Nature's God

Rating:
Summary: Fast mindbending experience
Review: Celine is in the woods meditating while Simon Moon is in the Revolutionary army. Meanwhile the woman that Celine left behind is back in Europe writing feminist papers that ridicule men with great determination.

Halfway through the book they all come together in one large mind-melding thing where all their lives cross if only in hallucinations. Some of the best stream-of-consciousness writing around brings to question all we know about life, war, history, and consciousness collective or otherwise.

This third book of the series is the best of the bunch because it lets its plot play out and then goes into the hallucination scene with a speed that is exhilarating. When Wilson gets going he is a better wordsmith than Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac or Djuna Barnes.

This is reportedly the last book of the series, but Wilson has probably written the fourth book by now. In keeping with the legend every book published has had something happen badly around it - either a dead publisher or a bankrupt publishing house. We might not be able to see the completed Historical Illuminatus trilogy until Wilson dies which may be a long way off, but we will probably see the whole thing.

Rating:
Summary: Fast mindbending experience
Review: Celine is in the woods meditating while Simon Moon is in the Revolutionary army. Meanwhile the woman that Celine left behind is back in Europe writing feminist papers that ridicule men with great determination.

Halfway through the book they all come together in one large mind-melding thing where all their lives cross if only in hallucinations. Some of the best stream-of-consciousness writing around brings to question all we know about life, war, history, and consciousness collective or otherwise.

This third book of the series is the best of the bunch because it lets its plot play out and then goes into the hallucination scene with a speed that is exhilarating. When Wilson gets going he is a better wordsmith than Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac or Djuna Barnes.

This is reportedly the last book of the series, but Wilson has probably written the fourth book by now. In keeping with the legend every book published has had something happen badly around it - either a dead publisher or a bankrupt publishing house. We might not be able to see the completed Historical Illuminatus trilogy until Wilson dies which may be a long way off, but we will probably see the whole thing.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and amusing read
Review: I found Robert Anton Wilson's Three Volume Historical Illuminatus Chronicles an amusing read. I read these in the early 1990s and one quote stuck. 'Intellectual laziness and common sense are the same thing. Common sense is just the tradename of the firm.' It has helped me laugh laugh off complacent people for the past ten years. I have applied this quotation in much of my published writing as well as my PhD thesis. I often bring it out during business conferences when people say to me 'That's just common sense'. I have been using this for over ten years and I always get a laugh from the other people in the room and a degree of compliance and dissent from they who try to dismiss and stymie my efforts to help people deal with new ideas.

Read the three books and find it.

I reckon Nature's God should be as well known as Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

My only complaint is that Robert refuses to engage in any sensible discourse about his ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and amusing read
Review: I found Robert Anton Wilson's Three Volume Historical Illuminatus Chronicles an amusing read. I read these in the early 1990s and one quote stuck. 'Intellectual laziness and common sense are the same thing. Common sense is just the tradename of the firm.' It has helped me laugh laugh off complacent people for the past ten years. I have applied this quotation in much of my published writing as well as my PhD thesis. I often bring it out during business conferences when people say to me 'That's just common sense'. I have been using this for over ten years and I always get a laugh from the other people in the room and a degree of compliance and dissent from they who try to dismiss and stymie my efforts to help people deal with new ideas.

Read the three books and find it.

I reckon Nature's God should be as well known as Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

My only complaint is that Robert refuses to engage in any sensible discourse about his ideas.

Rating:
Summary: How about a revised edition????
Review: I love this series, and don't understand why it is out of print. Nature's God, in particular, is almost impossible to get a hold of (I found a copy via inter-library loan). Nature's God seemed a bit unfinished, like Wilson rushed it to the printers or something because he needed to make a mortgage payment. And so much for the "trilogy," because the story is left unfinished at the end of this book. In fact, readers are told to stay tuned for a book called Walls Come Tumbling Down, but that title gets used for a terrible docu-drama(?) set in modern times. If the author reads this review, I hope he will decide to revisit this series and work since I know their are many fans of Historical Illuminatus out there.

Rating:
Summary: Immensely quotable
Review: In <u>Nature's God</u>, the third book of Wilson's Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, it is 1776, and our dear Sigismundo Celine has done a runner and made for America. Here he meets up with Seamus Muadhen, now James Moon, who also left the old world after not killing his sworn enemy. They chat, briefly but insightfully, over alcohol before parting ways, Sigismundo further drowning himself: `Those of happy histories can ask what lies behind the surface of things. Those of us who know what lies behind the surface always choose to enjoy every illusion as long as possible. The color of a perfect English rose in my brain, not in the flower, but I would prefer to enjoy the color than to think dull thoughts like that. Leave philosophy to the innocent. We veterans of infernos and abysses prefer the roses, the sunsets, and the beautiful meaningless music' (pg 36). Shortly after, James joins revolutionary army of George Washington and Lafayette.

After leaving a few false leads in his wake, Sigismundo flees to the wilderness where he build himself a cabin, and sit in meditation `seeking the solitude to make his mind an empty mirror at the age of twenty-six. That was the result of being involved with conspirators and magicians since he was fourteen' (pg 69-70). However he is occasionally interrupted by the adorably named Miskasquamish of the Maheema, a shaman of a fictional Native North American tribe.

Meanwhile, back in England, Maria is initiated into a surviving witch cult in England and begins spreading feminist propaganda under a false name, while her husband advances in Freemasonry and turns to the drink and boys.

This is an immensely quotable book, perhaps even more so than the previous volumes, despite its smaller size. don't think this will be the last book in the chronicles, it seems decidedly unfinished, with the possibility of a fourth in the future.

Wilson has packed a lot of excellent material into this work - where else are you going to read an in depth piece on God's Willy? Highly recommended in addition to the previous two.

Rating:
Summary: Sad to say, I think this is the last of this series
Review: It seems like I read this is the last book of this series he will putout. I believe I read something from him that he said he had writtenthe fourth book, and decided not to release it. No reason to keep them going if the author himself doesn't want them to. As for the review, here goes. The Historical Illuminatis series is my favorite of all that Wilson has written, and I hope he releases the fourth book. All so far have been great, and in this one the chapter that is Sigismundo's Wilderness Diary is not to be missed. It borrows a lot from Nietzsche's "Maxims and Arrows", but gives them a new twist. Very good, and if you are a fan, find this book somehow.

Rating:
Summary: Pentology?
Review: This is a really good book that has more thought provoking nuggets than 95% of books on spirituality..see chapter 7. It is also a helluva good story, which really gets one involved with the characters. We are told that " The World Turned Upside Down" will be "coming soon." Where the hell is it ? This stuff is great. RAW is one of the true visionaries of this genre, ranking with Dick and Heinlein, in my humble opinion. I truly hope he will finish this series.

Rating:
Summary: don't buy it used
Review: What a good book. I'm sad that its so rare and so become so very expensive to buy, but I am sadder to think its the last of the series. Come on lets have another.