Robert Anton Wilson passed away on January 11 . . . that’s 1/11 . . . he would have appreciated the irony of the date . . . RAW . . . Bob . . . was one of the greatest impacts upon my early critical development and much of my thinking is still filtered through my onboard adaptation of his POV . . . as many of my friends and students know, I consider Wilson a Great American Thinker . . . well, Great World Thinker, actually . . . I still re-read his corpus periodically and have been known to present and publish on his work (I just presented a research salon on his work last month) . . . his last blog entry is very telling of the man here . . .

Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying. Please pardon my levity, I don’t see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.

As every, he did not merely go gently into that good night, he went with laughter and a wink in his eye.

Read more of his blog . . . RAW Data.

For me . . . this is the guy . . . the major influence in thinking, philosophy, and life orientation. I kid you not, nor do I stretch it, this is THE GUY, for me and a whole bunch of others. Heck, despite not being a hypnotist, he even influenced how I approach hypnosis. It was even thanks to reading his work after major surgery in 1981 that I imprinted the ol’ thing for redheads with green eyes and bountiful bosoms . . . the Asian fixation thing is probably influenced from his work as well. Wilson IS . . . not was . . . THE GUY for me. If you have never read his work, go get it NOW.

I feel deeply saddened by this loss . . . it is no shock, he’s been struggling with illness and worse for some time . . . it just feels as if the world is a bit emptier today . . . although, I know he’s still around, quantumfying all sorts of things.

Years ago, we corresponded and he gave Lorraine the Chinese translation rights to Ishtar Rising, a project that never got finished lamentably. It is a wonderfully delightful work. Lorraine is my "Miss Mao" (yes, she’s read Illuminatus so she knows who Miss Mao is and she also knows that Bob’s use of the name cat was delightfully wrong as it’s not a family name . . . coming from a guy who has the character wolf in his own name that’s a bit funny).

In any case . . . Robert Anton Wilson . . . merely shuffled from the mortal coil . . . neither gone nor forgotten and most certainly ever loved.

Sad,
Brian