The Illuminatus! Trilogy

''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' is a series of three novels by American writers Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, first published in 1975.''Illuminatus!'' was written between 1969 and 1971, but not published until 1975 according to Robert Anton Wilson, '' Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati'' (1977), p. 145. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction–influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magic-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, related to the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches between third- and first-person perspectives in a nonlinear narrative. It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture, numerology, and Discordianism.

The trilogy comprises three parts which contain five books and appendices: ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' (first two books), ''The Golden Apple'' (third and part of fourth book), ''Leviathan'' (part of fourth and all of fifth book, and the appendices). The parts were first published as three separate volumes starting in September 1975. In 1984 they were published as an omnibus edition and are now more commonly reprinted in the latter form.

In 1986 the trilogy won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award.Libertarian Futurist Society
. Retrieved 21 February 2006.

The authors went on to write several works, both fiction and nonfiction, that dealt further with the themes of the trilogy.

''Illuminatus!'' has been adapted for the stage, as an audio book and has influenced several modern writers, artists, musicians, and games-makers. The popularity of the word " fnord" and the 23 enigma can both be attributed to the trilogy.

Narrative

The plot meanders between the thoughts, hallucinations and inner voices, real and imagined, of its many characters—ranging from a squirrel to a New York City detective to an artificial intelligence—as well as through time (past, present, and future), and sometimes in mid-sentence. Much of the back story is explained via dialogue between characters, who recount unreliable, often mutually contradictory, versions of their supposed histories. There are even parts in the book in which the narrative reviews and jokingly deconstructs the work itself.

Plot summary

The trilogy's story begins with an investigation by two New York City police detectives (Saul Goodman and Barney Muldoon) into the bombing of ''Confrontation'', a leftist magazine, and the disappearance of its editor, Joe Malik. Discovering the magazine's investigation into the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., the two follow a trail of memos that suggest the involvement of powerful secret societies. They slowly become drawn into a web of conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, the magazine's reporter, George Dorn—having been turned loose without support deep in right-wing Mad Dog, Texas—is arrested for drug possession. He is jailed and physically threatened, at one point hallucinating about his own execution. The prison is bombed and he is rescued by the Discordians, led by the enigmatic Hagbard Celine, captain of a golden submarine. Hagbard represents the Discordians in their eternal battle against the Illuminati, the conspiratorial organization that secretly controls the world. He finances his operations by smuggling illicit substances.

The plot meanders around the globe to such locations as Las Vegas (where a potentially deadly, secret U.S. government-developed mutated anthrax epidemic has been accidentally unleashed); Atlantis (where Howard, the talking porpoise, and his porpoise aides help Hagbard battle the Illuminati); Chicago (where someone resembling John Dillinger was killed many years ago); and to the island of Fernando Poo (the location of the next great Cold War standoff between the Soviet Union, China and the United States).

The evil scheme uncovered late in the tale is an attempt to '' immanentize the eschaton'', a secret scheme of the ''American Medical Association'', an evil rock band, to bring about a mass human sacrifice, the purpose of which is the release of enough "life-energy" to give eternal life to a select group of initiates, including Adolf Hitler. The AMA are revealed to be four siblings (last name Saure) who comprise four of the five mysterious Illuminati Primi. The identity of the fifth remains unknown for much of the trilogy. The first European "Woodstock" festival, held at Ingolstadt, Bavaria (place of origin of the ''real'' historical Illuminati, also known as Bavarian Illuminati), is the chosen location for the sacrifice of the unwary victims, via the reawakening of hibernating Nazi battalions from the bottom of nearby (fictitious) Lake Totenkopf (literal translation to contemporary American styled English- "dead head"). The plot is foiled when, with the help of a 50-foot-tall incarnation of the goddess Eris, the four members of the AMA are killed: Wilhelm is killed by the monstrous alien being Yog-Sothoth, Wolfgang is shot by John Dillinger, Winifred is drowned by porpoises, and Werner is trapped in a sinking car.

The major protagonists, now gathered together on board the submarine, are menaced by the Leviathan, a giant, pyramid-shaped single-cell sea monster that has been growing in size for hundreds of millions of years. The over-the-top nature of this encounter leads some of the characters to question whether they are merely characters in a book. This metafictional note is swiftly rejected (or ignored) as they turn their attention to the monster again. The threat is neutralized by offering up their onboard computer as something for the creature to communicate with to ease its loneliness. Finally Hagbard managed to defeat the Illuminati Primi and went to Alpha Centauri in 1999.

