Only Maybe

RAW WEEK @ boinboing

2012-01-12T14:10:00.004Z

Im very happy to see that boingboing.net are entertaining a Robert Anton Wilson week, with blog posts from the likes of Paul Krassner, Mark Frauenfelder, Gareth Brandwyn, Douglas Rushkoff, Antero Ali, R.U Sirius, David Jay Brown, Erik Davis, Ivan Stang and MLA's own Propaganda Anonymous, all full of new insights and high praise from 2012.

"So, give the world's sad sonambulism a wakeup call. Put some OM (whether “trivial or colossal”) in your day. Bob would have wanted it that way.--Gareth Brandwyn, Mindfucking since 1776.

Bob was in fine form that night reading excerpts from his as of yet unpublished book, The Trick Top Hat, from his Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy. I sat there astonished by the highly compact, information-rich writing style he had developed. It was as if every other word triggered a different chemical in my brain. Bob had this unique way with words that acted on my ear-brain loop just like drugs. I remember thinking to myself, "This is what writing is all about! Writing is all about magick."--Antero Ali, The Cosmic Trigger Effect.

"He had a knack for giving straightforward explanations of hard-to-grok concepts without stripping them of their power or complexity. Before I read RAW's books, the world was confusing and mysterious. After I read his books, the world became much more confusing and mysterious -- but in a good way! Bob converted me from atheism to agnosticism (which, in his words, means "never regarding any model or map of the universe with total 100% belief or total 100% denial"). --Mark Frauenfelder, Robert Anton Wilson week at boingboing

"At one point in Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything, the interviewer asks Bob why he's so into conspiracy theories. He'd spent the better part of his life studying them, writing about them, but he doesn't seem to actually believe any of them. So, why the intense interest? Bob thinks about it for a moment and replies: “It keeps the mind supple.--Gareth Brandwyn, Mindfucking since 1776.

"In his final blog entry on January 6, Wilson wrote: "I don't see how to take death seriously. I look forward without dogmatic optimism, but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying." Actually, it was expected that he would die seven months earlier. On June 19, 2006, he sent this haiku (with one syllable missing) to his electronic cabal:
Well what do you know?
Another day has passed
and I'm still not not.
--Paul Krassner, Keep the Lasagna Flying.

"As a result, Bob is probably responsible for bringing more new students to magick and, specifically, to Thelema, than anyone else, perhaps Crowley included. As a writer, he brought uncommon sense to the subject and not only made magick appealing, but also understandable to the modern mind--Phil Farber, in conversation with Prop Anon.

a life well lived

2012-01-11T14:20:00.002Z

Albert Hofmann would have reached his 106th birthday today.

Astonishingly, he actually did celebrate his 102nd birthday, fit and healthy (as you can see here).

Because of his 'problem child' dominating his reputation, we may forget that he had a long career as a research scientist, and, according to this site,

"His interest in synthesizing LSD involved a search for a stimulant that would help as a medicine for circulatory and respiratory illnesses."

"His work there led to numerous other discoveries including Hydergine, a medicine for improving circulation and cerebral function, and Dihydergot, a circulation and blood pressure stabilizing medicine."

So you could attribute his longevity to the spiritual peace and cheerfulness that he acquired from experimenting on himself - with the Hydergine and Dihydergot. ;-)

- 0 -

If you want to do something to mark the day, you might consider writing to Casey 'Freeblood' Hardison, sending him some stamps, or money.

Free Casey - help end the global "War on some people who use some Drugs"

Drug Discrimination

Drug Equality Alliance

- 0 -

Today also marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Robert Anton Wilson (aged 74), and D.E. Harding (aged 97 - the "On Having No Head" author) - who contrived to die within hours of each other, on Albert's birthday.

Robert Anton Wilson week starts, over at Boing-Boing

Arlen and Mavericks of the Sinclairularity

2011-12-28T21:23:00.000Z

John Sinclair recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of his release from Jail, for the most part due to the massive ‘John Sinclair Freedom Rally’, a fairy-tale like happening, that featured John Lennon, Stevie Wonder and Allen Ginsberg and many more, organized and communicating through music, rock and roll, Jazz, and spoken word to successfully fight injustice.

The Bentley Museum and Ann Arbor Library added rich multi-media presentations featuring digitized magazines, audio clips and posters. John Sinclair will be re-launching radio free Amsterdam on January 1st 2012 after a nine month hiatus featuring new shows of Jazz, Blues, Soul, New Orleans Music, and beatnik infused spoken word.

David Jay Brown recently published an article on MDMA as a treatment for some forms of Autism which I liked and that led me to discover the fabulous renewed MAVERICKS OF THE MIND: Thought Provoking Interviews on Consciousness by David Jay Brown. RAW seems to sit perfectly among many contemporaries and like-minded individuals. I would like to pay special attention, here, to a beautiful and thought provoking interview with Arlen Riley Wilson. RAW’s greatest supporter, influence and ‘beautiful mind’ in her own right. Praise Arlen!

I just discovered that there’s a ‘Pun Detector’ (see video below) in Watson, the A.I. (Computer) And was reminded of one of BOB’s comments somewhere, that I think he attributed to Arlen, whereby she imagined that a ‘Bull-Shit’ Detector could be wired into the cable box (a Bullshit App), especially during speech’s from Politicians and Religious leaders. WATSON seems to be navigating the data-fields to choose, with delicate ‘confidence’ to RING that BULLSHIT’ alarm!

RADIO FREE BARBELITH (Join The Invisibles Reading Group!)

2011-12-23T06:40:00.000Z

"Fuck Man, I'll tell ya, when I was a kid I read Robert Anton Wilson and all this shit, and here we are, we're standing here, we're talking about this shit, and it's real." – Grant Morrison

Friend of the show, Davis, @widefidelity on Twitter is kicking off 2012 w/ an Invisibles reading group over at RADIO FREE BARBELITH. Here's his description of the project:

"I consider RADIO FREE BARBELITH a convivium, a gathering grounds, a tribal assembly, a coming-together of readers looking to breach the walls of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles and loot and pillage the contents together. This will be an exploration of fertile noise, a networked ebb and flow of dialogue and discovery centered around, but certainly not limited to, The Invisibles. We'll read through the series at a relaxed pace, aiming to wrap it all up on December 21, 2012.

The proceedings will most likely operate with the shambling in-efficiency of a working prototype - my sincerest apologies in advance for any kind of technical/social/cultural/national/personal issues that float to the surface or muddy the waters.

We'll start with the first issue in January, so until then, relax! Any questions? Comment here, or drop me a line at Davicimo@gmail.com.

ROLL CALL

Join up! Join in! Don't consider this an interrogation, an inquisition, but a friendly probing, an opportunity to set some initial experimental conditions - Cast your role! Build yourself a body an immerse yourself! Select your player! Who are you? Why do you want to engage with The Invisibles? Why now? Why here?"

Continues over at http://radiofreebarbelith.blogspot.com/2011/12/insert-coin.html

This seems like a fun idea to me, and so I wanted to echo the clarion call thusly:

THE INVISIBLES COMPLETE SERIES
(Bootleg digital versions)

HTML DOWNLOAD
TORRENT DOWNLOAD
You'll need a .cbr reader for these, like:
FFView for Mac
or Comic Rack for PC
(Official print versions)
TRADE PAPERBACKS ON AMAZON.com
(and the forthcoming...)
THE INVISIBLES OMNIBUS HC
Available August 21st, 2012
$150.00 US, 1,536 p

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists: Steve Yeowell, Jilll Thompson, Dennis Cramer, Chris Weston, John Ridgway, Steve Parkhouse, Kim DeMulder, Paul Johnson, Phil Jimenez, John Stokes, Tommy Lee Edwards, Dick Giordano, Mark Buckingham, Mark Pennington, Michael Lark, Keith Aiken, Marc Hempel, Ray Kryssing, Philip Bond, Glyn Dillon, Ivan Reis, Warren Pleece, Sean Phillips, Jay Stephens, Frank Quitely, Grant Morrison, and others
Collects: THE INVISIBLES #1-25, THE INVISIBLES VOL. 2 #1-22, THE INVISIBLES VOL. 3 #12-1 and a story from VERTIGO: WINTER’S EDGE #1

[It seems maybe fair enough to balance piracy w/ promotion? Free educational material in exchange for free viral marketing, win/win style?]

For more on GM check out the documentary Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods (Available free on Hulu)

Grey Lodge Archive

2011-12-17T16:21:00.000Z

According to Joseph Matheny's blog, Grey Lodge Occult Review links will redirect to TubeGnosis for the time being - although he hints that a relaunch may happen some time next year, perhaps offering access to the other documents, etc.

Having said that, the video collection certainly seems worth a browse!

The same story appeared in Boing Boing today.

GENERAL semANTICS

2011-12-09T11:31:00.001Z

A general semanticist is someone who, upon encountering a person with a beard, would say it was probably a man, but would hold open the possibility that it might be a bearded lady. - Richard P. Marsh

The subject of General Semantics (and Count Alfred Korzybski) came up quite often when studying with RAW, even if only indirectly (as in discussions of E-Prime, for instance, or Non-Aristotelean Logic).

GS aims to improve one's ability to evaluate the world and one's place in it.

The younger generation(s) appear to know little of GS, but it had a period of great influence on people like William Burroughs (born 1914) who actually went and studied with Korzybski in 1939.
Details of that amazing sounding set of lectures, here.

I guess RAW learned about GS later, perhaps via Burroughs, and A.E.Van Vogt, etc - or through the founders of NLP - Bandler and Grinder (say). Or maybe Bucky Fuller, Alan Watts or Gregory Bateson.

Bob himself gave a lecture at the Institute of General Semantics - here in PDF format.

More recently, Graham Rae gave this interesting presentation:

GENERAL SEMANTICS MEETS EXPERIMENTAL LITERATURE: THE LIFELONG EFFECT OF ALFRED KORZYBSKI ON WILLIAM S BURROUGHS

He posted the text of the talk on this forum at Reality Studio.

This OM post has appeared now in response to our hearing about a huge biography of Korzybski written by Bruce Kodish which sounds fascinating (to me).

Kodish has a blog related to this material here.

And here, on the relationship to Burroughs.

For those who do not know anything about the subject, this brief summary by Piero Scaruffi might give you a glimpse, although whether such a brief description may confuse more than enlighten, who can say?

Synopsis:

• Animals: hunters and gatherers = bind to territory, i.e."space-binders"
• Humans: agriculture = bind to a memory of the past and prediction of the future, i.e. "time-binders"
• Time-binding is enabled by a nervous system that is capable of constructing and manipulating symbols
• Time-binding allows to transmit knowledge to succeeding generations
• The rate of growth of human knowledge is exponential (aka the Jumping Jesus Phenomenon)
• Language allows time-binders to categorize/generalize experiences and communicate them to others
• General Semantics to remedy the limits of language:
• We have fewer words and concepts than experiences: we "confuse" similar situations
• We must evaluate a situation less by intension (its category) and more by extension (its unique features)
• We must avoid categorization/generalization and spot the unique characteristics of a situation

This link goes to the Institute of General Semantics, relating to the new biography.

New York Society of General Semantics - about Korzybski by Susan and Bruce Kodish

Random Research

fUSION aNOMALY on Korzysbski

fUSION aNOMALY on Burroughs

Steven Lewis - brief bio of Korzybski

Steven Lewis on General Semantics

Donald Fagen mentions GS, RAW, Van Vogt and Burroughs

Language, a virus?    By Florian Cramer

The Road to Interzone: Reading William S. Burroughs Reading    by Michael Stevens

Michael Stevens - The Road to Interzone Interview        by Paul Hawkins

JUMPING JESUS ON A POGO STICK!

2011-12-05T04:36:00.000Z

Great Minds

2011-11-18T08:57:00.001Z

The autobiography of Kary Mullis - Dancing Naked in the Mind Field - rewards a quick reader. He spends very little time on his childhood, or his parents, or relationships - but presents a series of thoughts, challenges, teases, and rants - in a lucid, humorous and provocative way.

He won a Nobel Prize in biochemistry, but remains quite clear that much of what we call Science still needs querying. He searches for the original citation that HIV causes AIDS, and can't find it; he suspects climate change scientists of a greater interest in funding than in a scientific approach; he remains dismissive of most of the pseudo-science of diet that so many of us find addictive; he remains totally unashamed of his experiments with drugs, most particularly LSD - and blatantly loves women and surfing. In terms of people holding down jobs than contributing usefully to society, he also points at the Prohibition Police, who, having lost their main focus of illegal alcohol turned their attention to (then legal) marijuana, rather than disband the no-longer needed bureaucracy, funding channels and hierarchy of jobs.

As the record of an interesting life, this joins the books of Richard Feynman (who loved playing bongos, became fascinated by locks, etc - while working in Quantum Physics), and John Lilly (one of the really far out scientists), and even Bucky Fuller (although perhaps the science community might think of him as an engineer if they think about him at all.)

Be prepared for jokes and surprises, too. He describes what he still considers might have be described as an alien abduction, and defends astrology as something he finds works, whether or not we can understand how - comparing it to other areas of folk wisdom (like herbs that work, which we don't accept or use until we can extract the active ingredient).

Kary Mullis also offers an interesting reading list on his website.

A very refreshing mind to spend time with.

If you don't feel like reading, maybe check him out on the ever-intriguing TED Talks.

Archaic Revivaling

2011-11-03T03:55:00.000Z

RAW Bookplate

2011-10-27T04:25:00.000+01:00

I don't know if his library ever actually got cataloged, but I was asked to scribble this up way back when (Late '06), in anticipation of the project.

Follow @RAWilson23 on Twitter!

2011-10-27T04:08:00.001+01:00

http://twitter.com/#!/Rawilson23

Seven Years On

2011-10-25T23:04:00.001+01:00

I find it hard to believe that seven years have passed since I signed up to study the Illuminatus! trilogy directly with one of its authors - Robert Anton Wilson - through the Maybe Logic Academy.

Online study, remote learning, a forum - all new experiences to me, at the time.

It turned out to lead to many more study groups, and subjects, but that going deeply into one text felt like one of the most satisfying and focused of processes.

Very few books seem to warrant re-reading, but this trilogy belongs in that category, for me - like Catch-22 or Joyce's Ulysses. I doubt I re-read them more than once a decade, as the world seems full of great new stuff - but they beckon me back at times, just as favourite movies can.

We did put up a wiki for the book (after seeing wikis for - say - Gravity's Rainbow) but it didn't really reach critical mass, and attracted a lot of spam, so turned into a high maintenance site with relatively little new input. We also came across another and 'official' wiki for the trilogy (on Wikia), but that also seemed fairly slow moving.

With a re-read approaching, and Fuzzbuddy working on film scripts of the book(s) it seemed like a good time to review the online material, update the links, etc - so the wiki stuff has got imported into an Illuminatus! trilogy website linked to this blog for review.

It remains a work-in-progress, of course....

looking back over the forum posts, I found this exchange towards the end of the course:

9 Nov 2004 Bogus Magus:

Little did I know, however, that I would end up treating it the way we are now - poring over the text like a Joycean scholar!

10 Nov 2004 RAW:

Dear Bogmag,

Of course, I wanted at least some readers to

pore over the text like Joyce scholars....that's
why I made it so Joycean

It has taken 29 years [plus the 5 years
lost in getting it published] but that
dream seems real at last,

and I thank everybody

Occupy Thyself!

2011-10-16T06:51:00.000+01:00

Other Tales

2011-10-13T02:02:00.000+01:00

The new dynamic 'looks' for Blogger do have a tantalising way of revealing old posts, so it seems worth a try. It does seem a shame to lose all the great links we accumulated down the right hand sidebar - of like-minded sites, interesting places to visit, etc. For some reason the dynamic views shed all that, in their desperation to get rid of the linear blog format.

You may find this week that the blog occasionally displays with the new dynamic templates.

Here's Uncle Bill, who I guess might encourage the cutting up and re-mixing of the site....

Myles from Dublin

2011-10-12T15:17:00.000+01:00

"I considered it desirable that he should know nothing about me but it was even better if he knew several things that were quite wrong." Flann O'Brien

This coming weekend, if you can find your way to Dublin, you would have a chance to attend a talk on Flann O'Brien and 'Pataphysics - @ Flann100. It forms part of a celebration of that notional 100th birthday that dead people seem to celebrate these days. [I still find it a bit strange to celebrate a day when someone 'would have been' 71 - John Lennon - or 100, say]. Perhaps a subjunctive birthday? - [Later: Nah, I had to look it up...'would have been' looks like the 'perfect conditional' of the verb 'to be'. Ahem]

Although Flann O'Brien's work can prove an acquired taste, and varies in quality quite wildly, I guess readers of this blog might well enjoy The Third Policeman. Whether the strange take on Atomic Theory has anything to do with Erwin Schrödinger spending his time in Dublin at the Institute for Advanced Studies - hard to know.

