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Robert Anton Wilson, "Schr�dinger's Cat Trilogy"

Started July 28 � Finished July 29, 2002; 545 pages. Posted 30 July 2002

I am SO finished with Robert Anton Wilson. Okay, yes, some things he writes can be quite funny, and the fact that it did make me laugh out loud more than a few times is the only reason I�m not jumping up and down on this book now that it�s finally finished.

Most known for the Illuminatus! Trilogy, this is an extension of sorts, utilizing a Bizarro-type world that closely mirrors our own universe with one exception: Most of the people in this universe know that they are simply characters in a novel. He used this gimmick in The Illuminatus! series, and I wasn�t impressed then.

And that�s really the problem with this entire trilogy — Wilson thinks something is cute or funny, and he proceeds to beat the joke into the ground on a level that�s on par with Saturday Night Live. The rest of the time he plays off has already happened on earth and twists the facts slightly, such as the newspaper baron named Charles Foster Hearst, whose life is eventually made into a film called Citizen Kane, but the character in the film was named William Randolph Kane.

Clever, no?

Well, no, actually. And it continues on like this, revolving around a story line that is minimalist at best. Really, any sense of structure seems to be there to string you along to the next gag, of which Wilson obviously thinks is amusing. You can practically hear him screaming, �Aren�t I clever? Isn�t that cute? Won�t you love and worship me?�

Worst of all, as I�ve mentioned before, we�ve had people insist that we move these books from the Science Fiction section to the Metaphysics/New Age section, because they think this stuff is real.

Before I was just annoyed, now these people seriously frighten me. First thing tomorrow, I�m moving these back into the sci-fi section. People need to face a little bit of reality sometimes.


Rating: Library prices.

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