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The Illuminatus! Trilogy

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   CAPTION: The Illuminatus! Trilogy

   Cover of the collected edition
      Author    Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
   Cover Artist Carlos Victor (1975)
     Country    United States
     Language   English
     Genre(s)   Science fiction
    Publisher   Dell (1975)
     Released   1975 (collected edition 1984)
    Media Type  Print ( Hardback & Paperback)
      Pages     805 pages (paperback collected edition)
       ISBN     ISBN 1-56731-237-3 (Hardback collected edition) &
                ISBN 1-85487-574-4 (Paperback collected edition)

   The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert
   Shea and Robert Anton Wilson primarily between 1969 and 1971. 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, which hinge around
   the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches
   between third and first person perspectives and jumps around in time.
   It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture,
   numerology and Discordianism.

   The trilogy comprises the books The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden
   Apple and Leviathan. They were first published starting in September
   1975, as three separate volumes, and in 1984 as an omnibus; they are
   now more commonly reprinted in the latter form. The trilogy won the
   Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, designed to honour classic libertarian
   fiction, in 1986. The authors went on to create several works, both
   fiction and nonfiction, that further discussed the themes of the
   trilogy, but no direct sequels were produced. Illuminatus! has been
   adapted for the stage, and has influenced several modern writers,
   musicians and games-makers. The popularity of the word " fnord" and the
   23 enigma can both be attributed to the trilogy. It remains a seminal
   work of conspiracy fiction, predating Foucault's Pendulum and The Da
   Vinci Code by decades.

Narrative

   The plot meanders between the thoughts, hallucinations and inner voices
   (both real and imagined) of its many characters, as well as through
   time (past, present and future)—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 where it actually reviews
   and jokingly deconstructs itself.

Plot summary

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   The trilogy's rambling story begins with an investigation by two New
   York City 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
   John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
   assassinations, the two follow a trail of memos containing cryptic
   clues that suggest the involvement of powerful secret societies. They
   slowly become drawn into a web of conspiracy theories. At the same
   time, the magazine's reporter, George Dorn – having been turned loose
   without support deep in right-wing Mad Dog, Texas – is arrested for
   possession of drugs. He is jailed and physically threatened, at one
   point hallucinating about his own execution. The prison is bombed and
   he is finally rescued by a group of strangers. He finds himself being
   bodily dragged into the hands of the Discordians, led by the enigmatic
   Hagbard Celine, captain of a golden submarine designed and built by
   himself (or stolen from the US government, or given to him as a gift
   from the mafia, depending on whom you listen to). Hagbard represents
   the Discordians in their eternal battle against the Illuminati, the
   conspiratorial organization that secretly controls the world. He
   finances his operations from smuggling substances (such as marijuana
   and heroin) banned by various repressive governments.

   The plot meanders around the globe to such far-flung locations as Las
   Vegas, Nevada (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 Póo (the location of the next great Cold War
   standoff between Russia, China and the USA).

   The evil scheme uncovered late in the tale is an attempt to immanentize
   the eschaton (a catchphrase meaning "bringing about the end of the
   world" or "creating heaven on earth", and derived from a quotation in
   the works of Eric Voegelin). Here it refers to the secret scheme of the
   American Medical Association, an evil rock-and-roll 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 among others Adolf Hitler. The AMA are four
   siblings who comprise four of the five mysterious Illuminati Primi. The
   identity of the fifth remains unknown almost all the way through the
   trilogy. The first European " Woodstock" festival, held at Ingolstadt,
   Bavaria, Germany, is the chosen location for the sacrifice of the
   unwary victims, via the reawakening of hibernating Nazi battalions from
   the bottom of nearby Lake Totenkopf. 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 onboard the submarine,
   are menaced by the Leviathan, a giant, pyramid-shaped single-cell sea
   monster that has been growing in size for millennia. 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 Celine reveals himself as the fifth
   Illuminatus Primus — he has been toying with both sides and playing
   them off against each other in order to keep balance. He is a
   representative of the "true" Illuminati, whose aim is to spread the
   idea that everybody is free to do whatever they want at all times.
   Spoilers end here.

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 that relate to elements of the plot. The Eye in the Pyramid
   refers to the Eye of Providence, which in the novel represents in
   particular 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 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 the Lief Erickson.

   The three parts of the trilogy are subdivided into five "books" named
   after the five seasons of the Discordian calendar. These books are also
   subdivided into ten "trips" named after the ten Sephirot. The last
   trip's conclusion is followed by fourteen appendices named after
   letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, which share their names with paths on
   the Tree of Life. The first page of the Appendix includes this
   mysterious note: "There were originally 22 appendices explaining the
   secrets of the Illuminati. Eight of the appendices were removed due to
   the paper shortage. They will be printed in heaven", while "Appendix
   Mem" states: "Where are the missing eight appendices? Answer:
   Censored." This appears to be another of the authors' jokes, although
   it is true that eight letters of the Hebrew Alphabet are missing, and
   the publisher required the authors to cut 500 pages from the book.

