What's the right pace for reading Illuminatus?

It's time to talk about a schedule for the group reading of Illuminatus!, which several of you said you'd be interested in participating in.

What would you think about a reading pace of 20 pages a week? The schedule was about 30 pages a week for Masks of the Illuminati. I'd almost like to take a slower pace for Illuminatus! I could make a case for 10 pages a week, but at 805 pages in the omnibus edition, it would take a long time to finish. At 20 pages a week, we'd be committed to a 40-week group read, about four-fifths of a year. Too long? Or about right for such a key work? And how about a start date of late February?

And is everyone comfortable with the procedure used in the other group reads, that I'd post something and then everyone can weigh in with the comments? I'm open to something else if anyone had any suggestions.

What I read this year -- the RAW connection

Every year, I post a list of the books that I read during the past year. This year, I will list first the books I consumed in 2013 that might interest many RAW fans, with a brief explanation for why, before I post the whole thing. I also read three books by Robert Anton Wilson, but it's pretty obvious why they'd interest a RAW fan. I've also left out some libertarian books, although anything with a libertarian slant could interest some RAW fans. "Constellation Games," for example, my favorite SF novel this year, features anarchist aliens. My "Best Books of 2013" blog post, featuring contributions from Roman Tsivkin and yours truly, is here.

Seven Shadows, L. Wayne Benner. I bought this book because Benner, a former prison convict who did time with Timothy Leary in California, collaborated with Robert Anton Wilson in an essay, "The RICH Economy." I finished the book feeling ripped off. Wilson is mentioned in exactly one sentence. There is a bit of material about Timothy Leary that seems to be true. The heart of the book is a dramatic narrative of a prison escape by Benner that as far as I can tell never actually took place -- Benner made it up.

Beethoven, Maynard Solomon. Biography of the famous composer that Robert Anton Wilson has referred to. There's some discussion about the relationship between Beethoven and members of the Illuminati and the Freemasons.

Chamber Music, James Joyce. Book of poetry from early in the career of the writer who was probably RAW's main influence.

Invented Religions, Carol Cusack. All about modern new religions such as Discordianism, the Church of the Subgenius, the Church of All Worlds, etc. Really interesting.

I Have America Surrounded, J.M.R. Higgs, excellent biography of Timothy Leary, sympathetic but not blind to Leary's faults.

The United States of Paranoia, Jesse Walker. History of conspiracy theories in America, with a whole chapter on Robert Anton Wilson and ironic uses of conspiracy theory.

Sketches Old and New, Mark Twain. Collection of short works, most of which hold up quite well. RAW was a huge Twain fan.

Mumbo Jumbo, Ishmael Reed. RAW also liked Reed's work a lot. This is a novel about warring secret societies, written at about the same time as Illuminatus!

Pause, Play: A Higher Consciousness Handbook, K.P. van der Tempel. Lots of references to RAW's work.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln. Heavy influence of RAW's novel, The Widow's Son.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce. Should be useful for my re-read of Ulysses.

Feel free to mention your own "RAW related" books you read recently.

And here is my list of what I read in 2013. I haven't attempted to distinguish between books read for the first time and books that I re-read. Also, some of these were consumed as audiobooks:

