The two newest Hilaritas Books seem to complement each other

 

The two newest books out from Hilaritas Press, the publishing imprint of the Robert Anton Wilson trust, seem to complement each other, so that someone interested in one book likely would find the other one interesting, too. This is probably coincidence, rather than the deliberate intent of Rasa and the other editors, but it seems like a fair observation.

A Non-Euclidean Perspective: Robert Anton Wilson’s Political Commentaries 1960-2005, a Robert Anton Wilson anthology and the newest Hilaritas title, concentrates on politics, as the title says. Every Day is a GOOD Day, the Robert Shea anthology I edited released in September, is not ostensibly a politics book, but it has many essays on anarchism and a description of Shea's participation in an antiwar march in Chicago.

Both books have many pieces on anarchism. Both have a strong antiwar tone. Both have an essay on Ayn Rand. The Wilson book has a whole essay on nonvoting and the Shea book has short piece advocating nonvoting. 

There is also some actual overlap. "Anarchism and Crime," the piece I speculated the other day might be an outtake from Illuminatus!, is reprinted on both books.

Of course, there are obvious differences in the books by the  two Illuminatus! co-author. Shea is consistently an anarchist and Wilson is rather all over the place. They even acknowledge that about each other, Wilson in the "Illuminating Discord" interview, Shea in the acceptance speech after winning the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for Illuminatus! 

The RAW Semantics blog has a post on Non-Euclidian, while Michael Johnson reviewed Every Day is a GOOD Day at his Substack. 

Steve Fly still wants to go to Siberia

 

A freight train on the Trans Siberian Railway runs next to Lake Baikal. (Creative Commons photo). 

The new Robert Anton Wilson book just out from Hilaritas, A Non-Euclidean Perspective: Robert Anton Wilson's Political Commentaries 1960-2005, includes an interview of RAW by Steve "Fly" Pratt. I was intrigued by this bit:

FLY: Yeah, I'm thinking of moving to Siberia.

RAW: You've moving to Siberia? That's not such a bad idea. I thought about moving to Amsterdam.

FLY: I found the city of Amsterdam to be one of the more liberal-thinking cities of Europe. 

This is not the most important question, ever, but I wondered: Why did Fly want to move to Siberia? (He is quite the world traveler, but Siberia?) Why did RAW think it was not a bad idea? So I finally just asked. I emailed Steve: "I am curious why  you wanted to move to Siberia. Did you ever get to at least visit?"

Steve replied, "No, I didn't visit siberia, yet. I'm romantic for tuvan throat singing, would love to take the trans siberia express.... Some day. Write all the way."

Here is my most recent interview with Steve, it links to a couple of others. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, even if you haven't made your dream trip yet. 

Upcoming book: 'The Occult Timothy Leary'

Chad Nelson alerts me to a book that's coming out in April: The Occult Timothy Leary: The Tarot, Magical States, and Post-Terrestrial Evolution.

The book is apparently part of a series (the publisher, Destiny Books, also displays The Occult Sylvia Plath and The Occult Elvis. The Leary book has a foreword by R.U. Sirius, which seeems like a good sign. 

Here is some of the publisher's blurb:

"Timothy Leary, American psychologist and countercultural icon, is well known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs and controversial experiments on human consciousness. What is less well known is his deep interest in Western esotericism, a dimension that Joseph L. Flatley explores in-depth.

"Flatley recounts Leary’s early life and career trajectory, highlighting the esoteric influences that informed his occult activities. The author explores Leary’s thoughts on reincarnation and his futuristic views of computers and human evolution. Readers will learn about Leary’s encounters with twentieth-century groups and figures like Ram Dass, the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, and Robert Anton Wilson, all of whom influenced his psychic explorations and the development of his Eight Circuit Model of consciousness.

"The author also details the role of the tarot in Leary’s life and philosophy, showing how Leary created his own version of the deck. Flatley reveals the correspondences between Leary’s deck and his Eight Circuit Model of consciousness and gives practical suggestions for how to use this tarot for divination."

Author bio: "Joseph L. Flatley is an investigative journalist, author, and host of the podcast A Paranoid’s History of the United States. His short films have been featured at Three Rivers Film Festival (Pittsburgh), NonPlussed Fest (Los Angeles) and Desert Daze (Joshua Tree, CA). His most recent book is New Age Grifter: The True Story of Gabriel of Urantia and His Cosmic Family."

Here's a link to the podcast. 

Did Bobby Campbell find a bit cut from 'Illuminatus!'?

In the comments for my Nov. 19 post, about the documents Bobby Campbell posted after going through the Ed Sanders papers at Princeton University's library special collections,  Jesse Walker posts a question about "Hodge Podge," a three page document written by Mordecai Malignatus, i.e. RAW. 

Jesse asked, "Is "Hodge Podge" one of the cut bits from Illuminatus!?

"(It is certainly the first place I've ever seen Robert Anton Wilson make a Merle Haggard reference. My worlds collide!)"

When I read it, it certainly seemed possible to me that it was a bit cut from Illuminatus!. 