And his best known work At-Swim-Two-Birds still bears re-reading. It amused James Joyce.

Find all his books at The Dalkey Archive Press
Myles na gCopaleen, aka Flann O’Brien, aka Brian O’Nolan

Robert Anton Wilson references him fairly frequently, as also his creation de Selby - see, for instance,
The Celtic Roots of Quantum Theory - and footnotes throughout The Widow's Son.

And for something about De Selby and the link to 'Pataphysics, check out Borsky's piece written for the Maybe Quarterly, written in memory of Bob.

Patapsychology and Maybe Logic

The dubious ascend of Mount Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson made the gesture of dying [2] on the 14 décervelage 134 E.P. Phlegmatic as ever, the last comment on his Blog five days previously was: "Please excuse my levity...but I just can't take dying seriously".

2. 'Pataphysicians only lose their earthly shelf when dying; as such a physical death is considered an illusion, a pure formal matter; and it is said they 'make the gesture of dying' as if saluting when leaving the stage.

The Third Policeman appears in Lost

Updike in The New Yorker 2008

Asynchronous links

2011-10-07T02:22:00.001+01:00

Could be well off the pace here, but just noticed that DeOxy seem to have re-arranged their RAW page.

Full of interesting links to pursue. FNORD

Another Equinox!

2011-09-23T11:08:00.001+01:00

Happy Autumn Equinox to all in the Northern Hemisphere!

And for those in the Southern Hemisphere - enjoy the first day of Spring!

Follow your Bliss

2011-09-11T17:02:00.009+01:00

It seems a shame that Joseph Campbell's lovely thought has lost its power, possibly thanks to the invention of the phrase "bliss-ninny" as an insulting term for New Age, empty-headed optimism.

Judging from various references he made to his own life, he intended it as a guideline about working on things that you love. If you succeed, fine, you also get rewards from society, but if not, at least you have enjoyed your time.

He contrasts that to setting out to 'succeed' - to make money, or achieve celebrity - which, if those rewards do not come to you, leave you with miserable memories of wasting your time on irrelevant things.

Quote from An Open Life

"But if a person has had the sense of the Call -- the feeling that there's an adventure for him -- and if he doesn't follow that, but remains in the society because it's safe and secure, then life dries up. And then he comes to that condition in late middle age: he's gotten to the top of the ladder, and found that it's against the wrong wall.

If you have the guts to follow the risk, however, life opens, opens, opens up all along the line. I'm not superstitious, but I do believe in spiritual magic, you might say. I feel that if one follows what I call one's "bliss" -- the thing that really gets you deep in your gut and that you feel is your life -- doors will open up. They do! They have in my life and they have in many lives that I know of."
[...]"...if you follow your bliss, you'll have your bliss, whether you have money or not. If you follow money, you may lose money, and then you don't have even that. The secure way is really the insecure way and the way in which the richness of the quest accumulates is the right way."

In addition to this strategy for life, he also refers to the curious sense of a story that one finds in what had seemed a chaotic life, when looking back. Here, in converation with Bill Moyers:

CAMPBELL: Schopenhauer, in his splendid essay called "On an Apparent Intention in the Fate of the Individual," points out that when you reach an advanced age and look back over your lifetime, it can seem to have had a consistent order and plan, as though composed by some novelist. Events that when they occurred had seemed accidental and of little moment turn out to have been indispensable factors in the composition of a consistent plot. So who composed that plot? Schopenhauer suggests that just as your dreams are composed by an aspect of yourself of which your consciousness is unaware, so, too, your whole life is composed by the will within you. And just as people whom you will have met apparently by mere chance became leading agents in the structuring of your life, so, too, will you have served unknowingly as an agent, giving meaning to the lives of others, The whole thing gears together like one big symphony, with everything unconsciously structuring everything else. And Schopenhauer concludes that it is as though our lives were the features of the one great dream of a single dreamer in which all the dream characters dream, too; so that everything links to everything else, moved by the one will to life which is the universal will in nature.

It’s a magnificent idea – an idea that appears in India in the mythic image of the Net of Indra, which is a net of gems, where at every crossing of one thread over another there is a gem reflecting all the other reflective gems. Everything arises in mutual relation to everything else, so you can’t blame anybody for anything. It is even as though there were a single intention behind it all, which always makes some kind of sense, though none of us knows what the sense might be, or has lived the life that he quite intended.
All this came back to me, when reading some material of Campbell's on Joyce -

Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce

- and how his reading the first lines of Chapter 3 of Ulysses - Proteus (see previous post) - set him off on a different life path.

"INELUCTABLE MODALITY OF THE VISIBLE: AT LEAST THAT IF NO MORE, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read..."

Walking Into Eternity

2011-08-22T02:46:00.000+01:00

"Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount strand?"
James Joyce, ULYSSES, Episode 3, Proteus

Falling on Deaf Ears

2011-08-21T04:24:00.002+01:00

Written by Bogus Magus w/ Artwork by Bobby Campbell

"...riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs."

We learned many wonderful things on RAW's Tale of the Tribe course, but Giambattista Vico's holistic view of human evolution and development as a cyclic progression, a spiral, really appealed to many of us and deserves further exploration. In spite of living in dangerous times for such thinking Vico perceived, and attempted to describe, history as a whole system, and humans as self-made, just as Darwin would later attempt to sum up how plants and animals formed themselves without a "creator".

Moderns might describe Joyce's fantastic novel Finnegans Wake (which implied this cyclic structure) as a hologram, but Vico might well have described it in the Hermetic or alchemical terms of a Microcosm/Macrocosm, "as above, so below."

BABABADLGHARAGHTAKAMMINARRONN
KONNBRONNTONNERRONNTUONNTHUNN
TROVARRHOUNAWNSKAWNTOOHOOHOOR
DENENTHURNUK!

This 100 letter magical word appears on page one and some say it represents a clap of thunder, the Big Bang of Creation. To me it would work equally well as the sound of a slapstick fall (Finnegan falling off his ladder like a ton of bricks) - and, as the main character has fallen asleep, perhaps it could also remind us of a very loud snore.

The Gnostics seemed to think of The Fall (and the Original Sin) not as a human flaw - Adam eating the Forbidden Fruit - so much as something that "god" did. A demiurge fell for the temptation to slow Light down into Matter, to manifest Himself in the blissful void of the Great Mother, to create a world to rule over, and condemn people to a life and death struggle, etc. Confused echoes of this remain in the stories of Fallen Angels bringing humans fire and teaching the arts of civilisation, leading to the loss of an innocent life.

Vico worked with the Inquisition breathing down his neck, so he could not talk of an eternal cycle with no beginning, and had to start from the Creation in Genesis. He implied that after the Flood Noah's descendants wandered for some time, losing their god-given culture and language and degenerating to a bestial life. (Without that pressure to fit the story to The Bible story, we just start with "cave-men" these days, and already know about ancient civilisations rising, flourishing and then falling).

Vico chose to start his description of the cycle with primitive humans immersed in nature, using only a symbolic language of gesture, monosyllables, signs, hieroglyphs and ideograms to describe their experience of the world. Deeply embedded, they viewed the world in a mythic sense, and felt themselves as part of the whole rather than as separate individuals. He thought that they would hold the elements in awe. Storms and the voice of the thunder would impress them greatly, and lightning snaking down might bring them fire with which they could keep warm while huddled in their caves. In the face of such "gods" those brute humans covered themselves with fur, and guiltily retreating to the privacy of caves (a recap of Adam and Eve cowering from God's thunderous anger at their disobedience) so beginning the forming of human culture. The strong alpha males offered protection from predators, outlaws and other threats to the older or weaker, and to their families of women and children. Even if they seemed like giants, ritual may have proved necessary against these greater forces of nature, placating the "gods" and protecting the clan. Primitive religion thrives in the Age of the Fall...

As humans began to build shelters, cities, palaces and churches - develop communities and take up farming - they moved into what he called the Age of Heroes.

They gained more control over the elements, and the powerful either fought or joined in alliances, employing and ruling the poorer and weaker. Pharaohs, Kings and Queens appeared as demi-gods - a manifestation of an unseen deity. Laws, institutions, and rigid beliefs developed to control society. Their language became polysyllabic, and poetic - with the use of metaphor and simile - but few would understand this complex language - much of it remained a mysterious tool in the hands of the Priests and rulers. Rich families would have heraldic crests, flags, and other signs of power. Rules of chivalry and Romance (falling in love) might hold sway, but the social structure kept sharp divisions between rich and poor, as in feudal economies.

When the laws get applied fairly to all they inevitably restrict the abuse of power, and even the rich have to acknowledge and obey them, so gradually the use of logic and articulate common language leads to abstraction, generalization, free discussion, legal argument and rationality. Rigid, traditional values get challenged by a meritocracy and eventually this leads the way to "democracy".

In the Age of the People all have similar rights, although freedom can feel frightening...

This stage, too cannot last, and Vico thought of the next stage (which he called the Ricorso) as a period of confusion and anarchy and self-indulgence. This could pave the way for a return to barbarism, a new upsurge of superstition, a neo-primitive phase, the resurgence of religion in all its forms, and a yearning once more for certainty, and the worship of a strong male authority figure, aka God.

Just as Joyce had written Ulysses to contain all the stories and struggles of humans manifest in one brief day in Dublin, portrayed by ordinary folk, so he structured Finnegans Wake as one long night, with several cycles of sleep and dreaming.

A falling asleep, a dreaming of all the tales of the tribe in all the languages of the world, an endless repetition of human relationships - marriage and a family ruled by the male in the age of gods, the fighting of brothers and the wiles of daughters in the age of heroes, the burial of the father in the age of the people - finally returning to consciousness at the break of day, to start the whole thing over.

We can see the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire in Vico's model, and we can see the Roman Catholic Church giving way to Feudal England, followed by the rational Enlightenment, etc. Many people adopted the cyclic theory of history. Marx liked the inevitability he saw implied in the class struggle of the weak to demand and win their rights. He overlooked the fact that we cannot stop at any one phase of the cycle, so the reversion to autocratic Stalinism from the initially "rational" Communism might have disappointed him if he had lived to witness it. Of course, many of us may relish this anarchic period of confusion - but this model stands as a warning of the risks as time rolls on...and a Fundamentalist religious mentality kicks in.

Perhaps we can learn to control how long each part of the cycle lasts? Perhaps McLuhan's prediction of an oral/aural, post-literate, mythopoetic tribe shows one way that we could pass through the current age of change and movement and turbulence and opportunity to enter a mythical and wondrous 'golden age of the gods' , with every man and woman a star, without this time Falling for a Father Figure?

"As his title indicates (FINNEGANS WAKE), he saw that the wake of human progress can disappear again into the night of sacral or auditory man. The Finn cycle of tribal institutions can return in the electric age, but if again, then let's make it a wake or awake or both. Joyce could see no advantage in our remaining locked up in each cultural cycle as in a trance or dream. He discovered the means of living simultaneously in all cultural modes while quite conscious. The means he cites for such self-awareness and correction of cultural bias is his "collideorscope". This term indicates the interplay in colloidal mixture of all components of human technology as they extend our senses and shift their ratios in the social kaleidoscope of cultural clash: "deor", savage, the oral or sacral; "scope" the visual or profane and civilized."

-Marshall McLuhan

And Joyce felt tempted, god-like, to finally write his own sacred text, his last creation.

Here endeth the first lesson.

"The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved a long the..."

(originally published online in Maybe Quarterly #5, and in print in "Maybe... #1")

Testify feat. John Sinclair

2011-08-10T23:46:00.000+01:00

<p>&amp;lt;a href="http://thenewbanalistsorchestra.bandcamp.com/track/testify-ft-john-sinclair"&amp;gt;Testify ft John Sinclair by The New Banalists Orchestra&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;</p>

MC5 magus, white panther founder; the myth that is Jon Sinclair delivers his testimonial to the bohenium ideal.
credits from The Politics Of Envy, released 25 July 2011: Words by Jon Sinclair
Music by Youth
Produced by Youth
Mixed by Youth & Michael Rendall
Chorus Vox- Angie Brown
Bass - Youth
Gtr- Andrew Robertson
Gtr- Alan Clayton
Gtr- James Sedwards
Drums- Stever
Piano- Alex Ward
Sax- Alex Ward
Hammond/Harmonium- Michael Rendall

http://thenewbanalistsorchestra.bandcamp.com/

What is the question to which life is the answer?

2011-08-02T07:09:00.000+01:00

Cover to the next edition, which may be awhile yet, so why not enjoy here & now!?

Rushkoff's New Book

2011-08-01T10:21:00.006+01:00

You can find Douglas Rushkoff's new book "Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commandments for a Digital Age" at O/R Books (as well as Amazon, kindle, etc). If you email a completely empty message (no title or content) to studyprogram@orbooks.com you will get a generous 24 page PDF chapter-by-chapter breakdown, with additional study suggestions.

BUDDHA HATERADE

2011-08-01T06:04:00.000+01:00

Coming Round Again

2011-08-01T03:21:00.000+01:00

Written by Bogus Magus W/ Illustrations by Bobby Campbell

Don't talk to me about journeys to the Underworld. I think of myself as one of those people who doesn't dream.

Oh, sure, 'Everybody dreams!' they say, with a knowing smile, 'it's just that some of us remember them'.

But I forget, I forget.

They tell me this stuff, these people who remember all their serial incarnations. Seriously, they emerge into our daily world from some curious realm that reacts directly to their thought, and calmly step into this entirely different reality - finding me haggard, hung-over, habitual - and they seem neither excited nor scared. Why? Because they not only remember their dream interludes but they also remember their continuity from the day before. Despite all the picaresque adventures of their nights, they seriously rejoin this apparently stable place I call ‘reality’ with quiet resignation. Maybe their consciousness is virtually continuous.

I can go no further. At this point I feel blind. When I finally shut my eyes I drift awhile then I vanish into the black - not for an eternity because as soon as I open my eyes again the world continues. It often seems as if no time had passed. When I felt frightened of the following day I used to stay up - waking hours last longer - if I fell asleep then OPENED my eyes I would face the feared morning (oh, I don't know, dentist, exam, interview, opening night). And yes of course, sometimes the anticipation felt great - how do you think I ever let go into sleep then OPENED my eyes to another day?

But here I just refer to the good days. After all, I often seem to only get sixteen hours daily life to many other people’s twenty-four. So I get a bit behind having to do my dreaming in the daytime - pressure on - but then again, I don’t have nightmares, I guess (how would I know?)

They've done tests. It appears that sleep deprivation alone doesn’t make a human hallucinate in the waking state, but the deprivation of dreams does. So, imagine - me with no dreams, no surrealism, no lucidity, no monsters or jump-cuts, zooms or eternities, always stuck with gravity, and hunger and life-threatening situations that are REAL goddamit, how do you think I feel when I open my eyes to the same old world, still, without a break.

At the breakfast table the jet-setters come in with their travellers' tales of mythic adventure in lucid dreams. Me, I feel like I haven't slept (I often feel like I haven't slept - sleeping often seems about as refreshing as blinking). Anyway, my ‘real, one and only’ world has to incorporate any fun I might get, and for sure it contains some problems I'll have to confront - dead subtle, too, some of them.

Dream rememberers often appear refreshed by their dimensional vacation (though sometimes they report getting stuck at some psychic airport), and they also remember what they were doing in real time yesterday, and why – so they may well have a script and plan for the day ahead, as they move smoothly back to take up where they left off.

What I call sleep is like the black bar between the frames of a movie. Normally (awake) we don't see it, but when someone like me slows down into sleep it takes an age (a split second) to cross that line. Many mornings it goes as smooth as a flicker book - next image, next day. Just some days I cross the line and it's a CUT to another scene entirely - sure, there's probably a connection, some editing gets real suggestive, but there are shock cuts, like coming round and finding someone tied you to a chair and a light shines in your eyes.

Oh, sure. Call me hero. 'Talk! ' they said. I can't talk after I wake up until I have had at least three cups of coffee, some days. At 150 milligrammes per cup I must use a gramme a day. A gramme of caffeine.

It keeps me in the awake world - better the frame you know than the one coming up. Funny that, most people think coffee speeds things up, and I take it to stay awake and get more time in the same frame.

cut

- somebody slugged me

- They put something in my drink

- what happened?

- It all happened so quickly

I find myself back again - seeing if I can figure out a sequence to this movie or find out if the cuts have a logic or merely a careless randomness to them?

Each morning I struggle to piece together what I remember of the time before the last blackout. With a continuous memory of previous frames I might have a chance to pick up a theme, at least - some kind of order apart from mere habitual days, another page of the book, semi-coherent action flickering by (or at least the image of it.) No abruptness interrupts my days.

