A Philosophical Annotated Reading List...Part 4 and Final
The final part of my annotated reading list...
…and we’re on the finale - finally!
Let’s cover the fictional works that have influenced me. Fictional works can be just as important as “serious” works in developing concepts of theoretical and practical value. Who can say they haven’t been philosophically influenced by some novel or movie they’ve seen? Here are some of mine.
First up are the main works of Robert Anton Wilson, mentioned earlier. Very little of it is actually “fiction” in some sense.
The Illuminatus Trilogy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy) THE MUST READ!
The Illuminati Papers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminati_Papers)
Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_Cat_Trilogy)
Prometheus Rising (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_Rising)
Cosmic Trigger I - The Final Secret of the Illuminati (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Trigger_I:_The_Final_Secret_of_the_Illuminati)
Masks of the Illuminati (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masks_of_the_Illuminati)
Next up are a two-part series written by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson’s collaborator in the “The Illuminatus Trilogy” mentioned above. This series is set in feudal Japan and references a fictional clan of “martial monks” as well as being a love story on a par with the “Titanic” movie.
Shike - Time of the Dragons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shike_(novel))
Shike - Last of the Zinza, (https://www.amazon.com/Shike-Last-Zinja-Book-2/dp/0515070882/)
Next up is the main works by “beat” author William S. Burroughs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs)
Burrough’s themes are frequently anarchic and anti-social and even “anti-human”. Many of his characters are people outside the mainstream or actual revolutionaries against the current society. He frequently rails against people who “have to be Right” – which is more than applicable in today’s “cancel culture”. Some of his early books are tough going as they were written in a non-linear style called “cut up” and “fold in”, but his later works are eminently readable.
Cities of the Red Night (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_of_the_Red_Night)
The Soft Machine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soft_Machine)
The Wild Boys (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Boys_(novel))
The Western Lands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Western_Lands)
The Ticket That Exploded (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ticket_That_Exploded)
Port of Saints (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Saints)
The Place of Dead Roads (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Place_of_Dead_Roads)
Nova Express (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Express)
Next up is the famous science fiction writer of the Dune series, Frank Herbert. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert). His works depict a society where social complexity and social oppression has forced human capabilities to be developed to an ultimate degree. There are lessons applicable to current society and personal development scattered all through his works. Some of his works outside the Dune series are worth reading as well, notably the “ConSentiency universe” series, of which “The Dosadi Experiment” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dosadi_Experiment) is particularly important.
Dune (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel))
Dune Messiah (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_Messiah)
Children of Dune (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Dune)
God Emperor of Dune (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Emperor_of_Dune)
Heretics of Dune (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heretics_of_Dune)
Chapterhouse Dune (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapterhouse:_Dune)
Continuing with the science fiction theme, we have the original progenitors of what is called “cyberpunk” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk). This is a vast subgenre of science fiction which as the Wikipedia entry says is “in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with societal collapse or decay. “
Sound familiar? Looked outside lately? Your phone or computer been hacked lately? How about your company’s network? Has the Youtube algorithm screwed up your views or recommended stuff to you that you couldn’t care less about?
Welcome to the cyberpunk world which is no longer science fiction! The only thing we’re missing is the cyborgs walking around the street like in the movie “Robocop”. Oh, wait, have you seen this?
The NYPD’s Robot Dog Was a Really Bad Idea: Here’s What Went Wrong
The lead man in this genre is undoubtedly William Gibson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson). He was not the first to write in this style (there’s argument over who was), but he undoubtedly brought it to the forefront.
These are his classic three first cyberpunk novels but his subsequent works are also interesting:
Neuromancer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer)
Count Zero (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Zero)
Mona Lisa Overdrive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa_Overdrive)
Bruce Sterling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islands_in_the_Net) is another major writer in this field and most of hist stuff is well worth reading, especially the following:
Islands in the Net (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islands_in_the_Net)
Schismatrix, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schismatrix)
Also vital in considering the notion of a cyberpunk society are the two main role-playing games, Cyberpunk and Shadowrun. The handbooks and player guides (of which there are dozens) associated with these games reflect an enormous amount of thought on what living and surviving in a cyberpunk society requires – something we’ll get into in later installments.
Cyberpunk RPG, Talsorian and Atlas Games (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_(role-playing_game))
Shadowrun RPG, FASA Corporation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun)
A note: I’m not sure how easy it is to find the various books on either Z-Library or Amazon. My guess is a lot of them are available on Amazon but I have not verified that. Also note that there are a lot of paperback novels set in both of the game settings. Check online bookstores or your local bookstore.
The latest installment of the cyberpunk mythos is the Cyberpunk! 2077 video game (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_2077). The official cinematic trailer for the game can be seen on Youtube:
Cyberpunk 2077 — Official E3 2019 Cinematic Trailer
Another recent game with the same flavor is called “Watch Dogs”, by Ubisoft.. One version – the first two releases “Watch Dogs” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Dogs) and Watch Dogs 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Dogs_2) are set in a near-future Chicago which is controlled by a city-wide computer network, and the third release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Dogs:_Legion is set in an oppressive near-future (like, next week!) London.
Of the hundreds of movies I’ve enjoyed over the years, four stand out as philosophically important.
V For Vendetta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film))
This was originally a graphic novel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta) written by Alan Moore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Moore). It was subsequently made into a 2005 movie starring Natalie Portman as the female protagonist and Hugo Weaving as the eponymous “V”.
I consider this film to be one of the most important ever made. It is massively politically relevant in these days of “cancel culture” and government oppression, and it is expressly anarchistic. The moment in the film where Natalie Portman as “Evey” loses her fear is extremely potent and the film deserves watching for that alone.
Two other films are implicitly anarchistic, although I don’t know if anyone has ever considered them so. They are the following classic Westerns:
The Magnificent Seven (1960) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magnificent_Seven)
The Return of the Seven (1966) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Seven)
The first film is a Western derivation of the classic Japanese samurai film., “Seven Samurai” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Samurai).
The film is anarchic in that the Mexican villagers who are under attack from bandits can be considered as average people with the bandits representing the predatory state. The gunfighters represent the spirit of anarchistic individual “direct action”.
Finally, there is the classic assassin movie:
The Mechanic (1972) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mechanic_(1972_film)) (Note: Not the two remakes with Jason Statham, although they are very entertaining.)
There are several quotes from the movie that fit well with the “Five Essentials”. Charles Bronson’s lead character “Arthur Bishop” is a coldly professional assassin who does it as a matter of his expressing his individuality. As he says in the film when asked if he does it for money, “Money is paid, but that's not the motive. It has to do with standing outside of it all, on your own.“ He also dismisses the morality of what he does with the line: “Murder is just killing without a license. And everybody kills. The government, the military, the police…”
Well, that’s it for the list for now. No doubt other items will be discussed in later installments of “The Five Essentials.”
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