Back to the Fools Gallery! Our second resident is none other than the great Robert Anton Wilson. Writer, itinerant lecturer and all around swell guy. Bob certainly left quite a legacy and the impact of his 1977 autobiography Cosmic Trigger solidified its place as one of the greatest books in the pantheon of weird literature. If you want to get started in Magic and the Occult, you have to get to grips with Robert Anton Wilson and his ideas. Adam joins me for a smashing discussion and he really hits it out of the park with his answer to the Post-Show Quid Pro Quo.
Show Notes
- Hilaritas Press – Bob’s family has been re-releasing his books. Please support them if you are inclined to purchase his work
- Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything (or old Bob Exposes his Ignorance) from Sounds True – A wonderful way to get to know RAW a little better
- RAW Week @ boingnoing.net – If you’re looking for other peoples’ anecdotes about Bob, look no further. Very humanizing portrayals of Robert Anton Wilson
- Maybe Logic: The Lives & Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson – A pretty good Documentary about RAW, filmed before he passed away
- Robert Anton Wilson Lecture at DisinfoCon in 2000 – The lecture that made me look into this Robert Anton Wilson fella, and pretty much opened the door to the Temple of Magic
- John Higgs talks about Robert Anton Wilson – One of my favourite (living) authors talks about one of my favourite (dead) authors
- RAWillumination.net – Pretty decent Blog devoted to all things Bob
- I Have America Surrounded – John Higgs’ Book on Timothy Leary
- ….and finally! The Post on Robert Anton Wilson’s personal blog about his passing away, and my extremely prosaic comment
What Magic Is This? 
Aside from some strong disagreements with The Podcaster (I Love Illuminatus! for the head trip that it is (lol), and although I’m not a Prometheus Rising fanboy (I prefer Moore and Williams’s Promethea for this particular kind of project) I do find it full of awesome nuggets (the thinker and the prover) and food for thought (“we’re giants raised by midgets walking in perpetual mental crouch)”), I find this episode to be pretty lightweight. A lack of preparation perhaps, and (grand weakness of the podcast in general) once again a guest with no seeming desire or ability to push back on The Podcaster , leaving us with a series of Authority-takes alternating with gushing FANerisms. Pity, I enjoyed the Jung episode, although maybe cos I don’t know so much about Jung as I do about Wilson.
LikeLike