Customer Reviews

Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy

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This is not a book you can just read, your really need to pay attention to what is going on and try to understand what is happening. I found this book hilarious. The concept behind this book, as far as I can see, is like the Schrodinger's Cat Theory - which is this: if you are to place a cat in a box / room / enclosed space and put an element in the same enclosed space that could kill the cat in an hour and leave it (for an hour), several universes branch from that point - one in which the cat lives, one in which the cat dies, and an infinite amount of others where other occurances happen (such as the cat escapes or grows wings and turns into a bird - these universes are just not probable). In the same sense, a lot of the characters from the orginal Illuminatus! Trilogy are in this book, but with different personalities - where one universe broke off to create the Illuminatus! Trilogy, another broke off where the characters are totally different and the world is affected by disasters and terrorist groups that aren't even mentioned in the original. I highly reccomend reading this, but as I said - you WILL be lost if you don't pay attention. Very stream of concious, many random occurances (to give you an idea - one of the characters is a midget named Markoff Chaney - for those of you who don't know, a Markov Chain is a randomly occuring set of events - the book is a veritable Markov chain, jumping from character to character on a whim), and a tendency to switch universes mid-paragraph. I would reccomend reading the Illuminatus! Trilogy first, but this should definitly be on your list.

When I first encountered the Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, it was
in the form of the original Bantam paperbacks, now out of print.
The first volume I saw, "The Universe Next Door," scared the
bejeezus out of me with its quirky way of seeing reality, so
badly that I hastily put down the book and did not explore the
works of that author again for at least five years more. The
second encounter I had was with the paperback "The Trick Top
Hat," which I bought from a used book store. It opened me up
philosophically AND sexually--it had some very explicit erotic
references. Sadly, though the full text of "The Universe Next
Door" seems to have made the journey from 3-volume paperback to
1-volume Dell softcover intact, the same cannot be said of the
erotic passages in "The Trick Top Hat." Additionally, a great
deal of the material in the original paperback "The Homing
Pigeons" does not appear in the Dell softcover . . . although
Wilson had abandoned much of the frank eroticism of the "second"
book by then.

The disappearance of these words from the newer edition, and
the subsequent ventures of Wilson into being published by other,
much less well known publishers, are as mysterious to me as the
enigmas of Rennes-le-Chateau and the life of Sir Francis Dash-
wood. The Dell trade paperback version does not really suffer
in its creative genius by losing those many passages. But it
is simply inexplicable to me why they are not there.

Robert Anton Wilson, the "last Scientific shaman of our age" provides us with a guide to illumination in this series of three books that are one book. Each volume here collected is a different view of the same world, a ride through the most radical theories of modern physics.

Many characters from the Illuminatus! Trilogy reappear, including Simon Moon and the midget Markoff Chaney. They all take slightly different forms, except for Chaney, who appears as the ever constant Random Factor. And when Ulyses return to Ithyca, we get a peak at what Wilson's imagination is capable of.

The book may be slightly perverse. But then, he's writing about the state of the human race. I assume that it is only Wilson's positivity that keeps him from writing us all into a novel that would make Sade cringe. The point here is to enjoy, observe, and learn.

Readers of Illuminatus! will certainly enjoy this book. Moralists, of course, will weep in their beds. But that's the best part of all...

After reading The Illuminatus! Trilogy, I stared at my copy of Schroedinger's Cat and wondered how the hell Bob could top the 800-page work of lunacy he had created with Robert Shea. Of course, I shouldn't have doubted Bob; anyone who has read his books knows how he can construct the most meaningful anecdotes and stories from seemingly random and uninteresting information. This book is no different.

When I started reading this book, I assumed that the story would have to do with Schroedinger's Cat (obviously), but I didn't understand the novel's structure until I reached page 80 and the book ended, only to start again in a different world (which I know sounds strange; read it if you want to understand). The plot of this novel seems entirely random, and up to a certain point it is, but it has more structure than would seem at first glance. Like Illuminatus!, it would require a great deal of analysis and scholarship to unravel the ever-knotted threads of Schroedinger's Cat, and I know few who have the time to do that. Still, it's quite an enjoyable read, even if you never know fully what the hell is going on.

As is usual for Robert Anton Wilson books, Schroedinger's Cat is side-splittingly funny. Perhaps the funniest part of the book is how characters change from world to world. For instance, in one world, Epicene Wildeblood is a debonair ladies' man. In a different world, Epicene is now a she, Mary Margaret Wildeblood, after a sex change. Even historical figures in the novel change depending on the world. James Joyce, in one world, was a minor composer. In another, Ezra Pound was not a famous poet; he was a famous folksinger. In yet another, Aleister Crowley was not an infamous occultist, but instead a British general who was the first person to reach the North Pole, which he claimed was inhabited by little green people when he got there (if you laugh at that, you will appreciate the book's humor).

It's hard to put together a review of this book, because there's no continuous plot (at least not in the ordinary sense). Characters disappear for (sometimes literally) hundreds of pages, then reappear as if nothing happened. It's very disorienting and why I waited several months after reading the book to actually review it. I thought that "sitting on my thoughts," allowing them to formulate, would help. Instead, I find that I've forgotten half of what went on in the book. Oh, memory, how thou hast robbed me!

