August 20, 2005

• I saw the name.......and expected to read that he had passed away. Phew. I've come across him and his writings and interviews a lot in recent months. His own site. Maybe logic academy. He's certainly an enigmatic fellow. I read the trilogy of course and have peripherally kept an eye on his meanderings over the years.

  Through the years, Wilson and Hoffman [discovered LSD] have stayed in touch. "He's a fan of my books," says Wilson, "and I'm a fan of his drugs."

• Ewige Blumenkraft!
• I had no idea that RAW was a polio survivor.
• Or maybe I did. I haven't read anything about/by him in a long frickin' time.
• Yeah, I remeber now. The Sister Kenny thing, that the church hated.
• I always think about the giant spider in the garden. I BELIEVE in that spider, I keep thinking some day I'm gonna see it...ugh!
• there is no government anywhere. last time we discussed raw, i linked to this. i'm linking again because i think wilson's collaboration with the golden horde was cool, and i like the secrets of power bit from the london stand up show.
• Does anyone know if he's ever planning on releasing book four of the Historical Illuminatus series? I'd heard that he wrote it and decided not to publish because he felt it needed a major rewrite. It was supposed to have been called The world turned upside down but he went and used that title for something else.
• Wow, that's a hell of an interview. I am tempted to read the trilogy. Do tell: is the writing any good? I admit to some initial bias against the books - because of the people I've known who have raved about them.
• 23
• The writing sucks horribly. Sorry, but it does.
• The writing sucks horribly. Sorry, but it does. Sorry, but you're nuts.
• That may be so!
• But his writing still sucks ass.
• Dubliners it most emphatically ain't.
• No, his writing does not 'suck ass'.
• But his writing still sucks ass. Sorry, but you are wrong.
• Just ignore him. Wolof's a bit of a whinger sometimes, rarely a troll.
• Wolof I love Mr Joyce - he's my hero. Ulysses is the greatest artistic masterpiece of all time in my opinion. Dubliners is also brilliant but is really a completely different style of work, though there are of course shared tropes. But I also happen to have a high regard for Wilson's Illuminatus series and although it's a long while since I've read them, I recall that I was quite mesmerized by the ideas and thoughts communicated therein. So....*pokes tongue out in genteel fashion*
• If "whinger" = "doesn't like Illuminatus," than put me in the "boo hoo" column as well. I thought Illuminatus was awful; besides, the same thing had already been done in Principia Discordia, which was both funnier and more concise. Which isn't to say that I categorically dislike RAW. He's a neat guy who IMO is at his best as an interview subject, and I thought Everything Is Under Control was really interesting. But yeah, I actively disliked Illuminatus.
• Illuminatus isn't the only works he's done, and it was co-authored. I personally recommend the Schroedinger's Cat series, which is my favorite.
• I consider anyone who doesn't revere RAW to be inherently evil.
• raw's writing is passable enough. stylistically, it's no worse than grisham or crichton, for example, and i consider his plots and ideas to be vastly superior to theirs.
• In reading the article/interview, I was surprised by his religious bigotry, for one who is supposed to be so smart. To claim that all of the world's ills are owed to those of faith is insupportable by history. Even today, nearly 2/3 of scientists say they believe in God. Although they may not conduct their research or perform their duties because of their faith, they do not see science and belief in God as enemies, as Wilson does. Opinions are one thing. Re-writing history is another.
• Um, actually I would say that it *is* supported by history. I for one agree with him on that score.
• So does that mean I'm a bigot? I believe religion to be a mind virus that has caused most of the major problems in recorded human history. Pointing out that there are all these scientists who claim to believe in god is rather a straw man argument, because the definition of what god means to them has not been asserted. Spirituality and science are not enemies, far from it, and Wilson is by no means a non-spiritual man, but doctrinal faith and science certainly are enemies, because doctrine forbids thought or thought-experiment outside of certain bounds defined by some other guy in a funny hat. And I think that historical data backs that assertion up pretty well, actually.
• Spirituality and science are not enemies... Spirituality and religion are enemies.
• *rolls eyes, exits thread*
• Douglass Rushkoff is teaching an online course on Technologies of Persuasion at the Maybe Logic Academy starting this week.