Characters

* Carmel – a pimp living in Las Vegas
* Freeman Hagbard Celine – leader of the Discordians and a central protagonist in ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''
* George Dorn – reporter for ''Confrontation''
* Saul Goodman – New York City detective
* Rebecca Murphy Goodman – Saul Goodman's wife
* Howard – a porpoise
* Joe Malik – editor of ''Confrontation''
* Mao Tsu-Hsi – Illuminati recruiter
* Simon Moon – anarchist
* Barney Muldoon – New York City detective
* Tarantella Serpentine – an Illuminati-trained prostitute
* Markoff Chaney – a midget on a cross country mission to spread chaos
* Fission Chips – a British secret agent
* Harry Coin – a perverted assassin
* Robert Putney Drake – a mob boss obsessed with the occult

Titles

The titles of the three volumes or parts (the front covers were titled ''Illuminatus! Part I The Eye in the Pyramid'', ''Illuminatus! Part II The Golden Apple'' and ''Illuminatus! Part III Leviathan'') refer to recurring symbols of elements of the plot.

''The Eye in the Pyramid'' refers to the Eye of Providence, which in the novel represents particularly the Bavarian Illuminati, and makes a number of appearances (for example, as an altar and a tattoo).

''The Golden Apple'' refers to the golden apple of discord, from the Greek myth of the Judgement of Paris. In the trilogy it is used as the symbol of the Legion of Dynamic Discord, a Discordian group; the golden apple makes a number of appearances, for example, on the cover, on a black flag, and as an emblem on a uniform.

''Leviathan'' refers to the Biblical sea monster Leviathan, which is a potential danger to Hagbard's submarine ''Leif Erickson'' (from the name of the Icelandic discoverer of America). It also refers to Thomas Hobbes' seminal work of political philosophy, ''Leviathan'', as a metaphor for an all-encompassing, authoritarian state – a common metaphor used in libertarian discourse.

Publishing history

The trilogy was originally written between 1969 and 1971 while Wilson and Shea were both associate editors for ''Playboy'' magazine. As part of the role, they dealt with correspondence from the general public on the subject of civil liberties, much of which involved paranoid rants about imagined conspiracies. The pair began to write a novel with the premise that "all these nuts are right, and every single conspiracy they complain about really exists".The Illuminatus saga stumbles along by Robert Anton Wilson
Retrieved 21 February 2006

In a 1980 interview given to the science fiction magazine ''Starship'', Wilson suggested the novel was also an attempt to build a myth around Discordianism:

There was no specific division of labor in the collaborative writing process, although Shea's writing tended towards melodrama, while Wilson's parts tended towards satire. Wilson states in a 1976 interview conducted by Neal Wilgus:

According to Ken Campbell, who created a stage adaptation of ''Illuminatus!'' with Chris Langham, the writing process was treated as a game of one-upmanship between the two co-authors, and was an enjoyable experience for both:

The unusual end product did not appeal to publishers, and it took several years before anybody agreed to take it on. According to Wilson, the division of ''Illuminatus!'' into three parts was a commercial decision of the publisher, not the authors, who had conceived it as a single continuous volume. Shea and Wilson were required to cut 500 pages to reduce printing costs on what was seen as a risky venture, although Wilson states that most of the ideas contained therein made it into his later works. The idea that the top secrets of the Illuminati were cut from the books because the printer decided to trim the number of pages is a joke typical of the trilogy.

Dell Publishing first released these individual editions (with covers illustrated by Carlos Victor Ochagavia) in the United States in 1975, to favorable reviews and some commercial success. It became a cult favorite but did not cross over into large mainstream sales. In Britain, Sphere Books released the individual editions (with different cover art by Tony Roberts) in 1976. The individual editions sold steadily until 1984, when the trilogy was republished in a single omnibus volume for the first time. This collected edition lost the "what has gone before" introduction to ''The Golden Apple'' and the "Prologue" to ''Leviathan''. Some of the material in that foreword, such as the self-destruct mynah birds (taught to say "Here, kitty-kitty-kitty!"), appears nowhere else in the trilogy, likely a result of the 500 pages of cuts demanded by Dell. The omnibus edition gave a new lease on life to flagging sales, and became the most commonly available form of the trilogy from then on.

