The objectionable thing about the journalistic assumption of familiarity, here as elsewhere, is that it presumes to elevate partial awareness to definite comprehensive knowledge: now isn’t the delusion of a part that that it is the whole something you would say you object to, broadly speaking? I don’t question your sincerity but this piece reads as if it is written as an excuse to flog an ideology, and some moral instinct of mine finds this trait more objectionable the more you presume to know the subject intimately. It might be interesting to reflect on the relation between the sort of ‘knowing’ tone endemic to journalistic hipness (and the hip ethos in general) and the ‘gnosis’ that gets a bee in so many people’s bee-hungry bonnets. But I’ll admit I’m at heart more an aesthetician than a philosopher.
Anyway, a couple of minor quibbles (since I don’t have time to address this puppy whole in any detail): The people I know, who knew Wilson, refer to him as ‘Robert Anton Wilson’ or ‘Wilson’; though I suppose they addressed him as ‘Bob’ when he was around.
To the best of my recollection he first appeared on the Playboy masthead in June 1967 (about five years after Hefner began writing ‘The Playboy Philosophy’): if one reviews the editorial content of the magazine from this era one notices a very sudden increase in hipness and youth appeal (a stodgy resistance to rock and roll and sixties youth culture suddenly evaporates: one assumes a generational coup transpired in the editorial ranks).
Thanks; following is my reply to your reply (also posted there—I dislike ‘Comments’ threads after articles, since they effectively bury thought). Though on rereading your comment I see that perhaps you were confused not by my words but by my meaning. At any rate, I always regret using language that derails an attempt at communication into the ever-brimming sewer of cheap sensation.
+ + + Thanks for your comments. ‘The Playboy Philosophy’ was a well-publicized series of editorials by Hefner that ran through the sixties (at least). I once had the experience of leafing through a bound set of Playboy from 1957-70 (deaccessioned from an academic library) and the experience, while stultifying on the whole, gave a more precise contour to that publishing phenomenon. For my money the original concept reached its peak in 1961, was noticeably reactionary by 1965, then regained some life a few years later after Wilson, his collaborator Shea and others were taken aboard. I was using ‘flog’ in its (perhaps now obsolete) British slang sense of ‘to promote’, rather than ‘to flagellate’. So the sense was intended to be basically opposite to what you construed. My intention was not to be arcane; this usage was certainly I think more common than the sexual one, at least in printed discourse, prior to the sixties. Perhaps your meaning is more suitable for Taki’s bottom drawer… + + +
You might find this Crowley piece on Chesterton interesting if you haven’t seen it before: http://www.billheidrick.com/tlc2001/tlc1201.htm#cc
Very good article. Didn't know your reading travled those circles. I never thought of my initial-namesake as a great thinker or writer, put him in the same category, actually a step or 2 below, as Lon Milo "give me your ducats' Duquette. An occult-sensationalist sort of comedian/entertainer. But no doubt many enjoyed his work.
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branchandroot
Here’s a comment I posted at your Taki article
Date: 2007-09-28 03:06 pm (UTC)Anyway, a couple of minor quibbles (since I don’t have time to address this puppy whole in any detail): The people I know, who knew Wilson, refer to him as ‘Robert Anton Wilson’ or ‘Wilson’; though I suppose they addressed him as ‘Bob’ when he was around.
To the best of my recollection he first appeared on the Playboy masthead in June 1967 (about five years after Hefner began writing ‘The Playboy Philosophy’): if one reviews the editorial content of the magazine from this era one notices a very sudden increase in hipness and youth appeal (a stodgy resistance to rock and roll and sixties youth culture suddenly evaporates: one assumes a generational coup transpired in the editorial ranks).
Re: Here’s a comment I posted at your Taki article
Date: 2007-09-29 12:00 am (UTC)I have replied on site.
Re: Here’s a comment I posted at your Taki article
Date: 2007-09-29 12:58 am (UTC)+ + +
Thanks for your comments. ‘The Playboy Philosophy’ was a well-publicized series of editorials by Hefner that ran through the sixties (at least). I once had the experience of leafing through a bound set of Playboy from 1957-70 (deaccessioned from an academic library) and the experience, while stultifying on the whole, gave a more precise contour to that publishing phenomenon. For my money the original concept reached its peak in 1961, was noticeably reactionary by 1965, then regained some life a few years later after Wilson, his collaborator Shea and others were taken aboard.
I was using ‘flog’ in its (perhaps now obsolete) British slang sense of ‘to promote’, rather than ‘to flagellate’. So the sense was intended to be basically opposite to what you construed. My intention was not to be arcane; this usage was certainly I think more common than the sexual one, at least in printed discourse, prior to the sixties. Perhaps your meaning is more suitable for Taki’s bottom drawer…
+ + +
You might find this Crowley piece on Chesterton interesting if you haven’t seen it before:
http://www.billheidrick.com/tlc2001/tlc1201.htm#cc
no subject
Date: 2007-09-29 06:13 pm (UTC)LJ Rating
Date: 2007-10-06 10:39 pm (UTC)To increase your journal popularity and pagerank, we have added it to our new catalog.
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A list of best Live Journals
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