Richard Powers has a composer obsession, too

I have been reading the new Richard Powers novel, Playground, and I'm on page 141. Johann Sebastian Bach hasn't put in an appearance yet. 

I remarked once again yesterday about the role of Beethoven in RAW's works, and then I realized that Bach plays a similar role in Powers' works. This is most obvious in The Gold Bug Variations, which has a lot about Bach's Goldberg Variations (one of the main characters listens to Glenn Gould's famous 1950s recordings) but Bach is mentioned in many of Powers' other books. 

An interest in classical music also is a theme in Powers' books, most obviously in Orfeo. Here is my interview with Powers about that book. The official Richard Powers website has links to music mentioned in Orfeo. 

Of course, an interest in classical music pervades RAW's "Historical Illuminatus" books, and Mozart even appears as a minor character. 

I've read other works of fiction that mention classical music and specific composers, but when I tried to think of another modern writer who focuses in much of his/her work on one particular composer, I came up dry.

If it isn't obvious, I'm a huge Powers fan. I've read 11 of his 14 novels so far. Powers has won a National Book Award, a Pulitzer, a MacArthur "genius" grant, etc., so he's a good example of a writer embraced by the literary establishment, as opposed to RAW, who spent his life being pretty much ignored by it. I guess the issue is that RAW wasn't published as a "mainstream" writer, but it seems a shame he never got discovered by one of the major literary review magazines, got a lot of press in major newspapers or came up for any of the major literary awards. (Playground was listed as a nominee for the Booker Award even before it came out!)

Footnote: Classical music doesn't loom large in the works of Robert Shea (most of his novels are set in the Middle Ages, preceding such music) but from what I can tell reading his nonfiction bits, he had a particular interest in Mozart. 

Beethoven in 'Cosmic Trigger 2'

Alfred Brendel. (Photo  from official website). 

My fascination with Beethoven continues. I decided a few days ago to listen to all of Beethoven 32 piano sonatas again, in order. I have made it through #5 so far, so obviously I have a ways to go. I am mostly listening to renditions by Alfred Brendel, but for certain performances I am switching to Sviatoslav Richter and Angela Hewitt. (Richter is my favorite piano player, but he never recorded a set of all of Beethoven's sonatas, a good example of how Richter was a maverick and would not do what he was "supposed" to do.)

Robert Anton Wilson's books are peppered with references to Beethoven. My search of the text of Cosmic Trigger 2 (I also have a paper copy, but a Kindle is useful for searches) shows four references to him. For example, in the "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" chapter, RAW writes, "A movie theatre is the best place to learn the true meaning of Plato's parable of the prisoners in the cave, who accept shadows as reality. Every artist who moves us, from a movie maker to Beethoven or Shakespeare, is a bit of a hypnotist."

I am intrigued by another of the references to Beethoven. In the "Attack of the Dog-Faced Demons" chapter, RAW writes, "In a farm in Mendocino, 1972, I was preparing for the Mass of the Phoenix, a ritual designed by Aleister Crowley in which the magician attempts to activate his "True Will." I had taken 250 micrograms of Acid, played some Beethoven, and, when I felt ready, I went to my makeshift Altar and began the invocation."

Why would RAW play Beethoven as part of his preparation? Does anyone want to comment? 

Ralph Abraham has died

Ralph Abraham. Photo posted on X.com by the Mondo 2000 account. 

Ralph Abraham, a California math professor interested in hip culture, has died at age  88. He wrote books on mathematics and philosophy and was interested in psychedelics and lectured on chaos theroy. Many people in the Robert Anton Wilson community have been mourning his death,  here are quotes taken from X.com:

R.U. Sirius: "Ralph Abraham RIP ... the brilliant mathematician and friend to Mondo 2000 et. al. (my recollection is that he wrote for Reality Hackers) master of chaos theory in performance, music, collabs w Terence McKenna he left us at 70. In my limited experience, he was exceptionally kind."

Bobby Campbell: "Ralph Abraham - Dove Sta Memoria. He was the coolest and nicest mathematical genius imaginable. He always answered my silly questions in such an uplifting way that broadened my horizons. May the trialogues never end :)))"

Ted Hand: "RIP Ralph Abraham. I had the pleasure of getting lunch with him, William Sarill, and the late Juan Acosta-Urquidi in Santa Cruz a decade or so back. He told us about a book club he had going with Terence McKenna reading PKD novels. I had been meaning to interview him about that."

Joseph Matheny: "RIP Ralph Abraham. One of my most influential mentors and friends...I worked with Raph on several projects, including going to the Ross School in 2000 and showing students how to author a then-emerging tech video format, DVD. I also often invoked his books (especially "Chaos, Gaia, Eros," a formative book for me) and his concept of The Spiral Curriculum, embodied in his creation for The Ross Academy." (Follow the link thread for a photo and caption and a link to a video).

Here is Professor Abraham's official website. 

Re-reading 'Cosmic Trigger 2': A net of jewels

Cosmic Trigger 2: Down to Earth is one of my favorite Robert Anton Wilson books, and I re-read it every few years. I have just completed my latest re-read.   I've mentioned for years that it's one of my favorites, and in fact I was allowed to write a "Foreword" for the Hilaritas Press edition.

Here is  one recurring motif I noticed this time. As the book describes, when Wilson was in his twenties, he had two great frustrations. He had trouble getting his writing career going, and he was frustrated in his search for a romantic companion. 

Both of these problems had a "happy ending" of course, and I found passages in the book that link together Wilson's two great partnerships, one that largely launched his writing career and one that gave him a happy personal and family life. 

I noticed in the latest re-read that there's a lot in the book about networking; for example, Wilson talks about the John S. Bell's Theorem and how it apparently "showed that the universe was non-locally 'connected' or perhaps more precisely, non-locally correlated."  

This can be read as a metaphor for connections between people, and the book references two important connections Wilson made. One is the one with Robert Shea that resulted in Illuminatus!, which largely launched the book writing career for both men. The story of Illuminatus! is covered in the first book of the series, Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati, and Wilson does not repeat the story in CT2. But there is a scene in the book which describes Wilson and Shea participating in an antiwar demonstration together and then taking refuge in a Chicago tavern.