Books read 2013

1. Seven Shadows, L. Wayne Benner.
2. The Unincorporated Future, Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin.
3. Beethoven, Maynard Solomon.
4. The Trick Top Hat, Robert Anton Wilson.
5. Listen to This, Alex Ross.
6. Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson.
7. Chamber Music, James Joyce.
8. Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig.
9. Francona, Terry Francona and Dan Shaughnessy.
10. The Sign of the Four, Arthur Conan Doyle.
11.  Constellation Games, Leonard Richardson.
12. Homeland, Cory Doctorow.
13. Invented Religions, Carol Cusack.
14. Coolidge, Amity Shlaes.
15. Masks of the Illuminati, R.A. Wilson.
16. Kill Decision, Daniel Suarez.
17. Sex at Dawn, Christopher Ryan and Cecilda Jetha.
18. I Have America Surrounded, JMR Higgs.
19. Arctic Rising, Tobias Bucknell.
20. Death of  Yesterday, M.C. Beaton.
21. Pirate Cinema, Cory Doctorow.
22. The First Church on the Moon, JMR Higgs.
23. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard.
24. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick.
25. Chop Suey, a Cultural History of Chinese Food in the U.S., Andrew Coe.
26. The United States of Paranoia, Jesse Walker.
27. Light from a Lone Star, Jack Vance.
28. The View from Penthouse B, Elinor Lipman.
29. Inferno, Max Hastings.
30. Some Remarks, Neal Stephenson.
31. Sketches New and Old, Mark Twain.
32. In the Woods, Tana French.
33. On the Razor's Edge, Michael Flynn.
34. The Secret Sentry, Matthew Aid.
35. After Thermopylae, Paul Cartledge.
36. The Phoenix and the Mirror, Avram Davidson.
37. Musings from the Bay, James Milton Hanna.
38. Coming Apart: The State of White America: 1960-2010, Charles Murray.
39. Mumbo Jumbo, Ishmael Reed.
40. Tampa, Alissa Nutting.
41. Bleak House, Charles Dickens.
42. Weaponized, Nick Mennuti and Guggenheim.
43. Nine Inches, Tom Perrotta.
44. Pause, Play: A Higher Consciousness Handbook, K.P. van der Tempel.
45. Five Against Arlane, Tom Purdom.
46. The Things from the Lake, Eleanor Ingram.
47. Those Who Hunt the Night, Barbara Hambly.
48. Too Loud a Silence, Bohumil Hrabal.
49. Going Clear, Lawrence Wright.
50. Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln.
51. Coincidance, A Head Test, Robert Anton Wilson.
52. Average Is Over, Tyler Cowen.
53. The Stress of Her Regard, Tim Powers.
54. Generosity, Richard Powers.
55. Six Armies, John Keegan.
56. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce.

What to read to understand 'Ulysses'?

I plan to re-read Ulysses next month. I don't have time to read 5-10 books about it. Can you folks suggest 1-2 of the best books to read to understand what's going on? I'm posting the query here as I assume there are other folks who want to understand James Joyce better as a key to understanding Robert Anton Wilson's writings.

Adam Gorightly on the 'Campbell Clan'

Adam Gorightly has a new post up at HistoriaDiscordia.com  on "Kenneth and Daisy Eris: A Campbell Clan Discordian Continuum," which provides interesting details on the staging of Illuminatus! by Ken Campbell and provides an update on Daisy Eris Campbell's efforts to stage Cosmic Trigger. I did not know that there was a touring production in the U.S., or that RAW and a bunch of his friends had gone to Seattle to see it.

Friday links

Golden Dawn exhibition in London.

Robert Anton Wilson's eight winner and loser scripts. 

What if a drone strike hit an American wedding?

Interactive map of the travels of Odysseus.

Hundreds of authors protest mass surveillance.

When you look at your laptop, it looks at you! (Hat tip, Jesse Walker).

NSA paid private company to use flawed encryption method. 

Updated: 95 things we've learned about the NSA. 

Gene Healy on the real lie of the year. 

A 'lost' Discordian novel by John F. Carr and Camden Benares

Adam Gorightly has been publishing lots of interesting material at his Historia Discordia website, but I was particularly interested in his new piece on the novel A Certain Flair for Death, unpublished for years after it was completed by John F. Carr and Camden Benares (author of Zen Without Zen Masters, etc.)

Although it went unpublished for years, Robert Anton Wilson apparently read it in manuscript. Here is RAW's quote: “The best psychological science-fiction novel since The Demolished Man…the tension mounts and mounts…I couldn’t put it down…it might do your head as much good as an Encounter Group with the Marx Brothers!” The book actually came out last summer after years in limbo,  but this is the first time I ran across any mention of it. The book has no reviews so far on Amazon, so maybe Gorightly (and my blog) can give it some much-needed publicity.

