Line #7 Creator/RobertAntonWilson


1	%% Commented out several zero-context examples. Please add context before uncommenting.
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3	[[quoteright:189:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/antonwilson.jpg]]
4	Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007) was an author of 58 mindbending books, including ''Literature/TheIlluminatusTrilogy'' (with Robert Shea), The ''Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy'', ''Cosmic Trigger'', the stage play ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich_in_Hell Wilhelm Reich in Hell]]'', and many more. He also wrote for a bewilderingly wide range of magazines, from ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' to ''Magazine/ForteanTimes''.
5	----
6	!! His books contain examples of:
7	* [[UsefulNotes/{{Anarchism}} Anarchy]] as a positive force.
8	* AnarchyIsChaos: Consistently inverted.
9	* AncientConspiracy: Aside from the titular Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria (AKA TheIlluminati) of ''Illuminatus!'' and the various Discordian and Erisian groups which are their nominal opposites, his fiction includes nearly every other sort of conspiratorial group under the sun, often with punny names such as "[[FunWithAcronyms Knights of Christ United in Faith]]" and filled with absurd characters (or caricatures) with equally bizarre names. Also, several of his non-fiction works (most notably ''Everything is Under Control'', an '''encyclopedia''' of conspiracy theories) discuss such real-world conspiracies as Propaganda Due, as well as theories about groups such as the CIA, TheMenInBlack, the [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats Freemasons]], and the [[FantasticCatholicism Jesuits]]. Finally, in the appendices of ''Illuminatus!'' he states that the book ''itself'' is a part of the Discordian conspiracy 'Operation Mindfuck', a notional conspiracy to open people's minds to which everything that any Discordian does is also a part of (whether intentionally or not).
10	* AncientTradition: what the [[spoiler:Erisian Liberation Front]] turns out to actually be.
11	* ArcNumber: Five, seventeen, and twenty-three. Ties in with the UsefulNotes/{{Discordian\|ism}} themes.
12	* ArcWords: The words "No wife, no horse, no mustache" echo in several of his novels.
13	* AsHimself: Wilson is a major character in Creator/PhilipKDick's ''Literature/{{VALIS}}''. Dick and Wilson were friends in RealLife until Dick's paranoia got the better of him.
14	* AuthorAvatar: A character named Hans Zoesser appears in the ''Historical Illuminatus'' series; in the ''Cosmic Trigger'' series, Wilson mentions at one point being told that he is a reincarnation of one Hans Zoesser (''Cosmic Trigger'' was written first).
15	** There is a character ''called'' Robert Anton Wilson in ''Schroedinger's Cat'' trilogy, but judging from his demeanour and profession (a professional big game hunter in Africa), he is ''not'' supposed to be an AuthorAvatar.
16	** Yet another character in the ''Schroedinger's Cat'' trilogy is a writer named Robert W. Anton, who provides the opportunity for a little authorial SelfDeprecation. (He's described as 'writing in a style as opulent as an Arabian palace', among other things.)
17	* AuthorTract - his writing is mostly meant to promote the goals of 'Operation Mindfuck', a long-ranging (if somewhat notional rather than real) Discordian conspiracy to cause people to become more mindful and think more. As such, a lot of it involves either Wilson himself, or his characters, giving long explanations about the nature of anarchism, society, money, and a host of other social phenomena (often with the purpose of pointing out that they ''are'' social phenomena, rather than laws of nature).
18	* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: He frequently makes use of historical - or in some cases, living (at the time of writing) - people, claiming they are or were members of this or that AncientConspiracy or AncientTradition. While this is mostly done in his fiction works, he had at times suggested that various historical figures were part of some secret group (though as always with tongue firmly planted in cheek).
19	** Specific note goes to John Dillinger, who not only is a member of the Justified Ancients of Mumu (an anarchist group which had joined forces with the Illuminati for a time only for [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire Cecil Rhodes]] to 'kick out the [=JAMs=]'[[note]]Allegedly, the [=MC5=] song of that name 90 years latter was a deliberate insult to the group[[/note]] after taking over the Illuminati in the 1880s), but was actually a group of quintuplets whose first names are all John.
20	** The stand-alone novel ''Masks of the Illuminati'' involves Creator/JamesJoyce and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein accidentally meeting in a Zurich beer garden in May 1914[[note]]the story ends with the announcement of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand]][[/note]], only to get drawn into a [[GambitPileup conspiratorial mess]] which ends up with them both [[EurekaMoment gaining the necessary insights]] to make the great breakthroughs of their later work. Both [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Vladimir Lenin]] and UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler make cameos as well.
21	* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Bob's personal philosophy was "I don't believe in anything, but I have many suspicions." His novels often repeat the mantra: "Only the madman is absolutely sure." (Or "It isn't real unless it makes you laugh".) He was also rather fond of abbreviating the words Belief System to their initials.
22	* BuryYourGays
23	** Many gay and transsexual characters do end up receiving happy endings as well, however.