The trilogy was translated and published in German, again both as separate volumes (the three covers of which formed a triptych) and an omnibus. The face of J. R. "Bob" Dobbs was split across the first two volumes, despite the Church of the SubGenius not being featured in the novel (although Wilson had become a member). The Church was founded by ''Illuminatus!'' fans, and the image of "Bob" is widely considered to be a representation of Wilson himself.Bill Forman, Metro Santa Cruz August 12, 2005, available a
rawilson.com
. Retrieved 21 February 2006.

Themes

''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' covers a wide range of subjects throughout the book. These include discussions about mythology, current events, conspiracy theories and counterculture.

Conspiracies

Although the many conspiracy theories in the book are imaginary, these are mixed in with enough truth to make them seem plausible. For example, the title of the first book, ''The Eye in the Pyramid'', refers to the Eye of Providence, a mystical symbol which derives from the ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus and is erroneously claimed to be the symbol of the Bavarian Illuminati. Some of America's founding fathers are alleged by conspiracy theorists to have been members of this sect.See e.g. Rivera, David Allen.
Illuminati Spreads to America: Final Warning: A History of the New World Order
'' which alleges Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin were members. Such theories are alluded to in the Illuminati Project Memo #7 in ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' which alleges Jefferson and George Washington were members.

The books are loaded with references to the Illuminati, the Argenteum Astrum, many and various world domination plans, conspiracy theories and pieces of gnostic knowledge. Many of the odder conspiracies in the book are taken from unpublished letters to ''Playboy'' magazine, where the authors were working as associate editors while they wrote the novels. Among the oddest was the suggestion that Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati, killed George Washington and took on his identity as President of the United States. This is often noted in Illuminati-conspiracy discussion.For instance, se
Do The Illuminati Really Exist? by Massimo Introvigne
Center for Studies on New Religions . Retrieved 3 March 2006. Proponents of this theory point to Washington's portrait on the United States one-dollar bill, which they suggest closely resembles the face of Weishaupt.

Fnord

The nonsense word '' fnord'', invented by the writers of ''Principia Discordia'', is given a specific and sinister meaning in the trilogy. It is a subliminal message technique, a word that the majority of the population since early childhood has been trained to ignore (and trained to forget both the training and that they are ignoring it), but which they associate with a vague sense of unease. Upon seeing the word, readers experience a panic reaction. They then subconsciously suppress all memories of having seen the word, but the sense of panic remains. They therefore associate the unease with the news story they are reading. Fnords are scattered liberally in the text of newspapers and magazines, causing fear and anxiety in those following current events. However, there are no fnords in the advertisements, thus encouraging a consumerist society. ''Fnord'' magazine equated the fnords with a generalized effort to control and brainwash the populace. To "see the fnords" would imply an attempt to wrestle back individual autonomy, similar to the idea of reading between the lines, especially since the word fnord was actually said to appear between regular lines of text.''Fnord'' magazine, #1, Neurolinguistic Hacking for Dummies, available a
What is a Fnord?
. Retrieved 3 March 2006.

The word makes its first appearance in ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' without any explanation during an acid trip by Dr. Ignotum Per Ignotius and Joe Malik: "The only good fnord is a dead fnord".''The Eye in the Pyramid'', p. 280 Several other unexplained appearances follow. Only much later in the story is the secret revealed, when Malik is hypnotized by Hagbard Celine to recall suppressed memories of his first-grade teacher conditioning his class to ignore the fnords: "If you don't see the fnord it can't eat you, don't see the fnord, don't see the fnord..."''The Golden Apple'', p. 255

