'Illuminatus!' tops list of 'weird but brilliant' books

We have a winner!

A new article at AOL Online, "35 Weird But Brilliant Books If You Are Seeking To Read Something Different, As Shared Online," supposedly based on "netizens in various online threads" (a methodology isn't spelled out) has 35 works of fiction ranked. The top-ranked book is Illuminatus! by Wilson and Shea. 

The author of the article, Denis Krotovas, ventures opinions on some of the 35 works bur is silent about Illuminatus! There is actually no information about Illuminatus! at all in the article, just a cover image. Still, it's good for the work to get some coverage, I guess.

Of the 35 rankings (confusingly, for some rankings more than one title is listed), I've read (besides Illuminatus!, of course) Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveller, Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany, 334 by Thomas Disch and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Draw your own conclusions as to whether I am a weirdo reader. I really do need to get around to reading Tristam Shandy. 

Hat tip, Nick Helseg-Larsen. 

Review: midnight's simulacra by Nick Black

 

"code stoned. debug sober. document drunk.and never trust the nuclear regulatory commission."

midnight's simulcra is a challenging but interesting novel from Nick Black, an engineer who attended Georgia Tech University; the novel is largely set on the campus of Georgia Tech or in Atlanta. It is consciously modeled on Ulysses by James Joyce and also draws much of its inspiration from Illuminatus! 

It was published last year. The official website bills it as "a hysterical, scientifically rigorous, slow burn of a thriller, a modern picaresque, a portrait of autists as young men, and unlike any other novel you've read" and as "An autofiction of rogue engineering."

I would describe it as an ambitious work of modern fiction. Anyone who is familiar with Ulysses will see many references to it in midnight's simulacra. There is for example an interior monologue by a a woman in the novel obviously modeled after the one by Molly Bloom. The plot is driven by the interactions of two males with intersecting lives: Sherman Spartacus Katz and Michael Luis Bolaño, although the action takes place over many  years, not in just one day.  They meet at an academic quiz bowl and decide to both attend Georgia Tech. They eventually get into large scale LSD manufacturing and distributing and then Katz gets interested in smuggling and enhancing yellowcake  uranium.

Just as Ulysses fans can visit actual places in Dublin that are mentioned  in the novel, midnight's simulacra takes place in numerous real Atlanta locations. For example, there's an important confrontation in an Atlanta bar, where Bolaño buys a drink for the "Molly Bloom" character. I looked it up, and it's an actual Atlanta bar; you can go there  and buy the same drink. 

Nick Black's Goodreads account shows that he has read many important modern novels (David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, which I haven't gotten around to, is apparently another favorite). 

His novel's most daring innovation is the various nonfiction essays and explanations on various aspects of science, including how to manufacture LSD, the history of modern cosmology, the history of illicit LSD manufacturing in the U.S., and many other topics. Many of these lectures-within-the-novel are quite dense with mathematical  formulas and technical terms. In the introduction to the book, Black gives the reader "permission" to skim the portions of the book that are too difficult. I really learned a lot from this book, although sections were opaque to me. I use Linux for example, but I'm not a coder, and I could not follow everything that was happening when Katz fears his machine has been compromised and he reinstalls Debian Linux (a form of Linux considered more difficult to use than, say, Ubuntu or Linux Mint, distros that cater to nontechnical users. Among his numerous interests, Black is a Debian developer). 

So portions of the book can be difficult, although having said that, the main story is not difficult to follow. I would say that while Ulysses is largely driven by Bloom's interest in sex, midnight's simulacra tends to focus on drugs (some of the characters use a bong named after a Klein bottle, a good example of the intersection of interests). In addition, while Ulysses is generally life-affirming, midnight's simulcra can be read as kind of a tragedy. 

The five main sections of the novel are named after the five main sections of Illuminatus!, and references to Eris and to phrases such as "Hail Eris!" and "All Hail Discordia" figure prominently. As with Ulysses, there are more references to Illuminatus! that careful readers will catch. 

And here is a bit of synchronicity, one that I don't know if Nick Black knows about: As far as I know, the only literary award Illuminatus! ever received was the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, given at the Worldcon in Atlanta in 1986. (I attended the Worldcon, one of my favorites, but did not know about the ceremony and missed it). 

Portions of the book are quite funny in a dark, sardonic way, e.g. "You can always know the right way to interpret a situation by where Sartre, history's biggest piece of shit, stood on it." 

midnight's simulacra is available for purchase at the official website and also at Amazon, in hardcover, paperback and ebook. (The paper editions are the preferred editions and  include illustrations the ebooks don't have; I have ordered a copy of the paperback). 

