Ontology recapitulates philology.
Wilson defines guerrilla ontology as: "The basic technique of all my books. Ontology is the study of being; the guerrilla approach is to so mix the elements of each book that the reader must decide on each page 'How much of this is real and how much is a put-on?'"
To quote Lichtenberg, "This book is a mirror. When a monkey looks in, no philosopher looks out." Illuminatus!, like Linda Lovelace, is all things to all men. It's the first novel deliberately written from the viewpoint of the multi-model agnosticism of modern quantum physics. The novelist sitting on a pedestal watching the world with the allegedly Objective Eye of God is as obsolete as the tinhorn preacher bawling, "Come to my church, I've got the true true religion." The only philosophy one can honestly embrace at this stage of evolution is agnosticism, or ontological pluralism. The mosaic of competing conspiracies in Illuminatus! is a parody of popular demonology on both Right and Left. It's also a serious proposal for a more Einsteinian, relativistic model than the monistic Newtonian theories most conspiracy buffs favor. One of the readers who really seems to have understood Illuminatus! is Dr. Timothy Leary, who told me last year that his experiences with the DEA, FBI, CIA, PLO, Weather Underground, Mansonoids, Aryan Brotherhood, Al Fattah, etc., were precisely like the most absurd parts of Illuminatus!. Tim says you meet the same 24 conspiracies wherever you go. Specifically, he mentioned that he identified the same 24 paleolithic gangs fighting over the turf in Folsom Prison that he had recognized at Harvard University. The ones at Harvard speak better English, of course....
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The Illuminati Papers is sometimes referenced as a sequel to Illuminatus! as are other related works such as Masks of the Illuminati, the Cosmic Trigger, and The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles series of books. The Schrödinger's Cat trilogy novel, however, is most similar in length, writing style, plot devices and the use of parallel universes for the stories' settings.
http://www.rawilson.com/papers.html 