Time to Repay Robert Anton Wilson

[jewlee138]

From the Church of the SubGenius Newsletter; October 2006:

Time to Repay Robert Anton Wilson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pope Bob (Robert Anton Wilson) loaned the SubGeniuses a LOT! Most of what he loaned were ideas. We took those ideas and ran with them. We did all KINDS of things using his ideas. We started every manner of experiment, inspired by his experiments. Many of those experiments PAID OFF.

I have said many times to interviewers that were it not for Robert Anton Wilson (and the late great Robert Shea, who co- wrote Illuminatus), there would be no Church of the SubGenius.

Although Pope Bob was tough enough to beat childhood polio in his youth, now that he is old, it has returned to harass him. He busted his ass his whole life, writing, lecturing, and selling books -- and if you think those jobs are EASY, TRY IT YOURSELF. He shared part of his mighty brain with the world, supported his family, and even survived the loss of a child and his wife without GIVING UP. But nothing lasts forever, and now it's down to the wire.

Princess Wei, Pater Nostril and I got to hang out with Pope Bob a couple of times in recent years, at Winterstar. The polio had already put him in a wheelchair, and it must have been hurting all the time, but Bob was as cheerful and snappy as I'd seen him in the '80s and the '90s, and he delivered one of the most brilliant talks I've ever seen at an A.C.E. event. He was still writing books (and plugging SubGenius!) and doing everything he could physically and financially to pull his own weight.

I "saw" him more recently in the excellent film, Maybe Logic. It was agonizing to watch Pope Bob demonstrating that he can still walk, with effort, because the polio had obviously gotten much worse. But he was STILL TRYING TO WALK and STILL WORKING!

Do you imagine that writers like Wilson make a lot of money? Well, if he was the kind of writer whose books are in airports with embossed covers showing blurbs like "ANOTHER BEST SELLING CORPORATE THRILLER," then you might be right.

However, Robert Anton Wilson didn't write the kind of books that Hollywood likes to make movies of. He wrote the kinds of books that weird individuals make their very LIVES from.

Earlier this year -- when finally he could no longer sit at a machine and type all day -- rather than asking for charity, he started SELLING OFF HIS OLD STUFF. Autographing and selling all the spares of his books. Now even those are gone, and there's not much he can do but hope that people remember what they owe him.

I REMEMBER!

Any donations can be made to Bob directly to the Paypal account olgaceline@gmail.com. You can also send a check payable to Robert Anton Wilson to Dennis Berry c/o Futique Trust P.O. Box 3561 Santa Cruz, CA 95063.