RAW 'politics book' has taken shape

 

An illustration for the Guns and Dope Party website. 

Rasa, the gentleman who runs day to day operations for Hilaritas Press, is careful not to make promises for when a Robert Anton Wilson book will come out; there can always be a last-minute hitch, and a book isn't released until it's done. But I'm pleased to be able to report that the upcoming Wilson anthology of writing about political subjects appears to be quite far along. Rasa has penned an essay on the Guns and Dope Party for the book, and other details are available. Here's the official update from Rasa:

"It’s still a ways off. We seem to have decided on the some 25 essays that span RAW’s career that will be included in the book, and Jesse Walker has written a great introduction,  but since many of the essays are scans of articles, there is still a lot of OCR and editing work to be done."

And here is an update on a recent blog post, where I mentioned that Rasa was looking for the source of an alleged RAW quote, for his Guns and Dope essay: “The Right's view of government and the Left's view of big business are both correct.”  Rasa asked his "council of advisors" by email for the source, and at the link, I posted the puzzle.

I have possibly solved the mystery, while doing research on another matter. I flipped through the pages of my copy of Rasa's RAW Memes book, and I found this quote from RAW: "Conservatives say it is dangerous to give any group too much political power. Liberals say it is dangerous to give any group too much economic power. Both are right." It's attributed to The Illuminati Papers. There's still no source for the alleged exact quote, but the one I found seems pretty close.

Of course, it's amusing that I cited Rasa's book to solve Rasa's problem. There are many RAW experts out there -- Michael Johnson seems to carry the complete works in his head and Eric Wagner wrote the book -- but Rasa can truly claim he's forgotten more about RAW than most people know! 

See the Hilaritas Press website to see which new and reprinted titles have been released so far. It's an impressive list, and there might be a good one you've missed. 

New RAW biography to be published on Oct. 22

 

The new, long-awaited Robert Anton Wilson biography by Gabriel Kennedy will be published on Oct. 22, according to a listing for the book on Amazon.  The publication information says it is 473 pages long and has forewords by Grant Morrison and Douglas Rushkoff. Mr. Kennedy also performs and writes as Prop Anon. It is listed as a $9.99 Kindle; I will provide information about a paper edition as it comes to my attention. There is every reason to expect that a great deal of research went into the book.

Here is the blurb for the book provided by Joseph Matheny: "Writing a comprehensive, human, inclusive, biography for someone as complex as Robert Anton Wilson is a big bite for a writer to attempt. Thankfully, Gabriel Kennedy did not bite off more than he could chew. This biography made me laugh, cry, and sit silently in contemplation while I experienced the feelings, memories, and nostalgia it evoked. Chapel Perilous showed me points of view about RAW that I had not considered and informed me about aspects of my late friend’s life that I was unaware of. This book is an invaluable source of information about one of the greatest artists and thinkers of our time. It keeps the lasagna flying!”

Blurbs from Jeffrey Mishlove, Richard Metzger and David J. Brown also are available at the Amazon page. 

Latest 'Tales' news: New RAW book on the way

 

The latest Tales of Illuminatus newsletter came out today, and Bobby Campbell reports that a new RAW book apparently will be out soon, although he doesn't provide details:

"I will hastily end things here, because I am desperate to get back to reading my advance copy of that very most anticipated RAW book, which I’d say the name, but I’m not sure if I’m supposed to yet! Suffice to say it is EXCELLENT!"

I've known for awhile that a new RAW anthology or two is on the way from Hilaritas Press. When more details become available, I will share. 

Also, Bobby had to change publishers for the European edition of the first issue, although apparently it is not a big deal:

"A small change in plans for our European readers, though ultimately of negligible importance, but Mixam UK, after nearly 2 weeks of hemming and hawing, decided that the job of illuminating the old continent was just too darn tough, and bailed on our order, which was immediately picked up by Ka-Blam, so the wheels remain in motion, albeit different wheels than originally reported."

 

Harold Bloom on why we read

Harold Bloom with some reading material (public  domain photo). 

After yesterday's blog post, I wanted to share a more positive quote about reading, this time from famed literary critic Harold Bloom (1930-2019).  (I discovered Bloom back in college, when I became infatuated with Percy Bysshe Shelley's poetry and bought a Shelley anthology edited by Bloom.)

Here's the quote (source):

"The great poems, plays, novels and stories teach us how to go on living, even when submerged under  forty fathoms of bother and distress. If you live 90 years you will be a battered survivor. Your own mistakes, accidents, and failures at otherness beat you down. Rise up at dawn and read something that matters as soon as you can." 

Is this really the way it is now?

 

I was struck by this quote from an article from The Atlantic magazine, "The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books." 

"This development puzzled [Columbia University course teacher on great books Nicholas] Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover."