Believe
That, and You'll Believe Anything
By Toby Philpott
(aka Bogusmagus)
An appreciation of Illuminatus! the online course, and book
by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. You should read this
if it's the last thing you do.
If you have found this article then you probably know at least
a little about Robert Anton Wilson and his work, and the Maybe
Logic Academy. His books vary a lot, but perhaps the subject
matter of Illuminatus! has become most familiar to people. We
casually say ‘conspiracy theories’ now, but it took
many years for this useful concept to reach the public, and as
soon as it did it became surrounded by a haze of misinformation
and disinformation, enthusiasts and detractors.
I didn’t just want to pitch this at new readers (or people
who have only read other books by Bob, whether the psychological,
autobiographical, political or just plain funny!) I also wanted
to encourage people who have read it once, perhaps years ago,
to return and reread it and maybe join in the fun following threads,
trading clues and hints and drawing tentative conclusions.
I guess this might have to work on many levels.
People who conspire against our best interests have to distract
us from that fact, and one way is to immerse any calm and well-researched
accusations in a murky pool of improbable and silly stories.
Even if you suspect the CIA of lurking behind the accounts of
alien encounters, and the distribution of LSD to the sub-culture,
or know that Freemasons formed the bulk of the Founding Fathers
of America and devised its Constitution, you still can’t
be sure of their original motives (apart from experimenting on
us all). It probably pleases them that the average person (though
amused and interested) eventually dismisses such fables as hoax
or fantasy, because then all the plausible journalistic stories
of conspiracies and corruption amongst the rich and powerful
can be lumped together with the obvious nonsense, and then all
dismissed as being the work of cranks and obsessives. It’s
a good trick.
Of course, the conspiracy research field doesn’t only
contain serious, if frustrated, researchers, but does also include
a lot of people that most of us would definitely label as cranks,
lunatics and flat-earthers. It can, however, seem close to impossible
to make a clear distinction at times. It would be a pity if you
missed this book because you don’t much like ‘lunatic
fringe’ subjects, because this book seems to me to be the
first and best satire of the genre. The reader can never feel
certain where the truth lies, and whose reports to trust. As
in Sixties movies there are no longer ‘good guys and bad
guys’ (black hats and white hats) – no easy judgements
- it explores the whole grey area of fuzzy logic and ambiguity.
The Illuminati appear noble heroes to some and the worst and
most despicable of humans to others, if they can even be described
as human.
Illuminatus! seems like a true manifestation of the paranoia
my generation all shared in the late 1960s and early 1970s – it
gives a clearer view of the world of that period of history than
the manipulated image younger generations are now offered. No
fey and flowery hippies here, just waiting to ‘grow up’ ‘get
real’ and turn into Yuppies. Nah, here (in one scene) tough,
wilful people of all persuasions join together to attend a demo
and find themselves being tear-gassed and beaten up by fellow
citizens of a ‘free country’ at the Democratic Convention
in 1969 – a moment when it suddenly became clear to a lot
of previously halfway-content citizens just how far those in
power were willing to go to suppress disagreement with their
policies. And so it came to pass that the underdogs started fighting
back by fair means or foul.
In case I just made it sound like a period piece, a nostalgic
history of my youth, I should add that (upon re-reading) the
book still seems extremely relevant, perhaps even more so than
when it was first published - indeed it can sometimes seem as
eerie as listening to Bill Hicks do routines about ‘Bush
and the War in Iraq’ from 1991! (I should say ‘invasion’ – Bill
is quite clear that ‘war’ should describe an event
where two armies turn up). The Pentagon has a huge chunk
blown out of it in this book (1973!), which must have seemed
as unimaginable as the Berlin Wall coming down. You may
well find or experience other strange connections – you’ll
have to decide for yourself whether they deserve to be called
synchronicities or simple coincidences. I find it very satisfying
to have the period portrayed as it actually felt to live through
- rather than the re-written, airbrushed version we so often
see now - not just a bunch of apolitical airheads on dope, but
activists of all persuasions, serious use of drugs for educational
and magical purposes, unified opposition or resistance (even
with some disagreement about the best approach) - infiltration
and subversion…
Although the core of the plot revolves around events taking
place during a few intense weeks in the early 70s, the stories
(and the stories within stories that the characters tell each
other) range all over the planet and all over space-time. So
it retains a timeless quality that comes partly from the sheer
range of subject matter and partly from crisp and fresh writing.
