Cover by Rasa
The news is coming thick and fast this week. When I checked the Hilaritas Press website for today's 23rd of the month podcast, I saw that it was Oz Fritz on Timothy Leary's Terra II ... A Way Out, and I thought, "Gee, that's odd. Why would they feature a podcast on a book that hasn't been released?" Well, there's an answer: It has been released!
It's a reprint of a Leary book that's long out of print. "L. Wayne Benner, Joanna Leary & Guanine" also are credited as authors. This is likely the definitive SMI²LE book -- Leary was in close touch with Robert Anton Wilson at the time -- but we'll have to see now that I can finally read it, after finishing the new RAW bio.
Official blurb: "The hope and optimism of the 1960s finds no better expression than a proposed journey aboard the space-city/time-ship Terra II. Received and written as a group invocation led by Dr. Timothy Leary tuning in and turning on to cosmic signaling and DNA intelligence. Herein we find the SMI²LE formula fully elucidated and mapped out in a practical application that directly confronts many of the problems and challenges that would inevitably arise. Far ahead of its time, but as timely as ever, this visionary blueprint provides one answer to the questions, where do we go from here and how do we get there?"
Interesting bit from the book: "Many tbanks to Nick Helweg-Larsen for lending Hilaritas Press his copy of Terra II. Of the 1,000 original copies of the first edition, Nick had number 18."
The new book sticks closely to the original edition, but a few changes were made, all in a positive direction. Also, there is a new introduction by Oz Fritz.
Speaking of Mr. Fritz, here's the podcast, also likely available on your favorite podcasting app.
7 comments:
It's a great book. I look forward to re-reading it. I first heard about it in Illuminatus!:
"The mutation from terrestrial to interstellar life must be made, because the womb planet itself is going to blow up within a few billion years . . . Planet Earth is a stepping stone on our time-trip through the galaxy. Life has to get its seed-self off the planet to
survive . . .
There are also some among us who are bored with the amniotic level of mentation on this planet and look up in hopes of finding someone entertaining to talk to. —
TIMOTHY LEARY, Ph.D., and L. WAYNE BRENNER, Terra II"
Listening to the show now and very much enjoying it. Can't wait to read the book.
The reason you are advertising this before Hilaritas Press is that we've been fighting with Amazon for a week now about how their Kindle page is correct, but the paperback page lists Robert Anton Wilson as the author ot Terra II !! I have no idea how that mistake happened, but I"m willing to take responsibility. I am really hoping that by the time you read this, they have fixed it. As soon as they do, we will click the send button on our latest RAW Trust newsletter. BTW, a really great interview with Oz, and an amazing introduction from him for this very cool Leary book! As Mike notes in the podcast, November 23rd's podcast will feature Mike's conversation with Wayne Benner, the inmate who did a lot of heavy lifting in helping Tim with this book.
BTW, that "anonymous" comment was just me not signing in to Blogger!
Anonymous wrote:
>BTW, that "anonymous" comment was just me not signing in to Blogger!<
I've just finished re-reading all of the Sherlock Holmes stories and hereby deduce this comment was written by either Joe Klein, or - outside chance, based on word choice, sentence length, seemingly "insider" knowledge, and "tone": someone named "Richard Rasa."
I admit it... it was me. I was having trouble signing into Blogger.
That's great news, very much looking forward to read this book!
Love the very retro cover art, with the seventies sci fi font and illustration. Although in 2024, such a picture brings to my mind horrific scenarios of Musk/Branson types leaving the planet for good after having irremediably messed it up, with the rest of us running around in panick like that guy in the painting The Scream.
Between this, the Chapel Perilous biography, and the Bumper Book of Magic, we're being treated to a festival of awesome litterature for the end of this year!
Post a Comment