In the Shea scene,  Wilson records that in the bar, "I looked at the silvery mirrors with me and Shea and a room full of strangers in them: a net of jewels, each of which reflects and is reflected in each of the others." (Page 30)

Toward the end of the book, Wilson describes meeting Arlen Riley, a writer and New York intellectual, and the storyline in those chapters concludes  with a description of their marriage.

At the wedding, the officiating Buddhist priest asks Wilson and his bride to repeat the traditional triple vow, used in all schools of Buddhism, to rely upon the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha; at the time, Wilson did not know what the Sangha was (it's  the community of Buddhists). The chapter then offers various definitions of the Sangha after Wilson had read up on the subject, and the jewels recur in his favorite description: "I prefer to consider it an unbounded net of jewels each of which reflects and contains the reflection of each of the others."

With your indulgence, I may have other blog posts about other features of the book. 

'Tales of Illuminatus' paper copies are shipping

In his latest Substack newsletter, Bobby Campbell offers another update to the online version of Tales of Illuminatus and provides a report on the shipping of paper copies:

"Orders have been placed and print/shipping files have been provided for our KS fulfillment of Tales of Illuminatus! #1 :)))

"North American orders are being printed and shipped by https://ka-blam.com/

"Who estimate orders should arrive by October 14th, though they also note that they are currently being hit by a hurricane, so we might have to give them a day or two of grace.

"European orders are being printed and shipped by https://mixam.co.uk/

"Who haven't provided a solid date yet, but mostly because they're shipping to darn near every country on the continent, so the shipping prices are still being worked out."

Please read the whole thing for Steve "Fly" Pratt music news and for other news. 

Wednesday links

 

Email from Paul Krasser quoting Robert Anton Wilson on RAW's byline. Posted on Facebook by Rasa, who explains, "Looking through my old emails, I found this email that Paul Krassner sent to Robert Anton Wilson…RAW then sent it out to his Group Mind, which is how I got it. May 21, 2006" (Posted on Facebook)

"The lost 1970s documentary exposing the Illuminati." Via Grouchogandhi, KSP on X.com. 

Movie recommendation from Jeffrey Talanian: "Fellow H.P. Lovecraft fans, if you have not seen it already, I highly recommend you watch the adaptation of "The Whisperer in Darkness," by the HPL Historical Society. It is available for free on Tubi. This classic tale of the Mi-Go hidden in the hills of Vermont is a cornerstone of HPL's fiction, and a personal favorite of mine. This movie, like HPLHS's other film works, is filmed in the style of 1930s—dramatic, with inner monologues, and a brilliant score. Very well done."

Boy kidnapped at age six found alive more than seven decades later. 

Ohio's governor on the truth about Springfield. Good for him. 

New book news: R.U. Sirius, Richard Kaczynski

Announcement from R.U. Sirius: "R.U.  Sirius & Shira Chess are pleased (and a little frightened) to  announce that we have contracted with Strange Attractor Press to publish  Freaks in the Machine: Mondo 2000 in Late 20th Century Tech Culture.  With a forward by Grant Morrison."

More information here. 

Richard Kaczynski, meanwhile, has a new book out: Friendship in Doubt: Aleister Crowley, J.F.C. Fuller, Victor B. Neuburg and British Agnosticism. Watch a YouTube interview by Maevius Lynn. 

Hilaritas podcast features Gregory Peters

 The new Hilaritas Press podcast, released today, features Gregory Peters. 

Here is the blurb for the show:

"Host Mike Gathers discusses the Divine Feminine with Gregory Peters.

"Gregory Peters is a researcher and explorer of nondual tantra, consciousness and the intersection of East-West spiritual practices. As a long time meditator, Dzogchen practitioner, tantrika, and senior adept of western esotericism. his writings explore the rich magical and energetic display of experience."

John Higgs: Cover reveal, book recommendations

 

The new John Higgs newsletter has a cover reveal for his new Dr. Who book, which can now be preordered. 

There are also recommendations for three new books being released in October, including the new Alan Moore novel, a rant about social media and news on interviews and personal appearances.

Here are the Alan Moore comments: 

"First up is the opening book in Alan Moore’s Long London fantasy series, The Great When. It’s funny and very approachable - think Terry Pratchett writing one of Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London novels - but still unmistakeably Alan. This has ‘massive hit’ written all over it, and it’s out on Tuesday."

Scott Alexander, RAW fan and RAW critic

Thomas Bayes, although apparently there's a high probability this isn't him. See here. 

Scott Alexander is a popular Internet pundit. He formerly had a blog called Slate Star Codex; he currently has a popular Substack newsletter called Astral Codex Ten. 

He is both a fan of Robert Anton Wilson's writing, and a critic of treating RAW as a one-stop-shop guru for people interested in mysticism and occult practices.

First, let me address a recent reference.

I always look forward to Alexander's monthly "Links" column, which never fails to include many interesting items. The latest one for September had this item:

"4: List Of Groups Who Protested The Democratic Convention (also continued on second tweet). This is real, but it reminds me of those multi-page shaggy-dog-joke lists of fictional bands or fictional conspiracies or something in Robert Anton Wilson books."'

This is is double reference to Illuminatus!, as Scott is referencing the bands attending the music festival and also referencing the demonstrations at the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention that feature in the work (Wilson and Shea both participated in peace demonstrations). 

The same "Links" piece also has this phrase: "Indeed do many things come to pass." (Item 43). 

All of that made me wonder if Scott is currently re-reading Illuminatus!, and he answered when I fired off an email: "Nah, but I did enjoy it quite a lot last time I read it a few years ago."

This leads me into my second link, "Against Anton-Wilsonism," a 2013 piece which argues that you can't really know mysticism, or occultism, or any other practice by reading even as skillful a writer as Robert Anton Wilson, you have to actively master the subject. I don't think RAW would disagree. Here is an excerpt:

"There are certain fields where it’s really obvious to everyone that learning about the field is different from learning the field. There are probably historians of music who have never picked up an instrument, and they don’t fancy themselves musicians. And political scientists don’t delude themselves into thinking they would make great politicians.