Numerology

Numerology is given great credence by many of the characters, with the Law of Fives in particular being frequently mentioned. Hagbard Celine states the Law of Fives in Appendix Gimmel: "All phenomena are directly or indirectly related to the number five." He gives away the secret when he adds, "given enough ingenuity on the part of the demonstrator. That's the very model of what a scientific law must always be: a statement about how the human mind relates to the cosmos." (Late in the work, Celine demonstrates the meaninglessness of the Law of Fives by showing another character a picture of a young girl with six fingers on each hand and saying, "If we were all like her, there'd be a Law of Sixes.") Another character, Simon Moon, identifies what he calls the " 23 synchronicity principle", which he credits William S. Burroughs as having discovered.''The Eye in the Pyramid'', p. 250 Both laws involve finding significance in the appearance of the number, and in its "presen eesoterically because of its conspicuous exoteric absence."''The Eye in the Pyramid'', p. 111 One of the reasons Moon finds 23 significant is because "All the great anarchists died on the 23rd day of some month or other." He also identifies a "23/17 phenomenon." They are both tied to the Law of Fives, he explains, because 2 + 3 = 5, and 1 + 7 = 8 = 2³.''The Eye in the Pyramid'', p. 237 Robert Anton Wilson claimed in a 1988 interview that "23 is a part of the cosmic code. It's connected with so many synchronicities and weird coincidences that it must mean something, I just haven't figured out yet what it means!".David A. Banton interview of RAW 1988 for KFJC, 89.7 FM in Los Altos Hills, California
Wilson discusses the 23 enigma, and states his intention for the ''Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'' to be a "pentology" therein. Retrieved 10 March 2006

Counterculture

The books were written at the height of the late 1960s, and are infused with the popular counterculture ideas of that time. For instance, the New Age slogan "flower power" is referenced via its German form, '' Ewige Blumenkraft'' (literally "eternal flower power"), described by Shea and Wilson as a slogan of the Illuminati, the enemies of the hippie ideal. The book's attitude to New Age philosophies and beliefs are ambiguous. Wilson explained in a later interview: "I'm some kind of antibody in the New Age movement. on the rewrite we deliberately threw in a couple of references to it, but we had worked out the structure on our own, mostly on the basis of the nut mail that Playboy gets".

The prevalence of kinky sex in the story reflects the hippie ideal of "free love"; characters are both liberal-minded and promiscuous. The authors are well aware that it also provides an excuse for mere titillation: in a typically self-referential joke, a character in the story suggests the scenes exist: "only to sell a bad book filled with shallow characters pushing a nonsense conspiracy". Similarly, the books espouse the use of mind-altering substances to achieve higher states of consciousness, in line with the beliefs of key counterculture figures like Timothy Leary, who is mentioned throughout the three novels. Dr. Leary himself called the trilogy "more important than '' Ulysses'' or ''Finnegans Wake,''" two novels by author James Joyce—who appears as a character in ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' and is a favorite author of Robert Anton Wilson. This quote is blurbed on the covers or front page of its various printings.

Cognitive dissonance

Every view of reality that is introduced in the story is later derided in some way, whether that view is traditional or iconoclastic. The trilogy is an exercise in cognitive dissonance, with an absurdist plot built of seemingly plausible, if unprovable, components.''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' is listed as "further reading" on excommunicate.net's article entitled
Cognitive Dissonance
'' (URL accessed 11 March 2006) . Wilson offers a definition of "cognitive dissonance" in ''Cosmic Trigger'' as an "abrupt contradiction of a person's reality model." Those who experience cognitive dissonance become either "very flexible and agnostic" or "very rigid and schizophrenic." Ultimately, readers are left to form their own interpretations as to which, if any, of the numerous contradictory viewpoints presented by the characters are valid or plausible, and which are simply satirical gags and shaggy dog jokes. This style of building up a viable belief system, then tearing it down to replace it with another one, was described by Wilson as "guerrilla ontology"."A term that I picked up in the Physics Consciousness Research Group. I forget who coined the term and nobody in the group seems to remember who coined it either. It was just going around the group. It could have been Fred Wolfe, Jack Sarfatti, or maybe Nick Herbert"
1995 CCN interview, available a
Deep Leaf Productions
Retrieved 11 March 2006.