I have not read anything by John F. Carr despite my longtime SF reading habit; the Gorightly piece features an article by Carr which reminisces about Benares and the difficult history of the Crying Clown series (which includes A Certain Flair for Death; Carr plans to bring out two more completed novels.) I hope that at some point, Carr decides to pay attention to details. The formatting for Kindle for A Certain Flair for Death is not well done, as I discovered after buying a copy.

The SF Encylopedia entry on John F. Carr is here; interestingly, the only Carr book John Clute likes is Carnifex Mardi Gras, a prequel to A Certain Flair for Death. For more on Camden Benares, see Supergee's post. For more on the RAW connection to Benares, see my post. 

Rainbow Run is a Carr-Benares novel that came out last year.

Christmas links

RAW on the pagan origins of Christmas.  (Re-run of a link I posted last year.)

A bit more on the pagan origins.

Salvador Dali's Christmas cards.

Ted Gioia's Top 100 albums of 2013 (in case you are looking for something to spend your gift certificate on,  or you want to take my advice on using your library cards to legally acquire free music.) (Ohio libraries are required to issue a card to any state resident who requests one. I have cards for three nearby libraries, allowing me to download nine Freegal tracks each week.)

About the Gioia list, Tyler Cowen writes, "Ted understands the acoustical nature of music, and the creation of alternative sound worlds, better than any other music critic I read. " And via Tyler, here is a playlist for the Gioia list.

'Those who understand shine like stars'

Here is one of my favorite Robert Anton Wilson quotes: "It is a great privilege to be conscious in this universe. Those who understand shine like stars."

In fact, let's pull back and give the quote context by giving the full Q and A from the New Libertarian Notes interview with RAW, one of my favorite interviews:

CRNLA: Do you feel frustration living in the "real" world? After reading Illuminatus it's a downer to get back to reality -- even my usual escapist literature is depressing. How do you feel about that?

RAW: Every nervous system creates its own "reality," minute by minute -- or, in the language of Don Juan Matus, we live inside a "bubble" of neural abstractions which we identify with reality. In metaprogramming systems like Tibetan Tantra, Crowleyanity, or Leary's Exo-Psychology, you can make this neurological fact into conscious experience, and you will never be bored or depressed again. Just reading the scientific evidence that this is true, in social psychology or general semantics or neurology or whatever, will not liberate you; one needs actual re-training, in Tantra or Crowley or Leary, to experience what I'm talking about here. It is a great privilege to be conscious in this universe. Those who understand, shine like stars.

We may "shine like stars' metaphorically, but we also are made of material manufactured inside of stars; we are "star stuff," as scientists have tried to tell us. Here's a 1973 quote from Carl Sagan:

Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff.

This blog post traces the same thought back to earlier incarnations.

It's a pretty good-looking universe, too, as Phil Platt reminds us in the latest installment of his "Bad Astronomy" column at Slate, "The Best Astronomy and Space Pictures of 2013." The photograph of one particular shining star posted at the top of this post, of Sol, is taken from a similar posting in 2010. 

Notes on early libertarians

Over at Overweening Generalist, Michael Johnson has posted "The Drug Report: December 2013: Inhalants, From the Mundane to Outre," which discussed inhaled drugs from nitrous oxide to marijuana. He also attempts to run to ground a Robert Anton Wilson anecdote about William James.

Michael doesn't mention this, but Herodotus, the first Greek historian, recorded early examples of marijuana use by the Scythians, a nomadic proto-libertarian group of peoples who lived north of the Black Sea. (Proto-libertarian might seem a stretch, but they avoided being absorbed into the Persian Empire and also kept their independence from Alexander the Great's empire.)

Herodotus records that "They take some hemp seed, creep into the tent, and throw the seed on to the hot stones. At once it begins to smoke, giving off a vapor unsurpassed by any vapor-bath one could find in Greece. The Scythians enjoy it so much that they howl with pleasure."

More here.

