Customer Reviews

Illuminatus Trilogy

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People love to point out, and attack, this book's muddled ideology, its ever-shifting style, its countless digressions, its violent swings between adolescent fantasies and serious philosophy, etc, etc, ad infinitum. To these people, I can only say, "Duh." This book, like most things RAW has worked on, is A TEST. It runs the gamut from Occultism to Solipsism to Libertarianism to Objectivism, and most of the things in between. Through it all, the narrative refuses to attach itself to one specific outlook. Why, you ask?

Well, the book has a surprise ending, that comes a couple months after you read the last page. I didn't want to ruin it for you, but here goes: ... Every twenty pages or so, Shea and Wilson try to win you over to a new belief system, only to tear it down a few pages later. If any of it makes you a true believer, then you weren't paying attention. Thinking for yourself has nothing to do with seeing fnords, finding erotic undertones in Catholic imagery, or getting yourself a Libertarian woman. It certainly has nothing to do with accepting the existence of a massive global conspiracy. Thinking for yourself is just that- maintaining a healthy skepticism, but keeping an open mind at the same time. You can decide what you want believe, but you must also remember that you will never have the complete picture.

Sure, this novel (trilogy) provides a taste of hallucinogenic mind-expansion on its most superficial level. But dig a little deeper and you'll find much more, not in the words of Shea and Wilson, but within (and possibly without) your own mind. The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that 'Illuminatus' is the end of your journey, when it is probably just the first step. This book is a tool for just that, the starter pistol that sets you on your own search (which, sadly, will probably not involve dolphins).

'Illuminatus' lays out a seemingly infinite number of red herrings for your perusal. It is your job, as a good little reader, to find them all (hint: there's nothing that isn't one).

This is the obligatory 5th paragraph. Superstition may not be useful, but it's fun.

First, let it be said that the Illuminatus! Trilogy is not an easy book for anyone to read unless they are familiar with the philosophy of Robert Anton Wilson. Anyone who wants to read this book should first read at the very least Prometheus Rising and Cosmic Trigger I beforehand. A familiarity with the concepts of Aleister Crowley, Georges Gurdjieff, Tim Leary, etc., would also be advisable. That said, here's the review.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a combination of philosophy, science, occultism, and obscure ideas that is unlike anything I have read before. It's also a wonderful combination of fact and fiction, so the wise reader will enter with a skeptical but open mind. I say skeptical because they should not BELIEVE any of the novel, but they should be open to ideas because the novel will appall them otherwise. I guess you could actually say that being skeptical but open is the whole point of RAW's philosophy.

The review from Rolling Stone on the page of reviews on the first page describes the novel as a "shaggy dog joke," and you won't really understand how true that is until you read the book. The basic storyline is the storyline that has been repeated throughout mythology and history: "good versus evil." Of course, being a RAW novel, sides get flipped and everybody seems to be a secret agent working for twenty four different conspiracies. It can basically be described as very funny and blasphemous in the best possible sense. Your basic view of "reality" will probably not survive this book.

And, as a word to the wise (or the foolish), don't buy the paperback version of Illuminatus! that is available these days. Get a hardback copy; an 800 page paperback gets destroyed fairly easily, as I've come to find out.

Other reviews address the content, significance, imagination etc.

No one else has mentioned this yet, but I am most impressed with just the in-depth quality of the writing craft itself, once you get past some strange quirks, like the sudden jumps among different first- and third-person perspectives.

Parts of it might read as if they are just "stream of consciousness", but they were certainly not all just streamed out that way onto the page, without significant work ... when you step back, and look at the assembling/disassembling/re-assembling of so many intricate parts, into a twisted non-Euclidean curved pyramidal whole, the craft and work involved is quite impressive.

Also having "been there" a few times, many years ago, I can say that their vivid verbal portrayals, of some extremely emotional psychedelic hallucinogenic schizoid states, are right on.

(ignoring the actual content of the specific trip, I mean, just focusing on the verbal portrayal of the emotional state, it reads like something out of my own long-ago experiences, except that they are much better writers than I could hope to be, they actually managed to get it written down in words, in a reasonably effective way!)

Plus, so many of the characters etc. are familiar from my youth, it is a huge nostalgia trip for me too, a nice ride through familiar old stomping grounds of my youth. That is, back around then, circa 1972, I was a 12-year old pre-pubescent H.P.Lovecraft freak, Abbie Hoffman freak, science fiction freak, etc., had a crazy mother totally into Atlantis and all that fernando POO, and at the same time also had friends in the neighborhood, who were into Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey Satanism, etc. Consequently I knew a lot more about the Satanic Bible, for instance, than I ever did about any of the Christian/Jewish mis-translations.

So, it's like, the story of my tribe, it's like I could have been a very minor character, in the book. And there are a lot of us wandering around, still dazed & confused out here somewhere at least in the back of our minds .... so I see, this book is for US.