The book seems to have been rediscovered by a later generation
of hackers and crackers who perhaps enjoyed the puzzle aspect
and the strange loops and the sex and drugs and rock ‘n
roll and the jokes – because this is a roller-coaster ride.
It’s a great read, very funny, and it makes you think.
It contains a teasing mixture of real history and modern myths,
and leaves you to sort them out if you can.
Of course, some people may dismiss it as ‘that conspiracy
book’ – believing it to be beneath them to read such
stuff – mistaking it for lowbrow Von Daniken-style popular
faction. Mr Wilson is not the first person to smuggle serious
speculative fiction into the shops under cover of the Science
Fiction label (Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and Douglas Adams
spring to mind), but this book is so much more than that. Even
if you don’t like sci-fi, please ignore that publishing
trick, that label, and lack of serious critical reviews, and
get hold of a copy.
Not only do I find it hilarious and enlightening, but it makes
several serious points, and offers links, connections, thoughts
and ideas that kept me busy for months, if not years. It doesn’t ‘believe’ in
worldwide conspiracies, and it doesn’t dismiss them as
fantasy. What Bob Wilson and the late Bob Shea seem to have done
is collect up all the conspiracy rumours they could find, and
then write a book as if all of those stories contained an element
of ‘truth’. The characters lead (and mislead) each
other into believing their own versions of the events, which
we can see from several different angles. One of them even has
the sneaky suspicion that they all live in a book! Another is
reviewing the very book he is in. Characters are forever brooding
about ‘what is really going on’, or explaining their
own theories (or bare-faced lying) to each other. But I don’t
want to give you too many spoilers.
Another major thread, woven through this complex tapestry, we
usually call ‘the occult’. Many links have been shown
between secret societies, intelligence and espionage, and occult
groups throughout history. Most of those kinds of groups
have
developed a cellular structure, so one person can rarely glimpse
the big picture, or know the true intentions of remote members
of the chain, or those above them in the hierarchy. This book
is written in a similar way – not from some omniscient
god/author viewpoint but so that the reader is immersed, with
an ever-shifting perspective. As a reader you may identify with
first one then another, sometimes you can glimpse their thoughts,
other times you can only eavesdrop on them or observe them objectively,
and may tend to believe what they say to each other (but not
know what they are secretly thinking). Some people find that
swirl of viewpoints and shifting time-scales a little confusing
at first, but we are not talking ‘difficult’ modern
literature here, just fluent popular writing. The fact that Mr
Wilson does understand, and has immersed himself in, the reputedly ‘heavy’ moderns
like Joyce and Pound, as well as experimentalists like William
Burroughs, does not mean the book is hard work. It would be a
fine choice for a long flight.
Space-time feels twisted, and the points of view differ widely,
yet it is written with great clarity and humour. It's not a difficult
book (unless you are a very linear person, who couldn't understand
The Prisoner, or any modern movie that doesn’t try to explain
all, or wrap everything up in a neat and happy ending). There
is a huge cast - but although characters meet and separate and
form all sorts of alliances (in often baffling combinations)
they remain vivid, clearly defined and sympathetically portrayed,
even minor characters…
The Illuminatus! Course (with Bob as tutor) was a natural for
the Academy. Where many of us might feel ill-prepared to tackle
Joyce or Pound we could see this as a very approachable book
- and yet it is more densely packed with jokes, hints, cultural
criticism, literary references, and encouragement to open the
door (at least) into other kinds of study (alternative money
systems, magick, drug history) than may be obvious at first glance.
You may prefer to zoom through it and toss it aside, but this
complexity should suit a generation who enjoy repeated viewing
of DVD movies looking for clues and sly jokes.
McLuhan may have feared that literacy was going to become an
almost extinct skill in the oral, tribal culture he foresaw (and
that would be true if I could just talk to my computer) but so
long as we are tied to keyboards, writing will not fade. In fact,
just the opposite - people on the Web probably read far more
than they did before (when the screen they stared at was television).
This forum has given everyone a chance, not only to motivate
each other to work through the book (whether for the first or
the 23rd time), but also to write - and to write amusingly, not
just trivial posts and flame wars.
(NB: There is no hidden significance in the number
of words in this piece)
© 2004 Toby
Philpott (aka bogusmagus)
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