RKNet Blog... Thing

Markoff Chaney would be so very proud.

Via Maybe Logic.com:

Maybe Logic “is” a hilarious and mind-bending journey into the multi-dimensional life of Robert Anton Wilson, author of the Illuminatus! Trilogy. Featuring video spanning 25 years and the best of 100 hours of footage thoroughly tweaked, transmuted and regenerated, Maybe Logic follows the ever-open eye of Pope Bob as he penetrates human illusions exposing the mathematical probabilities and spooky synchronicities of the 8 dimensions of his Universe.

The feature-length documentary features Tom Robbins, RU Sirius, Ivan Stang, Paul Krassner, Valerie Corral and Douglas Rushkoff.

The soundtrack includes music from Boards of Canada, Animals On Wheels, Tarentel, Funki Porcini, The Supplicants, Pullman, Matt Elliott, The Cinematic Orchestra, Ognen Spiroski and Amon Tobin.

This documentary on the lives and times of Robert Anton Wilson was made by Deepleaf Productions. It won Best Documentary Audience Award at the 2004 San Francisco Independent Film Festival. It’s a region-free DVD, and the run time is over 3 hours. There are tons of extras, too. I fully recommend checking out the trailer when you get an opportunity. The only thing that’s mildly discouraging is that it’s a little difficult to hear RAW speak, but that could be an audio quality issue on the trailer. Regardless, when I get my hands on the DVD I’ll go out of my way to watch it with subtitles.

Deepleaf has also put out an audio book of The Illuminatus! Trilogy. Exceprts of that audio book are available as a podcast at Deepleaf Audio. The snippet of podcast I listened to is brilliantly narrated. I was not at all impressed with the narrator for The Earth Will Shake, however. Perhaps it’s just a matter of taste, but the narrator featured in that snippet (Scot Crisp) had awful rhythm and struck me as completely smarmy and dull. I tend to prefer a physical book anyway. More on all of that after I’ve had an opportunity to read the book.
(Ahem. Added an Amazon Wishlist tracker to the Misc Information page. Just, you know, so everyone’s aware.)

Edit: A much better take on this situation, from one far more familiar can be found over yonder. At this point I suppose you could consider my post to be more of a primer for the almost equally undereducated.

So, Robert Anton Wilson died yesterday. It was also Albert Hofmann’s birthday. For those who might not be familiar, R.A. Wilson is responsible for the Illuminatus Trilogy (along with Robert Shea). Albert Hofmann is the inventor of LSD.

I went to Robert Anton Wilson’s blog and visited the bookstore at his site. The bookstore has a list of all his books, as well as books by other authors and films that he recommends reading/viewing. A bunch of interesting selections to be had, all around.

The blog appears to have been little-used but does seem to have some interesting tidbits. (All Hail Eris!)

I clicked the Amazon link in the RAW bookstore and I found this! It’s a bunch of arcade cabinets and cocktail tables for sale. <3 I gotta add… all of those to my wish list. As a reminder that I need to own a swank living area and many arcade machines must fill it.

I do wish I could properly celebrate this passing/birthday and what will go on to be a double anniversary. (I think they’d both appreciate a damn good party.) One birth, and one death, timestamps are totally different except in that 01/11 aspect. Still, 01/11 is something we can remember because it’s something we do every year. That’s the nice thing about making time circular like that, it can enforce our tendency to live in the past in a positive way by giving us a memory to look forward to experiencing in a new way.

Even if I can’t party hard, I suppose I can take this weekend to do a lot of reading. There’s all kinds of ways to evoke powerful feelings, afterall.

“Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence.” ~ RAW

“Of course I’m crazy, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.” ~ RAW

“The shock of discovering that most of the power in the world is held by ignorant and greedy people can really bum you out at first; but after you’ve lived with it a few decades, it becomes, like cancer and other plagues, just another problem that we will solve eventually if we keep working at it.” ~ RAW

“At the beginning of the 1960s, here in the United States, LSD became a drug of abuse. In a short time, this wave of popular use swept the country and it became drug number one. It was then used incautiously and people were not prepared and informed about its deep effects. And then all kinds of things happened, which caused LSD to become an infamous drug. It was a troublesome time! Telephones, panic, and alarm!” ~ A. Hofmann

“In old times, and also in our time among the Indian tribes, psychedelic substances were considered sacred and they were used with the right attitude and in a ritual and spiritual context. And what a difference if we compare it with the careless and irresponsible use of LSD in the streets and in the discotheques of New York City and everywhere in the West. It is a tragic misunderstanding of the nature and the meaning of these kinds of substances.” ~ A. Hofmann

“Through my LSD experience and my new picture of reality, I became aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom. I became very sensitive to what will happen to all this and all of us.” ~ A. Hofmann