The official website also has a hefty "try before you buy" excerpt of the first part and interesting background on the novel, including a partial bibliography of the references. 

Moby Dick online reading group, chapters 101-104

 

Pompey's Pillar, referenced in the text, Creative Commons photo. source. 

This week: Chapter 101, "The Decanter," to  Chapter 104, "The Fossil Whale."

I have written that, for my money, the best passages in Moby Dick are in the chapters in which action takes place. In this section, we get (1) A discussion of the food aboard well-stocked whaleships; (2) A discussion of the bones of the whale; (3) Measurements of a whale's skeleton; and (4) a discussion of fossil whales. Not a lot of drama!  Nonetheless, I have a few notes. (After I read this section, I went out to eat in a local Cambodian restaurant. I'm struck by how well people can eat in the modern United States, as compared to Melville's time). 

A couple of annotations:

"I confess, that since Jonah, few whalemen have penetrated very far beneath the skin of an adult whale." (Chapter 102, "A Bower in the Arsacids"). A kayaker recently was briefly swallowed by a whale. 

[After Melville imagines the spine of the whale being piled up vertically] "But now it's done it looks much like Pompey's Pillar." (Chapter 103, "Measurement of the Whale's Skeleton"). Pompey's Pillar is an ancient monument of the city of Alexandria in Egypt, it still stands, see this article (it was set up by Diocletian, not Pompey). 

"And here be it said, that whenever it has been convenient to consult one in the course of these dissertations, I have invariably used a huge quarto edition of Johnson, expressly purchased for that purpose; because that famous lexicographer’s uncommon personal bulk more fitted him to compile a lexicon to be used by a whale author like me." (Chapter 104). This references Samuel Johnson. 

In the Dec. 30 episode of this chronicle, Oz wrote, "Encountering strange beings in literature inevitably brings comparisons with H. P. Lovecraft and his unique talent for otherworldly moods, atmospheres and gnarly life forms that can seem terrifying. I don’t know if Lovecraft read Moby Dick. He was encouraged to read classics of literature at an early age, but Moby Dick didn’t really start to get on anyone’s radar until the 1920s." (Note that in the comments I point out evidence that Lovecraft did read Moby Dick.) Anyway, I thought of Oz' comments when I read this passage  from Chapter 104, "The Fossil Whale,"

"When I stand among these mighty Leviathan skeletons, skulls, tusks, jaws, ribs, and vertebræ, all characterized by partial resemblances to the existing breeds of sea-monsters; but at the same time bearing on the other hand similar affinities to the annihilated antichronical Leviathans, their incalculable seniors; I am, by a flood, borne back to that wondrous period, ere time itself can be said to have begun; for time began with man. Here Saturn’s grey chaos rolls over me, and I obtain dim, shuddering glimpses into those Polar eternities; when wedged bastions of ice pressed hard upon what are now the Tropics; and in all the 25,000 miles of this world’s circumference, not an inhabitable hand’s breadth of land was visible. Then the whole world was the whale’s; and, king of creation, he left his wake along the present lines of the Andes and the Himmalehs. Who can show a pedigree like Leviathan? Ahab’s harpoon had shed older blood than the Pharaoh’s. Methuselah seems a school-boy. I look round to shake hands with Shem. I am horror-struck at this antemosaic, unsourced existence of the unspeakable terrors."

This bit, from the same chapter, seems self-referential:

"One often hears of writers that rise and swell with their subject, though it may seem but an ordinary one. How, then, with me, writing of this Leviathan? Unconsciously my chirography expands into placard capitals. Give me a condor’s quill! Give me Vesuvius’ crater for an inkstand! Friends, hold my arms! For in the mere act of penning my thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me, and make me faint with their out-reaching comprehensiveness of sweep, as if to include the whole circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and mastodons, past, present, and to come, with all the revolving panoramas of empire on earth, and throughout the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs. Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal theme! We expand to its bulk. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it."

Next week: Please read Chapter 105, "Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish? == Will He Perish?" to Chapter 109, "Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin?"

Sunday links

 Erotic Secrets of Pompeii

I did not mean to do links two days in a row, but I have some things to get caught up on:

"Erotic Secrets of Pompeii play wild, weird apocalyptic lounge music - a twisted amalgamation of angular art rock and transgressive post-punk, transmitted directly from the heart of the forbidden zone.