I find belongings, sometimes, and notes to myself, when I wake up alone and I'm not tied to a chair or whatever. I have no idea what they mean, beyond what they say.

tl;dr

2011-07-27T14:37:00.021+01:00

Robert McLuhan’s book strikes me as an unusual one in an overcrowded field. He neither sides with the debunkers who call themselves sceptics, nor with the ‘believers in the paranormal’, but has returned to the source material, avoiding the trivial thinking and specious arguments that arise from a vague knowledge of secondary and tertiary material (vulnerable to the simplifications, accretions and amplifications that create urban myths, etc).

He clearly states his approach to both sides of the argument as similar to what RAW called “What the Thinker Thinks, the Prover Proves”. He suggests that just as we find an “irrational gravity” among the enthusiasts (drawn to prefer the more far-out explanations) we also find a “rational gravity” that forces people to dismiss, or play-down, unexplained experiences (even of their own), which threaten their world-view.

He seems to want a closer and more respectful look at the evidence for Psi – when we use that to mean telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and psychokinesis. As these four models can often prove sufficient to explain most of the evidence presented, he steers clear of the issues of reincarnation, afterlives, ghosts, NDEs, etc. He doesn’t avoid those subjects, at all, at all, but does set aside the need to address those kind of explanations in detail, because of the added complications of discussing cultural and religious interpretations.

As an ex-magician, without a God, most of my friends think of me as quite a hard-line sceptic. Perhaps my attitude to ritual Magick, for instance, also betrays a resistance to areas that I might find disturbing (the pull of rational gravity) and have chosen not to investigate.

Telepathy
Perhaps I occasionally overstate my case, when arguing, but I have little problem with the idea of Telepathy - some kind of group or tribal mind, a jungle sense (Sheldrake’s ‘Sense of Being Looked At’), or fields of knowledge people can draw on (the Akashic Records, for instance).

Clairvoyance
I have relatively little problem with Clairvoyance – having friends who seem to pick up atmospheres in particular places, who have great insight into others, or have odd perceptions when handling objects of significance (psychometry). These still seem like mysterious but uncontentious aspects of sensitivity, creativity, imagination, the arts, etc.

Precognition
I have to admit I have a slightly bigger problem with Precognition, beyond anticipation of the near future, which could fall into that ‘jungle sense’ realm, again. I haven’t shut the door on meaningful ‘glimpses of the future’. What we call "Time" still seems pretty odd, to me, though.

Psychokinesis
And I have a big problem with Psychokinesis (the movement or transformation of material objects by the mind alone), although perhaps at a trivial level it relates to people who can’t wear watches (they stop), street lights that go out when certain people pass them, The Pauli Effect, and so on. I consider the source material of Men Who Stare At Goats a comedy of bureaucracy, but that doesn’t mean I deny the possibility of hexing people to death, etc. That simply takes us into a much more complex realm of culture, belief systems, placebo effects, self-fulfilling prophecies, psychic self-defence, etc.

So I recommend this book for an intelligent overview - whether you consider yourself a believer (second-hand), or someone who has themselves experienced something inexplicable, or a sceptic or 'rationalist'. It offers material for genuine intelligent discussion, and attempts to tease out the testable from the morass of other material that clutters up occult and paranormal discussions.

Early on he mentions such stories as 'rocks that fall from the sky' reported by ordinary folk for centuries, and dismissed by sceptics and scientists because 'there are no rocks in the sky'. No-one can make such occasional and unpredictable events happen on demand, so they can easily be dismissed. Most psi events seem hard to reproduce in controlled environments, except in a statistical sense (over the interpretation of which bitter arguments still rage on) but that doesn't eliminate the possibility of something odd happening that could reward further study.

Blogs for follow-up:

Randi's Prize - the blog of the book
Paranormalia - another Robert McLuhan blog

Oh, and just to revert to my magician head for a moment.
McLuhan seems under the illusion that people couldn't use conjuring methods (say, to create poltergeist phenomena) because that needs elaborate set-ups, and has to be done far away from the audience (page 76) which only goes to show he hasn't really gone to source material for that, otherwise he would know that improvisational close-up magic has a long history - and a huge resource of techniques. Just as improvised comedy doesn't know where it may end up, but can still create good jokes, some opportunistic magicians do open-ended magic with a variety of possible outcomes (Multiple Outs, in the trade). Geller has more than one way to bend a fork!
And as to magicians having to admit they are baffled by some of the medium's performances, which somehow proves that psychic phenomena really occur, again I beg to differ. Magicians love to feel fooled (see Penn & Teller's current tv show in the UK) but that doesn't mean they have to 'admit' that some psychic event really happened, just because they can't figure it out. Bullsh*t!

Good Talking

2011-07-24T01:36:00.004+01:00

The Major Spoilers website has this great podcast...with very interesting discussion on Illuminatus! (the Trilogy), and other RAW books, between Stephen Schleicher and Bruce Otter. If you gotta spare hour...

If you need some frameworks (plot, a draft timeline, character lists, etc) then you can find some of our accumulations on the Wiki we set up to compile our material.

Sadly, the Home Page keeps getting spammed, and we revert it when we can...fortunately you can find the other pages, as most spamming seems to hit that home page. So it goes.

New Edition of "Email to the Universe" by Robert Anton Wilson

2011-07-23T23:23:00.002+01:00

Another new edition, featuring my artwork, coming down the pike this week! As it stands, this is the last book released by RAW, and it was what he was working on when I first came into contact w/ him. It's an anthology of essays, which rather spectacularly runs the gamut of the Robert Anton Wilson oeuvre.

"This book intends to change your way of perceiving/conceiving the world, without drugs or drums or Voodoo, simply by using words in certain special ways."

Available from New Falcon Publications & Amazon.com

New Edition of "An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson" by Eric Wagner

2011-07-22T06:52:00.002+01:00

I've scribbled upon yet another cover of Maybe Logical canon! This time it's Eric Wagner's indispensable exegesis on the hidden symbols and other jokes & profundities in RAW's immortal works.

Available from New Falcon Publications & Amazon.com

~~I managed to worm my way into the interior pages as well, wherein you'll find things suchlike:~~

EDIT: Well, I just a few copies in the mail, and the interior art didn't make it in. So it goes! This is what it would have been:

POUND PRACTICING PRANAYAMA

THE TEMPIO MALATESTA

ILLUMINATUS! TREE OF LIFE

DR. LEARY'S INFOMERCIAL

THE NINTH CIRCUIT

Marshall McLuhan born 100 years ago

2011-07-21T14:22:00.004+01:00

Marshall McLuhan would have reached the age of 100 today, if he had lived this long...

The official MM website

You might enjoy this illustrated article that Bobby Campbell created for the Maybe Quarterly

Happy Birthday Bucky!

2011-07-12T16:42:00.002+01:00

Bucky did sometimes imply that McLuhan had got quite a lot of his radical ideas from Fuller's own work...he doesn't seem to have born a grudge...

You Know Nothing Of My Work

2011-07-12T16:16:00.009+01:00

Great to see a brief and highly readable account of Marshall McLuhan from Douglas Coupland.

Like many "guru-charlatans" McLoon remains ambiguous, almost paradoxical, often misquoted and misunderstood.

People either co-opt him to their cause, or decide he needs translating, or write endless, solemn analysis of what he 'meant'.

Many people may simply think his time has past - but Coupland indicates how his approach still has much to tell us. Others perhaps think he acted as a cheer-leader for the future, and new technology (far from it!) Yet he does appear to have predicted the future (the way we live now) quite accurately.

Still, the title of the book (referring to the great gag in Annie Hall) offers fair warning that I should explain my own take on his work with a fair amount of diffidence. Suffice to say, I considered him a provoker of thought, rather than a man with all the answers.

I often find it hard to agree with a Catholic, a man who hated hippies and acid, etc.

Unlike the evasive or smartass answers to the press (the style adopted by Dylan and then The Beatles), McLuhan bewildered people through his mask of the absent-minded professor, or his use of odd puns, his sudden lucid responses, his own weird perspectives. He remains highly amusing when running rings around people trying to 'understand' him - using the provocative trick of hinting that their own outmoded reality tunnels will prevent them from 'getting it'.

"You mean my whole fallacy is wrong."

One of the reasons I consider him a trickster guru.

"The next medium, whatever it is – it may be the extension of consciousness – will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organisation, retrieve the individual’s encyclopaedic function and flip it into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind." M.M. 1962

State of the computer art in 1962.

TTOTT in TWELVE (T n' T)

2011-06-30T12:18:00.002+01:00

TTOTT in TWELVE (T n'T)

without pip center/ever changing cyclic world/Brunocentral
gods hero's and men/recycling through the ages/recorsi vico
eternal return/the gods Nietzsche left us here/beyond either or
oak branching forces/ideogramic method/Fenollosa trees
spatial symbolist/weasels fight in a chamber/before the war Yeats
Ezra made it new/cantos brewing history/juxtaposition
Joyce cracked the cypher/hologramic comedy/to make Einstein cry
word is not the thing/no such noun only see verbs/motion in the thingzskis
...went in for structure/geodesic dymaxy/futurz Fullerene
Boolean Logic/and electrical switches/bit twinned by Shannon
turn on tune in drop/Joyce in digital village/Ez save McLuhan
Orson at hawk's well/cinema collage life force/fake filter buster

--Steve fly agaric 23.

http://ettt.wikispaces.com/

Enjoy the Solstice!

2011-06-21T12:14:00.003+01:00

In memory of Bob, an interview from 1991

2011-06-16T20:25:00.000+01:00

Happy Bloomsday!

2011-06-16T20:05:00.004+01:00

"...good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub".

Apparently (I haven't gone to test the theory out) a solution to Bloom's musings appeared after using a computer programme.

Some dispute still exists, in terms of ignoring restaurants and hotels where passers-by can get a drink, but still a very worthy effort, I reckon.

Check out the programmer's blog here, for details.

Ulysses (page 53 in some editions)

Leopold musing...

Where do they get the money? Coming up redheaded curates from the

county Leitrim, rinsing empties and old man in the cellar. Then, lo and

behold, they blossom out as Adam Findlaters or Dan Tallons. Then thin

of the competition. General thirst. Good puzzle would be cross Dublin

without passing a pub. Save it they can't. Off the drunks perhaps. Put

down three and carry five. What is that, a bob here and there, dribs and

drabs. On the wholesale orders perhaps. Doing a double shuffle with the

town travellers. Square it you with the boss and we'll split the job, see?

How much would that tot to off the porter in the month? Say ten barrels

of stuff. Say he got ten per cent off. O more. Fifteen. He passed Saint

Joseph's National school. Brats' clamour. Windows open. Fresh air helps

memory. Or a lilt. Ahbeesee defeegee kelomen opeecue rustyouvee

doubleyou. Boys are they? Yes. Inishturk. Inishark. Inishboffin. At their

joggerfry. Mine. Slieve Bloom.

James Joyce Centre - Dublin

CONFUCIUS SAY

2011-05-24T06:35:00.000+01:00

CANTO XIII

And Kung gave the words "order"
and "brotherly deference"
And said nothing of the "life after death."  

RAW NOTES: "Voltaire and Pound both turned on by this aspect  of Kung fu Tse. Ez frequently quotes in his letters  Voltaire's delight at Kung as 'the first man in  history who DIDN'T have a Divine Revelation.'"

Many thanks to RMJon23 for source quote...

Cross posted from bobbycampbell.org

ROBERT ANTON WILSON & STEPHEN GASKIN - Quantum Psychology / Basic Metaphysics 101

2011-04-18T13:42:00.000+01:00

ROBERT ANTON WILSON & STEPHEN GASKIN - Quantum Psychology / Basic Metaphysics 101

WebBrain and mind maps

2011-04-07T13:17:00.007+01:00

We continue to meet up here and there, and try different tools out, especially ones that could allow us to collaborate. Right now I (the bogus magus) have started playing with brains and plexs (dynamic mind maps), but haven't found a satisfactory way of publishing the dynamic brain just yet - or gotten into sharing. I offer a still image for the moment... You can find the dynamic version of this stored at WebBrain here, so you can play with pulling the web of connections around, changing the views, etc...to glimpse how it works. The basic form of Personal Brain comes free, so to find out if it seems like just an amusing toy to you, or a useful tool, why not try it out. I haven't come to any conclusion about it yet... I also stuck a small version of the brain onto the OM website, a site which hasn't evolved at all recently, as it started as an experiment with the website Google offers you with any account...

Digital natives and digital immigrants

2011-03-24T03:47:00.003Z

This blog has now run for a few years, and (in my eyes) has lots of interesting stuff for you to dig around in - not all of it out-of-date, or too limited to the interests of a small group.

I just clicked on Douglas Rushkoff's blog link (right hand of the screen) - and then spent the best part of an hour enjoying his company. You don't have to agree with everything he says, but he sure makes you think (if you enjoy thinking).

So I watched him addressing the Google crew (a tough audience in many ways) on the subject of "Don't give Up On the Humans" - after I clicked on the slightly more paranoid title of "Program or be Programmed". If you have 50 minutes to concentrate, you might enjoy this entertaining speaker...

Yeah, at 65, I come from the analogue age, which makes me a digital immigrant...

Moving Around

2011-03-22T22:29:00.002Z

This blog has not updated for a while, but we all remain busy out here.

Although the MLA has taken a sabbatical for new courses, you can still find the forum open, and for those who have taken the recent classes run by illuminati alumni, the course material and forums still seem available.

Another space opened up recently, that some of us may migrate to (you never can tell) but more on the Hidden College of Eris later.

Welcome to the Spring of the Giant Moon...

730 shows in 365 days…if you please

2011-01-26T14:19:00.000Z

Homage to John Sinclair and Radio Free Amsterdam.

Sinclair On The Air

A marijuana smoking walking encyclopaedia of music and culture,
the good stuff, the street marrow.

730 shows shared with a world wide web of thirsty ears
And starving brains. 730 Shows of a unique intuitive design (in 365 days)...[read on and listen here]

Austin Osman Spare

2011-01-23T21:41:00.011Z

On 14th November 2010 I managed to get to the last day of the “Austin Osman Spare: Fallen Visonary” exhibition featuring the art of Austin Osman Spare at The Cuming Museum.

Jerusalem Press has published a lavish book to accompany this exhibition called Austin Osman Spare: Cockney Visionary Conceived, Compiled and Edited by Stephen Pochin.

The book also includes a documentary which lasts about 30 minutes called The Bones Go Last.

The books contents include:

An introduction: Robert Ansell

A cartographic study: Gavin W Semple

Biographical essay: Geraldine Beskin (of Atlantis bookshop)

Magical essay: Michael Staley (who organised a great AOS night in London commemorating 50 years since his death in 2006)

Essays by the curators: Christopher Jordan and Stephen Pochin

Commentaries on the works featured: Dr. William Wallace

They are also set to publish a new version of Spare’s Book of Pleasure which will have an introduction by Alan Moore.

EARTH INFERNO 1905

NUDE HOLDING A CRYSTAL BALL 1914-20

THEURGY 1928

DREAM CONTENT HOPES, FEARS AND HALF-COGNIZANT 1954

Short video clip from an episode of The Culture Show (BBC UK 2010):

The seven heads of the Green Dragon

2011-01-21T22:54:00.027Z

Les sept têtes du dragon vert - la guerre des cerveaux ("The seven heads of the Green Dragon - the War of the Brains") - Teddy Legrand, M.C.O.R. editions 2007

I've read this book from start to bottom almost in one row. I always liked so-called pulp fiction, but this one comes with a twist. This book was published in 1933 in a limited edition and became much sought after. It is said to be much more than a cheap novel, and not only seems to deal with many historical figures from the shadows of secret services as well as from the even more obscure haze of the occult societies after world war 1, as some believe it also carries a secret message. I can understand some very bizarre scenes, coincidences galore, the presence of a large amount of mysterious figures and the prophecy of the impending apocalypse that would become world war 2 gave this book a cult following. The word Illuminati is never used, but the author talks of mysterious characters with higher powers, in a dark period of our history where occult figures and organisations definitely had an impact on European politics, the most famous being Rasputin.
It was republished in 2007. This book is a facsimile edition. All page numbers are preceded and followed by a lozenge. Strangely, on page 143 some unreadable, geometric signs surround the page number…
As it has never been translated to English, I summarized the book.