This postmodern lack of belief in consensus reality is a cornerstone of the semi-humorous Chaos-based religion of Discordianism. Extracts from its sacred text, the ''Principia Discordia'' by Malaclypse the Younger, are extensively quoted throughout the trilogy. It incorporates and shares many themes and contexts from ''Illuminatus''. Shea and Wilson dedicated the first part "To Gregory Hill and Kerry Thornley", the founders of the religion. The key Discordian practice known as "Operation Mindfuck" is exemplified in the character of Markoff Chaney (a play on the mathematical random process called Markov chain). He is an anti-social dwarf who engages in subtle practical joking in a deliberate attempt to cause social confusion. One such joke involves the forging and placing of signs that are signed by "The Mgt." (leading people to believe they are from "The Management" instead of "The Midget") that contain absurdities like "Slippery when wet. Maintain 50mph."

Self-reference

There are several parts in the book where it reviews and jokingly deconstructs itself. The fictional journalist Epicene Wildeblood at one point is required to critique a book uncannily similar to ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'':

Several protagonists come to the realization that they are merely fictional characters, or at least begin to question the reality of their situation. George Dorn wonders early on if he "was in some crazy surrealist movie, wandering from telepathic sheriffs to homosexual assassins, to nympho lady Masons, to psychotic pirates, according to a script written in advance by two acid-heads and a Martian humorist".''The Eye in the Pyramid'', pages 83–84 Hagbard Celine claims towards the climax that the entire story is a computer-generated synthesis of random conspiracies: "I can fool the rest of you, but I can't fool the reader. FUCKUP has been working all morning, correlating all the data on this caper and its historical roots, and I programmed him to put it in the form of a novel for easy reading. Considering what a lousy job he does at poetry, I suppose it will be a high-camp novel, intentionally or unintentionally."''Leviathan'', p. 509

Allusions to other works

For a work of fiction, ''Illuminatus!'' contains a lot of references to songs, films, articles, novels and other media. This is partly because the characters themselves are involved in doing research, but it is also a trademark of Wilson's writing.

The novel ''Telemachus Sneezed'' by the character Atlanta Hope with its catchphrase "What is John Guilt?" is a spoof of Ayn Rand's ''Atlas Shrugged'',Wagner, Eric (2004). ''An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson'', p. 98. the origin of the character John Galt. Ayn Rand is mentioned by name a few times in ''Illuminatus!'', and her novel is alluded to by Hagbard who says, "If Atlas can Shrug and Telemachus can Sneeze, why can't Satan Repent?" Rand is also disparaged in one of the appendices concerning property, ostensibly written by Hagbard, which serves as an explanation of anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's views on the subject. There are also references to Thomas Pynchon's '' The Crying of Lot 49'' and his ''Gravity's Rainbow'', an equally enormous experimental novel concerning liberty and paranoia that was published two years prior to ''Illuminatus!'' Wilson claims his book was already complete by the time he and Shea read Pynchon's novel (which went on to win several awards), but they then went back and made some modifications to the text before its final publication to allude to Pynchon's work."Shea and I were finished with Illuminatus! when we read Gravity's Rainbow and then on the rewrite we deliberately threw in a couple of references to it, but we had worked out the structure on our own, mostly on the basis of the nut mail that Playboy gets"
Interview given to ''EST'' magazine in 1991, available a
ESTWeb
. Retrieved 4 March 2006. The phrase "So it goes" is repeatedly used in reference to death, a deliberate echoing of Kurt Vonnegut's '' Slaughterhouse-Five''.

Author H. P. Lovecraft is alluded to often, with many mentions of characters (e.g., Robert Harrison Blake, Henry Armitage, Klarkash-Ton), monsters (e.g., Tsathoggua, Yog-Sothoth, Cthulhu), books (''Necronomicon'', '' Unaussprechlichen Kulten'') and places (Miskatonic University) from his Cthulhu Mythos. He even appears himself as a character, as does his aunt Annie Gamwell and one of his acquaintances, Hart Crane. Interest in Lovecraft reached new heights in 1975, with two full-length biographies published in the same year as ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''.

