The Illuminatus! Trilogy : The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan

Rating:
Summary: Insulting to taste and intelligence and to art of writing!
Review: For a good conspiracy novel, try Dom DeLillo's "Libra". See, I have nothing against conspiracy novels per se and skepticism towards the powers-that-be is a HEALTHY thing, but this book has only one thing to recommend itself and that is the breadth and scope of the authors' imagination, presumably drug-induced. I give the authors, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, credit for imagination, however derived, and that is what keeps me from rating the book a "1". Apart from that, the book is insulting to taste and intelligence! This book is not for anyone who is uncomfortable with gratuitous portrayals of deviant sex, but OK, that's too EASY a target. The in-and-out spasms of time and space and quick-change shifts of perspective that are upchucked are CHEATS that must violate every principle of good writing, and the authors probably know this but don't care. Their intent seems to be to show you how CLEVER they are and how they've seen the connections between apparently interrelated events which YOU HAVEN'T SEEN. Their attitude is, "Why should we learn how to write like professionals? Isn't it enough that we're clever enough to discern all this?" At one point, they even seek cover (seek, not receive) from the criticism they could inevitably expect to receive for this book by having one of the characters within their novel give SOME OTHER BOOK the same review. The authors also CHEAT their readers by deliberating contradicting themselves. Are the Illuminati an 18th century conspiracy group or older than that? Are they omniscient or vulnerable? Is the book even meant to be taken seriously or not? Support for all these propositions and other varying ones can be found throughout this novel and when contradictions arise, the authors say, "So what? Don't trust us either", a cowardly way of side-stepping problems that a GOOD writer would seek to resolve. And while the authors try to attract a broad readership by arguing that the fight AGAINST the Illuminati conspiracy is necessarily apolitical, the identities of the heroes and villains make it clear to see that all they are really selling is mid-60's "tune in drop out" leftism. Abby Hoffman clothed in numerology. "Discordia" is just another way of urging, "Hey readers, steal this pyramid-covered book!" By the way, a lot of anthropologists and observers of the animal kingdom would be surprised to learn from Shea and Wilson that the universal constant of male supremacy is just another part of the Illuminati conspiracy. I myself always have thought that the small mocking delectable female-like Road Runner always thwarting the hairy predatory Alpha Male Coyote was an example of post WW2 matriarchalization of American culture, but even at that, I have to balk at the idea that Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd have been secretly communicating Illumanti buzzwords for 50 years. The authors can't really believe that, and in fact, it's another "cop-out" that allows them to "prove" that they weren't really serious to begin with, whenever they desire this. Don't even bother to steal this book!

Rating:
Summary: The most important book I've read to date.
Review: With a plot sequence which Pulp Fiction could only dream to approach, the authors tell the readers everything one might need to know about the Illuminati. Although it is longish, it is well worth the reading time. Contents are only for the open minded, as drugs and sex are mentioned. A book any discordian, or like-minded person must read.

Rating:
Summary: Stinks on ice...
Review: Possibly the most annoying book that I have ever plowed through. Getting to the end is perhaps a testament to my determination but maybe displays previously unsuspected masochistic tendencies. It's a disjointed, turgid, hack written, drug induced hodgepodge of every stupid countercultural idea expressed in the past thirty years... with the most rabid examples of establishment paranoia thrown in for leavening. Besides, the "Question Authority/Free Sex" message has worn a bit thin by now. Why question authority? Is it to find a better way, to restrain its abuse, to protect our rights? Or is it simply to be a contrarian pest? And free sex brought us first herpes, and then AIDS. Nice going guys, any more bright ideas with which to usher in the millenium? This book reads like the worst excerpts from every freshman dorm late night bull session over the past three decades. It's a bible for the fuzzy thinkers, a blueprint for the fatuous, a justification for those who cannot distinguish between fogginess and brilliance. Save yourself to time, money and aggravation - instead of reading this book watch a few hours of public access TV. I didn't rate it a one because I'm saving that for a book that's actually lethal. This one may just bore you to death.

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Read, If Not All That Convincing
Review: I read this book in two weeks, a long time for me, and I wonder if it was worth the effort. It was an interesting, quite creative book, but all in all, what was it saying? It contradicted itself on purpose so many times that the very message is distorted- assuming there is one. Although, I must say that it made me laugh out loud- quite a feat.

Rating:
Summary: once isn't enough
Review: I have always been a fan of Sci-Fi...and this takes the cake. I have to read it again just to clear up some things, but I am looking forward to it. I am fnord amazed at the fnord creativity and utter mayhem in fnord the authors mind. Read it and understand. It may take work...but it is WELL WORTH IT.

Rating:
Summary: Inspired but still hackwork
Review: There is almost no point to this book; the philosophical ideas the authors try to illustrate are lost in the shuffle and have to be explained in the 22 appendices. Some credit must be given for them managing to work in references to Lovecraft, Fort, Rand, Hamilton, Stirner and Coolidge, and the parody of Atlas Shrugged is cute. If the authors don't like the fact that every page of Rand's fiction is filled with her worldview, surely their unintelligible is much worse.

Rating:
Summary: Either you'll love it or hate it
Review: This book will truly show you the kind of personality you have. Either you are a neophile or a neophobe. If you are a neophile you will love the book. If you are a neophobe you will hate it. And if you do hate it go drink some AUM.

Rating:
Summary: my all-time favorite book
Review: maybe it isn't true, but it's true. i can open this book at any time and find truths in it. this book changed the ways i thought about many things. it may be difficult to read, but it's well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: A Plot WEB!
Review: The book makes you think. It is not just a series of events, linked like a chain, cause and effect, cause and effect, but a WEB. Of characters, events, ideas. In order to just read it, you have to think and understand the links. If you don't want to think, better not TRY to even read the first page. Even time is just a few strands in the web.

Rating:
Summary: Yeah, yeah, yeah
Review: Ok, so it changed my politics (or just gave me a name to call ideas I already had) but did it really have to take 800+ excruciating pages? What a waste of time! fnord.