From the introduction:

This book deals with the proceedings of both the secret services and hermetic organisations in Europe from the 1900s till 1933, building up towards the nazi takeover. Above all the this web of conspiracies, the author claims another even more secret organisation pulled the strings and reorganised the geopolitical maps of Europe. Legrand himself, probably a pseudonym of writer Pierre Mariel (who mainly wrote on esoteric subjects), is the main character and as such the book appears as a romanticised autobiography written as a pulp novel. It seems most of the German intelligence operations during the first world war had their homebase in Sweden, where Germany and the young bolsheviks worked together. Rasputin might have been an instrument of the revolution. In his autobiography, prince Yusupov, Rasputin's murderer, claims the latter had told him he was counseled by secretive persons, most of whom lived in Sweden and who called themselves 'The Green'.
For Legrand, both nazism and communism are aspects of the same conspiracy. After the murder of the imperial family in 1918, attorney Sokolov was appointed to find the truth, and he concluded German intelligence was active in both the tsarist and the bolshevik camps. In a strange quirk of history, the tsarina had adopted the Asian symbol of the swastika as her personal signature… some of which were discovered drawn by her on the walls of Ipatiev house, the Romanov's prison in Tobolsk before their execution.
It seems the same symbol was used in communication with the tsarina by an organisation who claimed to try to liberate the imperial family. The leader of this organisation, Boris Soloviev, was Rasputin's son-in-law and was also a triple agent for the German secret service. He was welcome amongst revolutionaries as wel as in contra-revolutionary circles. Maybe Germany first backed up the bolsheviks, needing peace in the East during the first world war, and then tried to re-establish the tsar after they had won some battles in the West. Soloviev fooled the tsarist camp by pretending to work on the liberation of tsar Nicolai II and his family, while he was actually delivering all of its supporters to the bolsheviks. For Sokolov there was no doubt Soloviev worked for the Germans. Now if German intelligence had built a conspiracy so large as to direct both the Russian revolution and the tsarist reaction, what can we imagine about their influence in the rest of Europe?
French occultist Gérard Encausse (aka 'Papus') co-wrote a series of articles in the interbellum denouncing a large financial syndicate, who was behind most recent troubles in France (starting with the Dreyfuss affair) and in Russia. According to him, behind every conflict, hidden agents made these conflicts unavoidable. He mentions the part the Freemasons had in the French revolution, but also the Jesuits and the Carbonari in other conflicts. Every time a small group tries to achieve total domination. At the dawn of the 20th century, power was expressed in gold; as such a secret financial syndicate tried to get its hands on most of the gold reserve in the world. Allegedly, both France and Russia opposed these goals, hence both nations were attacked until they weakened. For Papus, the centre of this organisation was in London, while important branches operated from Germany.
Teddy Legrand wrote what appears as a classical mystery novel, with parts based on historical facts and others obvious tricks to help the plot unfold. Because of these the adventures of Teddy Legrand and his British friend James 'Nobody' 's appear quite bizarrely incoherent at times, even at the point of seemingly mocking the reader. Maybe by rejecting the plot elements of a classical novel the writer's goal was to help get a hidden message across?
In the end Legrand hints at an asiatic conspiracy behind the Anglo-German one. Two mysterious historical figures cross their paths: first the jewish spy and adventurer Trebitsch-Lincoln, a man at home in most of Europe's esoteric circles and who played a part in the organisation of German nationalism, appears under the name of lama Dordji-Den. He was a member of Hitler's inner circle in the twenties, when the 'National Socialist Party of German Workers' tried but failed to overthrow the government of Bavaria.
Another character, 'The man with the green gloves', probably stands for Erik Jan Hanussen, the most famous esoterist in Berlin between the two world wars, who was murdered later on in 1933. A devotee of Asiatic and tantric traditions, he was close to certain nazi officials. Let's not forget this book was published in 1933, and deals mainly with the work of a political, criminal and esoteric organisation whose main goal was to take over Europe. The author show knowledge of historical facts, of which some were corroborated by recently discovered documents.

Chapter 1. The picture and the icon.

The story starts when Legrand comes home from a mission to find out his appartment has been visited. Luckily the only genuine photographs of the Ipatiev house, taken shortly after the murder of the Romanovs by Legrand himself, had not been found. As a fan of Edgar Allan Poe he had hidden them in plain sight, at the back of pictures in his family album. He had tried to save the tsar and his family, dressed up as a cook in the Tchecoslovakian army in Siberia. Later on he had taken the disguise of an orthodox pope. That's when he took the famous pictures and received an icon of Saint Seraphim of Sarov which had belonged to the Tsarina.
He's visited by an old friend, a colleague of the British secret services, James 'Nobody', a self-assured red-faced Englishman who reminds him of Mr. Pickwick. He was named by jealous colleagues after Homeros' tale, but also after captain Nemo, whose name also means no one. Nobody admits he was the uninvited visitor, and it is vital he could compare a photograph taken by Legrand with what he thinks, and indeed appears, to be a forgery, taken later and used in attorney Sokolov's official files. Topped by a swastika, which by then only had a vague asiatic meaning, linked to the Bouddha, there are minor differences between the two pictures.

To Nobody, the original one is the true testament of the tsarina: drawn on a wall with a pencil, below the swastika is written '17/30 A.u.p. 19-18?' and he claims he can find a way to decipher the message, but for this they need to meet the Patriarch of Constantinople, Basileus III. He also has a surprise for Legrand, walking about in his appartment, holding his arm, wary of any twitch in his muscles which would give away that Legrand would know about it; which he doesn't. So Legrand is genuinely surprised when Nobody takes the icon of Saint Seraphim of Sarov and removes the halo above his head: showing behind it a message carved in silver, obviously by the hand of the Tsarina:

"S.I.M.P. :.:. The green dragon. You were absolutely right."

and below, carved by a man: "Too late". Nobody wonders what the strange double three points mean and thinks of a masonic symbol.But to Legrand who knows a lot on hermetic matters it's the seal of Salomon.
And hence this message has to do with Martinism, a sect that played a major part in the French revolution, which was allegedly dissolved, but Legrand thinks their influence never really stopped before being refounded by Papus in 1890, at the same time as Sâr Péladan refounded the Rosy Cross. S.I.M.P. stands for 'Supérieur Inconnu, Maître Philippe', pointing at Nizier-Anthelme Philippe, a common butcher who joined the Martinist order and became a famous healer and magnetizer. Master (or Magus) Philippe, while considered an ordinary con man by some, others saw him as the reincarnation of Christ. He had been introduced to the imperial family when they had visited France and had had a prominent influence on Russia's destiny, before Grigori Raputin took over.

Chapter 2. Fener.

Legrand and Nobody leave for Fener, the residence of the Orthodox patriarch Basileus III in Istanbul and the main center of conspiracies during world war 1. In the train, Nobody recalls his visit to prince Yusupov who had said that once Rasputin mentioned his hidden Swedish masters to him. According to Legrand indeed, the Staretz received lots of telegrams signed 'The Green', but their true identity was never revealed. Maybe Master Philippe had tried to warn the tsarina for the dangers of the Green Dragon, personnified by the one who replaced him to the court, Grigori Rasputin. And maybe she had realized - 'Too late' - that he was right.
All archives of the Orthodox church had been gathered in Istanbul even before the war and the revolution, and so it seems they knew more about what was at stake.
Arriving in Istanbul, Legrand realizes the Vatican and the Fener or Phanar could not differ more: the first is a huge palace filled with richness and harmoniously built; the second is a labyrinth of corridors and passageways, closed in from the outside. They meet the Archimandrite Theophanes who claims the patriarch is a bit ill and cannot see them. They fear Theophanes simply won't admit he's dead or dying. Later on, dressed up as two abbotts from Mount Athos, coming for the soon to be held elections for a new Patriarch, they manage to enter the Phanar and are given a room to rest.
At night they visit the cellar and finally discover a miserable room where the Patriarch has been left to die in grim circumstances. He gets a little boost of energy when he recognizes Legrand, who once helped him. They show him the icon of Saint Seraphim of Sarov and Basileus III starts a strange rant. He had hoped to receive this message a long time ago, when the imperial family was still alive. According to him, no one but the tsar had the power to stop the impeding apocalypse directed by the seven-headed green Hydra, with Raputin as its puppet. Russia seems the only safeguard for Europe against the forces from Asia. The Patriarch ends his rant by saying (and again, let's not forget this was published in 1933!) that "Europe shall shiver under the sharp spurs of the man with the two Z "(to the reader, an obvious reference to Hitler; not so to Nobody and Legrand when they hear it).
The door opens and they're discovered while the Patriarch finally dies. They manage to flee to the streets and have themselves arrested by the police to escape an angry mob. In police headquarters they meet up with colonel Ibrahim Bey of the Ottoman intelligence, an old friend of Legrand who sends them by train to Andrinopolis in Rumania to escape the forces of the Phanar.

Chapter 3. Orient Express.

On their way to Bulgaria in the Orient Express, they realize they're being followed by two tugs from the Phanar. Luckily for them these are arrested at the border, probably courtesy of Ibrahim Bey. Looking out of the window waiting for the train to leave they wittness a bizarre scene: on the platform young beautiful people surround in prayer a character dressed up as a bishop who turns out to be a gorgeous woman.
Mariavism, a bizarre sect started by a bishop Kowalski in Poland, mixing mysticism with eroticism, organised orgies and used most of the catholic attributes as a mockery, had left Poland after Kowalski had been condemned in Plock on account of too many mystical brides. It seems the mariavites wanted to try their luck in Bulgaria now. Discussing the matter, Legrand defends the ideas of Towianski whom Nobody compares to Kowalski. Legrand calls the first 'the prophet of our times'… which gives away to Nobody the fact that Legrand is a member of the A:. de S:. lodge, a very small and secret group.
They discuss the meaning of Basileus' soliloquoy. For Legrand, most of it was gibberish. Not so for Nobody: he thinks every word was full of meaning, but simply hidden behind some far-fetched allegories. They first analyze what they can understand: for the Patriarch, all political events are connected. The world is controlled by mysterious forces, at the origin of the two Sarajevo murders leading up to world war 1, they're behind the murder of the Romanovs, the murder of Rathenau and so on. They're the same people mentionned by both Master Philippe and by his successor Rasputin. Nobody and Legrand have no idea what the Patriarch meant by saying

"As old as the son of Helles might be, sitting on his golden rock, he's still hungry"

and

"and the time will come when Europe shall shiver under the sharp spurs of the man with two Z"

.
Suddenly the female bishop enters their compartment. They're both troubled by the erotic atmosphere surrounding elements of the catholic lithurgy. The woman appears to be Irma Staub, Nobody's nemesis and the best spy of the German intelligence. She tells them she knows about the vital information from the Phanar. She implores them to listen to her as there isn't much time: a little further up the rails, the train shall have an accident meant to cause their death; they need to jump off the train just before reaching the bridge over the Maritza river. Legrand believes her and wants to pull the alarm, but too late: the train derails and he's knocked out by flying luggage.
Later on, Legrand wakes up, shaken by Nobody. He has a slight injury to the head. They are surrounded by debris and the bridge is gone. The locomotive and the first four wagons have crashed deep down in the valley where the torrent Maritza flows surrounde by horrible cries of suffering. They're surrounded by bodies and teams trying to offer rescue. Later on, a paranoid fool of Sofia would claim the responsability for the terrorist attack. Obviously insane, he's sent to a lunatic asylum. For Legrand, it's obvious he and Nobody were meant to die in the accident, and that the real culprits would remain in the shadows. They manage to get the heavily injured Iram Staub in a hotel in Philipopoli, as they trust no hospitals given the circumstances, and have found a trustworthy doctor to take care of her. While in great pain, and fearing for her life, she talks to them both about how she had sworn to revenge her murdered lover Walther Rathenau.
Rathenau, an extremely wealthy jewish industrial, member of the highest capitalistic class and the true leader of Germany, whom she had been assigned to spy upon by the Kaiser, claimed to know what was wrong with the world and wanted desperately to heal the European economy. She had finally fell in love with and his ideals. His influence on the matters would have been decisive, as the leader of a small group of wealthy financiers who opposed the powers of 'The Greens'. In his mind, the people of Israel were meant to play a major role in order to bring the entire human race towards world peace and back into an new Golden Age. He was brutally murdered on the 16th June 1922. The German justice concluded it was an act of some Pangerman extremists and that was it. Irma had fled the Reich and joined the British Intelligence Service, realizing too late they were part of the conspiracy too. She says to Legrand and Nobody that after the death of Basileus, only one man remains who could give them the information they need.

Part 2
Chapter 1. The Intelligence Service.

6 months later, Irma, fully recovered, promotes the ideas of Ghandi in India and Nobody and Legrand discuss at home the strange occurrence of the number 72 every time they gather some cryptic information concerning 'The Greens'. A highly kaballistic number, it reminds of the secret 72 names of god, of the 72 languages spoken in the tower of Babel, of the 72 angels ruling the Zodiac according to the Zohar…
On the 25th of January 1930 they visit a small appartment in the suburbs of Paris to meet general Alexander Kutepov, the sole leader of the White Russians who remained faithfull to the throne, and the keeper of the tsarist mystique. In the salon, his spouse, a young slavic woman tries to convince them the general would never agree to see them.
In a loud voice, Legrand asks her to tell the general the 7th seal is about to be broken. Immediately, a door opens and Kutepov, silent, waits for more. Nobody says the three of them have the power to subdue the 72 bastards. On a sign of the general his wife leaves the room. Legrand tells him he took photographs of the real messages of the tsarina shortly after the murder of the Romanovs. With an increasing curiosity, the general receives both the icon of St Seraphim of Sarov, especially worshipped by the tsar, and the photograph taken by Legrand in Ipatiev house. After a knock on the door, having quicly hidden both, he's visited by a man named Igor whom they dislike immediately. Kutepov asks Igor to prepare a meeting as some secrets concerning the murder of the imperial family is about to be revealed. When Igor leaves, the general admits he doesn't trust him either but he has been imposed to him. From a small library he moves a few books and takes out a small oblong booklet in red leather. It appears the Romanovs had imagined a secret code, just for fun, even before they were married. Later on this code became vital to communicate with the remaining faithfull. They actually had developped two cyphers, one that was known to their familiars and one that remained secret even to Raputin. Kutepov holds the second cypher's codebook in his hands. After deciphering the message he says

"So then it would be the Greek as well? Incredible! This man is the Antechrist!"

. But then a heavy step is heard in the hallway and he quickly makes an appointment with Legrand and Nobody for the next day at 16hrs. Igor walks in.
The next day, they drive towards their meeting, when suddenly a scooter comes out of nowhere hitting their car. The driver lays on the floor, yieling like a pig, and soon they are surrounded by a crowd who looks like a bunch of thugs ready to lynch them. Luckily for them, a policeman appears, sending the seemingly injured (but Legrand thinks otherwise) driver to a hospital and takes them to the police headquarters. From there they call the hospital, and as they expected the man from the accident never got there; what's more, the scooter had been stolen and all the so-called witnesses have disappeared. They leave the police at 16.10 and hurry to the rendez-vous but find no sign of Kutepov. Later on newspapers would give all kinds of hypotheses concerning the disappearance of general Kutepov. Nobody is convinced the Intelligence Service is behind the abduction.
On the 1st of February they unexpectedly receive a clue: in a sealed enveloppe, and even before it hit the stores, Legrand got the last edition of the illustrated addition to 'Le Petit Journal', an extremely conformist publication, with usually naive engravings. This edition shows a landscape in Caux and a grey automobile beneath a caption that might be understood to those who know, as a hidden reference to the abduction of Kutepov. Legrand knows someone who works for the magazine, a strange and reclusive fellow and initiate who had introduced him to some secret societies. He visits him. The man swears he hadn't send him the enveloppe but when Legrand is about to leave, he tells him how he regrets his work withheld him from a vacation, especially towards the beautiful lighthouse of Ailly.
So Legrand and Nobody pay a visit to the guardian of the lighthouse in Ailly, a man called Jagu Duhamel. It takes them a long time and lots of alcohol to make him talk; knowing he hates his neighbor, Nobody says she had told them he might have known nothing after all. Duhamel immediately reacts vehemently that she lied to them when she said he was drunk when he saw what he saw; and what he saw was the boat of his brother-in-law Emile Guérin who had moved to England with his sister, navigating illegally in French territorial waters; and intuitivelly Legrand knows for sure this has to do with Kutepov. According to Duhamel, since then his brother-in-law has started to spend a lot of money.
A few days later they meet Emile and Hortense Guérin in a pub in London. It takes them only some money to make him talk about what happened that night: he was fishing outside of his legal territory, along the French coast in front of St-Valéry-en-Caux, when he met a motorized boat whose occupants asked him to be towed to England, untill they reached a white yacht with three sails waiting for them nearby Serk. For this he received a large sum of money. He couldn't see the name of the yacht but remembered he had seen it before under Scandinavian or Baltic flag. And he recalls there was a man on board who moaned a lot.

Chapter 2. On board of the Asgärd.

