Slog - Comments on 23 Skiddoo http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo I've got a hellacious cold right now, so forgive me if this has been posted here earlier today, but: Robert Anton Wilson is dead. I read the Illuminatus! Trilogy, which he cowrote with Robert Shea, when I was nineteen, and it's honestly one of those books that puts you in a "before I read this" and "after I read this" state. Granted, it's probably a book that's launched a million fruitcakes, but the lessons that a young reader can pull from Illuminatus!--that you should always ask "why" and look for the hidden connections between people, places and things--are things that... Copyright 2008 Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:41:56 -0800 Tue, 16 Jan 2007 11:50:14 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by skweetis I had the same transformative experience from reading the illuminatus trilogy. And during the weeks I was reading it, I had crazy disturbing dreams.

I was once walking in New York, shortly after reading it, I paused under an awning to light a smoke (sorry Dan) and noticed a familiar symbol on a sandwich board sign. I looked up and realized that I was standing in front of the Masonic Temple on 23rd street. My head almost exploded.

R.I.P. R.A.W.
(fnord)

]]> skweetis http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588767 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588767 Arts Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:04:11 -0800 Comment by ddv I too loved the books and still occassionaly believe I'm getting mind-fucked by the concepts presented. I need to read it again now that I'm "older" and "wiser" to see what else I can glean from it.

~ddv

]]> ddv http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588770 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588770 Arts Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:08:49 -0800 Comment by ddv I too loved the books and still occassionaly believe I'm getting mind-fucked by the concepts presented. I need to read it again now that I'm "older" and "wiser" to see what else I can glean from it.

~ddv

]]> ddv http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588771 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588771 Arts Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:08:54 -0800 Comment by Fnarf How is Illuminatus! "the road to Pynchon", when it was published in 1975, which is AFTER all of Pynchon's interesting books?

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588775 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588775 Arts Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:14:22 -0800 Comment by skweetis I think he means it's a young reader's road to Pynchon.

]]> skweetis http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588778 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588778 Arts Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:15:55 -0800 Comment by Paul Constant That's correct. Thank you, Skweetis, for clarifying for Fnarf.
Good lord, blogs:
"Thank you, Skweetis, for clarifying for Fnarf."
God bless the twenty-first century.

]]> Paul Constant http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588837 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588837 Arts Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:14:24 -0800 Comment by Jonathan Like many, Wilson's work literally changed my life...

What do you say about a man who danced so long with the pooka it became impossible to tell where one began or the other ended

I'd like to suggest we commemorate this man, and his lifetime of guerrilla ontology with the coining of a new term. Something to enhance are always enhance-able reality tunnels...

Getting 'R.A.W.ed':

"The experience of feeling both breathtakingly stupid, and heartbreakingly happy, at the same time."

]]> Jonathan http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588855 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588855 Arts Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:34:03 -0800 Comment by treacle Never read any R.A.W?

]]> treacle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588990 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c588990 Arts Fri, 12 Jan 2007 18:50:16 -0800 Comment by mike amen to that, paul. I dinna ken you liked my boy Billy. Are you a partisan of the early stuff or the Seven Dreams plus era?

]]> mike http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c589015 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c589015 Arts Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:07:14 -0800 Comment by lar fuuuuuck.

RIP RAW

]]> lar http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c589183 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c589183 Arts Sat, 13 Jan 2007 18:59:54 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Personally, I see a link between the death of the inventor of instant ramen and Robert Anton Wilson. I blame the Eco-guerillas.

And there is no truth to the rumor that I was part of the original group that helped create the Illuminati game. Really. Even if I did used to have two hypens in my last name ...

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c589406 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c589406 Arts Sun, 14 Jan 2007 18:17:45 -0800 Comment by RIPRAW The only government is the self.
The only religion is private and personal.
I will not lead.
I will not follow.

]]> RIPRAW http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c590156 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/23_skiddoo#c590156 Arts Tue, 16 Jan 2007 11:50:14 -0800