Anyway, before I start to ramble, let me say that this is a good book for all science-fiction fans to read, since it is actual SCIENCE fiction (i.e. it involves quite complicated issues of quantum mechanics). I would recommend it to anyone with an IQ of 250 or a Ph.D. in rocket science. If you're like me and have neither, it's still a great novel. It just won't make full sense until you understand Bob's philosophy of neurological model agnosticism and quantum mechanics.

I read the Illuminatus! trilogy about ten years ago and then accidentally came across copies of the Schrodinger's Cat trilogy at a used bookstore.
I started and can't put them down. I don't have a huge scientific background, but ther is a true theory called Schrodinger's Cat and anyone who thinks that these book are rubbish just must not know this. They perfectly embody the idea of of the cat.
And Wilson's crazy blend of fact and fiction just encouraged me to get more information about the past and science and the universe and every other thing that I could think of.

Read this book with an open mind. Or read this book and open your mind.

In speaking about this book, Wilson said "Like Ulysses, it's a parallel to Homer's Odyssey but it's all from the point of view of quantum mechanics; there isn't one universe, but many," Wilson said. "Schrodinger said that the only way to understand quantum physics is in terms of the Upanishads, with the concept of unity, that everything, no matter how different it seems, it's all aspects of one hidden thing we don't see.

"I think the dominant tendency in physics is to say that we shouldn't ask questions about the objective universe. All we can talk meaningfully about is the experimental universe, which involves us. Any method of observing imposes upon the thing the structure you're observing It through; your eye, your microscope, whatever. You can't leave the observer out."

In the book, Wilson uses the fundamental ideas in Quantum Mechanics, and Joyce's literary techniques, to craft a complex and subtle story that expands beyond the scope of the normal novel. He creates a world that is made of both fact and fancy, blending them so that the reader's certainty about reality begins to erode. While it is true that it lacks a standard narrative quality, it more than makes up for it with the lovingly detailed segments that, ultimately, fit together into an illuminant masterpiece that I found to be deeply satisfying.

One could argue that this work is analogous to Pointillism. Each part is a dot that, when seen as a whole, creates an amazing, funny, and beautiful picture.

Trying to write a review about this book without trying to sound too grandiose is quite difficult. What's it about? Well, it's about everything... how we view life, politics, social interaction, sex, religion etc. Is it any good? This question is asking for a subjective judgement, but if you are the kind of person who likes original and unique philosophical views delivered in a creative style that will entertain, humor and sometimes scare you, than yeah it is good. In my estimation, the book is beyond creative. As far as his writing style, the man is brilliant. Every page blasts away at your preconceived notions of what writing, thinking, living should be and gives the reader an invigorated new sense of life's unlimited possibilities. Why this author is not listed among the upper echelon of literary dignataries is beyond me. I mean seriously, most "classic" novels are deemed as such because they have captured an audience because of their timeless content, advanced writing style, indvidualistic voice and perhaps inspirational,universal message. This being the case, I cannot think of a better way to describe this book.

Well, here we go again. This exasperating, drop-dead funny trilogy will either drive you crazy or confuse you mercilessly or possibly both (see below), but in any case, you were asking for it. Many of the characters--and some of the plot--of "Schrodinger's Cat" derive from "Illuminatus!", which should probably be read and well-digested before tackling the sequel.

Wilson was a prophet, making fun of blue-nosed anti-porn feminists long before it was cool, but also remained firmly entrenched in the times of his writing--Nixon and nuclear destruction don't pack quite the same punch in the days of Clinton and Y2K. Using his now rather shabby-seeming understanding of quantum mechanics, he wrote one book "under the influence" of the multiple-worlds model, one in which nonlocality is the ticket, and one which presumes that reality is created by observation (guess which!). It's all great fun, but ultimately not as satisfying as its predecessor.

While the Illuminatus was a confusing, lsd-induced ride through time and various viewpoints, Schroedinger's Cat streamlines the POV shifts. Obviously Robert Shea's part in the first volume added a certain "fuzziness" to the narrative. Wilson writing alone is easier to follow. The book follows movement between universes as the previous ones are destroyed every hundred pages or so. The only constant: a dismembered penis that once belonged to a man who underwent a sex change operation. Men become women, women become men, and scientists do whatever they please. Brilliant, daring, the words are not sufficient to describe this masterpiece.

This trilogy is structured to be the literary equivalent of quantum theory. For example, each part deals with a different potential universe, all similar to each other and our own, but with slight differences. So in one universe, for example, Carl Jung, vs. James Joyce, is the author of Ullyses (both being well versed in the same symbolism). Subplots begun in one universe are taken up in the next, like the influence of quarks. The main difference is that society in each subsequent universe is slightly more enlightened, therefore only the last Earth escapes total destruction at the hands of terrorists (or, like Schrodinger's cat, the Earth is alive, dead, or in a state of potential). Along the way, there are interesting lessons in Economics (noting, e.g., how we take money for granted as a part of society, but it isn't a necessary part of society, but just a construct), Sociology, etc. And it is filled with great, laugh out loud humour, sometimes Pythonesque. Without the help of the Illuminatus Trilogy's co-author, this book is far less literary, but it is filled with as many ideas in fewer pages. This is the best introduction to Wilson's work, fictional or non-fictional. Highly recommended.