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". 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:


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

    It started with the Discordian Society, which is based on worship of
      Eris, the Greek goddess of confusion and chaos [...] We felt the
    Society needed some opposition, because the whole idea of it is based
     on conflict and dialectics. So, we created an opposition within the
   Discordian Society, which we called the Bavarian Illuminati [...] There
    were several Discordian newsletters written in the 1960s, and several
   Discordian members wrote for the underground press in various parts of
    the country. So, we built up this myth about the warfare between the
   Discordian Society and the Illuminati for quite a while, until one day
     Bob Shea said to me, "You know, we could write a novel about this!"


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

   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:


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

   In general, the melodrama is Shea and the satire is me; but some of the
     satire is definitely him and some of the melodrama is certainly me.
    "When Atlantis Ruled the Earth" is 99% Shea. The sections about Simon
     Moon, Robert Putney Drake and Markoff Chaney are 99% me. Everything
                       else is impossible to untangle.


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

   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 Illuminatus! Trilogy

   They had a lot of access to research staff. And so under the guise that
   it would be helpful writing articles for Playboy (I don't think it was
   really) they got into the Illuminati. Wilson would bung these memos to
    Shea as material came in from the researchers—like the memos in the
    book. When they got to memo 23, Shea said, "If we imagine a New York
     cop came across these memos, I think we've got the basis for a fine
       thriller!" So the next one Wilson wrote was episode one of the
      thriller. Shea replied with episode two. They were playing a game
      really. Like, I bet you can't continue this! The answer is, "No I
                    can't, so we'll continue with this!"


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

   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. Publishers Dell also required Shea and Wilson 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 first released these individual editions (with covers illustrated
   by Carlos Victor) in the USA 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) in 1978. 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, 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 of 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 tryptych) 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.

Themes

   The Illuminatus! Trilogy covers a wide range of subjects within its 805
   pages. These include discussions about mythology, current events,
   conspiracy theories and the Cthulhu Mythos.

Conspiracies

   The Eye in the Pyramid as represented by The Great Seal of the United
   States on a dollar bill
   Enlarge
   The Eye in the Pyramid as represented by The Great Seal of the United
   States on a dollar bill

   Although the many conspiracy theories in the book are (presumably)
   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 rumored 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.

   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, the suggestion that Adam Weishaupt, founder of the
   Bavarian Illuminati, killed George Washington and took on his identity
   as President of the United States is often noted in
   Illuminati-conspiracy discussion. 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

   One of the most well-known concepts in the book is the fnord, a word
   coined by the writers of Principia Discordia and given meaning by Shea
   and Wilson for Illuminatus! which has since been adopted in numerous
   other contexts. It makes its first appearance in The Illuminatus!
   Trilogy without any explanation: "The only good fnord is a dead fnord".
   Several other unexplained appearances follow. Only much later in the
   story is the secret revealed, when Joe Malik is hypnotized by Hagbard
   Celine to recall suppressed memories of his first-grade teacher
   training 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..."

   In the Shea/Wilson fictional construct, it is a type of subliminal
   message technique brought about by seeing the word in print: a word
   that the majority of the population since early childhood has been
   trained to ignore (and, of course, trained to forget both the training
   and the fact 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.

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." Another character, Simon
   Moon, identifies what he calls the " 23 synchronicity principle", which
   he credits William S. Burroughs as having discovered. Both laws involve
   finding significance in the appearance of the number, and in its
   "presen[ce] esoterically because of its conspicuous exoteric absence."
   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 = 2^3. 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!".

Counterculture

   A "flower-power" bus covered with hippie slogans
   Enlarge
   A "flower-power" bus covered with hippie slogans

   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 hippy 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. My function is to raise the possibility, hey, you
   know, some of this stuff might be bullshit."

   The prevalence of kinky sex in the story reflects the hippy 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. Leary himself called the trilogy "more important
   than Ulysses or Finnegans Wake". 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. 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".

   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."

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. Ayn Rand is mentioned by name a few times in Illuminatus!
   herself, and her novel is alluded to by Hagbard who says, "If Atlas can
   Shrug and Telemachus can Sneeze, why can't Satan Repent?" 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. In the third book of the
   trilogy, in reaction to death, one character wistfully remarks "Now
   they are all dead. So it goes," possibly deliberately echoing Kurt
   Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, wherein the phrase "So it goes"
   repeatedly appears whenever death is mentioned.

   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), 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.

Literary significance

   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 Illuminatus! Trilogy

    An epic fantasy...a devilishly funny work ... shimmers with illusion
   and paradox that provides delight after magical delight ... a farcical
   black tragicomedy that turns out to have been written by you and me ...
                          it strips away illusion.


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

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


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

   Be prepared for streams of consciousness in which not only identity but
   time and space no longer confine the narrative, which zips up and down
    time-lines and flashes into other minds with consummate ease [...] A
   damned good read. Has to be read to be believed (and even then I'm not
                 sure—it really is preposterous in parts).


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

   Illuminatus! even garnered some attention outside of 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) .

