Robert Anton Wilson

[NilesCalder]

I can't say Fitz, Finnigan's Wake is beyond me, however I do know that RAW used them in Masks. They're there from Joyce's "Another beer Albert; Ein stein Einstien?" through to the denoument.

Basicly if you can't get them in Wake you're unlikely to spot them in Masks.

 

[BaronVonHoopla]

Argh, Joyce . . . I give a go at Finnegan's Wake about every three months . . . It sort of infuriates me though that I need to have read every book and know four languages to even try to understand it . . .

I have to say, the part in Cosmic Trigger where RAW 'translates' the hundred letter word is pretty astounding. I was gobsmacked . . . it was then I realized I would never understand the book, no matter how hard I tried.

I still try though.


-Fitz

 

[James_H]

possibly "interesting philosopher, bad writer (but the best kind of bad writer)". So I voted for Genius instead. I remember that when I read Illuminatus! it infected my head for months, but I can hardly remember it now.

PS, schoolfriend claims her brother took a first tab of acid immediately after finishing it. Didn't come down for a month.

 

[BaronVonHoopla]

possibly "interesting philosopher, bad writer (but the best kind of bad writer)". So I voted for Genius instead.

In what way, James? I think his writing is excellent; easy to read, witty, lots to digest . . . what consitutes the 'best kind of bad writer'? Any other examples?


-Fitz

 

[AgProv]

Well, wasn't it Robert Anton Wilson who (even if he didn't invent the idea) used to use "God is a black woman" as a trigger-phrase to shock people into thinking the previously unthinkable?

 

[EnolaGaia]

Well, wasn't it Robert Anton Wilson who (even if he didn't invent the idea) used to use "God is a black woman" as a trigger-phrase to shock people into thinking the previously unthinkable?

The earliest "God = Black Woman" allusion I recall was a story widely circulated in the Sixties - usually as a joke, but also with sarcastic or thought-provoking intent. Here's a representative version ...

An astronaut returned to Earth from a long mission farther out into space than anyone had traveled before.
A sarcastic reporter asked the astronaut whether he'd seen God out there.
The astronaut answered, "Yes, but what I saw was a big surprise."
The reporter then asked what had surprised him about God.
The astronaut replied, "Well ... For one thing, she's black."

I don't know - but wouldn't be surprised to learn - that this was a meme originating in response to the (possibly apocryphal) claim Yuri Gagarin had reported he'd seen no God on his 1961 orbital flight:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin

Alan Watts supposedly cited this story on a regular basis, and I recall it often being attributed to him. However, I'm not sure that attribution is accurate.

I also remember this story / meme was sufficiently popular among 1970's-era feminists that it became something of a cliche.

 

[AgProv]

Interesting!¬ I know the phrase mainly from its use by Wilson and Shea in Illuminatus!, but I'd always suspected they didn't originate it. Thanks!