ravan

Did you read it? I read it about 10 years ago - thats some serious mind***** going on in that book

Anyway I wanted to re-read it - I only remember fnord and being severely confused.. Oh and some nazi's in a lake?

www.rawilson.com is an adventure in itself - check his bio.. multiple times.

benedict

ravan

Well, its a very interesting book by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.

They basically take every conspiracy theory and mix it all up with world events etc. It is not a normal book, but its very thought provoking in a strange way

fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord fnord

Nick Danger

At one time, Wilson was the letters editor for Playboy. He got a lot of conspiracy letters. He used all the best conspiracies in one book. Behind every conspiracy is a deeper conspiracy.

He also takes Crowleyan magick seriously, so the book can be read as a primer on practical magic.

Somebody once told me that The Illuminatus Trilogy reads better if you've read James Joyce's Ulysses first. I never have.

ravan

The whole stream of conciousness deal? I never read JJoyce either.

I'm sure there was a fair amount of drugs involved in writing that book though - no sane person could do that.

benedict

His non-fiction is almost more interesting than his fiction. And, yes, I have read that particular co-authored trilogy although mine is actually collected in one volume!

fnord

ravan

Mine is too, although I cant find it..

Chim

gotta love this book

you do not see the fnord

hail eris
all hail discordia!

TeeSeeJay

Whattaya mean it's MY turn in the apple?

Aghama

The first book I ever read that actually used the word "defenestrate." One of the many reasons I love it.

Kudama

I could not help (last year) but think of this book when the Pentagon got taken out. Remember the part where that rock band that wanted to immanentize the eschaton (i.e. end the world to soak up the release of souls and attain godhood) blast out one side of that geometrically mystic structure and set free Iak Sotot, the Lloiger from its imprisonment. These were the same guys that reactivated the Nazi troops in stasis under the water in that lake in Eastern Europe and set them forth on the rock festival attendees. Iak Sotot ended up getting them as they ran across a bridge I think (it’s been a while).

When I was in Australia I placed a single chip to win on 23 alone and I won (at very profitable odds). I shouted Hagbard Celine’s name that moment and no one got it.

One of the longest and coolest books I’ve ever read. As a follow up I recommend Masks of the Illuminati. It reads more like a Twilight Zone episode wherein Albert Einstein and James Joyce hook up to solve a mystery and finally meet the arch villain that has perpetrated the entire fiasco (no spoilers, but his name’s been mentioned in this thread) and he explains the art of conspiracy and rule.

(and what’s up with that little squirrel?)

xmiyux

I was a big RAW fan for many years and read as much of his stuff as i could. I also recommend reading Prometheus Rising and doing all his exersizes That is if you want a real mind screwjob

Tom Banjo

Hey guys, I started this book sunday night. I'm about 70 pages in right now, and was wondering... when will it start to make sense?

xmiyux

Well it never quite totally makes sense.... and if it ever starts making sense completely then be worried for your sanity It's almost more an experience than a story.

JestersTear

I'm a few pages in, and I can already tell that the writing style is going to make it a hard read.

The general concensus among the few people I've talked to is that if I can make it past the first hundred or so pages, I'll love it.

The problem is that I keep hearing about things like shifting through time periods in the middle of a paragraph, and characters having the same names, making it hard to understand who is doing what.

Any hints or suggestions that I should keep in mind to be able to make it through this?

TeeSeeJay

Make notes on 3x5 index cards and keep them handy. Use them as bookmarks so you can cross-reference as you read.

renaldow

Yep, that's the book alright! That's on purpose, and if you can actually make it through the book having understood everything that happened, you are an amazing human being. My advice is to read but don't analyze it. Pay attention to the ideas/concepts happening but not the mechanics. If you don't, you'll find much of it contradictory and impossible, which is what the author intended.

Chim

go with the flow. you do not see the fnord. I am a dolphin. SNAFU will tell us whats up.

you'll love the book Just read it as a stream of consciousness

Kal-El

What book is this? by whom?

Geofferson

What he said.

After reading Angels & Demons, I'd love to read this!

TeeSeeJay

It's the Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea

benedict

Fnord

SCSIMan

I agree with this. I was told the same thing before I read it but I loved it from the beginning. I actually started rereading the book a few weeks ago, but a neighbor saw me reading it and asked about and I talked it up so much that she borrowed and I switched to another book until shes done. It is way better during the second read.

I wouldn't say that its a difficult read, once you get use to the style, it flows like any other book.

I like the idea of notecards, especially at the beginning, but once you get more into the characters, you won't need them.

Please don't give up on the book. Finish it and you'll be glad you did. It is definitely one of my favorites.

SCSIMan

Nick Danger

I read it a long time ago. I enjoyed a lot of parts of it, but overall wasn't that impressed. Later, someone said that I needed to have read James Joyce Ulysses first.

moorehed

very suprized to see a thread on this book here!

here's a pic i took of myself yesterday:





basically yeah. i had this book for a year before i could get into it. i'd pick it up every couple months and read like... 5 pages and be like.. what the hell did i just read and put it down.

i finally made myself keep reading and once i got used to the style it is awesome.

basically you just have to accept that a large part of the book is just some sort of acid trip that blends significant parts of the book together... once you can learn to keep reading through those, and enjoy them as an acid trip rather than trying to make sense of them, the book starts to fall into place.

also, once i was told that this was basically written by some editors of playboy who would go into an after hours lounge and get messed up on whatever drugs they could find, then trade off writing the book it made a bit more sense.