Caleb Brown, director of multimedia for the Cato Institute
The Cato Daily Podcast interviews Bobby Campbell about Tales of Illuminatus, and the result is a very good 15-minute podcast on the adaptation and on the original trilogy. Caleb Brown, the interviewer, is a big Illuminatus! fan, and it's really more of an excellent dialogue than an interview. I helped set this up, and I'm very pleased with the outcome. The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank, but I think everyone will enjoy this.
Bobby Campbell on Illuminatus!: "Either you never heard of it or it changed your life." And as Caleb says, most people learn about Illuminatus! because of a recommendation from a friend.
One correction: It wasn't Robert Anton Wilson who said, "I’ve come round to the conclusion that this isn’t literature. It’s too late in the day for literature. This is magick!" It was Robert Shea! This is a mistake that's also in the new RAW biography, but one of Bobby's comics quotes Shea correctly. (The quote is from a March 1977 interview of Shea and Robert Anton Wilson originally were published in a document given to people attending Ken Campbell’s British theater adaptation of the Illuminatus! trilogy.)
5 comments:
Ha! Every time I see that quote it switches attribution between the Bobs! I'm happy to revert to giving Shea credit :)))
Perhaps they both said it (or something very similar) at some point? I have a recollection of Wilson giving voice to a similar thought ("too late for anything but magick") in a context where Shea wasn't around at all (not the Shea/Wilson interview cited by Tom) - and it fit right in with the style/manner in which RAW expressed himself at that moment (ie the other things he said).
Wow! How did Illuminatus! make it onto Cato's radar? I know there's a handful of RAW references and even a few fantastic archival videos on their site, but my guess would be only 2% of staff there know who he is.
Chad, I decided to take an active role helping Bobby with his Kickstarter, so I wrote a formal press release and sent it to newspapers, news organizations like NPR, podcasts, etc. I sent one to Caleb because I know he does the Cato Daily Podcast, and he turned out to be very receptive.
Brilliant! There's so much good, low-hanging fruit like that!
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