"Mysticism is not one of these fields (rationality isn’t either, but that’s a different blog article). Because so much of mysticism revolves around the idea of the gnosis, a specific kind of knowledge, it’s easy to mistake knowledge of mysticism for the knowledge that mysticism tries to produce."

You really need to read the whole thing. 

Another point pops up in the comments. BenSix writes, "I love Anton Wilson’s writings but the agnosticism that he promoted can become a dogma itself. One can grow too comfortable in answering truth claims with 'maybe', and avoid the difficult business of working out whether it would be more appropriate to say 'yes' or ]no'." Scott responds, "I reread some of Robert Anton Wilson a year or so ago, and it all just looked like “Look at me, I don’t understand Bayesian probability, I’m going to pretend that 1% chance of truth is equivalent to 99% chance of truth and totally drive off an epistemological cliff!' ”

St. Rev responds, "It’s fair to criticize Wilson for not grasping Bayes’ theorem, though my impression is that Bayesianism has only risen to prominence among schools of null-A logics in the last 10-20-odd years, and most of RAW’s important work was done in the 70s and 80s. (It would be fairer to criticize him for garbling Shannon!) But he was quite good at applying Korzybski, and your 99%-1% characterization is unfair. What RAW did say explicitly, in various contexts, was that he rated likelihood of propositions on a scale of 1 to 9, and if he found himself at 0 or 10 he’d look for a counterargument until he reached 1 or 9 again. RAW didn’t have our analytic foundation for probabilistic thinking, but he wasn’t a nihilist and it’s absurd to say so."

Perhaps this can be related to Michael Huemer's criticism, mentioned a few days ago, that Wilson apparently isn't actually totally familiar with Aristotle,  or to the oddity, which I've mentioned before, that Wilson writes a great deal about skepticism but (as far as I can remember) never mentions Pyrrho and Pyrrhonism. 

At the start of the piece, Alexander writes that "Back when I was in college, I loved stuff by Robert Anton Wilson." And in the comments in the piece, he writes, "I love Robert Anton Wilson as an author for the same reason I love Carl Sagan as a science personality. This post was in no way meant to say he was a bad author, role model, or source of fascinating ideas."

Podcast, with Joseph Matheny, focuses on Art Bell

Art Bell 

Art Bell (1945-2018) was an American radio broadcaster, featured on many radio stations across the U.S., who focused on paranormal topics. Here is audio of him interviewing Robert Anton Wilson. 

On a podcast called The Computer Room, a newly-posted episode focuses on Bell:

"In this episode of The Computer Room, Katherine and friends talk about Art Bell's legacy. We meet Leah Prime, who's writing a book about Art Bell, John Steiger who on a mission to hand transcribe every single episode of Coast to Coast AM, and Joseph Matheny, the mind behind Ong's Hat."

Via Matheny's Substack, which provides free email subscriptions.

'Tales of Illuminatus' digital copies now on sale

If you didn't purchase the first issue of Tales of Illuminatus by pledging to the Kickstarter, you can now buy a copy online, Bobby Campbell announces in the latest Tales newsletter: 

"KS backers got theirs on Saturday night, but now you can too! Digital downloads of Tales of Illuminatus! #1 'The Hidden Light' are now available for $5 cheap!

"I would recommend getting the digital PDF version from the Weirdoverse Etsy Shop. It’s a much higher resolution version, with no DRM, and the royalty rate is much more favorable.

"Though the Amazon/Comixology version is no slouch either!"

Paper copies of the issue for those who pledged at Kickstarter will be mailed out soon; if you didn't give Bobby your mailing address, please take care of it now. 

More Tales news here. 

Is this a real RAW quote? If so, from where?

“Not every quote you read on the Internet is true.” – Abraham Lincoln

Various quote compilations online have this quote (or purported quote) from Robert Anton Wilson:

The Right's view of government and the Left's view of big business are both correct.

Rasa, the guy who runs Hilaritas Press, has been asking RAW fans for the source of the quote, or even a quote that comes close. We have been searching our Kindles, poring through books, etc. So far, nothing.

There isn't even a consensus about whether RAW said it. Some RAW fans think it sounds familiar, some have doubts. One noted that the quote sites don't provide a citation, "which is partly the reason why these days Carl Jung is making statements about the law of attraction and Albert Einstein is spouting New Age nostrums."

Can anyone confirm the purported RAW quote, and provide a citation? 

Philosopher Michael Huemer: RAW 'that snake-oil salesman'

 

Michael Huemer. Creative Commons photo, source. 

I've been interested in University of Colorado philosopher Michael Huemer for awhile; I haven't read any of his books  yet, but I subscribe to his Substack newletter, Fake Noûs.  According to  the Wikipedia article I linked to, among the various opinions he advocates are libertarianism, vegetarianism (although it's OK to eat shellfish), agnosticism and the existence of immaterial souls. Look under "Advice" at his official website for an interesting piece, “Should I Go to Graduate School in Philosophy?”

I did not know Huemer had written about Robert Anton Wilson until I happened to browse the website for Bryan Caplan, the economics professor and blogger, and looked at the site's "Fun" section. Under "Interesting People," Caplan endorses Huemer as "my favorite philosopher of all time," and links to various "unpublished writings" of Huemer. I glanced through an eight-page letter to Brian Doherty, a libertarian writer, and found to my surprise that a large chunk of it was a rant criticizing Robert Anton Wilson.

Here below is a the section of the letter discussing RAW. A few caveats: Huemer is now 54, a philosopher professor at the University of Colorado and the author of a number of books (his new one, Progressive Myths, is just out).  The letter dates to 1992, when Huemer earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. Later that year, Huemer turned 23. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in philosophy at Rutgers University, and then landed a job in Colorado, as he explains in the FAQ on whether to go to graduate school in philosophy I reference above.

I wrote an email to Huemer on Sept. 12, explaining that I write this blog and that I wanted to post Huemer's comments about Wilson. I haven't received a reply. The document has been on Caplan's website likely for awhile, probably years, so it seems fair to post part of it. The full letter is here. The part about RAW is a distinct, numbered section of the letter, and I reprint it here. -- The Management. 

I hope the arguments by which that snake-oil salesman Robert Anton Wilson convinced you of libertarianism were a good deal better than his 'arguments' against the law of excluded middle. 

