Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything

Rating:
Summary: The Only Audio Book I have even tried
Review: First off, I hate Audio books. I have a low recall rate for things I hear, so I prefer to read. However, this isn't a book per se, but a running dialogue between RAW and a questionner. Having never heard RAW's voice before, it keeps the attention much better than most radio programs, either.
The six tapes cover a host of topics, but the main topics are the Life and Times of Robert Anton Wilson, Language and Reality, Techniques for consciousness change, politics and conspiracy, the acceleration of knowledge, and the New Inquisition/Religion for the Hell of it. This is great, because you can pick and choose the topic, especially those of us used to CDs.
The conversations are subdued, mellow, coarse, and profoundly funny at times.
If you are not a RAW veteran, however, don't start with this. Much of the information has appeared in some form in his books, and the depth he dives to in print is preferrable.
It is just kind of fun to hear Bob make fun of himself, everyone else, and the possibilty that RAW is full of crap, too.

Rating:
Summary: The Only Audio Book I have even tried
Review: First off, I hate Audio books. I have a low recall rate for things I hear, so I prefer to read. However, this isn't a book per se, but a running dialogue between RAW and a questionner. Having never heard RAW's voice before, it keeps the attention much better than most radio programs, either.
The six tapes cover a host of topics, but the main topics are the Life and Times of Robert Anton Wilson, Language and Reality, Techniques for consciousness change, politics and conspiracy, the acceleration of knowledge, and the New Inquisition/Religion for the Hell of it. This is great, because you can pick and choose the topic, especially those of us used to CDs.
The conversations are subdued, mellow, coarse, and profoundly funny at times.
If you are not a RAW veteran, however, don't start with this. Much of the information has appeared in some form in his books, and the depth he dives to in print is preferrable.
It is just kind of fun to hear Bob make fun of himself, everyone else, and the possibilty that RAW is full of crap, too.

Rating:
Summary: Good stuff
Review: I highly recommend it. Wilson's philosophy regards certainty and Aristotelian either/or logic as a deceiving "neuro-sensorial interpretation of the world." He likes to quote Alfred Korzybski's "The map is not the territory"(the word is not the thing) He regards things on a scale of probabilities.
Like Korzybski, he remainds us that using the verb to be or the
word "is" can "be" very deceiving(wait, am I contradicting myself by using the verb "to be"? am I then "being" deceiving?)
Let me give an excample:If I say "everything is relative", that means that even the statement "everything is relative" is relative. But wouldn't that also mean that saying that "everything is relative" is relative, is also relative? and saying that "everything is relative" is relative, is also relative, is also relative(and so on ad infinitum)? In conclusion I can't be sure of what the hell is going on. That's why Wilson likes to use what he calls "maybe logic".
In these tapes he gives many insights into his ideas and people he admires such as James Joyce and the Pope(hehe...yeah right!) I find him funny and wise, and the tapes sounded great in the dark silence of my room before I went to bed. I liked his interview tapes better than the lecture tapes though, although the latter also teach you some good stuff and make you laugh. I've only read one of his books "Cosmic triggerII" which my mother could not stand for more than two pages when she grabbed it off of my shelf(she said it was "very badly written"). For all right wingers out there who thrive on Dubya's rhetoric "You are either with us or against us" Wilson may seem a little nutty, but watch out, he may be saner than you thought!

Rating:
Summary: Good stuff
Review: I highly recommend it. Wilson's philosophy seems to regard certainty and Aristotelian either/or thinking as a deceiving neuro-sensorial interpretation of the world. He likes to quote Alfred Korzybski's "The map is not the territory"(and the word is not the thing...) He regards things on a scale of probabilities. He gives many insights into his ideas and people such as Joyce and the Pope, whom he reveres(well perhaps not the pope...) I find him funny and wise, and the tapes sounded great in the dark silence of my room before I went to bed. I liked his interview tapes better than the lecture tapes though, although the latter also teach you some good stuff and make you laugh. I've only read one of his books "Cosmic triggerII" which my mother could not stand for more than two pages when she grabbed it off of my shelf(she said it was "very badly written"). I think that when reading that book some people(like my mom) read in the lines what they would expect to find only in between the lines under a "structured book".The "subtext" Stanislavski spoke about. And they don't like that. Too much chaos. For those who thrive on Dubya's rhetoric "You are either with us or against us" Wilson may seem a little nutty, but watch out, he may be saner than you thought!