   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," though it had been written before home computers. The
   Dictionary described it as:


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

      An incredible berserko-surrealist rollercoaster of world-girdling
    conspiracies, intelligent dolphins, the fall of Atlantis, who really
     killed JFK, sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, and the Cosmic Giggle Factor.
   [...] The perfect right-brain companion to Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher,
                                    Bach.


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

   It was also included in the "Slack Syllabus" in 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". Due to Wilson's works being adopted by the New Age
   community, many of the Illuminatus!-related books are often found in
   New Age bookstores alongside books on tarot card reading, crystal
   power, and Feng shui.

   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. 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 . In a 1994 interview for FringeWare Review, Wilson suggested he
   may even "do a Son of Illuminatus later". Curiously, in 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 magazine describes Shea's Saracen novels as "Deep
   background for the Illuminatus trilogy".

Adaptations

   The Royal National Theatre in London, from Waterloo Bridge
   Enlarge
   The Royal National Theatre in London, from Waterloo Bridge

   An audacious proposal by English actor, theatre philanthropist and
   comedian Ken Campbell to stage The Illuminatus! Trilogy in its entirety
   at The Royal National Theatre in London was met with surprisingly open
   arms given its 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. It was in fact
   the first-ever show to open the theatre's third space, the Cottesloe
   Theatre, running from 4 March to 27 March 1977. It initially opened in
   Liverpool on 23 November 1976, and even featured Illuminatus! author
   Robert Anton Wilson as a naked extra in the witches' sabbat scene.
   Wilson himself was delighted with the adaptation, saying:


   The Illuminatus! Trilogy

   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 Illuminatus! Trilogy

   In thanks, Wilson dedicated his Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the
   Illuminati (1977) to "Ken Campbell and the Science-Fiction Theatre Of
   Liverpool, England."

   The 23-strong cast featured several actors, such as Jim Broadbent,
   David Rappaport and Chris Langham, who went on to successful film 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) by the young Jimmy Cauty. The
   duo later went on to form the Illuminatus!-inspired electronica band
   The KLF. The play was later staged in Seattle, Washington in 1978.

   An attempt was made to adapt the trilogy in comic book form beginning
   in the 1980s, by "Eye N Apple Productions" headed by Mark Philip
   Steele. Steele 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 was abandoned
   (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). Each comic covered one "trip" from the original
   trilogy, so had further issues followed this pattern, there would have
   been ten issues in total. The "new first issue" contained a letter from
   Bob Shea, who had seen the first issue and the materials for the next
   two. He wrote in part, "I'm delighted. I think it is very faithful to
   the novel and does a wonderful job of translating the spirit of the
   novel into a visual medium." The creators of the comic also made an
   Illuminatus! discussion room on Citadel bulletin board systems.

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 inspired by the trilogy, Illuminati 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).

   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, and there
   are numerous references to the famous rock and roll song, " Rock Around
   the Clock"), and has influenced many bands and musicians. The anarchic
   British band The KLF was named after one of the secret societies from
   the trilogy. They released much of their early material under the name
   " The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu" (JAMs), also 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.

   In general, The Illuminatus! Trilogy can be credited with popularizing
   the genre of conspiracy fiction, a field later mined by authors like
   Umberto Eco ( Foucault's Pendulum) and Dan Brown ( Angels and Demons,
   The Da Vinci Code), comic book writers like Alan Moore ( V for
   Vendetta, Watchmen, Promethea and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen),
   Grant Morrison ( The Invisibles) and screenwriters like Chris Carter
   (The X-Files). 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.

Editions

   Major English-language editions include:
     * 1975, USA, Dell, Separate editions, The Eye in the Pyramid ISBN
       0-440-04688-2, The Golden Apple ISBN 0-440-04691-2 Leviathan ISBN
       0-440-14742-5
     * 1976-7, UK, Sphere, Separate editions, The Eye in the Pyramid ISBN
       0-7221-9202-7, The Golden Apple ISBN 0-7221-9209-6 Leviathan ISBN
       0-7221-9211-8
     * 1980, USA, Laurel, Separate editions, The Eye in the Pyramid ISBN
       0-440-34688-6, The Golden Apple ISBN 0-7221-9209-6, Leviathan ISBN
       0-440-34742-4
     * 1984, USA, Dell ISBN 0-440-53981-1, Pub date January 1984,
       Paperback (collected edition)
     * 1986, UK, Sphere, Pub date December 1986, Paperback (separate
       editions), The Eye in the Pyramid ISBN 0-7221-9219-3 The Golden
       Apple ISBN 0-7221-9222-3 Leviathan ISBN 0-7221-9216-9
     * 1988, USA, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group ISBN
       0-440-53981-1, Pub date November 1988, Paperback (collected
       edition)
     * 1998, USA, MJF Books ISBN 1-56731-237-3, Pub date February 1998,
       Hardback (collected edition)
     * 1998, USA, Constable and Robinson ISBN 1-85487-574-4, Pub date July
       1998, Paperback (collected edition)

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