Reviews and reputation

The books have received laudatory reviews and comments from ''Playboy'', ''Publishers Weekly'', the American Library Association's ''Booklist'' magazine, ''Philadelphia Daily News'', '' Berkeley Barb'', ''Rolling Stone'' and ''Limit''. ''The Village Voice'' called it "The ultimate conspiracy book ... the biggest sci-fi-cult novel to come along since ''Dune'' ... hilariously raunchy!" John White of the ''New Age Journal'' described it as:

'' The Fortean Times'' was also enthusiastic, whilst acknowledging the difficulties many readers would have attempting to follow the convoluted plot threads:

''Illuminatus!'' even garnered some attention outside literary criticism, having several pages devoted to it in a chapter on the American New Right in ''Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics'' by George Johnson (1983).''Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics'' by George Johnson (1983)

In more recent years, it was complimented in the bibliography to the '' New Hackers Dictionary'' as a book that can help readers "understand the hacker mindset." The Dictionary described it as:

It was also included in the "Slack Syllabus" in ''The Official Slacker Handbook'' by Sarah Dunn (1994),''The Official Slacker Handbook'' by Sarah Dunn (1994) a satirical guide aimed at Generation X.

Follow-ups

Wilson and Robert Shea went on to become prolific authors. While Shea concentrated mainly on historical novels, Wilson produced over 30 works, mixing fictional novels with nonfiction. Although both authors' later work often elaborated on concepts first discussed in ''Illuminatus!'', the pair never collaborated again. The trilogy inspired a number of direct adaptations, including a stage play and a comic book series, and numerous indirect adaptations that borrowed from its themes.

Shea and Wilson

Wilson subsequently wrote a number of prequels, sequels and spin-offs based upon the ''Illuminatus!'' concept, including an incomplete pentalogy called ''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'', a standalone work entitled ''Masks of the Illuminati'' and ''The Illuminati Papers'', in which several chapters are attributed to the trilogy's characters. Many of Wilson's other works, fictional and nonfictional, also make reference to the Illuminati or the ''Illuminatus!'' books. Several of the characters from ''Illuminatus!'', for example, Markoff Chaney ("The Midget") and Epicene Wildeblood, return in Wilson's ''Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy'', which also carries on some of its themes. The third book of the ''Cat'' trilogy, ''The Homing Pigeons'', is actually mentioned as a sequel to ''Illuminatus!'' in "Appendix Mem". In 1998, Wilson published an encyclopedia of conspiracy theories called ''Everything is Under Control'', which explains the origins of many of the theories mentioned in ''Illuminatus!''.

Wilson and Shea did plan to collaborate again on a true sequel, ''Bride of Illuminatus'', taking place in 2026. It was rumored that it would feature a resurrected Winifred Saure (the only female member of the American Medical Association) exerting her influence through virtual reality."Set 50 years after the original trilogy (2026; RAW has finally confirmed that the original trilogy takes place in 1976), it was going to feature a resuscitated Winifred (female member of the evil Illuminati-primus villains The American Medical Association, in the original trilogy) being reintroduced to the world, mostly through Virtual Reality"
Comment from "buttergun"
Barbelith Underground
. Retrieved 5 March 2006. However, Robert Shea died in 1994 before this project came to fruition. An excerpt was published in Robert Anton Wilson's ''Trajectories Newsletter: The Journal of Futurism and Heresy'' in spring 1995.''Trajectories Newsletter: The Journal of Futurism and Heresy'' Number 14, pages 16–23 (Spring 1995) In a 1994 interview for ''FringeWare Review'', Wilson suggested he may even "do a Son of Illuminatus later".''FringeWare Review'
RAW Circuits: Surviving With Robert Anton Wilson by Tiffany Lee Brown
. Retrieved 19 February 2006. In ''Intelligence Agents'' by Timothy Leary (1996)''Intelligence Agents'' by Timothy Leary (1996) he was credited with having already authored ''Son of Illuminatus'' in the 1980s.

Shea, meanwhile, never wrote another ''Illuminatus!''-related book, although many of his later novels include references to the themes of that work. '' Locus'' describes Shea's Saracen novels as "Deep background for the ''Illuminatus'' trilogy".

Adaptations

An audacious proposal by the English experimental theater director Ken Campbell to stage ''Illuminatus!'' in its entirety at The National Theatre in London was met with surprisingly open arms, particularly given its inordinate length: a cycle of five plays—''The Eye of the Pyramid'', ''Swift Kick Inc.'', ''The Man Who Murdered God'', ''Walpurgisnacht Rock'' and ''Leviathan''—each consisting of five 23-minute-long acts. Sir Peter Hall, director of the National at the time, wrote of Campbell in his ''Diaries'', "He is a total anarchist and impossible to pin down. He more or less said it was a crime to be serious."

