St.James Guide to Science Fiction Writers, 4th ed.
1996.
Robert Anton Wilson
Also known as: Robert Eugene Wilson
Birth: January 18, 1932 in Brooklyn, New York, United States
Nationality: American
Occupation: Writer
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Biographical Essay
Personal Information
Works
Source Citation
BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
Robert Anton Wilson comments:
I define my writing as guerilla ontology--that is, a literary expression of the
discoveries of physical relativity (Einstein), cultural relativity
(anthropology), neurological relativity (Korzybski, Leary) and the new
head-spaces opened to us by psychedelics, bio-feedback, scientific study of
yoga, etc. Each of my books presents not one map of reality, but several; the
humor, the suspense, and the philosophical meaning (if any) derive from the
search for the one reality, never quite found, which will synthesize or include
all the alternative reality-tunnels presented. As in quantum physics, the
isolated observer or omniscient narrator does not exist in my world; it is a
participatory universe in which each entity projects/creates its own
surrounding experiential continuum.
"George, you're too serious. Don't you know how to play? Did you ever
think that life is maybe a game? There is no difference between life and a
game, you know."
Games of all kinds and at all levels abound throughout Robert Anton Wilson's
books. The most famous of his books, Illuminatus, is on one level a
detective story, the most formal of literary games, as is Masks of the Illuminati
(with a denouement revealed by Albert Einstein and James Joyce yet!)
Simultaneously he plays the game of parody (Tolkien, Ian Fleming, and Ayn Rand
to name but three) and his own mind-game with the reader, Operation Mindfuck,
which tries to break down "the mind-forged manacles" of unconscious
dogma, to make the reader move into new points of view:
"reality-tunnels" to use Wilson's terms.
Some readers will find that last level, Wilson's philosophical pretensions,
ludicrous and absurd. But insofar as he is serious about anything, Wilson is
serious about showing people the limits that their own assumptions place on
them. To this end Wilson makes a mockery of all political viewpoints (including
the capitalist anarchism he espouses) and all religions (including the
Discordianism he helped popularise). In his nonfiction he does his best to
justify the "Trancedental Agnosticism" that came to him as a result
of drinking too deeply of too many Springs of Ultimate Wisdom, from hearing too
many Ultimate Truths. Prometheus Rising and Quantum Psychology
are practical handbooks of his peculiar philosophy although The Illuminati
Papers and Coincidance may be more easily accesible to the casual
reader.
The True Believers who infest these more dogmatic decades may find Wilson's
relativism too, too "sixties," but they too are clearly depicted in
Wilson's hilarious disection of "normal primate behaviour." He is
especially funny concerning "scientific" dogmatism in The New
Inquistion, The Widow's Son, and the article "The Persecution
and Assasination of the Parapsychologists as Performed by the Inmates of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science under the Direction of the
Amazing Randi" (reprinted in Right Where You are Sitting Now).
And for those who find the quantum physics (which provides the structure, such
as it is, for the Schrodinger's Cat sequence), the philosophy, the
literary references and history a little heavy you can just lie back and enjoy
the scenery, while Wilson, stealing from any source that pleases him (from
Lovecraft and Tolkien to "Elephant Doody Comix") and throwing out the
lunatic touches of characterisation that make the patchwork structures of the
novels shine.
Wilson's viewpoint is determinedly optimistic (as his subjectivist philosophy
would advise) as shown by his essays (in The Illuminati Papers) on the
conquest of stupidity and on Buckminster Fuller. Yet there is in his novels
alongside the jugglers and buffoons a sense of pain and tragedy that is not
diminished by his belief in the pointlessness of suffering. To quote Wilson
again: "It isn't true unless it makes you laugh, but you don't
understand it until it makes you cry."
The best "sampler" works for those who want to explore Wilson's
fiction before tackling the huge mass ans in jokes on Illuminatue and Schrodinger's
Cat are Masks of the Illuminati and the (so far incomplete)
historical sequence The Earth Will Shake, The Widow's Son, and Nature's
God.
