The Illuminatus Trilogy

[TracerBullet42]

Anybody read this? I just ordered it and it sounds hilarious...was just looking for any opinions regarding this set of books.

 

[trancejeremy]

I've heard it once described as "alleged funny", and that pretty much sums up my opinion of it. Though I would add "pretentious" to it as well.

 

[catsclaw227]

It's got some interesting meanderings and some quotable lines. Personally I liked it, though it does have some pretension in it. Sorta like there's some inside joke that you'll only get if you're hip. If you can get past that feeling, it's an enjoyable series.

 

[Umbran]

I don't think it is funny, in the belly-laughs way. Instead, it is interestingly bizzare. It is the iconic book of conspiracy theory.

I think the pretension others see is, in fact, part of the fiction. When a major point of the book is that most people do not know how much psychadelic wierdness actually runs the world in which they live, of course they'll look pretentious. Anyone who claims to know more than you looks like he's trying to be superior, right?

And, I figure the "only get it if you're hip" comes from the fact that back when it was written, hip people did drugs, and much of the book reads like a rather cogent and vivid trip on recreational pharmaceuticals. So, it is more like, "only get it if you're sufficiently stoned".

There is, buried in all that, quite a bit of actual philosophical content as well, if you can look past the trappings.

 

[catsclaw227]

BTW -- happy b-day Umbran.

 

[Rackhir]

The book do eventually get kind of repetitious as there's a lot of mirroring of events and the same events told from different points of view. It is a seminal work of fiction in that it is kind of the iconic work of the "Everything's a conspiracy" point of view, though it's done in a humorous fashion and is generally satirizing those sorts of beliefs (Just wait till you get to what Dillinger has to say at the Kennedy Assasination).

 

[death tribble]

I bought it and read it. It is not easy to get into as you will suddenly switch from one viewpoint to another.
Is it good ? Yes
However you have to be into literature to like it. If you like simple stuff then you won't like this.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

One of the best novels of the late 20th century... I read it when I was 18, and I was never the same again.

I've never read any of Robert Shea's other works... but I've read quite a bit of Robert Anton Wilson. (and, in an odd coincidence, I was staying in the home of his former personal assistant in San Francisco the day that he died)

But yes, read it. It is very amusing, if not a laugh-riot... it's more or less just one of those novels that you read to find out what's going to happen next, not because you want to see if you've predicted where it's going, but because you have no flaming clue where it's going. If you've enjoyed other conspiracy novels, it's a great send-up of the whole genre (in many ways, Stephenson's Cryptonomicon was it's 90's cyberculture descendent; on the other hand, Dan Brown's novels are basically just Illuminatus! without the zany psychedelic attitude and far too much seriousness.)

 

[catsclaw227]

...<snip>... on the other hand, Dan Brown's novels are basically just Illuminatus! without the zany psychedelic attitude and far too much seriousness.)

If you want a good, if not great, fictional novel on the Illuminati and conspiracy theory, then look for Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (Name of the Rose). Not a simple read, but it is engaging and very interesting.