24	* BrownNote: as children, US citizens are conditioned to be unable to consciously read the word 'fnord'[[note]]it is 'explained' in an appendix that the 'actual' word used by the Illuminati is different, with 'fnord' being a stand-in to allow the casual reader to see the word[[/note]], while subconsciously reacting to it with fear and anxiety. The word is inserted into anything the Illuminati want people to react negatively to. Being able to 'see the fnords' by breaking this conditioning becomes a watchword for becoming aware of the way people are manipulated on a daily basis.
25	* CharacterFilibuster: Several, with Hagbard Celine, Simon Moon, and Sigismundo Celine getting the majority of them.
26	* CoolBoat: the ''Lief Ericsson'', Hagbard Celine's gigantic [[Music/TheBeatles yellow submarine]].
27	* DiedDuringProduction: Only three of the planned five books in the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles series were published before his death (though considering the third book came out over 15 years before his death, it's possible he never intended to finish it in the first place).
28	* FootnoteFever: Most prominently in the second volume of ''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles''.
29	* GenderBender: In the ''Schroedinger's Cat'' trilogy some recurring characters' genders vary depending on the universe. One major character is also a male-to-female transsexual [[CrossesTheLineTwice who causes outrage by having her former, impressive sexual organs stuffed and displayed prominently over the mantle.]]
30	%%* TheHecateSisters
31	* GenerationXerox: ''The Historical Illuminatus'' books revolve around ancestors of Hagbard Celine, George Dorn, Simon Moon, and many others.
32	* HistoricalInJoke: For instance his play on the Kennedy assassination, as a collision of ''five'' different conspiracies.
33	* LampshadeHanging: Almost constantly in his novels.
34	* MagicMusic: The AMA's performance at the Ingolstadt music festival, designed to open a doorway to the Other and liberate a Nazi army held in a bio-mystical protective field in the lake.
35	%%* {{Masquerade}}
36	* MindScrew: the concept of ''Operation Mind-Fuck'' (OM).
37	* NoFourthWall: In particular when the narrator is revealed to be [[spoiler: FUCKUP, Hagbard's fortune-telling computer]], turning what had mostly been a Third Person Omniscient style into a form of TheAllConcealingI.
38	* PrisonRape: which may or may not have happened to George Dorn.
39	* ProperlyParanoid: A theme throughout his writing, especially regarding both governments and corporations. However, he puts a lot more emphasis on the 'properly' part than your typical conspiracy theorist, trying to get people to look at actual, demonstrable threats rather than self-reinforcing delusions.
40	** The character Hagbard Celine deliberately tries to instill this in others at times; he has two sets of cards, one reading '[[Creator/{{Zhuangzi}} There is no enemy anywhere]]' and the other '[[ParanoiaFuel There is no friend anywhere]]', and claims that he can tell within five minutes of meeting someone which card to give them to shake them out of their current mindset. He also is endlessly dropping hints to others that he himself is not to be trusted.
41	* PunnyName: There are loads and loads of these, with other examples including 'Stella Maris' (one of Celine's crew [[spoiler: and the incarnation of Eris, with it strongly implied that she was also Creator/MarilynMonroe]]), 'Eva Geblumenkraft' (a pun on the alleged Illuminati slogan 'ewige blumenkraft', meaning 'Eternal [[UsefulNotes/TheSixties Flower Power]]'), 'Saul Goodman', 'Markoff Chaney' (AKA [[DepravedDwarf The Midget]]), 'Fission Chips' (a Franchise/JamesBond {{Expy}}; he was born on [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki August 6th, 1945]], and his father became obsessed with nuclear power), '[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indole Indole Ringh]]' (a Hindu i.e., Indian, anthropologist who was studying Native American, i.e., 'American Indian', culture during the climax of ''Illuminatus!''), Nkrumah [[FunWithAcronyms Fubar]] (a Kikuyu shaman who had recently moved to Nairobi, and tried to give the US and Soviet leadership headaches in revenge for almost causing a nuclear war over the island nation of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioko Fernando Poo]]), 'Sarsaparilla Godzilla', and '[[UsefulNotes/DrivingStick Manuel Transmicion]]'.
42	%%* ReferenceOverdosed
43	* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: in 1994 in the early days of the Internet, a false report of bob's death went viral. Knowing nothing of this, he was puzzled when people began ringing and calling at his house offering condolences to his widow. He wrote an essay on "being dead" called '''[[http://rawilson.com/trigger3.html My Life After Death: I Got Run Over On The Information Superhighway]]''' that illustrates what it felt like to be declared "dead" in this way.
44	%%* SatireParodyPastiche (all three)
45	* TomSwifty: A whole chapter of the ''Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy'' consists of a long conversation between three investigators told in this style.
46	* UnusualChapterNumbers: "chapters" have names rather than numbers, drawn from the Germanic philosophy of Discordianism.
47	* UnusualEuphemism: In his sexually explicit ''Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy'', Wilson used the names of prominent real-world MoralGuardians for sex acts and organs. The rationale for this was that some of these people claimed that the words were inherently offensive. Wilson reasoned that if it was the words, and not the acts, which were offensive, these same people could hardly find their own names offensive. Interestingly, his replacements include roughly equal numbers of conservative Supreme Court Justices and prominent feminists (specifically those who had campaigned against pornography).

Context Creator / RobertAntonWilson