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Manawyddan -> ILLUMINATUS! co-author Robert Anton Wilson dying (10/14/2006 10:22:38 PM)
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No, unfortunately, this is not a sick Discordian joke, he's dying of
post-Polio disease, and has been financially strapped. His daughter
announced it to the public at the beginning of the month, and the
community rallied around him and $68,000 was raised. Links to the
articles about this are below:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/02/robert_anton_wilson_.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/05/note_from_robert_ant.html
For those unfamiliar with his work, RA Wilson was a Playboy editor
who, with Robert J. Shea, wrote the ILLUMINATUS! trilogy in the early
1970's and beganm popularizing the Discordian religion, centered
around the Goddess Eris (who recently had a planet named after her).
I had the pleassure of meeting both Bobs in the early 1980's, and in
producing several issues of a comic based on the trilogy. I also
inducted both at a Winterstar Symposium as honorary 5th degrees in
the Knights of the Falcon of Malta.
I had hoped to complete the adaptation within their life times, but
sadly, Bob Shea passed on a few years back, survived by a son,
Michael E. Shea, who has placed his father's first novel under a
Creative Commons license at least partially into the public domain,
and by his wife, Patricia Monaghan, herself an author of some note.
Bob Wilson is the last surviving member of what I like to call the
Four Pillars of Discordianism, the others being Shea, Greg Hill
(Malaclypse the Younger) and Kerry Thornley (Lord Omar Khayyam
Ravenhurst). His passing will truly mark the end of an era. When
watching the towering heights to which they have reached, I am truly
but a Fifth Wheel.
Wilson was also responsible for popularizing the Chaos Magick that
has become so popular among some circles, including the comics writer
Alan Moore and others of his generation of British authors.
More information on Bob Wilson here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson
http://www.rawilson.com/main.shtml
Tnis post (K)opyleft by icarus_2317 -- please forward, reproduce and post at will. Thanks.
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