Is the Illuminatus trilogy any good?

Cafe Society
1

I ask this after reading all but the last few pages of the first book, “The Eye in the Pyramid”. I’ll finish the book, but I haven’t decided yet if I’ll bother with the other two books.

Let me explain where I’m at with this.

I bought the trilogy (the three-books-in-one-volume edition) a few years ago. I vaguely recall that this was after someone recommended them to me after I had mentioned how much I liked Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. I was assured that the Illuminatus trilogy was quite funny, but also smart and interesting. For some reason, the book got put in a box somewhere and then sat unread.

After finishing a book on ancient Egypt followed by Marvin Minsky’s “Society of Mind”, I was in the mood for some fiction. I found my copy of the Illuminatus trilogy and started reading.

So far, near the end of book one, I’m rather lukewarm on it.

The rapid changes of point of view and perspective took some getting used to, but that’s not a major problem. The fact that the book makes no sense whatsoever is only a minor problem, really. What bothers me is that I just don’t find it very interesting.

Worse than that, it just isn’t very funny for me. Oh, there are a few humorous parts. I cracked a grin two or three times. But two or three chuckles in an entire book isn’t what I call “funny”. Also, there’s a limit to the number of allusions I’m willing to consider clever. After a dozen or so such allusions, I began to wonder if the authors ever had an original idea or if they were just writing a story from spare parts. And I really like H.P. Lovecraft and making fun of Ayn Rand! I don’t even have a problem with Buckminster Fuller, but I have to ask people who were alive back then: Was Bucky Fuller, like, the Stephen Hawking of the 70’s? (That is, was he as identifiable as a “smart guy”, even to non-science geeks?) He’s mentioned numerous times.

The sex scenes are entirely pointless and embarassingly silly. The characters are pretty much cardboard (although compared to some sci-fi / fantasy, they’re at least double-wall cardboard). I was amused when a book reviewer in the story criticizes a book that has, of course, all the features of “The Eye in the Pyramid” itself. But self-reference wasn’t enough to distract me from the fact that the reviewer was substantially correct in his criticisms. They run thus:

After thinking about it for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that if I had been a politically conscious stoner in the 70’s I would have absolutely loved it. Being a politically cynical non-stoner in the 00’s, I just can’t connect. Is this one of those things where you “had to be there” in the zeitgeist in order for it to grab you the same way?

2

I don’t think you had to be there; I was born in 1977 and I loved the book. But I can say, I think without fear of contradiction, that if you don’t like it by now, reading the rest is going to be a waste of time. It’s pretty much more of the same.

3

I read the paperbacks as they came out and loved them; They’re still on a shelf at home and I’m fairly sure I would at least enjoy them if I re-read them again now.

However, all the conspiracy stuff is 30 years old now and, I would think, must seem very tired and out of date to new readers. Programs like The X Files brought conspiracies and paranoia into the mainstream and I don’t imagine any of the stuff in the trilogy seems anything like as unusual as it did back then…

4

Yea, verily, I was indeed alive back then. Punk. Buckminster Fuller was indeed well-known as a brilliant, innovative thinker, and geodesic domes figured prominently in popular conceptions about the future.

I read the Illuminatus! trilogy thirty years ago. I picked up a copy a while back, but after skimming through it realized I’d never reread it. Most of the elements seemed a lot fresher back then, and as a teenage virgin I found the sex scenes intensely interesting; now it just seems like a huge mass of self-consciously clever nonsense.

One good thing: reading the trilogy immunized me against grand conspiracy theories.

5

I enjoyed the trilogy so much fnord I’ve read it 3 times.

Read it, really. You should. We need you for our master plan.

6

It’s worth reading through at least once. Conspiracy-theory-wise, it was dated when it was written, and it’s largely a vehicle for Wilson & Shea’s satiric magical libertarianism (“Discordianism”). I do disagree with the review who regarded the sex scenes as unnecessary & put in just to make money. Like the sex scenes in
ATLAS SHRUGGED, they are necessary scenes which flow directly from the authors philosophy.