Nobody and Legrand, dressed up as American businessmen from the Chicago Machine-tool Corporation, thanks to their friend JC Parker, member of the American secret services and vice-chairman of the company, are on board of the Asgärd, a white yacht with three sails, owned by Baron Otto von Bautenas, counselor of the Lithuanian Republic and wealthy financer. On board are also Elsa Erikson, Bautenas' wife and the prima donna of the Royal Opera of Oslo, and the reclusive 'Swedish match king' the industrial Ivar Kreuger.
Bautenas is one of the richest men in the Baltic area, and with his shaved head and crude appearance he looks exactly like a barbarian kosak; yet he can be a quite refined gentleman. The yacht sails from Malmoe, Götesborg, Fredrikshald and Christiansund in direction of Stavanger. Every time the boat stops its occupants go for a little walk on the shore, except for Kreuger who remains on board at alll times to sent a large amount of messages through the radio. A strange man, thin and nervous, he has been a friend of Bautenas for years, who's obviously very fond of him and who tries to give him all he might need. The three other passengers dislike him. Yet sometimes the silent man joins the conversation and when he does, he appears to be a brilliant speaker, with new and intelligent ideas about European politics and the ways to keep the peace. When the yacht passes the Harbanger fjord, Bautenas, exceptionally accompanied by Kreuger, goes to visit the Rosmesholm cave. Legrand stays and seduces Elsa; while Nobody, feigning an attack of paludism, searches the boat for clues. He discovers a coin with in front a bearded figure surrounded by the hebraic Yod and Tschinn, and in the back more hebraic text. Legrand immediately recognizes a so-callled 'coin of Trajan', said to have been made shortly after the death of Christ, and a sign of recognition amongst early Christians. As this medal never left Kutepov, given to him by Paul Sedir, the founder of Christian group who uses this coin as the symbol of their community, they are certain the general has been kept prisoner on board of the yacht. They deduce that Bautenas is one of the 72 and their priority now is to make him talk, as Kutepov has probably died some time ago. It also becomes obvious to them that Bautenas means to subdue the powerful industrial Kreuger, who could counter the plans of 'The Greens' with his pacifist ideals.

Chapter 3. A duck hunt.

Nobody feigns a new attack of paludism and the Asgärd stops in Stockholm where he's brought to a hospital. It's a trick to get in touch with Vera Petrovna Vassiliev, a member of the White Russians and her crew, who have sworn to avenge Kutepov. Dressed as a nurse, she listens to Nobody telling them everything he knows about the Echinocactus Williamsii or Peyote. One of its effects besides the hallucinations is that all thoughts are expressed in a total confession. The British laboratories have long ago analysed peyote and have not only distilled mescaline and peyotline but lophophorin as well, the most potent truth-serum ever discovered. And Nobody carries a bottle with him.
Suddenly healed, Nobody insists to Bautenas to organize a duck hunt, which he gladfully does. Bautenas' Mercedes brings the party, with the exception of Kreuger who stays on board for business as usual, to the shores of Lake Moelar. One month after the abduction of Kutepov, Legrand and Nobody, together with Elsa and Baudenas are in the middle of wild territories. An owl calls three times, for Elsa a bad omen; for Nobody and Legrand a pre-arranged signal. Three little huts have been build for the hunters. Elsa let the three pick straws to decide whom she'd join - and of course she let Legrand win. While they're making love in his cabin, they hear Nobody and Bautenas shooting. Suddenly Elsa stands up: Bautenas' Winchester has stopped shooting for quite some time. Fearing her adultery to be discovered, she runs to his hut, only to discover he's gone. A search party gives no result.
Later on Elsa would end up marrying Kreuger. And in a Leningrad asylum, lead by the famous professor Pavlov, a madman wearing number 3008, who has obviously been tortured horribly, remains disfigured in his cell. In his blood remains have been found of lophophorin. Kutepov had been avenged.

Chapter 4. The man with the green gloves.

Dressed up as artist painters, Nobody and Legrand stay in Cavalière on the South coast of France. In their home they try to decipher the extensive transcript of Bautenas' confessions, actually more of a continuous flow of consciousness under influence of the drug they gave him. One passage mentions that 'The Green' recognize their brothers by showing a Theu-Threng, a buddhistic rosary used by lamas during the chanting, consisting of 110 bone slices.
This brings Legrand back to his youth, when he was sent undercover in the French Anthroposofic movement. For him, Rudolf Steiner had started the movement as a schism from the British-lead Theosophy first as a Pangerman reaction, uniting several small hermetic fractions in Germany against the Anglo-Saxon hegemony. Back then he infiltrated the movement and had climbed to the highest grade. He was a regular at the 'Villa Bleue' in Nice, where the highest figures of the occult movements, real initiates as Gurdjieff, ran into the most unreliable charlatans of the time. All were welcomed by the gullible countess who held spiritual meetings in her house.
One of those characters could have fitted in both categories: the so-called lama Dordji-Den who claimed to have been initiated in the monastery of Sera near Lhassa. They sympathised, and in exchange for rather useless information on French submersibles he had taught Legrand about the Tibetan attributes of a lama, from the trident Doung Khatan to the Khangling, a small trumpet made from human bone, to the robe (called Zen) and the way to wear it, to especially the Theu-Threng, made from exactly 108 slices of different human skulls used while chanting the mantra Um Mane Padme Hung ('Oh the juwel in the lotus'). Legrand is striken by the different amount used by 'the Green', which might have easily been overlooked; so they start to look for two rosaries they couild alter. A first attempt at Alexandra David-Neel's residence fails, when a friend of Legrand who just got back from Chorten-Nyama provides them with perfectly altered copies. Irma Staub gives them the last information they need.

In Berlin, a melting pot of occult groups, where almost everyone deals with astrologers, sorcerers and mages they try to meet an utmost secretive man who is only known by his monniker given by journalists: 'the man with the green gloves' who had became famous by his exact predictions. Dressed up as London bankers, they wait in a luxurious salon, surrounded by eastern antiques. When an asiatic butler asks for their cards, they depose the two Theu-Threngs in the silver plate. A few minutes later, the time necessary to count the bone slices, they're received by an authoritarian man wearing long green gloves, with a cruel emotionless look and who remains absolutely motionless. They hear him talk but don't see his lips move:

"So the City has finally come to terms as to where her real intrests lay and has send me her ambassadors? Please tell me what you desire".

In a few words they make clear that the City, the general term for England's highest finance, want to negotiate a cooperation. Suddenly the man's lips move and he says:

"Tomorrow at 6 o'clock you'll meet the man with the two Z's!"

PS.
I found no trace online of those 'coins of Trajan'. Neither of the "A.: the S.: lodge", only that Mickiewicz, Towianski's successor was a member of both Martinist lodges the Philomaths and the Philaretes. And as far as I know never wrote a sequel called "The man with the two Z's", but a Jean Robin wrote "Hitler: l'élu du dragon" which strangely seems to start where this story ends, mentioning Irma Staub, Rathenau and the 72 hidden leaders of the world.
After finishing the above summary, I found an excellent analysis of the novel in New Dawn Magazine: Behold the Green Dragon

"The identification of the Green Dragon as a fundamentally mystical order most evidently appears in Trevor Ravenscroft’s 1973 The Spear of Destiny. It is not insignificant that Ravenscroft was a follower of Anthroposophy and its founder Rudolf Steiner, and his book is a distinctly Anthroposophist take on the nefarious occult forces behind Hitler and his Nazi Regime. Ravenscroft firmly connects the Green Dragon to German geo-politician and mystic Karl Haushofer, one of Hitler’s presumed spiritual mentors."
"The major problem with all this is that Ravenscroft’s sources are hazy or non-existent. He likely took a cue from the 1960 work of Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, The Morning of the Magicians."
"In his 1989 The Unknown Hitler, Wulf Schwarzwaller claims that Haushofer was a master of various Eastern mystical traditions and “had familiarised himself with the Zen teachings of the Japanese Society of the Green Dragon."
"All in all, the Green Dragon sounds like another version of the infamous Illuminati who haunt so many conspiracy theories."

ALAN MOORE READS FROM "MASKS OF THE ILLUMINATI"

2011-01-02T07:52:00.000Z

This seems to me the kind of thing that there should be more of a fuss kicked up about...

A pataphysical conspiracy

2010-12-31T15:52:00.012Z

Many tracks have been sought to discover the secret of Rennes-le-Chateau. Some seem plausible, but many oddball ideas have been uttered. One of the strangest in my opinion links the Priory of Sion to… a pataphysical conspiracy! Or the opposite (which from a 'pataphysical POV is the same).

The Société Périllos, editors of some hermetic books, published one page on their website proposing an interesting story, where 19th century symbolism is mixed up with fin-de-siècle occultism, and absurdity is elevated to a level Alfred Jarry would have appreciated.

First, a little history.

Alfred Jarry became famous by writing the father Ubu trilogy, considered the first absurdist theatre plays. He also wrote "Gestes et Opinions du Docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien" (Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, pataphysician) in 1898, published posthumously in 1911.
In this book, he inserted his main ideas on the Science of imaginary solutions in a strange symbolist tale where Doctor Faustroll navigates through land, accompanied by 27 'Livres Pairs' (equivalent books), his ape-servant Bosse-de-Nage, who could only express himself with the words "Ha ha" (probably meant as a pun to insult Jarry's Belgian friend Christian Beck who used this as a meaningless expletive) and a bailiff named Panmuphle. They travel from island to island, each one populated by a writer contemporary of Jarry and his microcosmos. In the end Faustroll goes on a little killing spree after having seen a horse's head, the surface of god is calculated and Faustroll himself appears to be the book in which his adventures are told. All of it extremely bizarre to most people, and written in an impeccable erudite French influenced by François Rabelais, French philosophy and scientific odd facts.

Jarry was much admired by dadaists and surrealists (Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Juan Miro amongst others) and his ideas started to proliferate amongst the happy few, creating an environment where they were bound to give birth to some sort of club. In 1948 the Collège de 'Pataphysique was founded by one man (if I told you his name I'd have to kill you). From the start and totally in the spirit of Jarry, he clouded the creation of the college in mystification. Officially the founder is a Doctor Sandomir, who became the first Vice-Curator (the ethernal Curator being Doctor Faustroll, assisted by his Starost Bosse-de-Nage), about whom only one portret is known. He was assisted by Mélanie Le Plumet (a cat), Oktav Votka and Jean-Hugues Sainmont, all avatars of the same person (I didn't tell you this).

From the beginning writers and artists who were part of the French intelligentsia joined in, and what was at first meant as a one-man mystification shifted from imaginary towards reality. The movement slowly invaded other countries, giving birth to offsprings of the College, some of them detailed on my blog.
Since 1948, the College published regularly a magazine (only available to members) under the leadership of three other Vice-Curators elected by an unique elector (who was chosen by all members - a system not unlike the complex elections of the Doge of Venice): Baron Mollet (who used to be Guillaume Apollinaire's secretary), Opach (who was very real but about whom very little is known) and the present leader, Lutembi (a large crocodile in Uganda who might have died in 2007), while the secret founder kept hiding under different personalities (Sainmont ending up in a lunatic asylum after being thrown out of the College). Opach decided to occultate of the College from 1975 to 2000, effectively making a secret of all nominations in the complex ranking system. Meanwhile the publications went on, even more surrounded by a halo of secrecy, and more and more groups worldwide joined the movement.
All of this created a rather elitaristic atmosphere, and to people attracted to conspiracy theories the College might look like a very secret society indeed.

In Wallony, Belgium, Richard Tialans (1943-1995), an erudite librarian, painter, photographer and theater-maker, member of the College, created in 1969 the "Centre d'Orientation et d'Information Théâtrale" (COIT), a theatrical society, and started for his own pleasure to publish an irregular journal called the "AA Revue", a name obviously borrowed from Bosse-de-Nage. He claimed in 1991 to be read by 10 people and to have only one paid subscription. I still have a friendly letter from him refusing (damned) to add me to his list. A second paid subscription (from the New York Library) was simply refused! Many members of the College wrote quite bizarre bits for the Revue, which helped to make it a much sought after mythical underground publication. I still haven't managed to find one!

Now for the conspiracy interpretation.

It seems Belgian nobleman Philippe de Chérisey was linked to the Priory of Sion by French conspiracist Jean-Luc Chaumeil. The writer of the Société Périllos, André Douzet, claims to have been approached by people with a new document concerning rather personal writings by de Cherisey.
And this was none other than AA Revue # 123, which next to a French translation of Immermann's Baron Munchhausen, published three texts for in total 25 pages by the same Philippe de Cherisey: "Catalog of common circumflexes", "Circumflexes of names" and "Circumflex and Umlaut".

Because of the secrecy of the publication, Douzet even issued doubts whether there had been other issues. The date, from the pataphysical calender, "Absolu 107", was seen as another hermetic sign. (1)
Douzet adds 123 to 107 and wonders what 230 means. The word 'vulgar' next to actual date is interpreted correctly as "meaning that they are using the ordinary calendar system as compared to a more sacred calendar, like that of some organisation or society", and through the use of another calendar "the reader may think that this publication is created by 'initiates'”, but the author goes on to refer to the Masonic calendar. Then there's the title of the publication. Douzet wonders whether this is the secret review of the enigmatic AA. And the editor goes by the strange name of 'Richard Tialans', for Douzet obviously a pseudonym! And as out of three texts, three are by de Cherisey, Douzet extrapolates this is all a mystification… but one to cover the real editor, de Cherissey and his secret agenda. de Cherissey might have published this review as part of a disinformation scheme, in the same vein as Dan Brown's books.
Douzet then elaborates on his doubts on the amount of publications as no one within the 'esoteric France' community ever heard of it. "This document appears to be almost totally unknown and unstudied". (2)

(1)The Collège issued several versions of the calendar, all based on the first one proposed by Jarry in his two almanachs of 1897 and 1901. Erroneously Douzet mixes up the first calendar by Jarry, which used the Christian year, and the later editions developped by the College, where the 'Pataphysical Era start on September, 8, 1873, the birthdate of Jarry. What remains is that the Pataphysical calendar used thirteen months, twelve lasting 28 and one lasting 29 days. They are: Absolu, Haha, As, Sable, Décervelage, Gueules, Pédale, Clinamen, Palotin, Merdre, Gidouille (29 days), Tatane, Phalle. Later on the College changed the names of the saints and holidays.
(2) And for obvious reasons… I recieved a list from Tialans with the aformentioned letter and can assure he did publish more than 200 issues from 1969 to 1991. Most used the Christian date, but N° 78 to 126 used the 'pataphysical calendar.

Four covers found online, #109-110, 123, 166 and 202-203.

Then the inquiry takes a leap forward: Douzet discovers the 'Pataphysical calendar was developped by Alfred Jarry. The apostrophe in front of the P is another mystery to him. But the concept of 'Pataphysics in relation to metaphysics as metaphysics is in relation to physics, confirms the belief that it deals with a realm beyond soul and spirit. And the author utters the very pataphysical (inconscious, hence without apostrophe) "Ubu is in their interpretation both God and the Devil. And it is hence obvious that this discipline is at the same time both utterly serious, and totally laughable – absolutely absurd and philosophically essential."
And then he totally looses his marbles. "And what are we to make of the fact that Alfred Jarry provides his “father Ubu” with a mistress, and gives her the name Madeleine – Magdalene? Does it not sound similar to that old Cathar ideology, in which they too believed that there was an “other god”, to use the words of Yuri Stoyanov, whom was deemed to be female, and which in the region of the Languedoc, by the local Cathars, was apparently identified with Magdalene (…)". And he goes on, comparing the riddles in the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery with the grotesque plays featuring père Ubu.

Now the order of AA, not to be confused with uncle Al's A:.A (or is it?) was supposedly a hermetic order in 17th and 18th century France and consisted exclusively of priests.
One of the two main sources about the AA is a book published in 1775, 'L'AA Cléricale', published by 'Mysteriopolis'.
The other source is count Henri Bégouen's, "L'AA de Toulouse aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siecles, d'après des documents inédits" (1913), a recent reprint of which I bought last month. Bégouen was a French archeologist, and this is his only work outside of his field.

The AA is linked to the "Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement" (Company of the blessed sacrament"), a French catholic secret society, self-proclaimed charitable society, and a militant association for the defence of the Church founded in 1630 and abolished by Louis XIV in 1660.
The AA might have existed prior to the dissolution of the Compagnie, but it took over some of its goals in an even more secretive way. The name AA is unclear. Maybe it comes from the alchemy, where AaA means 'amalgamate'. Others think it's shorthand for Associatio Amicorum. Or it might mean 'Amis', the plural of friend just as 'MM' in French means 'messieurs', plural of sir and 'CC' means the plural of consul. Bégouen discovered 29 cities in France where a secret AA society regularly convened. The mystery of the AA was such that it might appear as a hoax, and its central 'secret' goal remains unknown. It has been compared to an intelligence agency.
From RH-forum:

"There is mention of a password, how to envisage the self-destruction of the cell, to destroy all traces of its existence, to pass from action to silence if there is the slightest doubt. You can wonder whether terrorist organizations practice such a level of secrecy. This type of moral convention is of such an inconceivable rigor that the only framework in which this document could come about is that of a fanatical sect… or of a movement that was elected to safeguard a frightening secret."
“At the same time, behind this congregation or visible company, there was another occult one. It was the true AA, whose existence was a mystery and the name of the members an even greater mystery still. There were several political characters among them. The meetings were secret and certain members, in particular Prince de Polignac, only went to them in disguise. For on being allowed into this association, it was necessary to swear to absolute secrecy, to promise a blind obedience with passwords which no-one else knew.”
"The AA is the best candidate for the framework in which Saunière and his closest allies operated; membership of the AA could explain the extreme level of secrecy that Saunière adhered to – at the same time being instructed on how to maintain that secrecy so that his “double life” would never be known."