"ESOP's music is populated by grotesque imagery and vivid symbolism, drawing from artists across different mediums, such as Terry Gilliam, Salvador Dali, Leonora Carrington, Francis Bacon, William Blake, Robert Anton Wilson and Leigh Bowery." Official website.  (Thanks, Nick Helweg-Larsen).

“If cannabis use ‘causes’ schizophrenia,it is absolutely impossible that the rate of schizophrenia would not be going up with the rates of cannabis use increasing 1,000-fold,”said Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a cannabis specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Occult Elvis. 

Jason Louv podcast, "The DARK TRUTH About Wilhelm Reich." I have not seen it. 

Philip K. Dick as a prose stylist.

Saturday links

Jesse Walker on Tom Robbins: "Tom Robbins was also secretly a bridge between my two books. He was a DJ at KRAB in the '60s (check out one of his shows here: https://krabarchive.com/playlist/1967-07-07-nftu.html) and he credited a Robert Anton Wilson article with converting him to anarchism." Also, see Bobby Campbell's comment on yesterday's post. 

Paul Giamatti to play Art Bell.

One ghost town for all 50 states (video link starts with Ong's Hat). 

A promising opioid alternative. 

Sitting Now podcast with a long interview of Prop Anon.

 Twin Peaks survival guide (if you don't want to watch or rewatch every single episode).

Robert Anton Wilson, Tom Robbins fan!

 The above is via RAW Semantics on Bluesky, Brian writes, "Letter from Tom Robbins printed on the feedback page of RAW's Trajectories #2 newsletter (Autumn 1988),"

There was a time, decades ago, when it seemed like everyone in the U.S. was reading Tom Robbins, I asked Brian if Robbins was popular in Britain, too, he wrote, "Not very well known, Tom, AFAIK. He's another that I first heard of from RAW."

Then again, I think Brian may be young, at least compared to me (I'm 67) and I  suspect the people who remember when Robbins  was popular in the U.S. tend to be pretty old. 

A quote from Tom Robbins, via Todd Purse

 

The above is from Todd Purse, Bobby Campbell's Tales of Illuminatus collaborator. Todd writes, "Hey y’all! Sorry it’s been a minute, had the worst flu in years that completely wiped out the whole house for over a week! I’ve been feeling better the last few days but today is the first time I feel 100% human again! So much going on and to get caught up on, but for now here’s a drawing of a beautiful Tom Robbins quote in honor of his passing, one of my favorites to ever do it and just love these words so much right now."

RIP Tom Robbins

 

Tom Robbins (public domain photo)

Novelist Tom Robbins, a Robert Anton Wilson fan, has died. His heyday was decades ago, but I enjoyed his work. Here is the New York Times obituary (gift link).  And you can also read the Seattle Times obituary. 

'Tales' website revamped, 'New Trajectories' webring fixed

 

As Bobby Campbell prepares to launch the second Kickstarter campaign for the second issue of his Tales of Illuminatus comic book series, he's done some renovations to his Internet presence, as announced in his latest newsletter. 

The Tales of Illuminatus website has been revamped. The site now has newsfeeds from Bluesky, you can sign up for the prelaunch for the second issue and Bobby has decided after getting feedback to restore the free web version of the first issue. 

As for the webring, Bobby explains, "Back in 2022 we established a Discordian webring as part of that year’s Maybe Day celebration, though due to the limitations of some of the walled garden platforms people use, or trouble with placing HTML code, many of the sites weren’t able to display functioning navigation links, so the webring didn’t quite work as a ring, and was rather more of a directory.

"Though as part of network updates leading into issue #2 I thought it would be interesting to create a fully functioning webring. So I’ve limited entrees to those sites with functioning navigation links.

"(If anyone’s site was removed that would like to rejoin, LMK and I’ll help with installing the code!)"

Eleven websites are currently listed in the webring, including this one, and Jechidah, which has just added  another entry in the ongoing Sex Magicians reading group. 

Moby Dick online reading group, Chapters 95-100

 

William Carlos Williams (portrait by Man Ray, public domain photo)

This  week: Chapter 95, "The Cassock," through Chapter 100, "Leg and Arm"

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger

Chapter 96 reminds me of Lovecraft at times:  

Wrapped, for that interval, in darkness myself, I but the better saw the redness, the madness, the ghastliness of others. The continual sight of the fiend shapes before me, capering half in smoke and half in fire, these at last begat kindred visions in my soul, so soon as I began to yield to that unaccountable drowsiness which ever would come over me at a midnight helm. 