7

I knew one of the authors so I’m a little biased. I liked the books though the sex scenes did bring a flush to my face!

8

I don’t think political consciousness has anything to do with it, since the book is totally non-political. The difference between the 70s and today may be a big reason. I read the book about ten years ago and really liked it, although I don’t know how much of it I understood.

9

It’s one of my favorite books, and I’ve reread it frequently, but it takes a very long time into the book for it to hit its stride for the reader. It isn’t something that you can read a chapter or two and judge the rest of the book by.

Around page 100, it all comes together and turns into a great ride. But before that, things are very disjointed and chaotic as the zillions of characters and subplots are being introduced.

But really, give it a chance at least until page 100 or so.

10

I read Illuminatus! originally in 1984, and have re-read it a couple of times since. I enjoyed it (hence the re-reading), even though the libertarian political philosophy got a bit old.

Bucky Fuller on the cover of Time.

11

I agree, he was well-known even back then. I felt incredibly lucky when he came to speak to my high school history class (his grandson was in the class). A few years later, in another city, he came to speak at my university and filled the 900-seat auditorium.

12

It. changed. my. Life.

Not in a good way, though. That book* is* MindFuck. Not a great thing to put in the hands of a confused 17-year-old dropout.

No, I’m glad of it. “There is no Friend anywhere.” “There is no Enemy anywhere.” “There is no Governor anywhere.” All these I still believe.

So, not in an entirely good way. Or maybe I’d have been worse off without it.

13

The worst part for me was when the P2 conspiracy broke. My reaction was, “Those fuckers weren’t joking!”

Loads of fun investigating 18th qnd 19th century texts before that. Loads if WTF? moments after that.

And yes, Bucky was all that and more.

14

I’ve tried reading this book three times, and always given up. I just can’t get interested in any of the characters enough to warrant muddling through the narrative mess.

15

I haven’t read it, but came across this blog entry from Lou Anders .:

1. One book that changed your life?
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. I started the book a lapsed Christian and ended it an atheist (now an agnostic, which was more in keeping with the point of the book, I think). Really changed my life and helped me deprogram from 12 years of fundamentalist Christian education. That I was 23 when I read it will make sense to those in the know.

16

From some guy’s blog:

For those not “in the know” (that is, those who haven’t plowed through the books in question), throughout the trilogy they pretend that the number 23 has some profound mystical significance.

17

Lou Anders is the editorial director of Prometheus Books’ science fiction imprint Pyr, as well as the anthologies Outside the Box (Wildside Press, 2001), Live Without a Net (Roc, 2003), Projections: Science Fiction in Literature & Film (MonkeyBrain, December 2004), and FutureShocks (Roc, January 2006) . He served as the senior editor for Argosy magazine’s inaugural issues in 2003-04. In 2000, he served as the Executive Editor of Bookface.com, and before that he worked as the Los Angeles Liaison for Titan Publishing Group. He is the author of The Making of Star Trek: First Contact (Titan Books, 1996), and has published over 500 articles in such magazines as The Believer, Publishers Weekly, Dreamwatch, Star Trek Monthly, Star Wars Monthly, Babylon 5 Magazine, Sci Fi Universe, Doctor Who Magazine, and Manga Max. His articles and stories have been translated into Greek, German and French, and have appeared online at SFSite.com, RevolutionSF.com and InfinityPlus.co.uk.

18

Which one? I’ve got of a lot of later books by Wilson, but I always wondered what happened to Bob Shea.

19

Shea wrote a few more books, mostly historical fiction, but he died in 1994 of cancer.

20

I’m in almost the same position as the OP. I’m on page 197 and I’ve just stopped reading. I couldn’t really put my finger on what I liked or disliked about it. It’s well-written, because there were times when I just couldn’t put it down, but it’s a mess. I feel like it’s a mess for the sake of being a mess, like a David Lynch movie.