I had the same question about "Anarchism and Crime," an essay featured in both the new Robert Anton Wilson book, A Non-Euclidean Perspective: Robert Anton Wilson’s Political Commentaries 1960-2005, and in Every Day is a GOOD Day, the new Robert Shea anthology. 

It was published in Green Egg magazine on May 1, 1974. It is attributed to both Wilson and Shea, which itself seems suggestive, and the date made me wonder if it became available after it was chopped out of the Appendix by one of the Dell editors making cuts in the book, or by Wilson and Shea when they were compelled by Dell to make cuts.

I should also note that RAW's old friend, Scott Apel, maintains that Wilson's book The Illuminati Papers includes material cut from Illuminatus!  And in fact, there is independent evidence that Scott is correct. 

Johann Sebastian Bach in the new RAW politics book

I tend to think of Beethoven as Robertt Anton Wilson's favorite composer, and mentions of Beethoven haunt RAW's writings, including many of the most well-known titles, such as Illuminatus! and Prometheus Rising. So I was interested that Johann Sebastian Bach  was the composer mentioned most prominently in the new RAW book, A Non-Euclidean Perspective: Robert Anton Wilson’s Political Commentaries 1960-2005, which I just finished.

The first mention comes in the "Illuminating Discord" interview, from 1976, when RAW is asked about his favorite music, and he mentions "Beethoven's Ninth and his late quartets, Bach, Bizet, Carl Orff, Vivaldi, the less popular and more experimental stuff by Stravinsky."

In the transcript of the joint appearance with Karl Hess (pun intended), the pair are asked to name the "greatest person who ever lived." Hess says his mother and Euclid, RAW answers, "Johann Sebastian Bach."

In the Steve Fly interview, asked about "favorite music albums and recording artists," RAW answers, "I like Bach. I like Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane. I like Harry Belafonte and the Weavers and a lot of other music. I like Mahler. I like a lot of music. Next question."  (But earlier in the interview, when Steve asks for RAW's "favorite sound," he answers, "The end of Beethoven's Ninth: male and female voices singing together about joy and brotherhood and peace.")

A few other Bach bits:

In this post, Tyler Cowen rates Bach "the greatest achiever of all time." While this is a reasonable opinion and Tyler makes a good case, I am not sure why Bach would rank above Mozart,  who wrote an astounding quantity of good music before dying at age 35. Many of Mozart's most famous works date from late in his career, so it is painful to think about what we might have if Mozart had lived until 40. Bach made it to 65, Beethoven was 56 when he died.

Bach is referenced over and over again in the works of Richard Powers, one of my favorite novelists. This is most obvious in The Gold Bug Variations, in which a character gives her lover a copy of the famous Glenn Gould recording of the Goldberg Variations. 

One of my favorite Michael Johnson Substack issues is his Bach piece, "J.S. Bach and the Psychedelic Mind."  Michael likes to play Bach on electric guitar; he should put some of that out on Bandcamp.

I own a lot of Bach's music and also have a lot bookmarked on streaming services. If I had to pick one favorite piece, it might be Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582.  I also listen over and over again to three cantatas: "Wachet Auf," BWV 140; "Christ lag in Todes Banden," BWV 4, and the "Hunting Cantata," BWV 208. 

Hilaritas Press podcast spotlights Robert Shea book

The new Hilaritas Press podcast released today with regular host Mike Gathers features Mike Shea and myself, discussing the new Robert Shea anthology.

Official blurb: "Hilaritas host Mike Gathers chats with Mike Shea and Tom Jackson about the life of Robert Shea, and the new Robert Shea book, Every Day Is A GOOD Day, from Hilaritas Press in Episode 51 of the Hilaritas Press Podcast."

The podcast opens with Rasa's nifty animation of the book's cover. I thought it was a good episode when we recorded it -- not because of me, but because Mike Shea told so many good stories about his father. I thank the Mikes and Rasa for making this podcast happen. 

The Etsy Weirdoverse shop

With the advent of the gift giving season, this seems like a good time to point to the Etsy Weirdoverse shop, filled with various items of Bobby Campbell goodness.

If you missed out on Tales of Illuminatus, you can buy both issues from the shop. But I also want to point to a digital product, Omnibus777, more than 600 pages of digital comics for $5, and the "Discordian God Card Package."

Etsy, if you aren't familiar with it, is a nice way to support small business folk and get unique items. 

Looks like I'm going to read 'The Magus'

 

The recommendations for The Magus by John Fowles are coming in thick and fast. It looks like I need to get around to reading the copy that's been sitting in my Kindle for a long time.

1. The new Robert Anton Wilson book, A Non-Euclidean Perspective: Robert Anton Wilson’s Political Commentaries 1960-2005, mentions the book three times, including once as a personal favorite, and also as a "great book." 

2. I recently wrote about book.sv, a book recommendation site recommended by Mark Frauenfelder, the RAW fan, writer, artist and founder of the Boing Boing magazine and website. When I tried it, it recommended The Magus to me. In the comments, Lvx15 said the site recommended The Magus to him as well, and Mark Brown mentioned it's in his "to be read" pile (which I suspect is as big as mine).