From Philip Coppens' website

"The reference is so enigmatic that you might suspect you had become a character in a detective novel! The “with permission” reference is just one in a long series of incredible details. Is it a hoax? A joke? Have these documents been falsified, as has been the case in some instances in the mystery of Rennes-le-Château? "

At the end of his article on the aforementioned Perillos website, Douzet thinks he found the link: as de Cherissey became involved with the story of abbé Saunière, who might have been part of the AA, it's only fitting that he should write in a publication called AArevue; and as such, for Douzet, both the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau and the College of Pataphysics are both smokescreens, part of a larger secret: the AA society. Or how a mystification can become a conspiracy in the mind of the gullible.

Only if you want to...

2010-12-16T17:32:00.003Z

A lot of our readers may well fall into the 'starvin' artist' category, so we just wish you a cool season, but for anyone with spare gift money, looking for a good cause...The Bucky Fuller Institute (a non-profit) need to reach $25000 by the end of the year to stay solvent, and have so far got $14,500.

If you do like the idea of supporting a worthwhile group of researchers, then maybe consider this...worth a visit, anyway, to see what they get up to...

Bucky Fuller fund-raiser

Mavericks of the Mind (Second Edition)

2010-12-10T12:21:00.000Z

(Please post and redistribute. :) ~DJB)

Dear Friends,

I am happy to announce the launching of the second edition of my book,
Mavericks of the Mind, which was just recently published by the
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

Just in time for the Holy Daze!

Loaded with new material--a new introduction, additional interviews, as
well as new photos and artwork--the second edition of Mavericks of the
Mind also includes the transcripts from the events that brought together
interviewees from the book to debate philosophical topics in roundtable
discussions. This stimulating collection features in-depth conversations
that Rebecca Novick and I did with accomplished thinkers, such as
Terence McKenna, Laura Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, John
Lilly, Carolyn Mary Kleefeld, Rupert Sheldrake, Riane Eisler, and Robert
Anton Wilson.

The interviews explore such fascinating topics as the frontiers of
consciousness exploration, how psychedelics effect creativity, the
relationship between science and spirituality, lucid dreaming, quantum
physics, morphic field theory, interspecies communication, chaos theory,
and time travel.

Copies of the book are available on Amazon for $22.95. To order a copy
today go to: http://alturl.com/idhbw

Wishing you a most joyous holiday season. May 2011 bring you many
unexpected delights.

Warm Greetings,

David Jay Brown

Reviews:

"When it was first published, Mavericks of the Mind was more than a
breath of fresh air -- it was a hurricane of ideas and visions perfectly
tuned to the time. This 21st century expansion pack will ensure that
these maverick spirits--many of whom have now passed on-- will continue
to channel the mindscape beyond the bend." --Erik Davis

"This is a fine collection of original thinkers, an important national
resource. Everyone who wants to stay current with information from the
outer perimeters of consciousness exploration should read it." --Jerry
Garcia of the Grateful Dead

"Depending on how one chooses to view it, this aptly named book is
either a potpourri of strange and wonderful ideas or a collection of
far-fetched suppositions. ...there will certainly be readers interested
in this volume's unique subject matter." --Library Journal

"This is a fine collection of original thinkers, an important national resource. Everyone who wants to stay current with information from the outer perimeters of consciousness exploration should read it." --Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead

Spatial Thinking

2010-12-09T19:48:00.007Z

Bucky time seems to have arrived (no doubt he predicted about how long it would take for his ideas to reach their moment - he always appeared aware of how long it would take for new ideas to become obvious, depending on the field of study).

He seems to have used visualisation as a way to approach the world, and whether you think it stimulates holistic thinking (whole-istic?), or the right brain (or the cerebellum as Stan Gooch controversially suspected) these meditational devices may feel to you as inspirational or soothing, fascinating or simply beautiful.

This one appears on Grunch.net here

By Chardhawk (or can we assume that means by Richard Hawkins & Kirby Urner?)

Anyway, Synergetics on the Web (definitely attributed to Kirby Urner) might intrigue you for a while...

"The brilliant manner in which Fuller fused the development of a revolutionary structural system, the geodesic dome, out of a combination of many hundreds of paper and cardboard geometrical models that were ostensibly intended to be analogical aids for a system of thought, deserves careful consideration. Perhaps the best explanation of it is offered by his 1989 biographer Lloyd Steven Sieden.

'Thinking is sorting experiences’, writes Sieden at the beginning of his exposition of Fuller’s approach, ‘Separating the huge set of experiences that are irrelevant from the very small set of experiences that are relevant’. But irrelevant material itself falls into two categories, and Fuller believed that imagining thought as a transparent sphere helped him to see a way of distinguishing between them. He visualized a situation in which all irrelevant experiences that were too small and too frequently occurring were inside the imaginary sphere, and all those that were too large and too infrequently occurring could be regarded as outside it.

The way Fuller imaged the thinking process, the surface of the imaginary sphere itself would then only consist of relevant experiences, or thoughts. He then wondered how many relevant experiences it would take to establish the ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ necessary to create a sphere of thoughts. His answer was that while any two experiences could be joined by a line, it too three to fix their relationship – a concept perhaps not dissimilar to the journalistic principle that it takes three events to make a trend. This point Fuller diagramatized by drawing a triangle. But to establish a sphere containing ‘insideness’ and outsideness’ something robust enough to be called a thought, was impossible using flat triangles on paper, because the triangle had no integral space-enclosing depth. Three-dimensional structure, in thought as in geometry, could only be achieved by plotting in a fourth experience. The resulting three-dimensional model, a three-sided pyramid, or tetrahedron, Fuller came to believe, was the true geometrical model of a thought. It consisted of four points, or experiences, which in turn generated six sides, or relationships."

from p122 of Martin Pawley’s little book on Bucky

Hey, feeling child-like? Try this Bucky4kids site - why not?

you'll find all sorts of fans out there...this website hasn't updated since 2006, but might prove worth a visit...

"The whole world has to be turned into music or into a Fuller university." John Cage

The imaginary is something that tends to become true

2010-12-07T12:03:00.002Z

The man who started the ball rolling with one of the most popular memes of the conspiracy sub-cultures wrote one final book.

Gérard de Sède "Rennes-le-Château: the dossier, the impostures, the fantasies, the hypotheses” (tr. Roger Kersey)
If anyone wants to read a summing up of this widely covered field, I would recommend this book. The first edition was 1988, but we now have an English translation available.

His original book, “Le trésoir maudit de Rennes-le-Château” (translated as "The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Château") published in 1967, fell right into the meme-field then current (Morning of the Magicians, Erich von Daniken, etc), but although it had the air of journalism, it seems a good idea to bear in mind that de Sède had belonged to a Surrealist group called La Main à Plume back in the 1940s.

The Dossier section reiterates the various strands of the story.

Section Two covers the impostures and fantasies, referring to the activities of M. Pierre Plantard, Henri Lobineau, the Merovingian tale, the affair of the Red Serpent, all the way to “The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail” (Baigent, Leigh, Lincoln), "Genisis" (David Woods’ thick felt tip lines drawn on small scale maps to produce patterns) and The Temple of The Stars. He seems fair in his assessments, and writes amusingly.

The third Section covers some more reasonable hypotheses to explain the odd events surrounding Abbé Bérenger: the selling of Masses, treasure, forged documents, etc., but he settles for a version which implicates occult groups of the turn of the century, Rosy-Cross and Freemasonic, as well as fairly sinister sounding groups inside the Catholic Church, like the Sodalitium Pianum (no-one expects the SP!). And what do we know of George Monti (the ‘serial esoteric society joiner’) and his links to (infiltration of?) the OTO and other groups.
All very intriguing.

"The imaginary is something that tends to become true." André Breton

Neil Gaiman's The Price animated

2010-11-21T14:12:00.003Z

I just saw this on Neil Gaiman's blog and it sounds like a really cool project. A guy called Christopher Salmon wants to animate the short story The Price from Gaiman's book of short stories Smoke and Mirrors. He's got 9 days left to raise just over another $75,000. Here's his site with a preview of what it would look like narrated by Gaiman.

And if you want to listen to the story its available to stream here for free.

The minimum pledge is $10 and you will only be asked for that contribution if he reaches his target and as you can see on the website there are different levels of incentive too.

Hip-Hop and Shamanism course postponed

2010-11-16T11:16:00.005Z

You may have noticed in the sidebar the announcement that PropAnon's Hip Hop course will start a little later than advertised.

The new start date looks like the first Monday in December (6th) but we will try to keep you up with the news.

Or (why not?) go and register at the MLA forum...

Meanwhile, Bobby's RAW Media course has moved onto blogging, so you may see some fresh input here from students this week!

RAW EPIPHANY

2010-11-16T05:19:00.000Z

Looking back now this just seems like a rather ordinary observation, but at the time it felt like an epistemological/ontological breakthrough!

Dodgem Logic Issue 6 out now!

2010-10-26T12:48:00.003+01:00

Latest Issue: Issue #6
Features: Alan Moore, Iain Sinclair, Stewart Lee, Dick Foreman, Robin Ince, Kevin O'Neill, Melinda Gebbie, Steve Aylett, Barney Farmer & Lee Healey.
Cover/Feature photos by Hoax

Dodgem Logic website

Dr Marshmallow's 33rd Birthday

2010-10-22T19:54:00.000+01:00

Our own flyagaric23 on drums...

Leaking into popular culture

2010-10-01T15:31:00.006+01:00

An Afternoon Play on BBC Radio this week:

The Conspiracy of the Illuminati

By Nigel Baldwin.

A historical mystery set in Arras in the lead up to the French Revolution, exploring the influence of the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati.

[Monday 4th October update]
Unfortunately, the 'listen again' period for online audiences has now ended - will stay alert for a repeat.

It's not too late...

2010-09-23T10:47:00.006+01:00

We had an announcement that the start of Fly's course has been postponed until the 27th Sept, so you didn't miss anything.

Access to enrollment in all the MLA courses - follow this link.

Note: It appears that you do have to create an MLA account first (if you don't already have one) by going to the forum.

MLA 2010 Fall Course Schedule

Enochian/Vision Magick • Lon Milo DuQuette • September 6 • $140

Program Or Be Programmed • Douglas Rushkoff • October 11 • $150

Secret History of the Church of the SubGenius • Rev. Ivan Stang • October 25 • $120

Magical Experiments • Philip H Farber • November 8 • $130

MLA 2010 Fall Alumni Seminars

Fall 2010 Alumni Series (all 3 courses) • All 3 courses • Fall 2010 • $100

Email To The Tribe • Fly Agaric 23 • September 27 • $pay-what-you-can - recommended price: $50

Hip-Hop & Shamanism • Prop Anon • October 17 • $50

Global Village • Bobby Campbell • November 5 • $pay-what-you-can - recommended price: $50

Scholar Access: Five MLA Courses • $500

email to the tribe and the tale of the tribe

2010-09-11T04:23:00.002+01:00

Hi,
Together with propaganda anonymous and Bobby Campbell, I'm honored to have been asked to craft a course in collaboration with the Maybe Logic Academy. The three new courses will run throughout this fall, enrollment and details can be found here.

My class is titled email to the tribe and begins September 20th' through to November 5th, on which date Bobby's class 'The Global Village' begins. Props class 'the god has found me' starts October 17th.

Please join with us as we open up the creative processes' and share our ideas, on the fly, and with luck produce some new tools, lets build!--steve fly.

email to the tribe
Homogrammic Prose

The tale of the tribe approximates a tale of humanity, or 'tales', a new global epic that must capture illuminating details from humanity and juxtapose them in a special way using special language (Hologrammic prose, the Hermetic style, Ideogrammic method, Joyce's 'epiphany' etc.) Dr. Robert Anton Wilson crafted his tale of the tribe to suit, among other definitions; the architects of post-modem' cyber-culture, reaching back to the renaissance and pulling up-tense to our decentralized--hyper connected--future present.

During a six week period, I-fly will share his open interpretations of the tale of the tribe, performing an on-line multimedia vortex of signals, dialed into James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Giordano Bruno, Marshall Mcluhan, 'Bucky'Fuller, and RAW himself.

email to the tribe will reprocess communications from across time, and produce new maps, new metaphors, and mold new memes that help forward the tale of the tribe and the RAW wisdom oozing out from all quarters.

Each week fly will provide a spread of multimedia for you to process, generally keeping in step with the program, encouraging a wide variety of conversation and focused feedback. Feel free to drop in and drop out, as you like.

EMAIL TO THE TRIBE: WEEKLY PRESCRIPTION.

WEEK ONE - WHEELS AND CYCLES (Sep 20-26)
The wheels of the tribe go around and around.
WEEKLY DOSE: Decentralized and Rotational Map Warfare.

WEEK TWO - GENERAL EPIPHANY (Sep 27-3rd October)
Hologrammic Prose and meaningful common speech
WEEKLY DOSE: RAW-FLY interviews. (Oct 4-10)

WEEK THREE - IDEOGRAMMIC FULLERENE (Oct 11-17)
The synergy of history
WEEKLY DOSE: Vicosahedron and Canto LXVI. Open Source History.

WEEK FOUR - GLOBAL FEEDBACK (Oct 18-24
If its not connected its useless
WEEKLY DOSE: Shannanigums Wave & Future Present.

WEEK FIVE - CINEMA OF UNITY (Oct 25-31)
Moving pictures to TV/Internet
WEEKLY DOSE: Maybe Logic & RAW Multimedia.

WEEK SIX - THE TALE OF THE CYBERNET (Nov 1-5)
My-wiki-face-twitter
WEEKLY DOSE: Work of the tribe. email to the tribe.

COURSE TEXTS: Recorsi by Robert Anton Wilson.

• $Pay-What-You-Can$ - Enroll Now •
[$50 recommended minimum price]

The Tale of the Tube' & The Tale of the Tribe

The Global Village - A RAW Media Workshop

2010-08-31T05:28:00.001+01:00

I'll be teaching a course over at the Maybe Logic Academy this fall...

An 8 week adventure in understanding media via theory & practice. This flabbergasting journey through the information age will explore & experiment w/ the state of the art in communication, culture, and commerce. If you want the eschaton immanentized right you have to D.I.Y.!

Class begins on November 5th and runs until the end of the year. I'm going w/ a pay whatever you can set up. So you can basically pitch a quarter at me and holler "Dance monkey! DANCE!"

Here's the current course outline, which gives you a general idea of what you're in for.

WEEK ONE - INFORMATION EXPLOSION
PRESENTATION: Jumping Jesus On A Pogo Stick
WORKSHOP: Tools of the Tribe -
(FTP, HTML, & Bit-torrent)

WEEK TWO - SPACESHIP EARTH
PRESENTATION: Here Comes Everybody
WORKSHOP: The Social Medium Is The Message -
(Weblogs, Wikis, & Feed Aggregation)

WEEK THREE - OPEN SOURCE CULTURE
PRESENTATION: The No "Mind"
WORKSHOP: Dada Is Not Dead -
(Cut Ups, Collage, & The Public Domain)

WEEK FOUR - REALITY LABYRINTHS
PRESENTATION: Who Is The Great Magician That Makes The Grass Green?
WORKSHOP: Ineluctable Modality of the Visual -
(Images, Comix, & Animations)

WEEK FIVE - PROMETHEAN OVERTURES
PRESENTATION: The World Turned Upside Down
WORKSHOP: Radio Free Arcadia -
(Digital Audio, Podcasts, & Live Streams)

WEEK SIX - GLOBAL THEATER
PRESENTATION: Reality Is What You Can Get Away With
WORKSHOP: Movie Magick -
(Digital Video, Vidcasts, & Live Streams)

WEEK SEVEN - GUERRILLA ONTOLOGY
PRESENTATION: Dream@wake!
WORKSHOP: Operation Mindfuck -
(Trends, Memes, & Viral Media)

WEEK EIGHT - FIRING THE COSMIC TRIGGER
PRESENTATION: The Great Work Accomplished
WORKSHOP: D.I.Y. -
(Self Publishing for Fun & Profit)

"Nothing of any importance can be taught. It can only be learned, and with blood and sweat."
The lives and ideas of Robert Anton Wilson will be providing the backdrop to what is basically a modern media training montage.

Anything I can do, you can do, hopefully even better, and I can do anything, everything, whatever!

ENROLL HERE!

Fly & Prop Anon are also teaching classes this fall, along w/ the esteemed MLA veterans, check out the full MLA course details here!