This is a book I SHOULD have read, back then when it was new. But that's OK, I lived it instead... and the book is still a great read, even today, over 30 years later.

No this isn't as intriguing as Umberto Eco or as insightful as Pynchon. It isn't as funny as Douglas Adams. It doesn't preach like Ayn Rand. It's not good literature. It won't stretch your mind like Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach". It isn't as well written as any of those. It's not meant to be. It's meant to poke you in your gizzard and be sort of "neato" whilst doing so. What it will do is disturb and irritate you. Take note of where it disturbs and irritates you, those are your faults and weaknesses. The funny parts are where it is poking at some other reader and you (oh so wisely) get to see this and laugh from your own superior perspective. Good, fun airplane book for those who view Grisholm, Clancy, typical NYT best-sellers, etc, as the Doritos of literature, but aren't currently looking for a truly nourishing read. Doesn't matter much if you lose your place. Long and clever like the worlds largest limmerick. A bible for freshmen dystopians, it may seem incredibly profound if you're just getting into social and cultural critiques that wax philosophical.

Read Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" instead.

Bad writing, unbelievable characters, disjointed and disorganized plots that somehow come together to form a wonderful story. The three volumes that comprise the Illuminatus Trilogy are like taking a no spending limit trip through the parinoid's candy store!

I read the Illuminatus when I was in my 20's and it frightened me because I thought might all be true. I reread in my 30's and was depressed because I realized that it wasn't. I've just read it again at 50 and now know that even though every word is fiction, every word is also true.

Our lives are subject to the whims of people for whom we are no more real or important than unbelievable characters in a bad novel -- but it's OK as long as we remember how to have a good time while we're on their ride.

The Illuminatus Trilogy is a must read that belongs on everyone's desert island list.

It amazes me how people can claim that Gravity's Rainbow is a great piece of literature (which it is), yet refuse to appreciate Wilson and Shea's magnum opus. The worth of the novel lies in its manipulation of the reader's perception, and its employment of real (and fictionalized) references to literally create whole new universes and methods of viewing reality. It was this book that led me to other works by Wilson, which then led me to read literature on subjects ranging from quantum physics to mass psychology. Wilson in general, and The Illuminatus! Trilogy in particular, are in and of themselves singular methods of expanding one's mind. Sure, in order to understand the book you have to read it three or four times, but it beats the hell out of watching t.v.

I'm not even going to pretend to try to explain anything about the plot of this book. It is so complex that I'd need more space than the book itself takes up. I will say this though, this book is the most amazing combination of Sci-fi, occult, and conspiracty that I have ever seen. I found myself looking for certain numbers everywhere. Sometimes I actually see the fnords. What this book does is follow a few different, intertwining plots that center around an ancient society, the Illuminati, the lost continent of Atlantis, and some other, darker groups as well. The book is not for the faint of heart, because the conspiracies are written so well, that you find yourself believing them at times. Also, there are some graphic scenes that may not be suitable for younger readers.

This trilogy (you need to read all three for it to make sense) is not an easy read, but a very rewarding one. The only problem is it can be confusing, and you have to stick with it before you get hooked. The first 100 pages or so may or may not seem slow or uninteresting, or just plain confused. Stick with it though. It's worth it. I enjoyed this book immensely. It's definitely not light or easy, but very rewarding.

Well, how to even BEGIN to describe this book? Other people have done it so much better than I ever will, and so I must be humble here folks - I can't.

What I can do is tell you a little about me; before and after I read this book.

Let me share with you what I knew before I read this book:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I knew EVERYTHING, in great detail, in chronological order, with footnotes, dates, times, witnesses, alibies, all approved by law, bound by the church and stamped by the notary public.

Now, let me share with you what I know since reading this book:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<insert blank, non-colored, non-existant "page" as a thought and uncomfortably long pause here>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any questions?

This book changed my life in ways I never knew it could change.

It shook my death grip upon the pillars of my so-called sanity loose and taught me a little bit about being more comfortable with myself, with acceptance, with tolerance, with sobriety, with religion, with spirituality, with consciousness, with unconsciousness, with love, with lust, with politics, drugs, sex, with cults, with fraternal organizations and all the other dirty subjects that people seem to "know" so much about around here.

The guerilla ontology portions alone challenged me and my so-called 'beliefs' so often, and so repeatedly, and I was constantly asked "is that your final answer?" so many times (and you think Regis is annoying!) that there is no way to hang onto those 'reality-tunnels' anymore. It's futile, Let go.

Some people might prefer "The Language of Letting Go" or "The Road Less Travelled" or some Depak Chopra, or Florence Scoval Schinn, but I prefer "The Illuminatus Trilogy."

Maybe that says something about who I am, but that's all right by me because I'm no longer who I was.

Jesus teaches the Disciples Bingo as part of the "secret teachings" (Luke! Don't write that down!), the Greek gods take drugs and have visions of Laurel & Hardy, a Cthulu monster resides in the Pentagon, the Republicans and the Black Panthers and the AAA are on the same spoke in the conspiracy wheel.