First of all, nobody should ever say anything bad about Aristotle (beyond the occasional tentative suggestion that perhaps his physics was a wee bit too teleological). He was probably the greatest thinker of all time and founded several academic disciplines, writing seminal works in formal logic, physics, metaphysics, ethics, politics, etc. that expressed what became the dominant theories in the fields for several centuries in most cases. Second, it is hardly the case that the only reason anybody believes in laws of identity, non-contradiction, and excluded middle is because Aristotle said so. People believe them because they strike us as such patent truisms. Third, Wilson's alleged counter-examples are confused. To point out that there are multiple interpretations of certain utterances, is nothing that Aristotle or other logicians have not been aware of for the past two thousand years; and to point out that some of these interpretations are true and some false is a poor argument to show that there are propositions that neither are nor are not the case. Aristotle himself urged explicitly that it was necessary to fix a univocal meaning to every term (and I'm sure he would have agreed it was necessary to fix a univocal meaning to the whole sentence). 

If a French speaker says "L'eau est chaud" and an English speaker says in the same context "The water is hot," then there is something that their utterances have in common. They are different utterances, but they mean the same thing. That is, the sentence is not the same, but the proposition it expresses is; there is one possible state of affairs that both of them purport to describe. This is an important distinction. The law of excluded middle does not assert that every sentence is either true or false; it asserts that every proposition is either true or false. And believe it or not, it was not Robert Anton Wilson who first discovered the existence of ambiguities -- i.e., that a single sentence could express multiple propositions, some of which might be true and others false. 

So, as Bryan pointed out, it doesn't matter to the truth of the Law of Excluded Middle whether you interpret "Water boils at 100 degrees C" as meaning always under every condition or just approximately at standard temperature and pressure, since however you interpret it it is either true or false. (Incidentally, the second is probably the standard interpretation.) Now let's look at the other examples. 

I don't know what "PQ = QP" means. Wilson tells us it's true "in ordinary mathematics" but not in some other mathematics. I can only assume this means either (a) that ordinary mathematics assign definitions to that statement such that it expresses a proposition which is true, while in the other mathematics it means something different, something which is false; or (b) that mathematicians disagree over whether a certain proposition is true, in which case how am I supposed to know who is right? Why is this interesting? I can come up with much more commonplace examples. For instance, I hereby define "people" to refer to elephants. Now I can say, ala R.A. Wilson, that "There are 250 million people in the United States" is true 'in ordinary demography' but false in the demography used by me. But presumably no one would think this shows that the number of people in the country is indeterminate. 

Some facts, as I pointed out earlier, are unobserved. Thus, I'm sure that either there is a tenth planet beyond Pluto or there is not a tenth planet beyond Pluto, but I'm not sure which is the case. Again, so what? Only a dummy would confuse "uncertain" with "indeterminate". 

Some sentences, even, fail to express any proposition at all. "Congratulations on your new job," or "How may I help you?" for instance, express no propositions because they aren't statements. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" likewise doesn't express a proposition. 

The status of "Behind the Green Door is a dirty movie" is debatable. I have never heard of the movie. Someone could argue (a) that the sentence is a veiled description of the reaction that the speaker feels towards it, in which case it is true just in case the speaker does have a feeling of disgust towards it. That is, one could argue that "x is dirty" means something like that x causes a feeling of revulsion in the speaker. (b) Someone could argue that for something to be dirty is for it to be filled with explicit sex scenes and intended for stimulating sexual desire in the audience. (c) It could be argued that "dirty" is really undefined or poorly defined so that "BtGD is a dirty movie" doesn't express a unique proposition. (d) One could say that the sentence expresses a combination of a descriptive judgement (that the movie contains explicit sex scenes) with a normative judgement (that this is bad). Finally, (e) it could be argued that the sentence contains a presupposition that promiscuous sexuality is bad (plus a claim that the movie contains explicit sex) and can be true only if that presupposition is true. Now I really don't care which of these theories one takes on the metaphysics of smut, because whatever one says the law of excluded middle holds. 

This business about "game rules" is simply idiotic. It may be true that a certain group of people believe a certain proposition and that you must believe the thing to be admitted to the group, but that tells us nothing about what it is that is believed, or whether it is true or false. I suppose R.A. Wilson would say that the fundamental theorem of calculus is a "game rule" because mathematicians won't take you seriously if you don't believe it. For that matter, anything is potentially a 'game rule' since I could always attach some consequences for people believing or not believing it. But the people in the Catholic church are not playing some kind of game; they really believe that the Pope is infallible (and falsely at that). 

I suppose Wilson hopes that his pseudo-scientific jargon will cow the reader into accepting his arbitrary assertions on religious faith -- e.g., "neurosemantic", "existential reality-labyrinth" -- but the question tougher than any of the quiz questions that I kept pondering is whether Wilson's own statements are true, false, or meaningless. 

Jetchidah previews the new magic book by Alan Moore and Steve Moore

 

The Jechidah blog has a preview of The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, the book by Alan Moore and Steve Moore that will be released on October. There's an outline of the planned contents, plus Gregory explains why the book is so important to him and why he's been awaiting it for years. 

"In many ways, the past sixteen years have felt like a fuse leading to this pure exposition of magic by my living hero."

"We also have the first Long London novel, The Great When by Alan Moore, coming out the first week of October. Magic is afoot.

"Consider Alan Moore, the closest we're ever going to get to Merlin or Prospero, upon his mouldering isle. Consider where we are and open yourself to the possibility of 'real' magic. Things can only get better."

More here. 

First issue of 'Tale of Illuminatus' released

The paper version of the first issue of Tales of Illuminatus will be mailed out shortly to people who backed it on Kickstarter, but the digital version is out. Bobby Campbell posted the digital version Saturday night on the Kickstarter page,  so if you backed it, you should have a link for downloading it. 

It's a big PDF file, about 186 megabytes, and it comes out to 44 pages. I wanted to look at it on a big screen, so I used my laptop. I sat up late when I knew I wouldn't be interrupted and read all of it. 

It's a really fine adaptation, faithful yet imaginative. I wish Wilson and Shea were alive to see it. Bobby and his artistic partner, Todd Purse (who so far is handling the George Dorn storyline) are following the text but also taking advantage of the comics medium. When I told Bobby that, he mentioned, "I was really pleased with how everything came together, esp with the transition into Todd’s George Dorn stuff."

