Annotating Michael Johnson I

A comment on Bobby Campbell's excellent new interview with Michael Johnson, focusing on Illuminatus!  I am quoting Michael's comments in italics, the boldface is mine, then my comments are below:

Nota bene RAW's naming of three filmmakers when discussing modernistic structure in literature. Why can a lot of us watch Intolerance, Battleship Potemkin and Breathless and "get it" while our eyes glaze over when we try to sample Ulysses? It's too much for me to get into now, so I'll try to get back to answering your question: RAW (and I don't know how much Shea had to do with this; perhaps more than I thought?) was thoroughly steeped in Pound/Joyce/ Burroughs and other modernist experiments and and structure, and he had linked this to Shannon's literally world-changing equation for Information Theory: the more we can't guess what's going to come next, the more information in a text, and when there's a very high level of information, the reader's consciousness is likely to be altered in ways they haven't experienced with...let's say: best-sellers. In this, the editing of Illuminatus! "is" style, which "is" content. Which “is” energy.

I don't want to minimize Shea's contributions to Illuminatus!, which include the fact that it was based on his original idea, he got the book contract for them from Dell, etc., but my own guess is that Shea had little to do with the unusual structure and prose of Illuminatus!; as far as I can tell, Wilson was the one who was the Joyce fan and the Burroughs fan. Also, Illuminatus! seems more in Wilson's writing style than Shea's; I'm pretty sure Wilson rewrote the final draft. 

It also seems to me that most of the literary references in Illuminatus! are to writers Wilson was interested in. 

In the 1985 interview published in Science Fiction Review in 1985, Shea cites his favorite "contemporary writers" as "John Fowles, Romain Gary, Norman Mailer, Yukio Mishima, Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell, Thomas Pynchon, J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Penn Warren." In the Outworlds interview, he says, "I've read very little H.P. Lovecraft. I’ve read very little H.P. Lovecraft. The use made in Illuminatus! of Lovecraft’s material is largely Wilson’s contribution." 

I've read all of Shea's novels. While they share some themes with Illuminatus!, in format they are quite traditional, with clear beginnings, middles and ends, clear prose, cliffhanger endings at the end of the first book in a series, etc. 

Certainly references to Ayn Rand and Tolkien are at least as likely to be Shea as Wilson, Shea certainly contributed to  the anarchist theory discussion, and the reference to the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" seems more likely to be Shea than Wilson, as Shea was the documented Beatles fan.  I would also guess that much of the narrative tension of the Illuminati vs. Celine and his allies is from Shea, not Wilson. 

But to get back to Michael's original point, Wilson was the one "thoroughly steeped in Pound/Joyce/ Burroughs and other modernist experiments and and structure" and I think the structure and style of Illuminatus! is really more Wilson than Shea, based on all of the novels they each wrote as "solo artists." 

Michael's comments about what sets Illuminatus! apart are really interesting, and you should read all of them rather than just my excerpt to get a sense of what he's talking about (second question and answer).

I have to go and get started on my day, but I will likely offer other blog posts on the interview, it is quite long and interesting.