With a very confused and barely recognizeable plot about a disappearing radical reporter and a submarine filled with anarchists (or are they?) Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea create one of the most hilarious books about religion, spirituality, society and politics. Most of the book echoes Robert Anton Wilson's obsessions with Eastern religoins, sex, James Joyce and Kabala but there is enough of Robert Shea's personality in the thing to keep it on an even keel.

At 800 pages, you'll read the trilogy in a week and beg for more once you are done. Whether you are Christian, Buddhist, agnostic, Jewish, pagan, Discordian or Muslim, this book will shock, amaze and make you see the world in a whole new way.

Live From Chapel Perilous

We're living in Robert Anton Wilson's world

Jesse Walker

In 1973 Thomas Pynchon published an enormous experimental novel called Gravity's Rainbow. In 1975 Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson published an enormous experimental trilogy called Illuminatus! Both were written at about the same time, and both offered panoramic perspectives on history, liberty, and paranoia.

Gravity's Rainbow won the National Book Award. Illuminatus! won no awards, save a science fiction prize issued a decade later. Gravity's Rainbow is often assigned in college classes. Illuminatus! might be required in some school somewhere, but such spots are surely few. Judging from anecdotal evidence, more people have started Gravity's Rainbow than Illuminatus! But far more people have finished Illuminatus! than Gravity's Rainbow.

Robert Anton Wilson is the unacknowledged elephant in our cultural living room: a direct and indirect influence on popular books, movies, TV shows, music, games, comics, and commentary. (His late co-author has left less of a mark: Many of Wilson's books have cult followings, while the only Shea effort to make a big splash was the trilogy he wrote with Wilson.) Allusions to Wilson's work appear in places both classy and trashy: There's a Wilsonian stamp on films as diverse as Magnolia, The Mothman Prophecies, and Sex and Lucia, and it's because of Wilson and Shea that the Illuminati, a secret society that once lurked only in right-wing conspiracy tracts, became the villains of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. Now Wilson's the star of a lively documentary, Maybe Logic, that's being screened at film festivals and distributed on DVD.

Wilson is a primary source for the ironic style of conspiracism, a sensibility that treats alleged cabals not as intrigues to be exposed or lies to be debunked but as a bizarre mutant mythos to be mined for laughs, metaphors, and social insights. If you were an amused aficionado of conspiracy folklore in 1963, you were a lone hobbyist or specialist. By 1983, you could turn to a number of fanzines, comics, and weirdo institutions such as the Church of the SubGenius, a satiric cult founded by some Illuminatus! fans. By 1993, you were a target market for several half-joking mass-market conspiracy tomes; your sensibility was reflected regularly in magazines such as Mondo 2000 and The Nose; and two brand new pop juggernauts were about to enter your heart: The X-Files and the World Wide Web.

And by 2003, this was all standard background noise. These days, choosing your politics is a matter of choosing who you're more afraid of, the Washington cabal that's openly trying to erase your freedoms or the various foreign cabals that are openly trying to kill you. Like it or not, we're living in Robert Anton Wilson's world.

Illuminatus! did not invent this mental universe sui generis. But it was Illuminatus! that created the template, with its sprawling story that treated every interpretation of the world, paranoid or not, as equally plausible and equally ridiculous. And it was Wilson whose other novels and essays, from the historical fiction The Earth Will Shake to the autobiographical Cosmic Trigger, explored conspiracy theories not to expose "the truth" but to reveal the ways we construct strange stories out of the everyday truths we only hazily perceive.

This wasn't a purely abstract intellectual pursuit. In the early '70s, experimenting heavily with psychedelics and other forms of "deliberately induced brain change," Wilson underwent a series of unusual...experiences. "Around 1973 I became convinced for a while that I was receiving messages from outer space," he informs us in Maybe Logic. "But then a psychic reader told me that I was actually channeling an ancient Chinese philosopher. And another psychic reader told me I was channeling a medieval Irish bard. And at that time I started reading neurology and I decided it was just my right brain talking to my left brain. And then I went to Ireland and discovered it was actually a six-foot-tall white rabbit -- they call it the pooka."

A little later he comments, "I like the giant rabbit from County Kerry because there's no chance anyone will take that literally."

Including yourself? asks the interviewer.

Wilson agrees. Then he adds, "Well, not too literally." He glances over his shoulder. "Sorry about that, Harvey."

If there's a central message to Wilson's work, the film tells us, it's the agnostic notion that you can't be completely certain about anything -- and that even when you're pretty sure an idea is baseless, it might be fun to entertain it for an evening. Somewhere between absolute belief and absolute incredulity, he tells us, the universe contains a maybe. To which anyone who follows the news these days can reply: No doubt.

Associate Editor Jesse Walker is the author of Rebels on the Air (NYU Press).