Bobby is attending the Small Press Expo this weekend in Rockville, Maryland, and he reports that sales and  interest have been strong. 

"It's been a great day, the reaction has been very favorable, sold about half the initial print run on the first day :)))," he said. "The show has gone really well so far, a lot of people with either an enthusiastic memory of reading Illuminatus! Or a vague enough awareness of its presence in pop culture, or RAW, or Discordianism that they’ll let me talk them into giving it a try."

If you paid for the print edition, confirm your address with Kickstarter if you haven't done so already; you should have received an email. 

Joseph Campbell on how to read

Joseph Campbell (Creative Commons photo, source)

"When you find a writer who really is saying something to you, read everything that writer has written and you will get more education and depth of understanding out of that than reading a scrap here and a scrap there and elsewhere. Then to go people who influenced that writer, or those who were related to him, and your world builds together in an organic way that is really marvelous."

Joseph Campbell, The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work  (Source for quotation)

New podcast with Adam Gorightly

 

Monstertalk, a long-running podcast, has a new interview with Adam Gorightly, listen here.

"MonsterTalk has been promoting science and critical thinking since 2009. We use monsters as a springboard to talk about a variety of monster topics. We’re skeptical of the existence of monsters, but we want to understand the mysterious experiences people report."

First issue of 'Tales of Illuminatus' completed

The first issue of Tales of Illuminatus has been completed, and Kickstarter supporters should get their copies soon, Bobby Campbell reports in the latest issue of his Substack newsletter:

"I’m very happy to confirm that Tales of Illuminatus! #1 “The Hidden Light” was finished this past Sunday, and I’m picking up the initial print run that we’re taking to SPX tomorrow!

"Everyone that pre-ordered will receive their digital PDF version this Saturday September 14th at 8:08 PM :)))

"The digital edition will be available for sale on Amazon (Kindle), Etsy (PDF), and DriveThruComics (CBZ & PDF) for $5 starting next Thursday September 19th!

"Kickstarter fulfillment will begin as soon as I can collect the final few shipping addresses I need, or if it takes more than another week or so, I’ll pull the cosmic trigger and catch the stragglers on the flip side."

More here. 

Eric Wagner's reading regimen

Eric Wagner's other book 

Given yesterday's big news about Eric Wagner's new book, I thought I would share an anecdote about his interest in literature.

I myself have been feeling like a pretty serious reader. I just finished a couple of books, and I am currently re-reading Cosmic Trigger 2 by Robert Anton Wilson, the Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (about 970 pages, I'm making progress), the Standard Ebooks Short Fiction of Arthur Machen, The Wrong Stuff (a history of the Russian space program) by John Strausbaugh, and the Selected Poems of American poet James Tate. The Tate collection I am currently reading won the Pulitzer Prize.

Eric mentioned in an email that he's reading a bit of poetry, too, and  he also tends to read more than one book at a time:

"I tend to read a lot of books at the same time. About ten or eleven years ago I decided I did not want to read so many poetry books at the same time, so I tried to get down to number of the year. (I don't remember exactly when I started this, but in, say 2013, I tried to get down to thirteen poetry books with bookmarks in them.) Then each year I would start one more poetry book, so in 2014, I had 14 active poetry books. 

"Around 2020 or 2021, I decided to stop adding poetry books. Right now I have 17 active poetry books: Baraka, Baudelaire, Catullus, Chaucer, Collum, Dante, Dickinson, Frost, Homer, Robert Hunter, Pound, Rilke, Rumi, Spenser, and three Zukofsky books: "A", Bottom, and the version of Catullus he did with his wife."

Eric has also mused that it might be fun for a few of us to form a Proust reading group. I'm a little worried he might expect me to learn French first. 

Hilaritas to publish new book by Eric Wagner

Rasa's AI image of James Joyce and Robert Anton Wilson

Eric Wagner's new book on James Joyce's influence on Robert Anton Wilson will be published by Hilaritas Press, Rasa announced in a post on Facebook. 

Eric is the author of An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson. The new book was written under the working title Straight Outta Dublin, but Rasa's post does not confirm that will be the final title, so we'll have to see.

Rasa writes:

"Eric Wagner, author of An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson, is working on a new book for Hilaritas Press about James Joyce's influence on RAW. Even if you find Joyce difficult to read, you may really enjoy Eric's exploration of the subject. As an extra goodie, the ever erudite Michael Johnson has written a novella-sized afterword for the book that I am just now reading and editing. This promises to be a fantastic read for both RAW and Joyce enthusiasts.

"In the middle of Michael's essay, he wrote this description, above, of RAW that I thought was worth sharing. We have no expected release date for the new book, but it is coming together. The graphic here was my attempt to coax AI to make a scene of RAW and Joyce together. Something like this may well be the cover of the new book."

Rasa also posted an excerpt from Michael Johnson's piece, with this description of Robert Anton Wilson:

"He was erudite in the physical and social sciences, the Humanities, and in surrealism, drugs, sex, the occult and gnostic/hermetic/kabbalistic history and thought. It seems exceedingly rare to read a writer who is so well-read in classics, the physical sciences, mathematics, literature, philosophy, psychology, mythology, poetry, the history of film, and the Marginalized Discourses – those areas that academia has always shunned – magick and the occult, the history of secret societies and conspiracy theories, and “lowbrow” literature. Like Joyce, he thought the artificial separation of “High and Low” was to miss out on the booming, buzzing confusion of life and Mind outside the groves of academe. Wilson not only read the tabloids from an anthropological standpoint, he had written for “schlock” tabloids, in the early 1960s."

Steven 'Fly' Pratt talks about 'The First Trip'

Musician, writer and world traveler Steve "Fly Agaric" Pratt, 47, aka Steve Fly, aka Steven James Pratt, is a native of Wordsley, England, who for many years has lived in Amsterdam. He was a competitive swimmer in his youth but soon developed an interest in jazz and other forms of music. See this biography emphasizing his musical interests. 

