Big New RAW Biography

Robert Anton Wilson (1932 -- 2007)

“There is so much mystery and ambiguity about everything, maybe that’s why there’s so much in my novels.  But why else does no one give a straight answer to a child about anything? Everything was lies, hypocrisy, evasion.  I knew there was something going on they were hiding from me, and it used to scare me.  I wasn’t quite sure what it was. It might have something to do with the wolf man, or Frankenstein monster — I didn’t know what the hell it was. And I didn’t trust them at all. At one point, somewhere around 7 or 8, they admitted there was no Santa Claus, and as soon as I recovered from the shock my next thought was, ‘When are they going to admit there’s no God?’ They never did. And I went back to believing in God under the hammering and pounding of the nuns, up until I was about 13, I guess.”—Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson (2003)

Robert Anton Wilson was a comic novelist, scholar, activist and father to four children.Together with his wife Arlen, he challenged the foolish beliefs and politics of his times with a brand of humor and skepticism all his own.

 

Recently a biography of Wilson was published: Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson by Gabriel Kennedy which I intended to review. But I found that I could do no better than this wonderful report by Gareth Branwyn in BoingBoing. Read it and admire.

Robert Anton Wilson was eminently quotable. Here are a few of my favorites.

Reality is where two rival gangs of shamans fought each other to a standstill.

You should view the world as a conspiracy run by a very closely-knit group of nearly omnipotent people, and you should think of these people as yourself and your friends.

Jabir Opens Wilsonfest 2017

JABIR OPENS WILSONFEST 2017

Prolific local author and thinker Robert Anton Wilson died ten years ago at his home in Capitola, CA. I was one of the many friends who participated in Bob's hospice-assisted passage into the next realm and one of the celebrants at the fabulous Wilson Wake held at the Coconut Grove on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Ten years after his death, Friends of Bob convened RAW Day at the Santa Cruz Arts & History Museum, recorded the proceedings and made the videos available here at the RAW Trust Site which is also busy editing and publishing Bob's literary works in original new formats.

Among the various presenters on RAW Day at the Santa Cruz Museum were R. U. Sirius, co-founder of the Berkeley-based pioneering cyber-psychedelic magazine MONDO 2000, Richard Rasa, head of the publication arm of the RAW Trust, Adam Golightly, Discordian Historian, Erik Davis, author of The Visionary State and Christina Pearson, Bob's oldest daughter. Holding the proceedings together was the hyperenergetic British MC, Daisy Eris Campbell, whose father directed Illuminatus! while she later directed Cosmic Trigger, two big British theatrical productions based on the works of Robert Anton Wilson. The participants at RAW Day included many famous Santa Cruzites, notably Valerie Corrall, David Jay Brown and Suzie Wouk.

For reasons unknown, Doctor Jabir was chosen to open the festivities. In my five minutes I proceeded to tell the story of how I first met Bob and his red-headed Irish wife Arlen; the tale of something Bob stole from me; and a poem on creativity called Kiss My Bare Art -- all captured on video by Daisy Eris.

And sure as sin, Bob Wilson, tonight after uploadin' this wee post, I'll be drinkin' a Guinness in yer honor and hummin' Danny Boy. 

Robert Anton Wilson (1932 - 2007)

Die ewige Blumenkraft

Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007)

Writer-philosopher Robert Anton Wilson departed the physical plane exactly two years ago at his home in Capitola, CA on 1/11/07. (For those fascinated by numerology "o7" is "111" in binary notation.)

Bob Wilson is best known for his numerous books, most notably the Illuminatus! Trilogy (with fellow Playboy editor Robert Shea) which aspires to describe the Mother of All Conspiracy Theories, the semi-autobiographical Cosmic Trigger and (my favorite) his Schrödinger Cat Trilogy featuring an innocent sex researcher who becomes entangled in ludicrous schemes. Bob (along with his red-headed wife Arlen) also hosted wherever they happened to live--whether Berkeley, Dublin, or Capitola--an ongoing salon of cutting-edge intellects. Bob and Arlen loved witty conversations and odd personalities. Many of my friends I first met in and around Robert Anton Wilson's circle--Bob was a "strange attractor" who liked to use his friends as material for his writings.

One of my favorite Wilson events was a large Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ) celebration organized by underground impresario Joseph Matheny in a San Francisco warehouse, where I recited some early quantum tantra rants alongside skits by Bob himself, performance astrologer Rob Brezsny, shit-kicking essayist Peter Lamborn Wilson and numerous other celebrities on both sides of the proscenium. I also remember racing in a Jeep thru the night streets of New York with Bob in order to be interviewed on Hakim Bey's Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade on WBAI in the wee hours of the morning. Later Hakim Bey penned a fine obituary for good old RAW. Bob Wilson also starred, along with science-fiction writer Rudy Rucker and psychedelic philosopher Terence McKenna in an experimental film Naked Minds that has yet to be released.

Like his pals McKenna and Leary, Wilson possessed in great measure that verbal inventiveness the Irish call "blarney" and the man crafted many a memorable phrase. My favorite RAW quote: "Reality is where two rival shamans fought each other to a standstill."

As his physical powers waned (he suffered from post-polio syndrome), Bob discovered the World Wide Web and was soon spreading his demented wisdom across the Internet. Where one can still investigate his Maybe Logic Academy and his Guns and Dope Party. 

In common with millions of freedom-loving Americans, Bob Wilson supported the right of mature adults to smoke "anything they damn well please." A few years back he served as a judge at the annual Cannabis Cup competition in Amsterdam. His favorite authors were James Joyce, Ezra Pound and Raymond Chandler.

After Bob died, his ashes were scattered in Monterey Bay joining wife Arlen's as we revelers partied and followed the progress of his deathboat with Irish harpist at the prow from the windows of the fabled Coconut Grove on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Pictures from Bob's Final Party are posted here and here.

Goodbye, Mr. Wilson. This world is poorer without you.