The adaptation became the very first production at the National's Cottesloe Theatre space, running from 4 March to 27 March 1977. It had first opened in Liverpool on 23 November 1976. The first night of the London version featured Robert Anton Wilson, accompanied by Shea, as a naked extra in the witches' sabbat scene. Wilson was delighted with the adaptation, saying: "I was thunderstruck at what a magnificent job they did in capturing the exact tone and mixture of fantasy and reality in the book. I've come to the conclusion that this isn't literature. It's too late in the day for literature. This is magic!"

The 23-strong cast featured several actors, such as Jim Broadbent, David Rappaport and Chris Langham, who went on to successful film, stage and television careers. Broadbent alone played more than a dozen characters in the play. Bill Drummond designed sets for the show, and it was eventually seen (when it moved to London, with Bill Nighy then joining the cast) by the young Jimmy Cauty. Drummond and Cauty later went on to form the ''Illuminatus!''-inspired electronica band The KLF.

In thanks, Wilson dedicated his '' Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati'' (1977) to "Ken Campbell and the Science-Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool, England." The play was later staged in Seattle, Washington in 1978.Empty Space Uncommon Theatre: About the Space: Past Seasons
Retrieved 15 March 2006.

No film or video exists of the performances at The National Theatre. However a full audio recording does exist and is available as a limited edition perk in the crowdfunding for the 2014 stage play of Wilson's book Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati, adapted by Daisy Eris Campbell (Ken Campbell's daughter).

An attempt was made to adapt the trilogy in comic book form beginning in the 1980s, by "Eye-n-Apple Productions" headed by Icarus! Icarus! met with Wilson in 1984 and subsequently obtained permission from Wilson's agent to adapt the trilogy. ''Illuminatus!'' #1 was issued in July 1987, then reissued in substantially revised form later that year by Rip Off Press (who had published the original 4th edition of the ''Principia Discordia'' in 1970).

A second issue followed in 1990, and a third in March 1991, after which the venture stalled (although several ashcans of the as yet unpublished Fourth Trip were distributed at comic book conventions in the Detroit and Chicago areas between 1991 and 2006).

Influence

The infamous 1980s computer hacker Karl Koch was heavily influenced by ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''. Besides adopting the pseudonym "Hagbard" from the character Hagbard Celine, he also named his computer "FUCKUP", after a computer designed and built by that character. He was addicted to cocaine and became extremely paranoid, convinced he was fighting the Illuminati like his literary namesake. In 1987 he wrote a rambling seven-page "hacking manifesto of sorts, complete with his theories on Hagbard Celine and the Illuminati". The 1998 German motion picture '' 23'' told a dramatized version of his story; Robert Anton Wilson appeared as himself.

A card game, ''Illuminati'', inspired by the trilogy, was created by Steve Jackson Games. Using the ''Illuminatus!'' books as "spiritual guides but not as actual source material", it incorporated competing conspiracies of the Bavarian Illuminati and Discordians and others, though no characters or groups specific to the novels. A trading card game ( Illuminati: New World Order) and role-playing game supplement (''GURPS Illuminati'') followed. The instruction booklets' bibliographies praise the novel and Wilson particularly, calling ''Illuminatus!'' in part "required reading for any conspiracy buff". Robert Shea provided a four-paragraph introduction to the rulebook for the Illuminati Expansion Set 1 (1983), in which he wrote, "Maybe the Illuminati are behind ''this game.'' They must be—they are, by definition, behind ''everything.''" Despite this initial involvement, Wilson later criticized some of these products for exploiting the ''Illuminatus!'' name without paying royalties (taking advantage of what he viewed as a legal loophole)."RAW recently criticised several games companies who have marketed products exploiting Illuminatus! and the Discordians, and are able to escape paying royalties through legal loop-holes."
From article ''In the RAW: Necessary Heresies'' originally published in REVelation magazine (#13, Autumn, 1995) pp. 36–40. Available a
Disinformation website
. Retrieved 28 February 2006.

