Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson, January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007), known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized as an episkopos, pope, and saint of Discordianism, Wilson helped publicize the group through his writings, interviews, and strolls.
Wilson described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". His goal being "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything" (cf. solipsism, acatalepsia, Pyrrhonism).
Read more about Robert Anton Wilson: Early Life, The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy, The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, and Masks of The , Plays and Screenplays, The Cosmic Trigger Series and Other Books, Probability Reliance, Economic Thought, Other Activities, Death
Famous quotes containing the words robert, anton and/or wilson:
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”
—Richard Sherman, songwriter, Robert Sherman, songwriter, and Clarence Brown. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! (Song)
““If I hit him, he’ll hit me too,” Anton Petrovich thought in a flash. He pulled off the glove with a final yank and threw it awkwardly at Berg. The glove slapped against the wall and dropped into the washstand pitcher.
“Good shot,” said Berg.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“A radical is one of whom people say “He goes too far.” A conservative, on the other hand, is one who “doesn’t go far enough.” Then there is the reactionary, “one who doesn’t go at all.” All these terms are more or less objectionable, wherefore we have coined the term “progressive.” I should say that a progressive is one who insists upon recognizing new facts as they present themselves—one who adjusts legislation to these new facts.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)