3. Robert Shea (in the new book) recommends John Fowles as one of his favorite writers. 

4. Email from Mark Fraunfelder today: "Thanks for mentioning my book recommendation review! I read The Magus earlier this year and loved it!"

OK, OK, I will try to read it soon.

The delay of 'Illuminatus!' and five Robert Shea zines

As I wrote in yesterday's post, Bobby Campbell has released a lot of new Robert Anton Wilson material, but he also took the time to release PDFs of five Robert Shea zines. One of them illustrates that Shea and RAW originally thought Illuminatus! would be coming out much more quickly. It also confirms that the pair originally thought Dell would bring out one big book:

"Two Chicago authors (names kept secret for their protection) are threatening to produce a novel which will give the complete and total truth about the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria. Dell books is threatening of publish it. If all parties involved survive, the book could be out by 1971. Then the Apple will really hit the fan!" (The Universal Instructor in All Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania Gazette (formerly the Saturday Evening Post, Number 25, April 4, 1970, available here). 

I will be checking out the RAW material, too, although probably not thoroughly until I can finish reading A Non-Euclidean Perspective: Robert Anton Wilson’s Political Commentaries 1960-2005. 

But I don't want Shea to be overlooked (as if you couldn't tell)  so I've started by looking at  five Shea zines, dating from 1969 to 1970).

Here is yesterday's blog post, with reading recommendations from Bobby and a link to the whole archive -- lots of RAW material -- and links to Shea's five zines in the archive. 

Bobby Campbell releases RAW (and Shea) papers from Princeton library

The Princeton Library. Bobby Campbell photo, I think. 

As I mentioned the other day, Bobby Campbell recently visited the Ed Sanders papers at Princeton University's special collections in the university library, searching for Robert Anton Wilson papers. 

Bobby has now posted a collection of papers to make them available to everyone. 

Here is the announcement at the Maybe Logic blog: 

Enclosed please find a large collection of letters, articles, poetry, prose, and Discordian junk mail created by Robert Anton Wilson, usually under a variety of pen names and aliases, and all sent to, and preserved by, the poet and activist Ed Sanders.

(There is also material by Robert Shea, Arlen Riley Wilson, and even a cameo by Mal 2!)

This material was discovered by the brilliant esoteric scholar R. Michael Johnson, our resident Overweening Generalist, who identified its close proximity to my suburban NJ environs, housed in the Princeton Library's Special Collections Dept, and suggested I might do well to take a gander. Not being the type to turn down a magical quest, I did indeed take a trip up the turnpike and captured the cache of material, converted to PDF, labeled and organized to the best of my ability, and now present to the wider RAW/Discordian community for enjoyment and edification :)))

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS: EARLY RAW - THE ED SANDERS COLLECTION

The majority of the material here was brand new to me, and does not seem to be available elsewhere on the internet, though I'll be curious to see how much of it is genuinely previously unknown writing. I direct your attention specifically to the "I" newsletter section, which appears to be an early forerunner of the Trajectories newsletter. It seems like RAW probably sent this stuff far and wide, but I've never bumped into it before. Maybe it's collected under another name? (Maybe housed in the famed Discordian archives?)

I also direct your attention to two prose pieces:

I Blew Pot at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Panty Raid at the Pentagon)

& Werewolf Bridge

Both of which Wilson refers to as proposed novels, of which these are presumably very short excerpts.

The Werewolf Bridge material shows up as a recurring theme in his work, but I don't think in this exact form. RAW's first hand description of his experience at the Pentagon protest is riveting! And again, previously unknown to me.

More here. 

Copies of 'Tales of Illuminatus 2' are being delivered

I made a Kickstarter pledge to back Tales of Illuminatus 2 and my comic book arrived on my porch Monday. So if you backed the project, too, and if you don't have your copy yet, I suspect that it will arrive Real Soon Now. Congratulations to Bobby for completing it! A job well done! 

 

'Liminal Currents' podcast interviews Rasa about RAW

Episode 23 of the Liminal Currents podcast features an  interview with Rasa. "On this episode he shares many interesting stories about RAW, his concepts and a bit about Timothy Leary as well!" I have not had time to listen yet, but I will check it out soon. I have linked to the Apple podcasts site, but it appears to be available at many of the usual podcasting locations and apps. The host apologizes for accidentally referring to Rasa as "Robert" in the podcast. 

The Liminal Currents podcast appears to have other episodes that might be of interest to sombunall RAW fans.

RAW and Shea material at the Princeton library

Letter from RAW to Ed Sanders. 

 Bobby Campbell on Bluesky: "I had a great day at the Princeton Special Collections Dept! Documenting a treasure drove of original RAW documents from his correspondence w/ poet Ed Sanders. (On behalf of the OG!) 213 pages of RAW & Shea material. Processing everything now. Decent chance there's some unique gems in here :)))"

Background on Ed Sanders. The Princeton library has a website for Ed Sanders Papers, 1939-2021 (mostly 1960-2010). I look forward to learning more.