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quote:Originally posted by Rothkoid:
See, JB, like you, I got wind of some kind of Great Esoteric Truth - though I think it was the sound of it escaping the authors. They hint at the knowledge they are supposed to have, but never accurately convey what it is, how they learned it, or how the reader can get it.
Well the point of the book is essentially that it'as a big wild goose chase.
The authors set off by making the book seem like it's going to !reveal the deadly secrets of the Illuminati! and !Show you the way to enlightenment!, but of course it does nothing of the sort.
When I first read it, I was on a big Conspiracy tip and wanted to read about big, complicated X-files type yarns about secret societies controlling the earth, but of course, as you progress through the book, you get buried under layer upon layer of conflicting nonsense philosophies, bizarre references to forgotten bits of pop culture, heavy handed chunks of dubious esoteric knowledge until you're gradually made to realize that there is no masterplan, nobody knows what's going on although they all think they do, and the concept of objective truth means absolutely nothing..
I think the idea behind the book is to force the reader's to change their thinking by transcending notions of logic, rationality, and cause & effect chains altogether.
Essentially (like lots of RAWs other work), it aims to brainwash the reader into abandoning pre-conceived notions of how the world works and accepting that NOTHING IS TRUE, EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED.
Whether or not it succeeeds in this goal (and whether it's an enviable goal in the first place) is another matter entirely, and I'll be the first to admit that in a lot of ways Illuminatus! is one of the most ridiculous and infuriating things written in the English language.
But it worked pretty well for my 14 year old self.
Without it I might have spent years swallowing expensive guff about ancient astronauts and CIA UFO pilots..
It also functions as a neat springboard into the higher echelon's of cultish weirdness, encouraging readers to investigate Discordianism, HP Lovecraft, Crowley, Leary and all the other usual suspects.
But, on another topic entirely, who wants to defend Illuminatus! against charges of gross misogyny? |
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