The Holy Bible, in E-Prime

2010-08-16T00:17:00.000+01:00

I stumbled upon this today and thought readers of this blog might find it of interest-

Dr. David F. Maas began composing the New American Standard Bible in E-Prime in February 2009 and published the version below on the Institute of General Semantics website in July 2010.

I still consider E-Prime the Swiss Army Knife in my toolkit. Wonder what might happen if I could get an E-Primed bible in the hands of every Christian in amurika...?

imagine a world where maybelogic and e-prime becom the norm

imagine a world with the pope saying "maybe an ordained priest can turn
a piece of bread into the body of a dead Jew but the priest needs a Willy
for the magick to work"

imagine Jerry Falwell bellowing "maybe Jesus hates gay people as
mch as i do"

imagine a rabbi chanting "Hear O Israel:the Lord God seems one, maybe"

imagine every tower in Islam resounding with "There
'is' no god except maybe Allah and maybe Mohammed 'is'
his prophet"

The world might go stark staring sane?

- Robert Anton Wilson, Quantum Psychology Course, Maybe Logic Academy, 13 January 2005

UNIVERSE CONTAIN'S A MAYBE. RAWdio at the Prophets Con. 2000.

2010-08-09T17:42:00.000+01:00

ROBERT ANTON WILSON:
UNIVERSE CONTAIN'S A MAYBE

December 16, 2000, Palm Springs, CA.
Speaking at the Prophets Conference ~ Palm Springs (number 8) held at the Marquis Resort Conference Center.

Recorded by Steve Fly using a portable minidisc recorder. Special thanks to Robert Anton Wilson for encouraging me to record and inviting me to his room afterwards for an exclusive recording and some tasty clandestine reefers.

For more details on this recording please visit my extended linear notes in progress at http://ataleofatribe.blogspot.com/

Universe Contains a maybe monday by rawmemorial

Universe Contains a maybe tuesday by rawmemorial

Universe Contains a maybe wednesday by rawmemorial

Universe Contains a maybe thursday by rawmemorial

Universe Contains a maybe friday by rawmemorial

Universe Contains a maybe saturday by rawmemorial

Universe Contains a maybe sunday by rawmemorial

MLA Meet-Up No. 6 - Oxford, England

2010-08-04T13:57:00.005+01:00

Pungenday, Confusion 62 - Year Of Our lady Of Discord 3176

Some (but not all) of the European members of the Maybe Logic Academy have been meeting up around the 'dog days' in summertime, for the past six years. The date was set to the 23rd of July because that was the day in 1973 that Robert Anton Wilson had a strange experience and thought he was receiving communication from an intelligence in the Sirius ("The Dog Star") system. He remained agnostic, as always, and later chalked it up to his right brain communicating with his left brain.

Past meet-ups were held in Milton Keynes, Berlin, Bruges, Amsterdam & Dublin. Berlin was an early candidate for the 2010 meet-up. I had been invited to the past few, but couldn't attend, due to not enough 'coin of the realm' in my account. Someone (Fuzzbuddy?) mentioned another UK location, which I was jazzed about, because for one: my passport had expired and I hadn't got round to having it renewed..and two: less kish-kash to spend on travel. The decision to hold number 6 in Oxford totally clinched it for me...I would finally be able to hang out with critters that I had communicated with on-line.

Here's how it went down - from my reality-tunnel..

Day One (Thursday, 22nd July) - Chris M. and Bogus Magus are due in at the train station at 1:15 p.m. I grab a bus to the city centre. When the bus just about reaches town, the sky opens and a downpour drenches the streets. It doesn't last long and soon the sun clears the clouds. I meet Fuzzbuddy at the station and soon Chris and Bogus join us. First stop is the backpacker's hostel where most of the crew will be staying. Chris had booked a room in a hotel down the road and he left to stow his gear there. Once the four of us are ready to hit the streets, it's nearly time for Tons, Borsky and Non-Prophet to arrive in town. They have ridden in via The Oxford Tube and are let off on the High Street. After introductions and greetings--it was back to the hostel. Bogus brought a stash of books for anyone to take. I chose a cool collection of Terry Southern's writings, called Now Dig This! . Fuzz brought copies of the 23 film (the cool German one, in which RAW has a cameo appearance - not the shit Jim Carrey 'thriller'), a DVD of lectures on James Joyce's Ulysses and a CD chock full of RAW audio, for everyone. Borsky also handed out a DVD-R with literally one hundred books on metaphysical, occult and esoteric matters--plus, official meet-up T-shirts. What treats!! I was stunned at their generosity! After a time, it's decided that food and drink are in order. Fly Agaric 23 and Diclonius still haven't arrived, but we all reckon they'll contact us when they do. The rest of us troop down to Broad Street, then on to the famous Turf Tavern. One of the beers on tap is Stonehenge Ale's Eye Opener, whose logo looks very familiar. I had to have a pint, natch! I bought one for Bogus, too. Turns out that the barrel emptied right after ours were poured--cheers to the Pookah for that! Much great conversation followed---on into the early evening. We then had a little reconnoiter around the area--before heading back to the 'Turf. Fly and Diclonius had arrived at this point and met us down there. More pints were downed, then it was almost closing time. Those who had gone without dinner grabbed some...er....food, at a roadside kebab van. I did as well, though I did come to regret that late-night cheeseburger the next morning. I bid my fellow MLA-ers adieu, as they were heading back to the hostel and I was catching the late bus home.

Day Two (Friday, 23rd July) - The time for me to meet the rest was given as 10:30 a.m., so I did my best to be up and ready. Owing to the somewhat late night - I was nearly late...but I managed to get to the others by the appointed time. Our first destination is the Pitt-Rivers Museum, full of interesting anthropological artifacts and even some dinosaur skeletons. N.P. and I were fascinated by the collection of weaponry, remarking on Bucky Fuller's aphorism, "developing ways to cover vaster and vaster distance and kill larger and larger amounts of people"..I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea. Once we left the Pitt-Rivers, it was getting close to the luncheon hour. It was back to the 'Turf, but to our collective chagrin--the pub was full-up, this being optimum tourist season and all. We all squeezed into one of the side chambers of the King's Arms and enjoyed a half-decent lunch, for the money we paid. Oxford can be over-priced and is not immune from a bit of the ol' 'fleece-the-tourists' action. The plan was to head to the Bodleian Library and try and have a look at some of the old manuscripts and books. Not having been there before, I wasn't sure if one were allowed to just walk in. We found out that you need to take a tour, which costs about £3.50. After milling around the lobby for a bit, the B.L. idea was scrapped, in favour of punting. As there were nine of us, or eight at that point, we had to hire two punts. Diclonius, Tons, Fly and I were in one..and Fuzz, Borsky, Chris and Bogus the other. I found punting not as easy as it looks, but I suppose you can pick up the technique after a while. We all had turns in piloting the punt - Tons and Fly were especially good. Along the canal, a scene from the German version of Miss Marple was being filmed--so the camera crew kept stopping punts for a time, then letting them continue on. A joke started about a film-bloke, who had a walkie-talkie and an earpiece, saying "4 to 5 minutes..." to everyone, then remarking about how "some fruity chap has just fallen in the water." We all headed back to the hostel for a chill-out on the open terrace, with more discussion and Diclonius's amusing LSD-party anecdote. Once again, dinner plans were brought up and everyone wanted to stay close to the hostel. We decided to eat at Al Salam, a Lebanese restaurant just down the street. I quite enjoyed the meal and the waitcritter even obliged in taking a group photo of us. Once we finished eating - I thought it a good time to break for the night, so off I went to the bus stop. I heard that Fly, Borsky and Fuzz adjourned to a club, to sip a little absinthe. I am sorry I missed that.

Day Three (Saturday, 24th July) - I stuck to the 10:30 meet-up time and round about 11 a.m., everyone seemed ready to go. Well, mostly everybody - Fly and Diclonius elected to catch us up a bit later. Today, the Botanical Gardens was deemed to be the initial port of call. Again, a fee was required - which put most of us off the idea - so we had a stroll around the Christ Church college grounds and watched the punts go by. The Ashmolean Museum was the next stop. N.P. had some urgent business and headed back to the hostel. The museum had been re-furbished in the past year, so there was plenty to see. We had a good investigation of the ancient Egypt section, as well as the Cretan and Greek displays. Since we didn't have too much time to explore, we headed up to the Chinese and Japanese sections. Borsky, Fuzz, Bogus and I had a look round the gift shop--but walked away with no treasures. A stop at a cafe was in order, caffeine for most of the crew and fruit juice for me. We ambled back to the hostel (after another round at the 'Turf, natch!) for another chill-out sesh...and then it was time for Bill Spectre's Oxford Ghost Trail. Bill himself seems an amiable bloke and he gets points from me for being a King Crimson fan (he noticed my T-shirt when we were purchasing our places on the trail). Bill has a great theatrical style and also makes use of props (a book that bursts into flame, a key that emits electrical sparks, etc.). He led us around various spots in Broad Street and the High Street, detailing strange and often macabre events that happened there. Once Bill's tour ended, I was starving. We couldn't all agree on one place to get food, so Chris and I decamped to the Cafe Coco Restaurant. I had a scrumptious mushroom pizza and Chris ordered a massive canole. We discussed various things and then it was back to the hostel, for an experimental virtual meeting via Skype. N.P. managed to get B. Kane on the video link, all the way from Norway. There were really funny moments, like B.'s game of "Book Bingo" and the misapprehension of a cigarette-holder that once belonged to Errol Flynn. A bit later, Bobby Campbell was on-line and though we couldn't have a split-screen convo with both of them, everyone could still hear each other. Bobby let us know that he's developing new artwork for re-prints of two Tim Leary books that have been long out-of-print. Huzzah! I can't wait to buy those! It was a remarkable ending to a brilliant day. Once the lap-tops were put away, we all trooped down to the street for some air...and I said "good night" to the crew and once again ambled on toward the bus stop. I was given a plague mask by Fuzzbuddy, as he had extras--and I was tempted to wear it back to the bus stop, but I feared it would have been wrecked by one of the drunken revelers spilling out of the pubs.

Day Four (Sunday, 25th July) - Feeling a bit washed-out from the previous three day's adventures, I made the journey into town. I arrived at the hostel as the rest of the crew were preparing to leave--lots of packing and tidying the room. We made our way to George Street, which is dotted with coffee bars and little eateries. We stopped at one, so everyone could get their caffeine fix and some breakfast. Borsky needed to get back to London fairly early, so after a few photos - he and Tons and N.P. headed for the bus station, with the rest of us in tow. Good-byes and well-wishes all around and then the three boarded the coach bound for The Big Smoke. Fly, Fuzz, Bogus and I walked down to Great Clarendon Street and found the Jude The Obscure pub. I hadn't been there in ages and I had forgotten how much I liked it. We had a couple of rounds. Fly mentioned he was going to see Inception at the cinema later in the afternoon. A bit of time passed and it was decided we should move on. I parted from the rest at around 3 p.m., as I had to buy a few gifts for the goodwyf. I finally arrived home at 4:30 p.m. and was quite exhausted.

Such a lovely time - I hope to be able to participate in next year's gathering. All Hail Eris! All Hail Pope Bob!

Cross-posted at Blog Is Not A Four-Letter Word.

MLA meeting 2010 in Oxford

2010-07-30T00:05:00.003+01:00

From the 22nd till the 25th of July 2010, 9 members of the Maybe Logic Academy met in Oxford.

Day one

I left Bruges at 5:58. After some waiting in Brussels, the Eurostar left packed with people (and gave me the impression these trains were build for pygmies or people without legs). Arrived in London St. Pancras at 9ish local time and walked further towards Holborn to meet up with Tons. From there we went to grab a bite near the British Museum, where Nonprophet joined us. The Atlantis bookshop was still closed, so NP took us to see the John Dee display in the British Museum. Apparently NP had a bit of an argument with mr. Dee in his previous incarnation as a professional deceiver. Counterfeiting letters, lawsuit and all that. No surprise then that mr. Dee tried to hide his treasures for us. To no avail: NP's detecting skills soon showed us one of the most ancient magickal artefacts: the mysterious obsidian scrying mirror used for divination by John Dee and his medium Edward Kelly. Actually obsidian looks a lot like bachelite. And that's what it was, an antecolumbian telephone with the Otherworld.

"John Dee’s mirror originated in Mexico and was brought to Europe between 1527 and 1530 during the time of the conquest of Mexico by Cortés. Mirrors of this type were used by Mexican priests for divination. Tezcatlipoca the Mexica god of rulers, warriors and sorcerers, was connected to this practice. The Aztec Tezcatlipoca figure can be found in former Mesoamerican cultures as divine beings worshipped by the Olmec and Maya. The name Tezcatlipoca translates to mean Smoking Mirror. Tezcatlipoca is depicted with a mirror either as his right foot or on his chest, the mirror is named Itlachiayauhque which translates as the place from which he watches."

From Scrying, catoptromancy & John Dee's mirror
As a sidenote, Edward Kelly was killed in 1595 while trying to escape from a prison in Prague. Which might be the place for the meeting next year…

After the museum we were warmly welcomed by Geraldine, the owner of the Atlantis bookshop, who had graced us with a memorable hermetic tour of London during the RAW Memeorial in 2007.

We left London and caught the Oxford coach at noon, and we arrived in Oxford High Street at about 1:45 PM, passing by Bogus, Chris, the Purple Gooroo and Fuzzbuddy on the sidewalk and just in time to catch the rain, probably a result of some dark ritual involving burning dolls by Chris.

We arrived at the hostel and were able to leave our bags and started to explore Oxford under the expert guidance of The Purple Gooroo. Who has been living in Oxford since six years.

Psychogeographical map of Oxford

View Oxford MLA meeting 2010 in a larger map

I started to grow a pinhead when we finally ended in the Turf tavern for a nice evening beer, a pub where we would end up daily sooner or later. And where we finally met up with Diclonius and Fly.

Together we went past Trinity College to visit the Pitt Rivers Museum, in front of which was a massive display of dead trees.

Inside the museum we were welcomed by some fabled creatures inside the Museum of National History.
From left to right: the bloodthirsty rabbit from the Aaaaaaargh cavern, the dodo which inspired Carrolls 'Through the looking glass' and one of our demonic ancestors, the Beelzebuth monkey.

One of my favourite displays in the Pitt concerned Netsuke, an ancient Japanese miniature artform. The result seemed often surreal, even of a Lovecraftian intensity.

After a walk through a scenery reminiscent of Venice, we ended up taking the secret passageway to the Turf Tavern. The talks went on and kept on in the hostel until one by one we finally got to sleep. To sleep, perchance to snore.

Day Two

After being reminded by Chris that we'd never manage to take over the world, getting up at about Elevenish and after having lunch we went to visit the Bodleian library. Somehow in metaphysical limbo we seemed to have lost Nonprophet, while actually it was HP who had lost us, and had returned safely to the hostel.

And then they were eight. We had no idea the Agatha Christie reference would turn up to be predominant that day, and we decided to go punting at the Magdalen Bridge.
Two teams tried to move forward. I must admit my catastrophic punting got us left behind by Tons, Diclonius, Fly and The Purple Gooroo, so Chris had to save the day.
Turning a curb and seeing the others moving on, we were suddenly stopped by a guy with a microphone who claimed they were filming a German Miss Marple , and so we had to wait for about 5 minutes. 5 minutes later he repeated the same thing to boats that followed us, and so 5 minutes ended up becoming 30. He did change his story however, ending up telling the last of the row that a fruity person had jumped in the water. We never knew whether this last claim was true, but were able to get past the curb at last and returned to our starting point.
We might have known from our rather dodgy pedalo ride in Milton Keynes a few years ago and with the exception of Fly (whose algae regime helped develop gills) that we're not the floating kind.

After meeting up with Nonprophet we ended up in the Lebanese restaurant not far from the hostel.From left to right: Tons, Bogus, Fly, Nonprophet, Borsky, Fuzzbuddy, Diclonius, Chris Matthias and The Purple Gooroo.
That night and in order not to wake our sleeping friends, we hadn't turned on the light but used tea candles to be able to see what we were saying.
At about 2 in the morning the fire alarm went off, waking everybody. Of course we hid the evidence. But we weren't to blame: apparently some fruity person had hit the alarm just for fun.

Day Three
After a slow start (again) we visited the Ashmolean museum, bizarrely renamed 'Asmodeus' by Tons' dark side. Quite a big collection, so we skipped some floors. Below a laughing sarcofagus, some Horii with a hermetic gesture and a large statue of the ithyphallic god Min (whose wooden phallus fell off aeons ago).

At 6:30 we went to the Oxford castle where for the Bill Spectre (whom we ended up renaming Phil Spectre and who according to Bogus looked like Kryten from Red Dwarf) ghost tour. Our host erroneously claimed a ciseled door inspired CS Lewis 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' while it actually is a gorgeous Green Man. En passant he did mention a 'Brazenose Hellfire Club' .

