits.  Oz was the recording engineer and did the mixing for the album, 

What I read last month

I am on Goodreads (as "Tomj"), I have decided to start blogging about what I've been reading, here is what I read in October. I'll have another batch for November. 

Playground, Richard Powers. As others have remarked, this novel kind of does for the sea what The Overstory did for trees. Powers is one of my favorite novelists, and this one is one of his best, up there with The Gold Bug Variations and The Echo Maker. 

A Few Days in Athens; being the Translation of a Greek Manuscript Discovered in Herculaneum, Frances Wright. A 19th century novel that discusses Epicureanism, a pretty good. Available from Project Gutenberg. I've really gotten into Epicureanism.

The Demon Breed, James Schmitz. A science fiction adventure novel, featuring a strong female protagonist, set in a planet with an interesting ecology. I am reading books nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award (I am a judge). Pretty good book.

Polostan, Neal Stephenson. Historical fiction, featuring a Russian-American woman brought up as a Communist. First book of a trilogy. Stephenson and Powers are two of my favorite living writers, so October was a good month for me.

Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson, Gabriel Kennedy. This is the book that most of you will be interested in, so it deserves a few more words.

Exhaustively researched (there's even a list in the back of many of the places RAW lived), accurate in the most important particulars, the section about Robert Shea is well-researched, too.  I agreed with most of the opinions in the book. The research generates quite a few things that surprised me. I didn't know that Paideia University, where RAW got his advanced degree, actually was a creation of RAW and his wife. You'll learn other things about RAW you didn't know before, even if you are well read in his work.

The book is formatted accurately for Kindle (not a given for self-published books) and has a good cover, by Laura Kang. The book's main flaw is that it is poorly copyedited, or rather, it reads as if there was little copyediting. Lots of spelling and grammar mistakes. 

Chapel Perilous is available as a Kindle, hardcover and paperback via Amazon and on Lulu. 

'Sex Magicians' discussion group continues

 Over at Jechidah, the online discussion group on The Sex Magicians continues. At this point, the discussion has reached chapters five and six. This isn't a long novel like Moby Dick or Ulysses. There's still time to grab a copy of the book, get caught up, and join the discussion. 

Moby Dick online reading group, chapters 15-20

The Seaman's Bethel in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which is the real-life equivalent of the Whaleman's Chapel in Moby Dick. (Creative Commons photo, source).

This week: Chapters 15-20, e.g. "Chowder" through "All Astir."

So, how do you like Moby Dick so far? I am really enjoying it. Very vivid. 

"It is not down in any map; true places never are." 

A paragraph about last week's section of the book, if I may.

The "Whalemen's Chapel" in New Bedford is based on a real church, The Seamen's Bethel in New Bedford. It's part of the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.  The Wikipedia entry explains, "Established in 1996, the park encompasses 34 acres (fourteen hectares) dispersed over thirteen city blocks. It includes a visitor center, the New Bedford National Historic Landmark District, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the Seamen's Bethel, the schooner Ernestina, and the Rotch–Jones–Duff House and Garden Museum." A very cool place to visit, as I found when I went there quite a few years ago. 

As for this week's passages, the description of the clam chowder served to Ishmael and Queequeeg at the Try Pots made me want to eat some of it. And cod is some of my favorite fish; I cook cod for supper all the time. I wondered how closely the recipe in the book comes to the New England clam chowder which I've eaten many times. I remarked in my earlier postings about how vivid the descriptions in the novel are, and I had a very clear sense of the supper they were eating.

In one of his comments to Eric's post last week, Oz wrote, "This marks my second journey through Moby-Dick. Some books, like this one, I don't feel I've read until at least the second go-round."

The books that I like the most are ones that I have been moved to re-read. I'm pretty sure I've only read Moby Dick once, and that was maybe about three decades ago. 

Nantucket is the island in red in this map of Massachusetts. Public domain map, details here. 

I was surprised that Ishmael anticipated the whaling voyage might last for three years. That seemed like an awful long period of time to sign up for. An article about the whaling life at the New Bedford Whaling Museum website says, "The larger a vessel, the greater distances it could travel. The whaling schooner, the smallest whaler, generally undertook 6-month voyages, while brigs, barks, and ships might be at sea for three or four years.  The longest whaling voyage is believed to be that of the Ship Nile from 1858 to 1869 — eleven years!"

Next week: Our guest blogger will be Oz Fritz. Please read Chapters 21-34, "Going Aboard" through "The Cabin-Table."

Hilaritas publishes new 'Mavericks of the Mind'

Hilaritas Press has just published an "enhanced 3rd edition" of Mavericks of the Mind, a collection of interviews with many original thinkers, including Robert Anton Wilson.

Here is some of the announcement from Rasa:

"Since the first edition was published in 1993, I have always thought this incredible book of interviews held a special place in the archives of innovative and futuristic thought produced at the end of the last century. 

"The enhanced third edition includes interviews with: Terence K. McKenna, Riane Eisler & David Loye, Robert Trivers, Nick Herbert, Ralph Abraham, Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Rupert Sheldrake, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld, Colin Wilson, Oscar Janiger, John C. Lilly, Nina Graboi, Laura Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, Stephen LaBerge, and Rosemary Woodruff Leary.

"We were very excited to work with David Jay Brown and Rebecca McClen Novick on this new edition that includes new introductions, new photos and artwork, and a whole new interview added to the list: an interview with Rosemary Woodruff Leary."

More here. 

Hilaritas podcast features Wayne Benner

It's the 23rd, so the Hilaritas podcast returns with the previously-announced guest, Wayne Benner. Benner is a co-author of the new Hilaritas Press release, Terra II ... A Way Out. Available on most podcasting apps, but see the show notes at the official podcast site. 

For a long strange trip, please call

 

Adam Zulawski writes to me to tell me about a truck he saw in London:

"Yes, a big yellow truck emblazoned with the goddess of chaos's name, driving down the motorway just outside North London. 

"I was totally weirded out. I thought it was a one-off, something put together by a fan of Hagbard Celine's yellow submarine.

"But after Googling, I was surprised and amused to see it was owned by a rather big firm and they've been around for 30 years, and there are a legion of vehicles that look like this all criss-crossing Europe as we speak.

https://discordia.eu/en/home/

"I've no idea why they called themselves Discordia, it doesn't say on their About page unfortunately. 

"But I would assume it means there are some enterprising Bulgarian discordians and RAW fans hiding out there in southaastern Europe."

(The photo Adam sent me is one he found on the Internet, not one he snapped).