PERSONAL INFORMATION Nationality: American. Born: Brooklyn, New York, 18 January
1932. Education: Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute; New York University, Paideia
University, B.S., M.A. 1978, Ph.D. 1981. Family: Married Arlen Riley in 1959;
four children. Engineering aide, Ebasco Inc., New York, 1950-56; salesman,
Doubleday Publishers, 1957; copywriter, Popular Club, Passaic, New Jersey,
1959-62; sales manager, Antioch Bookplate, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1962-65;
astrology columnist, National Mirror, and editor, Jaguar, 1965; associate
editor, Playboy, Chicago, 1965-71. Agent: Al Zuckerman, Writers House, 21 West
26th Street, New York, New York 10010, U.S.A.
WORKS * Science Fiction Publications
* Novels (series: Illuminatus; Schrodinger's Cat)
* Masks of the Illuminati. New York, Timescape, and London, Sphere, 1981
* The Earth Will Shake. Los Angeles, Tarcher, 1982.
* The Illuminatus! Trilogy. New York, Dell, 1984.
* The Eye in the Pyramid. New York, Dell, 1975 ; London, Sphere, 1976.
* The Golden Apple. New York, Dell, 1975 ; London, Sphere, 1976.
* Leviathan. New York, Dell, 1975 ; London, Sphere, 1976.
* The Widow's Son. New York, Bluejay, 1985.
* Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy. New York, Dell, 1988.
* The Universe Next Door. New York, Pocket Books, 1979 ; London, Sphere,
1980.
* The Trick Top Hat. New York, Pocket Books, and London, Sphere, 1981.
* The Homing Pigeons. New York, Pocket Books, 1981 ; London, Sphere,
1982.
* Nature's God. New York, Roc, 1991.
* Reality Is What You Can Get Away With: A Screenplay. New York, Dell,
1992.
* Other Publications
* Novel
* The Sex Magicians. Chatsworth,
California, Sheffield House, 1973 .
* Plays
* Illuminatus! (produced Liverpool, 1976 ; London, 1977 ; Seattle,
1978).
* Wilhelm Reich in Hell (produced Dublin, 1985 ).
* Other
* Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words. Chicago, Playboy Press, 1972.
* Sex and Drugs. Chicago, Playboy Press, 1973 ; London, Mayflower, 1975.
* The Book of the Breast. Chicago, Playboy Press, 1974.
* Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati. Berkeley, California,
And/Or Press, 1977 ; London, Abacus, 1979.
* Neuropolitics, with Timothy Leary. Culver City, California, Peace
Press, 1977 ; as Neuropolitique, with Leary and George A. Koopman, Las Vegas,
Falcon Press, 1988.
* The Illuminati Papers. Berkeley, California, And/Or Press, 1980 ;
London, Sphere, 1982.
* Right Where You Sitting Now: Further Tales of the Illuminati.
Berkeley, California, And/Or Press, 1982 ; revised edition, Berkeley, Ronin,
1992.
* Prometheus Rising. Santa Monica, California, Falcon Press, 1983.
* Natural Law; or, Don't Put a Rubber on Your Willy. Port Townsend,
Washington, Loompanics Unlimited, 1986.
* Wilhelm Reich in Hell. Phoenix, Arizona, Falcon Press, 1987.
* The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science.Phoenix,
Arizona, Falcon Press, 1988 .
* Coincidance: A Head Test. Phoenix, Arizona, Falcon Press, 1989.
* Ishtar Rising; or, Why the Goddess Went to Hell and What to Expect Now
That She's Returning. Las Vegas, Falcon Press, 1989.
* Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World.
Phoenix, Arizona, Falcon Press, 1990 .
* Editor, with Rudy Rucker and Peter Lamborn Wilson, Semiotext[e] SF.
Brooklyn, New York, Autonomedia, 1989.
SOURCE CITATION "Robert Anton Wilson." St. James Guide to Science
Fiction Writers, 4th ed. St. James Press, 1996.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale
Group. 2004. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
Document Number: K240700061895620