Below are my last pics of the trip (Fly made us realize a real ghost must be the life of the party at the Oxford church meetings). We gathered for the final online meetup that evening in the hostel.

NP had downloaded recording software beforehand so we could archive this meeting for the generations to come.
We managed to have first a video meeting with B.Kane, which was truly great. The reception at our end wasn't very good though, so I apologize for totally misunderstanding what Errol Flynn collectible it was he was so proud to show us. Result of long days in booze and smoke, and a twisted sense of humour. It felt rather surreal sitting there, while Chris and TPG were gone for a pizza, talking to B.Kane and expecting Chris to suddenly pop up behind him. Finally all 9 of us gathered in the microscopic room facing the webcam, B.Kane showing us some of the treasures from his library. After a while we had to put him on hold (sadly skype doesn't permit more than two video chats) when Bobby Campbell entered the virtual room. Strangely the image and audio were much better. Cool to meet for the first time, Bobby. We switched to audio so we could all chat together. Fuzz asked me whether the recorder was on, after which I switched it on… Then everybody started talking at the same time, all I recall is Diclonius' great idea to start a pope group on Facebook.
After the meeting Fly, Fuzz, Bogus and I went to the club for an absinthe (they should really tell the people behind the bar that they should add water!) and for a nightly walk in the park. Slowly turning into a zombie I tried to write down in the fading moonlight some of what then appeared like a bright discussion, but all I can read today looks like a lot of gibberish.
"Gilligan is Terry Gilliam" (Fly)
something about a gig with multiple stages and people wearing headphones (Fly)
"I heard one of your friend's connections cut the hair of Harry Potter" (Fuzz)
something about the movie 'Harvey' with James Steward (Bogus)
"Locker- BP" (Fly)
something about Lady gaga's cock (a running gag for the last couple of days)
and my favourite Fly quote:
"You might feel you're in the crowd, man, but really… you're it!"
Which imho resumes the way we felt during these three wonderful days, a crowd of very different people feeling united by Maybe Logic.

Day Four
All we did on Sunday were goodbyes. We were all fairly tired, I left Oxford with Tons and Nonprophet at noonish, and after a little visit to speaker's corner in London we begged each other farewell. Hopefully we'll find a way to organise video meetings every 23rd, until we meet again IRL maybe next year in Prague, or Stockholm, or Capitola…
Some of us have big projects going on. Tons, I hope somehow I'll be able to read your book once it's published (even if I have to learn German); Fuzz, Fly and Nonprophet, I won't divulge your respective projects but I hope we'll hear more of you soon!

Fresh blood, Hot Links, Good Gravy!

2010-07-16T03:12:00.010+01:00

I am happy to pass along word of a new blog dedicated to the lives and ideas of Robert Anton Wilson:
http://rawillumination.blogspot.com

The blog is written by Tom Jackson and offers a daily posting of his RAW thoughts. He even seems to be a fan of our very own DJ Steve Fly Agaric 23!

I'll add the site to the "breaking news" widget in the OM sidebar.

Along similar lines, Bandito recently popped into alt.fan.rawilson to share links to recently archived RAW realist articles.

Another new blog I came across is written by someone called PQ and centers around two of my very favorite subjects: James Joyce & Baseball. http://abuildingroam.blogspot.com/

This blog came to my attention due to the recent interesting conjuncture of Joyce & Baseball when an Umpire named Jim Joyce came to national attention for a blown call that cost a pitcher his perfect game. The story then takes an unexpectedly heartwarming turn and everyone learns a valuable lesson about sportsmanship, honor, and synchronicity. PQ does it a great service in his series on the matter.

Our very own DJ Steve Fly Agaric 23 turns up in this blog as well! Along with a sidebar link to OM's Wings of Art post.

For my own part I'm keeping well busy at the drawing board. Exciting stuff to share soon!

What do you think of the "You Might Also Like" Doohickey I installed? Really kinda opens the place up a bit I think.

Excelsior!

bc

New Edition of "NATURE'S GOD" by Robert Anton Wilson

2010-06-19T22:52:00.004+01:00

"THESE ARE THE EVENTS WHICH WILL SOON RESHAPE THE WORLD..."

Available from New Falcon Publications and Amazon.com

I was actually reading this for my own enjoyment when I got the call to work on the new edition. It was awesome to work on this book as I was reading it. The game got real in Philadelphia!

This was the last book of fiction that RAW wrote, and it totally rules, I hope I did it justice.

"oh, bejesus, Seamus thought, General Washington has been knock-knock-knocking again."

I'm finishing up artwork for "The Earth Will Shake" & "The Widow's Son" this weekend.(Volumes 1 & 2 of the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles) The lasagna remains airborne, Go Phils!

FINNEGANS WIKI by Mark Pesce

2010-06-17T10:43:00.003+01:00

FINNEGANS WIKI

(Stoop) if you are abcedminded, to this claybook, what curios
of signs (please stoop), in this allaphbed! Can you rede (since
We and Thou had it out already) its world? --James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, pg. 18.

Mark Pesce recently released 'the book' version 1.0, of 'share this book': an on-going project (share this course) that a group of web entities and "I" participated in over the last 6 months.

I have taken the liberty here of reproducing and sharing a small part of his text, reproduced from a presentation he made at University Sydney titled 'whatever happened to the book' and a part of particular interest to me, as a budding 'Joycephile' and student of 'maybelogic: the many lives and ideas of Robert Anton Wilson.

I applied a sprinkling of 'hyperlinks' to those already added by Mark, mosbunal link to 'wikipedia' others connect to external sources and 'Joycean' articles, web pages, and some other works by Mark Pesce, thanks, steve: (http://ataleofatribe.blogspot.com/)

Part Three: Finnegans Wiki.

So what of Aristotle? What does this mean for the narrative?
It is easy to conceive of a world where non-fiction texts simply
dissolve into the universal sea of texts. But what about
stories? From time out of mind we have listened to stories
told by the campfire. The Illiad, The Mahabharata, and
Beowolf held listeners spellbound as the storyteller wove the
tale. For hours at a time we maintained our attention and
focus as the stories that told us who we are and our place in
the world traveled down the generations.

Will we lose all of this? Can narratives stand up against the
centrifugal forces of hypertext? Authors and publishers both
seem assured that whatever happens to non-fiction texts, the
literary text will remain pure and untouched, even as it
becomes a wholly electronic form. The lure of the literary text
is that it takes you on a singular journey, from beginning to
end, within the universe of the author’s mind. There are no
distractions, no interruptions, unless the author has expressly
put them there in order to add tension to the plot. A wellwritten
literary text – and even a poorly-written but wellplotted
‘page-turner’ – has the capacity to hold the reader
tight within the momentum of linearity. Something is a ‘pageturner’
precisely because its forward momentum effectively
blocks the centrifugal force. We occasionally stay up all night
reading a book that we ‘couldn’t put down’, precisely because
of this momentum. It is easy to imagine that every literary
text which doesn’t meet this higher standard of seduction will
simply fail as an electronic book, unable to counter the
overwhelming lure of the medium.

This is something we never encountered with printed books:
until the mid-20th century, the only competition for printed
books was other printed books. Now the entire Web – already
quite alluring and only growing more so – offers itself up in
competition for attention, along with television and films and
podcasts and Facebook and Twitter and everything else that
has so suddenly become a regular feature of our media diet.
How can any text hope to stand against that?

And yet, some do. Children unplugged to read each of the
increasingly-lengthy Harry Potter novels, as teenagers did for
the Twilight series. Adults regularly buy the latest novel by
Dan Brown in numbers that boggle the imagination. None of
this is high literature, but it is literature capable of resisting
all our alluring distractions. This is one path that the book
will follow, one way it will stay true to Aristotle and the
requirements of the narrative arc. We will not lose our
stories, but it may be that, like blockbuster films, they will
become more self-consciously hollow, manipulative, and
broad. That is one direction, a direction literary publishers
will pursue, because that’s where the money lies.

There are two other paths open for literature, nearly
diametrically opposed. The first was taken by JRR Tolkien in
The Lord of the Rings. Although hugely popular, the threebook
series has never been described as a ‘page-turner’, being
too digressive and leisurely, yet, for all that, entirely
captivating. Tolkien imagined a new universe – or rather,
retrieved one from the fragments of Northern European
mythology – and placed his readers squarely within it. And
although readers do finish the book, in a very real sense they
do not leave that universe. The fantasy genre, which Tolkien
single-handedly invented with The Lord of the Rings, sells
tens of millions of books every year, and the universe of
Middle-Earth, the archetypal fantasy world, has become the
playground for millions who want to explore their own
imaginations. Tolkien’s magnum opus lends itself to
hypertext; it is one of the few literary works to come complete
with a set of appendices to deepen the experience of the
universe of the books. Online, the fans of Middle-Earth have
created seemingly endless resources to explore, explain, and
maintain the fantasy. Middle-Earth launches off the page,
driven by its own centrifugal force, its own drive to unpack
itself into a much broader space, both within the reader’s
mind and online, in the collective space of all of the work’s
readers. This is another direction for the book. While every
author will not be a Tolkien, a few authors will work hard to
create a universe so potent and broad that readers will be
tempted to inhabit it. (Some argue that this is the secret of JK
Rowling’s success.)

Finally, there is another path open for the literary text, one
which refuses to ignore the medium that constitutes it, which
embraces all of the ambiguity and multiplicity and liminality
of hypertext. There have been numerous attempts at
‘hypertext fiction’; nearly all of them have been unreadable
failures. But there is one text which stands apart, both
because it anticipated our current predicament, and because
it chose to embrace its contradictions and dilemmas. The
book was written and published before the digital computer
had been invented, yet even features an innovation which is
reminiscent of hypertext. That work is James Joyce’s
Finnegans Wake, and it was Joyce’s deliberate effort to make
each word choice a layered exploration of meaning that gives
the text such power. It should be gibberish, but anyone who
has read Finnegans Wake knows it is precisely the opposite.
The text is overloaded with meaning, so much so that the
mind can’t take it all in. Hypertext has been a help; there are
a few wikis which attempt to make linkages between the text
and its various derived meanings (the maunderings of four
generations of graduate students and Joycephiles), and it may
even be that – in another twenty years or so – the wikis will
begin to encompass much of what Joyce meant. But there is
another possibility. In so fundamentally overloading the text,
implicitly creating a link from every single word to something
else, Joyce wanted to point to where we were headed. In this,
Finnegans Wake could be seen as a type of science fiction, not
a dystopian critique like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World,
nor the transhumanist apotheosis of Olaf Stapleton’s
Starmaker (both near-contemporary works) but rather a text
that pointed the way to what all texts would become,
performance by example. As texts become electronic, as they
melt and dissolve and link together densely, meaning
multiplies exponentially. Every sentence, and every word in
every sentence, can send you flying in almost any direction.
The tension within this text (there will be only one text) will
make reading an exciting, exhilarating, dizzying experience –
as it is for those who dedicate themselves to Finnegans Wake.

It has been said that all of human culture could be
reconstituted from Finnegans Wake. As our texts become
one, as they become one hyperconnected mass of human
expression, that new thing will become synonymous with
culture. Everything will be there, all strung together. And
that’s what happened to the book.

--MARK PESCE, FUTURE PRESENT(pdf)

RAW POWER POP ART

2010-06-14T04:00:00.006+01:00

New Edition of "The Psychopath's Bible"

2010-05-30T07:15:00.004+01:00

Check out what arrived in the post last week!

Can't say I ever expected my name would end up on the cover of Christopher S. Hyatt's "The Psychopath's Bible" but here we are!

Available from New Falcon and Amazon.

This one features 13 new illustrations from me. Though the artwork was scripted, I was still able to have a great bit of fun with them.

I find this book to be something of a Trojan horse, and feel very happy to be amongst that which is hiding inside!

"All power to the brain. The creator of gods, ghosts, myths, fantasies, knowledge, beauty, and reference."

If you like LOST try RAW! (and vice versa)

2010-05-24T02:08:00.007+01:00

Co-Creator of LOST Damon Lindelof on RAW!

"My father was into the Illuminati and the number 23, so he was a big
reader of Robert Anton Wilson. So there was some intentionality behind
it, but we had no idea, no grand design behind the Numbers. But
suddenly, the No. 1 question stopped being ”What is the Monster?” and
went to being ”What do the Numbers mean?” This isn’t to say that the
Numbers don’t mean anything. We just had no idea it had this potential
to get totally out of control."
Source: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1562722,00.html

"The only number was always sort of a key number was 23, and anybody
who knows anything about Robert Anton Wilson or any of his writing can
read into that what they will. That's an important number in terms of
the scheme of the show."
Source: http://www.hobotrashcan.com/2009/05/21/

ROBERT ANTON WILSON on the 23 Enigma:

http://www.rawilson.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson
http://www.rawilsonfans.com/

Hulu will have the complete LOST saga available for free streaming through the rest of 2010

http://www.hulu.com/lost
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_%28TV_series%29
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

This post brought to you by the Buddhafart Novelty Company!

Dodgem Logic

2010-05-22T21:31:00.008+01:00

It seems very likely that any visitor here (regular, occasional, or entirely new) might enjoy the work of Alan Moore, in one form or another, so we recommend a visit to the Dodgem Logic website for a little tantalising brain stimulation.

So far three editions have appeared, each with 'extras' like CDs, transfers, etc. Edition #2 comes with 3 alternative covers (take yer pick, or get completist about it).

No point in explaining, if you don't know Alan Moore, best just to direct you to Wikipedia, I guess.

Or maybe his entry at the Comic Book Database.

And of course, our own previous entries - Alan's wonderful appearance at RAW's great sending off...introduced by the late, lamented and much missed Ken Campbell. Back in Sept 2007.

And how are you tonight, Mr Wilson? from Alan Moore

A longer edit of the London Tribute to Raw remains available online here.

Only Maybe

RAW WEEK @ boinboing

a life well lived

Arlen and Mavericks of the Sinclairularity

RADIO FREE BARBELITH (Join The Invisibles Reading Group!)

Grey Lodge Archive

GENERAL semANTICS

JUMPING JESUS ON A POGO STICK!

Great Minds

Archaic Revivaling

RAW Bookplate

Follow @RAWilson23 on Twitter!

Seven Years On

Occupy Thyself!

Other Tales

Myles from Dublin

Asynchronous links

Another Equinox!

Follow your Bliss

Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce

Walking Into Eternity

Falling on Deaf Ears

Testify feat. John Sinclair

What is the question to which life is the answer?

Rushkoff's New Book

BUDDHA HATERADE

Coming Round Again

tl;dr

Good Talking

New Edition of "Email to the Universe" by Robert Anton Wilson

New Edition of "An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson" by Eric Wagner

Marshall McLuhan born 100 years ago

Happy Birthday Bucky!

You Know Nothing Of My Work

TTOTT in TWELVE (T n' T)

Enjoy the Solstice!

In memory of Bob, an interview from 1991

Happy Bloomsday!

CONFUCIUS SAY

ROBERT ANTON WILSON & STEPHEN GASKIN - Quantum Psychology / Basic Metaphysics 101

WebBrain and mind maps

Digital natives and digital immigrants

Moving Around

730 shows in 365 days…if you please

Austin Osman Spare

The seven heads of the Green Dragon

Les sept têtes du dragon vert - la guerre des cerveaux ("The seven heads of the Green Dragon - the War of the Brains") - Teddy Legrand, M.C.O.R. editions 2007

From the introduction:

Chapter 1. The picture and the icon.

Chapter 2. Fener.

Chapter 3. Orient Express.

Part 2Chapter 1. The Intelligence Service.

Chapter 2. On board of the Asgärd.

Chapter 3. A duck hunt.

Chapter 4. The man with the green gloves.

ALAN MOORE READS FROM "MASKS OF THE ILLUMINATI"

A pataphysical conspiracy

First, a little history.

Now for the conspiracy interpretation.

Only if you want to...

Mavericks of the Mind (Second Edition)

Spatial Thinking

The imaginary is something that tends to become true

Neil Gaiman's The Price animated

Hip-Hop and Shamanism course postponed

RAW EPIPHANY

Dodgem Logic Issue 6 out now!

Dr Marshmallow's 33rd Birthday

Leaking into popular culture

It's not too late...

email to the tribe and the tale of the tribe

The Global Village - A RAW Media Workshop

The Holy Bible, in E-Prime

UNIVERSE CONTAIN'S A MAYBE. RAWdio at the Prophets Con. 2000.

MLA Meet-Up No. 6 - Oxford, England

Pungenday, Confusion 62 - Year Of Our lady Of Discord 3176

MLA meeting 2010 in Oxford

Fresh blood, Hot Links, Good Gravy!

New Edition of "NATURE'S GOD" by Robert Anton Wilson

FINNEGANS WIKI by Mark Pesce

Part 2
Chapter 1. The Intelligence Service.