George moved upward on the bed and hugged her. 'I love you,' he said, and suddenly it did not sound like a lie. The narrative is experimental; Wilson has an obvious admiration of Joyce that shows up not just here, but also in his lectures and more autobiographical books. As such, it jumps between characters, places, and times, sometimes mid-paragraph, sometimes entering stream-of-consciousness. This may make it difficult for readers who feel that whatever Wilson and Shea are getting at isn't worth the headache. You need to be on your toes, but it's probably best to just "roll with it" and not spend overlong trying to tie every piece together. In any case, re-readings can consistently reveal new interrelationships. Creepy Uncle: the man who made Atlanta Hope the woman she became and who indirectly inspired Telemachus Sneezed.

Illuminatus! (Literature) - TV Tropes Illuminatus! (Literature) - TV Tropes

The bank robber John Dillinger was actually identical Zen master quintuplets and one of the JFK assassins. You never disappoint me." Hagbard said. "If they ever hang you, you'll be arguing about whether the rope really exists until the last minute." I meant to review this trilogy after I read it but it sort of just left my mind until my mom brought the book home that she borrowed from a co-worker a couple weeks ago. I looked at the cover and instantly remembered. I was kind of surprised to see my mom bring this home, for my mom is the one who reads classics, philosophy, and noir horror. It is a classic text because it introduced into popular culture an entire alternative way of thinking about the world which, though sometimes as absurd as the 'morning of the magicians', is genuinely liberatory and, ultimately, 'true' or 'as true' as anything else.

It is so deliberately occult in places as to become occasionally (and ironically) a bit pompous, much like its 'hero' Hagbard Celine, the Captain Nemo of the story. The satire is somewhat jaded and the three novels taken together are too long and sometimes over-written. I can certainly say I liked it, but it's hard to say how much. Some parts were better than others, but there are many parts to be considered. Unlike other reviewers, I did not find the numerous asides and allusions to be distracting. If one piqued my interest, I looked it up and more often than not, learned something entirely new. Some didn't intrigue me as much, and I was happy to let them be. Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The novel Telemachus Sneezed, a parody of Atlas Shrugged, which asks the question "What is John Guilt?" Atlas Shrugged is mentioned several times itself, however. Telemachus Sneezed might be a thought experiment on what would have been the result if Ayn Rand had focused her interest in Ancient Greek philosophy on Heraclitus instead of Parmenides and Aristotle. It's an interesting fact however that Atlas Shrugged is anti-government, while Telemachus Sneezed is depicted as definitely pro-strong-government to the point of being openly fascist.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea | Goodreads

Shea and Wilson followed this up with the related Schrodinger's Cat trilogy, which develops the alternate-universes model of quantum physics, using permutations on the same characters and settings.Many male authors have shied away from writing female characters from the inside, despite having no compunction about getting inside them in other ways. I cannot reiterate enough the late Dan O'Bannon's insistence that the secret to writing women was writing men and then leaving out the penis. The error of most alleged libertarians — especially the followers(!) of the egregious Ayn Rand — is to assume that all property(1) is property(2). The distinction can be made by any IQ above 70 and is absurdly simple. The test is to ask, of any title of ownership you are asked to accept or which you ask others to accept, ‘Would this be honored in a free society of rationalists, or does it require the armed might of a State to force people to honor it?’ If it be the former, it is property(2) and represents liberty; if it be the latter, it is property(1) and represents theft. Ken and I drove down to have a meeting with Hall. As we entered the National, Ken turned to me and said: “Bill, before you enter any meeting, you have to know exactly what it is you want out of it. What we want out of this is for you to have whatever budget and facilities you need to build all-new stage sets for the production here.” Every so many years or so, the world becomes and unrecognizably strange place and I am drawn to Illuminatus! once again.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Wikiquote The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Wikiquote

Public Secret Message: A secret society places personal ads reading "In thanks to St. Jude for favors answered - A.W." as a code to their other members. All authority is a function of coding, of game rules. Men have arisen again and again armed with pitchforks to fight armies with cannon; men have also submitted docilely to the weakest and most tottery oppressors. It all depends on the extent to which coding distorts perception and conditions the physical (and mental) reflexes. Ken talked and talked. We were up on top of the ferry. The sun was shining and the Liver Birds kept watch. There was a lot of what Ken talked about that I did not understand. He told me the London theatre establishment sneered at science fiction and for that very reason he was going to set up the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool. He also went on about a book called The Illuminatus! Trilogy that he had bought in San Francisco. He was going to turn this book into a 12-hour play, the first production by The Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool. The Trilogy (and the 'serious' Appendices, with no more 'truth' in them than any other part of the books) offers us versions of a number of theories questioning the reality that we create out of our sense perceptions and, in particular, social reality.This is Aftermath,” said Hera, and her bosom shook with tears for the fate of the children of that nation.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea: 9780440539810

Love of country? Another lie; the truth is fear of cops and prisons. Love of art? Another lie; the truth is fear of the naked truth without ornaments and false faces on it. Love of truth itself? The biggest lie of all: fear of the unknown. People learn acceptance of all this and achieve wisdom? The surrender to superior force and call their cowardice maturity. It still comes down to one question: Are you kneeling at the altar, or are you on the altar watching the others kneel to you?”Even though I thought this book was boring and unoriginal, do I hate this trilogy? No. Not at all. It's just that this book felt like a CHORE more than escapism, which is why I read books in the first place. Lots and lots of them. Considering the members of that band had only just been born when the books were written, it's more likely Nirvana refers to the British psychedelic band of the same name, or the name may have been made up on the spot. They looked again, and they saw Lee Harvey Oswald perched in the window of the Texas School Book Depository; and he, again, wore the face of Stanley Laurel. And because this world had been created by a great god named Earl Warren, Oswald fired the only shots that day, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy was, as the Salvation Army charmingly expresses it, “promoted to glory.” Hippie Van: Subverted and Lampshaded when Hagbard Celine criticizes Simon Moon's VW, pointing out that a bunch of hippies in a VW Microbus will be stopped and searched EVERY time, while a white guy in a suit driving a BMW will never be stopped by the police. This is Hagbard's method of choice for drug transportation, and Simon admits he never dares have anything on him when he's in his VW.