Steve's newest project is The First Trip,  a music album focusing on Robert Anton Wilson and Illuminatus!, issued in conjunction with Bobby Campbell's ongoing Tales of Illuminatus adaptation of the Illuminatus! trilogy. You can find the album on Bandcamp.  Note that as with most other Bandcamp releases, you can play the tracks before you decide whether to buy the album. When you buy an album on Bandcamp, you can download the tracks to keep them and also stream it from the website or from a smartphone Bandcamp app. Steve's album is priced in pounds; it cost me about $10. 

Over the years, Steve's projects have included the Robert Anton Wilson meets Steve “Fly Agaric” Pratt album, which features Steve's interview with Robert Anton Wilson, with music from Steve Fly, Tim Egmond, Martin "Youth" Glover, Rick Rasa, Hagbard Celine, Garaj Mahal.

His books include World Piss, a collection of early writings; Fly On The Tale Of The Tribe: A Rollercoaster Ride With Robert Anton Wilson  (see this review by Oz Fritz), and Deep Scratch Remix. Browse more titles here. 

Steve has so many interests and so many creative projects that any interview with him is going to be a snapshot in time, although there is continuity in his work. Here is my 2012 interview with Steve, focusing on his interest in Robert Anton Wilson. Here is my joint interview with Steve and Peter Quadrino over Waywords and Meansigns, the project to set Finnegans Wake to music/adapt it to sound. 

I really enjoyed listening to The First Trip and Steve agreed to take my questions for a new interview focusing on the new album. 

Steve with his handmade IRL Pyramid Speaker by Hans Speijer and his piratable-turntable.

RAWILLUMINATION: How did the album The First Trip come about? How does it relate to Tales of Illuminatus? 

STEVE PRATT: Due to Bobby's tireless organizing for Maybelogues 2024, we got chatting in early June about new music I was working on, I sent some examples. I'm not sure who ignited the conversation about music and TOI [Tales of Illuminatus] but it was floating in the air between us. With an equally enthusiastic go-ahead from team TOI, I started producing the music for The First Trip.   

RAWILLUMINATION: You describe The First Trip as a concept album. I think I figured it out: All of the listed bands on the album are bands listed in Illuminatus! as being booked to perform at the rock festival in Leviathan. So the concept is that all of those bands really exist? And that's why the music is so different from track to track, because you are creating different "bands"?

STEVE PRATT: Yes, exactly. I created the lyrics to help fold them into the TOI universe, and in some sense I co-arranged and co-produced the music, but the precise description of what I did, distinguished from what the A.I. did, is tricky to distinguish. A.I. songs are like laws, which are like sausages, in that it's better not to see how they're made.  

RAWILLUMINATION: Are you the only human who worked on the album? There's a pretty wide variety of vocals and instruments on it.

STEVE PRATT: Yes, I'm the only human who worked on the album. Or the only interacting brain body nervous system that feels fully convinced he's human ;-) 

RAWILLUMINATION: I have been trying to think of how to describe the album, maybe "subversive pop"? How do you describe it to people who have not heard it? Some of it seems like Frank Zappa, but without the snarkiness.

STEVE PRATT: It's fitting you reference Zappa. And a very generous comment about less snarkiness. "Snarkiness" works well to describe a lot of current A.I. songs, which to my ear lack nuance and subtlety...lyrically speaking. 

I've been mulling on A.I. generated music, humour in music and so, the music of Zappa (perhaps the most "consistent" example) who has ajacencies with TOI music and with RAW (and Shea's) sense of humour, satire, pacing, style, comedic strategies...I touched on some of this in my essay about SUN RA. Very generally, to my mind, it comes back to the mosaic method of McLuhan, the Hologrammic prose of Joyce, Burroughs and Wilson, the holo-sonic music of Johan Coltrane, the participatory relationship between the parts and the whole. Unity, the Tao, epiphany (with a healthy reminder that these 'impressions' are non-simultaneously apprehended events). The songs from this album ,cover a part of a broader spectrum, which will be revealed as TOI progresses. 

RAWILLUMINATION: It's interesting you mention Burroughs, because Zappa was really into the cut-up technique. And as for the band names: I like the fact that "Nirvana" is in there, somehow Wilson and Shea named the last great rock band!

STEVE PRATT: Great analysis, I concur. Cut-up is also a large component of good turntable routines, "needle drops" are like cut-up in that you kind of throw the dice where the stylus needle will land, which groove...and take it from there.

A recent photo of Steve "Fly" Pratt. 

RAWILLUMINATION: I bought The First Trip on Bandcamp, where I have bought quite a bit of music. I know your music has been available at other places -- I bought the "RAW meets Steve Fly" album on Amazon -- but are  you selling your music only at Bandcamp now? How do you think Bandcamp serves artists and listeners? 

STEVE PRATT: Yeah, I rate Bandcamp, currently, as the best platform for artists to get paid, and without any ads. Bandcamp Fridays, where 100% of sales go to the artist, is a future friendly scheme. I'm not using Spotify, but you'll probably find some of my music there.

RAWILLUMINATION: You have been a prolific recording artist. Is there an album of yours that you think was particularly successful, and/or was a particular hit with listeners?

STEVE PRATT: That's kind of you to say, but, not really, I've had little success or sales, let alone a hit. Most of my work has been collaborations, I've yet to release what I'd call a proper solo album, but I'm ready...after 3 decades of practice. Most tracks released on bandcamp are my home productions, some using an APP and now A.I. Mohawk (with John Sinclair) received some good reviews, and is perhaps my most popular project/album, not many picked up on the fact I played all the music on that album (with overdubbing). 

RAWILLUMINATION: "Jump Into My Submarine" is a standout track, I congratulate you on that track. Do you want to tell me anything about it? Are there other tracks you want to call particular attention to?

STEVE PRATT: Yeah, there's a yellow submarine docked at NDSM, Amsterdam Noord, I was right there today, and this fact, together with the Leif Erikson and that 70s funk submarine vibe, down periscope...all contributed to my audio-vision for 'Jump Into My Submarine'. I've no other emphasis on any track.

RAWILLUMINATION: How many instruments do you play? I know you are a turntable player and a drummer, but I heard guitars and all sorts of instruments on the new album.

