Dear friends,
The RAW Trust's Hilaritas Press has released a new edition of Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth. We've once again run the text through several proof readers (we found some old typos) and totally reformatted the book's interior. Many thanks to Gary Acord and Chas Faris for their excellent help in editing and proofing! Scott McPherson, from amoeba, has created another great cover, and this Hilaritas Press edition of Cosmic Trigger II contains a new Foreword and a new Afterword!
Bob's second book in his autobiographical trilogy is a bit of a departure from volume one in a number of respects. Bob probably said it best in the subtitle, Down to Earth. While The Final Secret of the Illuminati, volume one, had Chapel Perilous as a metaphor, Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth uses the Bridge as a similar device. RAW blogger Tom Jackson makes that observation in the new Foreword we asked him to write. We were hoping readers might have a nice short "bridge" to read after volume one and before embarking on volume two. Tom wrote a wonderful short essay.
As Cosmic Trigger II features quite a bit about Bob's home life with Arlen and the kids, Tom had the idea to ask Bob's daughter Christina if she might write an Afterword for this edition. I loved that idea, passed on the request, and Christina did not disappoint! Readers of this newsletter are familiar with Christina's "special messages." In this newsletter we thought we would instead share a couple of paragraphs from the new Cosmic Trigger II Afterword . . .
Bob and Arlen’s parenting approach developed out of refusing to raise us as they had been raised. They just weren’t sure exactly what that actually meant in terms of day to day life! They certainly loved us, but as true intellectuals, they reveled more in debating linguistic origins, playing Scrabble, sitting around talking about how to save the world, etc., than worrying about what time us kids got to bed. I do have a hunch they would have been much happier together not having children; we were loved, but often not clearly understood in terms of what our developmental needs might be, thus we were mostly treated as semi-equals (little grown-ups) instead of the children we were.
Anyway, what I love about Cosmic Trigger II is that it is very tidal, with Bob’s insights about his own life and development ebbing and flowing over the backdrop of the times my parents lived in Ireland, and their move back to the US. It is certainly biographical, with strong opinions and political musings worked in, but its most powerful message for me was validating what a gentle being at heart RAW really was. He wanted to create; to write, to share, to dream, to play. Like the vast majority born at this time, he spent a fair amount of his younger life doing things to make money that did not necessarily “feed his soul.” At the age of forty, he left secure employment (at Playboy) and took the risk of depending on his writing abilities to feed his family. It was rough at first, and he never made much money, but he was happily self-employed until his death in 2007.
Scott McPherson sent us the new cover for Cosmic Trigger III along with the second volume's cover, and the three covers for volumes 1, 2 and 3 look insanely good together –in my humble but jaded opinion, another stellar creation as similarly spectacular as Scott's work on the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles. Sorry for the "coming soon" graphic above, but even though we've got the new cover, you never know until you've seen the proof if it's ready for release. Please be patient. We're very close to releasing volume 3! Meanwhile, here's the full new cover for Cosmic Trigger II.
Click over to Hilaritas Press to see a full size graphic of the whole new cover.
A word about rings and pendants . . .
After the holiday shopping rush, our silversmith rushed to get us our RAW Spiral Ring Replica orders to us as soon as possible. After the orders arrived, we checked them over (they're fantastic!) and then packaged them and mailed them out. We are still taking new ring orders any time, but we'd also like to remind you that we have a number of RAW Spiral Ring Pendants still available.
If you are interested in a ring or a pendant,
please click over to Flying Lasagna Enterprises!
As always, lots of love and lasagna to you all!
Rasa with Christina and Olga