Joyce's Portrait of the Artist' — non serviam, I will not serve

James Joyce, aside from his inherent interest as a major writer, is interesting to Robert Anton Wilson fans because of the influence Joyce had on RAW's writings. I have been reading Joyce lately; this year I read Chamber Music and re-read Dubliners, and I just finished reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 

Reading Coincidance was good preparation for reading Portrait, as is reading Wilson in general. Project Gutenberg has versions of the books in various formats; I read mine on my Kindle. (Of course, Gutenberg has just about everything by Joyce except Finnegans Wake). If you are on the fence about doing a Joyce read-through, see PQ's "16 Reasons Why James Joyce is the Greatest Writer Ever." 

PQ observes, in his "The Exasperating, Inexhaustible Simplicity of James Joyce's Portrait" that reading Portrait is a good preparation for reading Ulysses, and I am glad he says so, as I plan to re-read Ulysses next month.

Portrait is interesting stylistically; it begins with the language and point of view of a small child and then shifts into other styles and literary modes, including, of all things, fiery and vivid sermons on the nature of hell.

My favorite portions of the book were the declarations Stephen makes as he forges his own philosophy. Those were the parts I bookmarked.

For example, toward the end of the book, the hero, Stephen Dedalus (a person much like Joyce himself) calls away his friend Cranly and had a discussion with him about Stephen's obsessions, including his views on art and religion:

— Do you believe in the eucharist? Cranly asked.

— I do not, Stephen said.

— Do you disbelieve then?

— I neither believe in it nor disbelieve in it, Stephen answered.

— Many persons have doubts,  even religious persons, yet they overcome them or put them aside, Cranly said. Are your doubts on that point too strong?

— I do not wish to overcome them, Stephen answered. 

Stephen rejects pressures to conform to others' demand that he give obedience to religion or political movements:

After a pause Cranly asked:

—What age is your mother?

—Not old, Stephen said. She wishes me to make my easter duty.

—And will you?

—I will not, Stephen said.

—Why not? Cranly said.

—I will not serve, answered Stephen.

Stephen is committing, in the eyes of the church, the sin of pride. Here is a paragraph from one of those sermons earlier in the book:

—Adam and Eve, my dear boys, were, as you know, our first parents, and you will remember that they were created by God in order that the seats in heaven left vacant by the fall of Lucifer and his rebellious angels might be filled again. Lucifer, we are told, was a son of the morning, a radiant and mighty angel; yet he fell: he fell and there fell with him a third part of the host of heaven: he fell and was hurled with his rebellious angels into hell. What his sin was we cannot say. Theologians consider that it was the sin of pride, the sinful thought conceived in an instant: NON SERVIAM: I WILL NOT SERVE. That instant was his ruin.

Here is Stephen's key declaration to Cranly toward the end of the book, when he has rejected pressures from the church, his mother, the Irish nationalists among his fellow students, etc.:

—Look here, Cranly, he said. You have asked me what I would do and what I would not do. I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use—silence, exile, and cunning.

The phrase "non serviam" is used three times in Illuminatus!, to explain the essence of libertarianism (or, if you prefer, anarchism).

My annual "Best Books" blog post

Every year I do a blog post for my newspaper in which I ask various folks to reveal which books they read in the past year that the liked the most. I always ask someone associated with this blog post to chip in. This year, Roman Tsivkin joins me, novelist Tom Perrotta, Marginal Revolution blogger and economist Alex Tabarrok, Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, mystery novelist Sara J. Henry,  publisher Doug Phares, "Dilbert" cartoonist Scott Adams and my wife.

EFF's best books of 2013

This is the time of year when everyone comes up with their "best books of 2013" lists. (Mine will be out soon.) The wonderful Largehearted Boy blog always publishes a master list of the lists.

Because I believe that the fate of the Internet is one of the most important civil liberties issues of our day, I particularly liked the Electronic Frontier Foundation's list. Some of the books are available as a free download. I've read one of them (the Cory Doctorow), have a couple of others on my Kindle and plan to acquire some more.

The hippie physicist weighs in

A prediction for 2014, from everyone's favorite hippie physicist, Nick Herbert:

Alien starships fail to make an appearance. The reason? All really smart aliens travel from mind to mind. Aliens call Earth "Planet of the Hates". And who would wish telepathic contact with a world of whiners?

More here.