Gregory Arnott, who wrote the foreword for the new Hilaritas Press edition of Robert Anton Wilson's The Walls Came Tumbling Down, appears as the guest for a bonus edition of the monthly Hilaritas Press podcast, released to promote the book. Mike Gathers, serving again as the host, gets Gregory to talk about a variety of topics. The first half of the podcast concentrates on the book; the second half focuses on magick. There's discussion of my favorite TV show Twin Peaks, Graham Hancock comes up and Gregory has interesting things to say about UFOlogy. It's a good episode.
The official show site has some links, but I want to add a couple of things mentioned on the show: Gregory's essential reading list for people interested in magic, and Gregory's 2018 talk on RAW and magick. You'll likely be able to find the podcast on your favorite app (I used Podkicker) but the link to the show site has several suggestions.
2 comments:
I just finished listening to this great conversation and recommend it highly! At one point Mike asks something to the effect, "how can I make my world more magical?" Gregory gave some great answers - of course, many things can address this question. Hearing these podcasts makes my world more magical, literally. Last night I dug into The Cantos inspired by the previous Hilaritas podcast with Eric Wagner on Ezra Pound.
The answer that immediately came to me: read some Marcel Proust starting with Swann's Way, the first volume from In Search of Lost Time. His beautiful descriptions of "ordinary" scenes and how the characters feel about them had me looking at all the "ordinary" scenes in my life in a whole new light.
Regarding the most excellent The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as magical. A fair percentage of the rituals in both the Golden Dawn and Crowley's A.A. got based on a collection of ancient writings collectively known as The Egyptian Book of the Dead. I consider Hitchhikers Guide a science fiction book of the dead. Human life gets wiped out at the beginning of this epic adventure except for Arthur Dent who then begins voyaging through space (the bardo). The first time I came around E.J. Gold's school, Hitchhiker's Guide, in the form of the BBC radio recordings, was at the top of the curriculum. We spent hours repeatedly listening to the entire thing. It sat on the front burner as an item of study for a few months. Furhter, the extensive humor in it seems a dead giveaway to its magical nature. I also consider Joyce's Finnegans Wake and The Western Lands by Burroughs as books of the dead.
Terrific interview.
Post a Comment