STEVE PRATT: I do indeed play drums, turntables and a smidge of guitars. I also make noises with my mouth. I hate to burst the bubble of wonder for you, but I did not play any instruments on First Trip. Everything you hear is by Fuckup, Sol and Udio. I'm simply a producer, arranger, lyricist and co-song writer. A curator (much like a DJ) These distinctions are fuzzy at best. My M.O was to imagine music that might raise at least a smile, or belly laugh, from Bob.

Illustration by Bobby Campbell 

RAWILLUMINATION: What part did you play in the music for the Cosmic Trigger play?

STEVE PRATT: As music director I had a hand in composing some of the music, but there were contributions from other musicians and producers....plus the previous musical director had written songs. During the stage performances I played drums for scene transitions. I have a lot of unused music and sounds from the play that I hope to revisit in the future.

RAWILLUMINATION:  The Internet archive has a collection of live recordings by the jazz fusion band Garaj Mahal. Is there any easy way to find the recordings that feature you on turntable performing with them?

STEVE PRATT: Yeah, put "Fly Agaric 23" in the Archive search window, for a selection of my live turntable jammin' in the U.S. (2000-2005) Keep your ears peeled for the new album by Garaj Mahal with some very special guests ;-) 

Also, this show was a particularly good one imho (with special guest Leo Nocentelli from my fav. funk band of all time....The Meters!)   

https://archive.org/details/garaj2003-10-31.flac16   (Avalon Ballroom Halloween 2003).

RAWILLUMINATION: What do you want people to know about The First Trip that I neglected to ask about? 

STEVE PRATT: There will be more trips, tracks and albums as the TOI project progresses, some will be made using Fuckup/Sol/Udio A.I., others will not. Whatever it is, it's gotta' be funky with an accent on the FUN part.

Steven James Pratt bibliography

Spore of the Words/Shanigums Wave (2011)

Fly: Selected Poetry 2001-2017 (2017)

Cannabis Coffeeshop Journal (2018)

Sounds Fly: Music Writing (2018)

Big Chief: Getting High With John Sinclair and the Fly (2018)

Silent But Dudley: Writings on the Black Country (2018)

Flying: Selected Writing (2018)

Passport to Poetry: Brexit (2018)

Fly on the Tale of the Tribe: A Rollercoaster Ride With Robert Anton Wilson (2019)

Fly Papers: Cannabis Writing 2018-2020 (2020)

2020 Squintin Quartino (2020)

Deep Scratch: Novel (2020)

Flyku: Poetry (2020)

Corona Slayer: Poetry (2021)

Prose Piracy: Selected Writing (2021)

New Growth: Selected Writings (2022)

Deep Scratch Remix (2023)

Steven James Pratt Discography 

Robert Anton Wilson meets Steve “Fly Agaric” Pratt (2016)

They Came to Starburg (2016)

Corona Slayer (2022)

Deep Scratch Remix (2023)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round One (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Two (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Three (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Four (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Five (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Six (2024)

Folkin' Around Elections (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Seven (2024)

The First Trip (2024)

Steve Pratt on his new album, 'The First Trip'

As I have mentioned in other posts, Steve "Fly" Pratt has a rather good new album, The First Trip, with lyrics drawn from Illuminatus! and the works of Robert Anton Wilson. It's a kind of companion to the first issue of Bobby Campbell's Tales of Illuminatus, which will be out soon, and it was produced using AI music tools such as Udio. Note that you can listen to it on Bandcamp before deciding to buy it, and Bobby also has been highlighting various tracks in his Substack newsletter for the project.

As I was interviewing Steve for an upcoming blog post, he sent me this piece to explain/discuss the new album, and with his permission, I am posting it here. -- The Management.

By STEVE "FLY" PRATT
Special guest blogger

I'd refer those who are interested to my introduction to Deep Scratch Remix 23/3/23 concerning A.I. tools, plus the liner notes to my series of Deep Scratch (Data Dust Crew) releases on Bandcamp. There are sure to be some contradictory statements. Thankfully, Tales Of Illuminatus has handed me the perfect opportunity to balance the equation, and explore the challenges facing humans in light of the information explosion, and the recent boom in A.I. tools.  [Deep Scratch Remix is Steve's novel about the effect of AI tools on art; buy it here. -- The Management].

[Here are the liner notes Steve references: Part 1 and then Part Two.]

Inspired by Illuminatus! Trilogy, I’ve been developing a trans-media project that sets the challenge of bringing artwork from the fictional “Deep Scratch” novel universe, into our shared world. As a DJ and drummer, I naturally went heavy on the music side of things, so when this opportunity came up to work within the Illuminatus! Trilogy Universe, via Bobby Campbell’s official, Tales Of Illuminatus comic book project, I felt ready to dive straight in. The opportunity to work with both A.I. and in-the-flesh human musicians, within the context of a Robert Anton Wilson universe is nectar and ambrosia to me.  

Nowhere in this process did I use any prompt referencing a specific artist, studio, or label. Every lyric is mine (although I borrowed the lines "beliefs are the police of the mind" from Saul Williams). I'm not deaf to the masses of artists and creatives, and fans who are critical of A.I. and its place in music, and the potential damage and actual damage it's doing to labels, artists, businesses and the integrity-o-metre of the artform. Not limited to music, images, video, texts are all under attack, in some sense by generative A.I. What is to be done? My response is...soundclash.

The First Trip is an opening salvo in an age-old battle between sound systems, labels, artists and business, with some religion and magickal cults thrown in for good measure. The First Trip is what I deduce to be the most apt songs, to mirror the fictional environment of Tale Of Illuminatus, from the Robert Anton Wilson universe, music is the soul focus.

Much like the curatory nature of what a DJ does, prompt based music production is another secondary process. Another step away from the sources, all around us, for every sound, pattern, harmony and structure. It's right there at your fingertips.

Let me close with a sincere message to anybody reading this to support your local artists in their endeavours, particularly in any analogue format or craft. Any altruistic and benevolent super A.I. (ASI, AGI) must come to understand the sacrifice and suffering that goes with choosing to make art, as a human being. The hidden struggle behind all the creations you enjoy, processing. To speak neutrally. The work copied, or processed is a variety of music, blended together like a DJ who also has all the stems from all the tracks you’ve ever heard, mixing them together just for you, and your party jam.  

