Robert Anton Wilson, Iconoclast
a favorite social philosopher of mine
In my previous post I noted that I’d expound upon the life and works of Robert Anton Wilson- futurist, satirist, novelist, playwright, and one of my earliest influences as a social philosopher. I first discovered Wilson by reading his first book, Cosmic Trigger, around 1979. It was frankly the first nonfiction non-textbook book I had picked up in years- I was smoking a lot of weed around then, and while I still read more than most people my age, it was mostly short-form material like magazine articles. Most of what had formerly been reading time had been replaced by an emphasis on constantly listening to the newly released music of the 1970s. (Wouldn’t you?) At least I wasn’t a TV addict. But most people weren’t, back then- they’d leave the picture on and the sound off. The real stories- the cultural narratives of the day- were carried by the musicians.
Anyway, I had dropped off of reading serious nonfiction for several years pretty much entirely…and along comes Bob Wilson, to jump-start my latent intellectual potential with his cracked mosaic of irony, satire, Socratic inquiry, social psychology, and wide-ranging erudition, seasoned liberally with esoterica like UFO lore and allusions to mysticism and magic. Wilson reminded people like me that the STEMM disciplines were important, and that even a layperson outside of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (and medical) professions had something like a duty to maintain some familiarity with math, scientific principles and technological developments, and Nerdie stuff like that. He got me reading again. About those topics. Wilson also displayed consdierably open-minded familiarity with arts and literature, including the ever-growing canon of the humanities- everyone from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Joyce and Pound, Raymond Chandler, Thelonious Monk and Bob Kaufman- a level of insightful erudition that seems to have gone out of fashion entirely except in a few urban elite circles, and the precincts immediately adjacent to them. I’ve been keeping my hand in with reading classic of English and American literature for 40 years since Wilson prompted me to pursue a course of self-study (and official college coursework) on the subject, and I still haven’t caught him.
That said, I have some bones to pick with Bob Wilson. He had some wack opinions, and as a blunt fact, his command of history is thin. His fondness for the stray loose ends got the better of him, and as a result his command of historical knowledge is erratic, sometimes shallow, and occasionally outright erroneous and misleading. Still and all, a great guide, and a fun, entertaining companion- as long as you check his work.
Bob Wilson never quite made it to being a polymath in the conventional sense- you know, one of those exceedingly rare paragons who can do anything from skippering a sailboat to inventing a better mousetrap, while consulting with the waiter in French about which wine to order. But the extent of his interests was sweeping. And while had weak suits likehis problematic command of history, his strong suits could be very strong indeed. Wilson was arguably at his best when working with fellow Iconoclast Tim Leary on his forte, social psychology. (Although Wilson’s insistence on working in suspect characters like Aleister Crowley into that endeavor added little value to that particular endeavor, and may even properly be considered a net negative, and a side spur not worth taking. And not one that I’m going to spend any moretime on in this post, either.)
Toward the end of his life, Robert Anton Wilson was attempting to at up a subscription website teach his signature multidisciplinary blend of critical thinking, ethnomethodology, social-libertarian ethics, and “quantum psychology” in the form af a course curriculum. It never really got off the ground. I never enrolled myself, in fact- but that was principally due to the fact that I had already bought nearly every book he had ever released as soon as it was published, and sometimes in more than one edition. So I figured I had already paid sufficient tuition; most of the material for his course resembled that earlier published work, which I had begun reading more than 20 years earlier. It was worth it, taking that ride. Bob Wilson will never be my guru, but neither will any of my other college professors. Wilson was merely one of the most influential teachers I’ve ever had. I hav issues with some of his positions, but then I’ve never agreed completely with any of my professors, either.
One of the most interesting thing about some of R. A. Wilson’s books- and some of Tim Leary’s books, as well- is that they include a lot of material that’s set up in similar fashion to a class workbook. And especially hip and insightful workbook, in this case, mostly concentrating on human psychology: cognitive, social, linguistic, speculative. A lot of the models share an overlap with the psychological gloss known as Transactional Analysis; others bear resemblance to the techniques of Neurolinguistic Programming. That’s because Leary’s work influences both of those empirical models of human psychology. (No one I know of seems to have picked up on it, but in my view Leary owes the underrated Alfred Adler- a one-time acolyte of Freud, who split with him- more than is generally realized.)
I plan to have a lot more to say about Robert Anton Wilson in future posts; I’ll certainly be alluding to him in the course of posts on a wide array of topics that won’t feature his name in the headline. (And, as if my wont, I’m liable to update this post with some more content; on that score, my rule of thumb should be around two weeks.) Frankly, I need to dig out some of his books from storage, where they’re currently packed away and inaccessible. But I can provide an example similar to the lessons and exercises recommended by Wilson and Leary in some writings by another Substack writer that have only been published within the last two weeks (I just read it about three days ago.) Seriously: anyone who’s already read books like Robert Anton Wilson’s Quantum Psychology and Tim Leary’s Neruopolitics should recognize the subject matter, the questions, the homework exercises. And much the same quickness of wit that was always a hallmark of the style of both Leary and Wilson at their best. Click, and maybe even learn something:
That linked text also dovetails quite neatly with ”13 Choruses for the Divine Marquis”- the Wilson essay that I just ran in my previous entry for Iconoclasms. (“13 Choruses” is also available elsewhere online for free; I’m running it strictly in the interest of fair use and soliciting wider general familiarity with Robert Anton Wilson’s insights, which in my opinion deserve a much wider- and new and youthful- readership. I’ll never charge money for it.) Seriously, that link to the freebook Desire is well worth the time of any Robert Anton Wilson fan. It isn’t yet published in its entirely, but 13 (out of 30) chapters are already up and available to read. Highly recommended. It’s some elevated shit.
It frankly bewilders me that more people haven’t caught on to Stan Goff, who’s as much of a one-man think-tank as Robert Anton Wilson. My most paranoid surmise is that potential readers find Goff’s pacifist Christianity off-putting…well, for those allergic to Jesus talk, I assure you that you’ll find only a minimal amount of it in Goff’s freebook, and hostile skeptics should be able to winnow it out while still obtaining value from the content, in much the same way that it’s possible to read Robert Anton Wilson without paying too much mind to his Aleister Crowley references. So give it a try, you information bubbleheads… (over a week later, of the people who have visited this page, not one appears to have clicked the link to Goff’s page…what are you, scared?)