Coincidentally, I have mentioned Ecclesiastes repeatedly to my seventh graders this week, which Ishmael calls “the truest of all books.” I find it interesting that optimistic Bob Wilson loved Moby Dick so much, and Ishmael seems very pessimistic. Perhaps Melville did not share Ishmael’s pessimism. Or perhaps I oversimplify Ishmael’s perceptions. 

In chapter 99 various characters interpret the doubloon as we interpret the novel and the interpretations of the doubloon, and then we interpret each other’s interpretations of the interpretations. 

Look at

                                                what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
                        despised poems.
                                                It is difficult
to get the news from poems
                        yet men die miserably every day
                                                for lack
of what is found there.

- “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”, William Carlos Williams, 1955 

“I have nothing to say and I am saying it.” - John Cage. I think I first encountered this quote at a concert for composer Elliott Schwarz’s fiftieth birthday on January 19, 1986. Cage loved Finnegans Wake. 

I feel grateful to this study group for helping me make it through the transition to the second Trump presidency. I don’t feel like I have much to say about the novel, but it helps me put things in perspective. I still don’t understand the connection with Koko’s lucky harpoon in the “Yacht Rock” web series. The final episode of the series does remind me of the ending of Bob Wilson’s The Homing Pigeons. 

I don’t think of Moby Dick as poetry, but I do read it out loud usually. When I read that quote by Williams, I often think of Homer, but I don’t know what Williams really had in mind. Our current situation, what Bob Heinlein called “The Crazy Years”, does feel like finding oneself lost at sea. 

Next week: Please read Chapter 101, "The Decanter," to  Chapter 104, "The Fossil Whale."

Alternative cover 'Tales' released [UPDATED]

 

As promised, a new alternate cover Tales of Illuminatus has been released, with a new cover by Todd Purse. Get it here. This is a limited edition second print run. 

UPDATE: Shortly after I posted the above, Bobby dropped another Tales of Illuminatus Substack newsletter, chock full of news.  So check it out, I will have a followup blog post. Relevant to the above: "We started with 50 and are already down to 37, so haste may be warranted."

What I read last month

Alliance Unbound, C.J. Cherryh and Jane Fancher. An enjoyable space opera. Cherryh continues to write very readable books after decades of producing SF novels.

Love and Loss: The Short Life of Ray Chapman, Scott Longert. A book about the Cleveland Indians shortstop who was hit in the head by a New York Yankee beanball pitcher in a 1920 game in New York and who died hours later. Also an interesting look at professional sports back in the day. 

Cancelled: The Shape of Things to Come, Danny King. I'm doing a lot of reading for the Prometheus Award. This one is a satiric novel about a woke, left wing Britain in which cancelled people are sent to concentration camps. Pretty well done, funny and grim. I had never  heard of the author before, but apparently he is prolific. 

Terra II ...A Way Out. Timothy Leary and collaborators. Inspirational Hilaritas Press reprint of a key Leary text. Here are some of my comments on the book. 

Knowledge, Reality, and Value: A Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy, Michael Huemer. Feeling the need to get a general background in philosophy after getting interested in Epicureanism, I read this introduction, which is interesting and had plenty of humor. Among other opinions, Huemer is a libertarian and a vegetarian. 

Interstellar MegaChef, Lavanya Lakshminarayan. Another book I read as a Prometheus Awards judge, about a woman who flees Earth to participate in a cooking competition on another planet. Not terrible, but I have  no desire to read the sequel.

Waffle Irons vs. the Horde, Dr. Insensitive Jerk. Another Prometheus Awards assignment, an unusual novel by an unusual author. As with his other books, lots of cruelty, lots of amusing bits. 

I am on Goodreads. 

Social media update

Artwork for the "Robert Anton Wilson" Bluesky account. 

While there are still RAW fans on X.com, there has been a definite shift over to Bluesky, continuing a trend I wrote about earlier. 

I'm still on both, as I still find both useful. There are quite a few accounts that seem to mostly if not always post on Bluesky rather than Twitter. A couple of examples: the "Robert Anton Wilson" account maintained by Bobby Campbell is only posting daily on Bluesky now, and Bluesky also is where to go to follow RAW Semantics. But the Robert Anton Wilson Trust is only on X, at least for now. Many post at both places, e.g. Jesse Walker for example. 

On both services, I tend to rely on my own lists rather than the feeds offered by the company. On Bluesky, for example, I mostly rely on my "Illuminating" list. 

I am on Facebook, too, but try not to spend too much time there.