A classical music cornucopia

Pianist Angela Hewitt. Publicity photo by James Katz from her official website. Try her Scarlatti recordings. 

One of the reasons I like Robert Anton Wilson's writings is that I share many of his interests; he had a strong interest in classical music, an interest that's also share by some of his other fans, such as Eric Wagner and myself.

So I thought I would mention here that Hoopla Digital, a digital streaming service offered by nearly all public libraries in the U.S., has an excellent selection of classical music albums.  That catalog received a major boost in the last few months when it added record labels such as Hyperion and Naxos. I have lately been listening to albums by Canadian classical pianist Angela Hewitt, who is now available on Hoopla because she's a Hyperion artist.

I wrote about Hoopla's expanded music offerings on my Substack, and also in a newspaper article.

When I was young, I had to spend a fair amount of money and time to assemble a small classical music library of recordings. Now, there's a vast library of recordings available to everyone. 

Although I am dwelling here on Hoopla's music, it also has TV shows, movies, comic books (quite a bit of Alan Moore), audiobooks, ebooks and documentaries. 

The 'Moby Dick' reading group

 

The Lagoda in the New Bedford Whaling Museum. (Creative Commons photo).

The next online reading group for this blog will be Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I've hashed out the details with the two folks who have agreed to help me make posts to the blog, Eric Wagner and Oz Fritz, and here are the details. Eric assures me that Robert Anton Wilson was a big fan of the novel. I don't know whether Robert Shea read it, although I suspect he did.

The format will be the usual for online reading groups here (archived at the right side of this page). One of us will do a blog post, and everyone else will be invited to say something in the comments. The schedule for blog posting will be Tom, Eric, Tom, Oz. We'll have a new post every Monday.

The hardest decision was the pace for reading. We compromised on about 35 pages a week (I like a fairly fast pace, Eric likes to proceed slowly, Oz was flexible.) The 135 chapters are pretty short, so this will be several chapters a week in most weeks. I'll figure out an exact reading schedule later on, but I'll be assigning chapters rather than page numbers, to deal with the fact that everyone likely will have different editions, but will try to add up to about 35 pages each time. 

The other decision was when to start; the first post will be Nov. 4. I'll likely do an introductory post, and so the next one will be the first "reading assignment." This should give everyone time to get their hands on a copy. 

'Tales of Illuminatus' first issue out soon

 

In his latest newsletter, Bobby Campbell announces that the first issue of Tales of Illuminatus goes to press on Monday. So if you supported the recent Kickstarter, you should get your issue soon!

More here, including a link to another song from Steve "Fly" Pratt's The First Trip album, which I'll have more on soon. There's also an update to the online version of the comic. 

A recommendation for Cosmic Trigger 2

I am always happy to pass on recommendations for Cosmic Trigger 2: Down to Earth, which is one of my favorite Robert Anton Wilson books, and perhaps maybe a bit underrated. I am currently slowly re-reading it.

The Nocturnal Reveries blog has a post about all 3 of the Cosmic Trigger books, and here in full is what he writes about the second book (it is his favorite of the series, which of course is not the received wisdom):  

"Part 2 was by far the most enjoyable in the Cosmic Trigger series. Wilson tells more of his life story in this one, and he comes across as the witty, interesting guy I know he was. He had spent much of the time between writing this and the first book in Ireland, and this is apparent in his writing. Much of the book is taken up with discussions on his 'Irish' upbringing, James Joyce and the modern Irish legal system. He also gets into the P2 conspiracy. Honestly, you could read and enjoy this one without picking up the other 2 entries in the series. It actually deals with the earliest parts of his life more thoroughly than the first entry in the series, so it’d be a fine starting point."

Tuesday links

 Video of "The Red Tear" by Mighty Dave. Oz Fritz, who worked on the track, says "This is the best video I've seen in a long time. The trippy visuals guarantee that you can watch it multiple times and see something new and different each time." More information here.

One of my favorite bloggers, Scott Sumner, launches a Substack with a post on the pursuit of happiness.  Here is a recent post from one of his other blog sites defending the legalization of marijuana against recent criticism. 

Video of the Prometheus Awards ceremony, with Victor Koman, Daniel Suarez and others. 

1927 Paramount Studio Map Of California Filming Locations That Look Like Foreign Countries & Regions

Chicago 1968 (from  the Allen Ginsberg Project). 

An unusual theory about 'The Sex Magicians'

There isn't a lot of writing on the Internet about The Sex Magicians,  but there is a post about the original version of the book, on a blog called Nocturnal Reveries, which is devoted to book reviews of horror and occult titles. 

The Nocturnal Reveries post on The Sex Magicians suggests it was published by RAW as an act of sex magick, in an effort to get Iluminatus! finally published (it took a long time for it to come out and it went through editing by more than one editor.) The Nocturnal Reveries author (not easy to identify) writes:

" I believe that the publishing of the Sex Magicians represents an attempt (that was hugely successful) to get Illuminatus! published. Fnord

"Sex Magic as far as I understand it, is the harnessing of sexual energy for using in magical rituals." (More at the link). 

The panelists in the Hilaritas podcast mentioned yesterday  bring up the blog post but argue that it's probably wrong. If I  understood correctly, the kind of sex magick identified in the blog post is identified with chaos magick, which largely developed after the publication of The Sex Magicians. 

Noctural Reveries has an index of the many books it has covered. You can also read a blog post on Masks of the Illuminati, and a discussion of the Cosmic Trigger trilogy. The blog author also writes about Illuminatus! 

The 'Sex Magicians' podcast is quite interesting

 Is The Sex Magicians a porn book written for a quick buck, an Illuminatus outtake, an exploration of sex magick or a combination of all three? 

These issues are explored in the two supplemental essays in The Sex Magicians.  The introduction by Michelle Olley discusses the 1970s book in context with the porn industry at that time and in contrast with modern attitudes about porn and sex. Gregory Arnott's afterword, "Tracking Down the Mama Vibe: Sexual Fantasy and the Nature of Magical Fiction," explores the sex magick aspect of the book.

Those discussions also are explored in the podcast, which is one of my favorite Hilaritas podcasts. Everybody seemed in top form.