(2) ROBERT SHEA & ROBERT ANTON WILSON –

ILLUMINATUS TRILOGY (1975)

“I can see the fnords!”

The world is divided into two groups of people – those who have read the Illuminatus Trilogy (and have seen the fnords) and those who have not. If you only know the Illuminati from internet ravings or Dan Brown, then you have not truly seen the fnords. But if you have read the Illuminati Trilogy – The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple and Leviathan – then you will know the answers to the most important questions of our time:

Who are the Illuminati?

What is the Bavarian Fire Drill?

Why does the portrait of George Washington on the dollar bill look different from other portraits of George Washington – but the same as portraits of Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati?!

How many gunmen were in Dallas to kill Kennedy?!

Just why is the Pentagon that shape – and what is it keeping trapped inside?! (Hint from the book – JESUS MOTHERF***ING CHRIST IT’S ALIVE!)

And most importantly of all, how are they going to Immanentize the Eschaton?!

The Illuminatus Trilogy is the conspiracy theory to beat all conspiracy theories – indeed, it’s one big conspiracy theory kitchen sink, based on the premise that all conspiracy theories are true, no matter how wild or contradictory. (The authors, editors at Playboy magazine, used wild conspiracy theories from letters to the editor). You will be changed after you read it, and you will never read anything like it again – at least until Grant Morrison essentially replayed it as The Invisibles, a comics series with the same conspiracy theory kitchen sink premise leading up to the new millennium.

As for the plot, history is the warfare of secret societies – with the anarchist Discordians and other secret allies in their battle since the time of Atlantis against the Illuminati, the conspiratorial organization that secretly controls the world. The plot originated with the authors involvement in the actual Discordian Society, a parody religion (or is it the ultimate cosmic truth disguised as a joke?) based on the worship of Eris or Discordia, the Greek goddess of chaos. The authors jokingly created an ‘opposition’ within the Discordian Society, which they called the Bavarian Illuminati, and the Illuminatus Trilogy sprang from the myth they built up of the warfare between the two…

And you too will see the fnords.

FANTASY & HORROR

It’s arguably as much fantasy as SF – what with all the Atlantean backstory and magic(k). Also paranoid horror – and cosmic horror.

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT ERIS-TIER?)