''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' is steeped with references to the 1960s popular music scene (at one point a list of 200 fictional bands performing at the Walpurgisnacht rock festival is reeled off (including a handful of actual bands of the 60s), and there are numerous references to the famous rock and roll song, "Rock Around the Clock"), and has influenced many bands and musicians. One of the aliases of anarchic British band The KLF was named after a secret society from the trilogy. They released much of their early material under the name "The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu"/"The JAMMs", cf. "The Justified Ancients of Mummu"/"The JAMs" from the trilogy, and much of their work was Discordian in nature. They mirrored the fictional JAMs' gleeful political tactics of causing chaos and confusion by bringing a direct, humorous but nevertheless revolutionary approach to making records. The American band Machines of Loving Grace took the name of a sex act performed by one of the main characters during a Black Mass for the title of their song "Rite of Shiva" on their eponymous album."It's taken right out of the illuminatus trilogy, basically it was a sex act that was performed at a black mass at one point. The idea behind Rite of Shiva was to get this obscene sex act on the radio without them knowing what they were playing. It seemed to work out pretty well."
Scott Benzel talking to Jon Bains in a 1993 interview fo
Children of Sores
Retrieved 11 March 2006. UK chillout maestro Mixmaster Morris also named his band The Irresistible Force after one that appears at the festival in the last part of the trilogy. Together with Coldcut he organised a huge Robert Anton Wilson Memorial Show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 18 March 2007.

In general, ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' can be credited with popularizing the genre of conspiracy fiction,For example, "Robert Anton Wilson is the undisputed king of conspiracy fiction ..there's a wealth of conspiracy-oriented science fiction and horror ..In fact, there's probably too much. Robert Anton Wilson pretty much has the field cornered, and has deliberately blurred the lines of fact and fiction. But conspiracy lends itself to thriller fiction, because writers can pick up on a plot that's already familiar to readers. "
Rick Kleffel writing i
The Agony Column for 26 August 2002
. Retrieved 11 March 2006. a field later mined by authors like Umberto Eco (''Foucault's Pendulum''), Charles Cecil ( Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars) and Dan Brown (''Angels & Demons'', ''The Da Vinci Code'', ''The Lost Symbol''), comic book writers like Alan Moore (''V for Vendetta'', '' From Hell''), Dave Sim ('' Cerebus'') and Grant Morrison ('' The Invisibles''), and screenwriters like Chris Carter (''The X-Files'') and Damon Lindelof (''Lost'').All at sea about Lost? Read on
by Benji Wilson, ''The Observer'', Sunday 12 November 2006 (URL accessed 16 May 2007) In particular, the regular use of the Illuminati in popular culture as shadowy central puppet masters in this type of fiction can be traced back to their exposure via ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''."The main groundswell of interest in the Illuminati and the assertions that it exists today began after the publication of The Illuminatus trilogy"
UK Skeptics Association
. Retrieved 11 March 2006.

Editions

Major English-language editionsMajor editions culled from four primary sources:


(URL accessed 20 February 2006)
*

ABE Books
(URL accessed 20 February 2006)


Retrieved 21 February 2006. include:
* 1975, US, Dell, Separate editions, ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' , ''The Golden Apple'' ''Leviathan''
* 1976–77, UK, Sphere, Separate editions, ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' , ''The Golden Apple'' ''Leviathan''
* 1980, US, Laurel, Separate editions, ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' , ''The Golden Apple'' , ''Leviathan''
* 1984, US, Dell , Paperback (collected edition)
* 1986, UK, Sphere, Paperback (separate editions), ''The Eye in the Pyramid'' ''The Golden Apple'' ''Leviathan''
* 1988, US, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group , Paperback (collected edition)
* 1998, US, MJF Books , Hardback (collected edition)
* 1998, US, Constable and Robinson , Paperback (collected edition)

See also

* Celine's laws

References

External links

Robert Anton Wilson's website
– features excerpts from ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy''.

Robert Shea's website
– features historical information about the book and its writing

{{DEFAULTSORT:Illuminatus Trilogy, The
1975 American novels
Book series introduced in 1975
Anarchist fiction
Atlantis in fiction
Cthulhu Mythos novels
Discordian texts
English-language novels
Libertarian science fiction books
Metafictional novels
Novels about computing
Novels about secret societies
Novels by Robert Anton Wilson
Novels by Robert Shea
Postmodern novels
Science fiction novel trilogies
Secret histories
Submarines in fiction
Works about the Illuminati
Dell Publishing books