Wasting little time in getting the new year started right, Hilaritas Press has released Chaos and Beyond, the anthology from the newsletter Trajectories that originally was released in 1994 and which has been out of print.
I have a used copy of the original book, and I bought the Kindle was soon as I noticed the announcement email Rasa sent out. The new edition features a new 2023 introduction written by D. Scott Apel, Wilson's collaborator on the original newsletter.
In that new introduction, Apel worries that the book has become out of date. While I take his point that some of the issues the book covers won't seem relevant today, I really enjoyed the book and I am certain that other RAW fans will, too. I don't think it will replace Cosmic Trigger or any of the other classics as anyone's favorite RAW book, but it's a good read.
Here's what Rasa writes:
"For over a decade (1987-1997), Robert Anton Wilson published a quarterly newsletter, Trajectories: The Journal of Futurism and Heresy with editorial and publishing expertise from his wife, Arlen Riley Wilson, and his friend, D. Scott Apel. Scott describes the newsletter as, "full of original articles, unpublished fiction, and outrageous opinion." Chaos and Beyond features the best essays from the first five years of the newsletter.
"The book is mostly by Robert Anton Wilson, but with guest appearances by Arlen Wilson, D. Scott Apel, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Timothy Leary, Ph.D. Linus Pauling, Ph.D., Robert Newport, M.D., Edward Kellogg III, Ph.D., Peter Russell, George Carlin, and Ed McMahon."
The bit from Timothy Leary is hilarious (i.e, the piece about writing letters to the editor using a phony name), and you'll enjoy reading Arlen's work.
In related news, the next Hilaritas Press podcast, out on Jan. 23, will feature an interview with Apel. I've wanted to hear him on the podcast for a long time, and I'm looking forward to the show.
3 comments:
I love that book.
Just to let you know, the paperback and Kindle editions are available on Amazon, but the other ebook outlets may take a day or two longer. I tried a different strategy this time with Ingram, and they ended up being a bit slower than usual. We save some money in their fees if we upload both the print and ebook editions at the same time. The trouble is that they will usually put out the non-Kindle ebooks, like Kobo and B&N, etc. immediately... even before we have time to order, receive and approve the proof of the paperback. This time, I did the uploads separately, so the paperback and ebook would come out at the same time, but Ingram was slow in getting the ebooks out. I think nest time I won't worry about B&N etc having the book before we announce. Dealing with Amazon is amazingly easy. They are very fast in the whole process. Ingram, not so much.
Call it synchronicity, but the UPS driver who chats me up about simulation theory, metaphysics, and other weirdo stuff asked for some good content to listen to while driving and I gave him a recommendation for the Hilaritas Podcast. He's just the weirdo that will enjoy Mike's project. It's good to find other Others. :)
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