RIP: Robert Anton Wilson (1932 - 2007)

Sad news for science-fiction book lovers. Robert Anton Wilson (aka RAW), probably best known in my mind for co-penning The Illuminatus! Trilogy, finally broke on through to the other side today:

As the result of medical expenses and problems with the IRS, Wilson found himself in a financial squeeze towards the end of his life. Word went out and the internet community responded by sending him $68,000 (Editor's note: ... and possibly up to $80,000) within the first couple of days. ... This allowed RAW to die with the comfort, grace and dignity that he deserved. Special props go to Douglas Rushkoff and the folks at Boing Boing (and to all the individuals who contributed) for making that happen.

I actually read the Trilogy on a bus ride home in 2002 from a then unprecedented-for-me two job interviews at once in Toronto with competing business publications. (Ah! Those were the days. Sob!) Needless to say, I didn't get either job for various reasons, but I will always remember coming back to Ottawa by Greyhound bus along Highway 7 on an appropriately rainy, gloomy spring day, reading these books upon the recommendation of a friend.

UPDATE INSERTED: Okay. This is just too freaky. Ten minutes after typing that line and publishing it, I find out that friend's wife is now expecting. Weird-ios. And I'll bet the kid will be the spirit of RAW, too, with any luck.

The books struck me as being very of their time, and seemed to be chock full of little more than no-consequences sex and 'ludes. So I guess I recall them being just a huge narrative mess, which was probably part of the point. They were written -- seemingly, from what I've read -- to just mess with your mind.

So maybe it's funny -- though death is never ha ha -- that RAW checks out on the 101st birthday of the guy who discovered LSD.

Anyhoo.

James Brown. Gerald Ford. Saddam Hussein. Robert Anton Wilson.

That's quite the four-pack.

I wonder if there's a conspiracy at work here ... .

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RIP: Robert Anton Wilson (1932 - 2007)

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