23 Skidoo: Goodbye Robert Anton Wilson
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 11th, 2007
My old friend Robert Anton Wilson has died.
I learned of the news from my friends Patrick Huyghe and David Pescovitz. I’m sure someplace, Bucky Fuller, Timothy Leary, Charles Fort, and Robert Anton Wilson are deciding whether it’s time to play supercheckers or Texas hold ‘em.
I corresponded with Robert Anton Wilson (RAW as he sometimes was called) from the 1970s through the early 1990s, until his health and his in-and-out self-exiles moved him near-and-far from many people. In the waning years, like many, I kept in touch via friends of friends, as it were. Wilson had a universe of friends, as was shown by Boing Boing’s pre-death appeal that snatched Wilson from falling off the cliff of poverty as he was dying.
The cover of Cosmic Trigger, a book I remember reading and reading, amazed at the connections Wilson was making.
Had RAW’s writings in the late 1970s impacted me? Well, let me just mention this one piece of my private life. When I married my second wife (now ex-) in 1980, after we both read Cosmic Trigger, we picked (to the strange surprise of our friends and families) a Friday. Why? Because we wanted to get married on May (2+3 = 5), 23rd, two 23s, in honor of Robert Anton Wilson’s book or more properly, it’s concepts and Fortean linkages. You’ll have to read Cosmic Trigger to learn why the number 23 is important, although it is a thought that has drifted rather significantly into popular culture.
David mentions that RAW died early this morning, 1/11/2007, a mere 7 days before his 75th birthday. I suppose if you look at that date’s number backwards you can see the “lucky 7″ and the “2 + 3″ (1+1+1). There’s a joke someplace in there, because Bob really did not do anything without the trickster in mind.
As David shared at Boing Boing, in his last blog, Robert Anton Wilson wrote:
I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying. Please pardon my levity, I don’t see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.
Sadly, Wilson’s teenage daughter, Patricia Luna Wilson, was murdered on October 2, 1976. Cosmic Trigger reflects part of his immediate journey to understand that loss.
- Similar Phenomena:
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It sounds like he was a wonderful person.
What a shame. I remember a great Fortean Times interview with him. He’ll be missed.
I started reading cosmic trigger as suggested by a friend, it is one of the few books of its type that I have to actually read slowly so I can take in what is being said. Such sad news, best to any family left.
I read about Mr. Wilson’s demise just a couple of hours ago, on the Boing Boing article (I found a link to it on the Anomalist web site). I have been a big fan of his since reading the Cosmic Trigger series, and Illuminatus!, the trilogy he co-wrote with Robert Shea. Mr. Wilson’s work often challenged my “ususal” ways of viewing the world around me… or what used to be the usual ways… and did so in a highly entertaining and humorous way. And it introduced me to some other writers, philosophers, etc., whose work I otherwise might have missed, for which I am grateful. Farewell Pope Bob, and thanks for the Fnords!
Oh the nostalgia! The Illuminatus Trilogy, which he wrote with Robert Shea and which I read in my uni days, left quite a mark on me. To this day, I still make references to the series; it was a work of satirical brilliance! We have lost another genius, underappreciated by the mainstream media.
Another luminary (dare I say Illuminary?) who will be missed by all who read his works.
So it goes…
Robert will be much missed!
Hail discordia!
I was reading his blog just last night.
I wish I had read his books earlier, the philosopher in me was killed throughly by a dull college course supposedly on the subject.
RIP RAW.
Rest in peace, Robert. And thanks for all of the true illumination you gave to the rest of us during your time on the planet. You will be missed.
Fnord! Goodbye Bob, you make me sad.
Eris lives U Wacky Wabbit
Ironically, like Ra, the Egyptian sun-god who spent half his time in the underworld, he must spend the afterlife doing the opposite of what he did in life; which is to say being totally left-brained and analytical. He’ll no doubt be espousing Republican philosophy long into his 90s in the netherworld, before coming back here for more orgies and bong hits.
Hey, we’re only making plans for Nigel. Put a curse on me.
Rest In Peace, RAW.
I had the opportunity to meet RAW about 20 years ago at a talk he gave in Dallas. Fascinating guy. He will be missed!
RIP Bob.
My feeble contribution to the RAW distortion in the reality field with 23 more “23’s” in a tribute here.
I linked to you from 13 things 23