The Illuminatus! Trilogy
The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. The series is a science fiction-influenced drug- and sex-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, which hinge around the authors' version of the Illuminati. The three books that comprise the trilogy are The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple and Leviathan; Wilson subsequently wrote a number of sequels and spinoffs. The trilogy won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award in 1986.
Although the many conspiracy theories in the book are (presumably) imaginary, these are mixed in with enough truth to make them seem plausible. The title of the second book, for example, refers to the US dollar bill which has, somewhat surprisingly, indeed got the cabalistic symbol of an eye in a pyramid on it. Within the book, this is used as an example of the conspiracies teasing us by showing hints of their existence which we won't believe even though they stare us in the face.
The books are loaded with references to Discordianism, the Illuminati, the A∴A∴, and various world domination plans, conspiracy theories and pieces of gnostic knowledge. Many of the odder conspiracies in the book are taken from unpublished letters to Playboy magazine, where the authors were working as associate editors while they wrote the novels.
The trilogy was later republished in a single volume, minus the "what has gone before" introduction to The Golden Apple. Some of the material in that foreword, such as the self-destruct mynah birds, appears nowhere else in the trilogy, likely a result of the 500 pages cut by the publisher to reduce printing costs on what was seen as a risky venture. These 500 pages were subsequently lost in the mail between Mexico and Los Angeles, although Wilson states that most of the ideas contained therein made it into his later works. The idea that the top secrets of the Illuminati the book was meant to expose were cut from the books because the printer decided to trim the number of pages is a joke typical of the trilogy.
The trilogy's rambling plot begins with the investigation by two New York City detectives (Saul Goodman and Barney Muldoon) of the bombing of Confrontation, a leftist magazine, and the disappearance of its editor, Joe Malik. Discovering the magazine's investigation into the Kennedy and King assassinations, the two become drawn into a web of conspiracy theories. At the same time, the magazine's reporter George Dorn, having been turned loose without support in deep right-wing Mad Dog, Texas, finds himself being dragged bodily into the hands of the Discordians, led by Hagbard Celine who alternately battles and represents those conspiratorial organizations.
The plot meanders circuitiously (and very non-linearly) around the globe to such far-flung locations as Las Vegas, Nevada (where a potentially deadly, secret USA government-developed mutated anthrax epidemic has been accidently unleashed), Atlantis (where Howard, the talking dolphin, and his dolphin aides help Hagbard battle the Illuminati), Chicago, Illinois (where someone resembling John Dillinger was killed many years ago), the island of Fernando Poo (the location of the next great Cold War standoff between Russia-China-USA), and to Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany (the site of the first European "Woodstock" festival and the reawakening of hibernating Nazi battallions from the bottom of Lake Tottenkopf). The plot meanders also between the thoughts, hallucinations and inner voices (both real and imagined) of its many characters, as well as through time (past, present and future)—sometimes in mid-sentence.
One of the most well-known conceits in the book is the fnord, a type of subliminal message technique brought about by seeing the word in print: a word that the majority of the population since early childhood has been trained to ignore (and of course trained to forget both the training and the fact that they are ignoring it), but which they associate with a vague sense of unease. Fnords are scattered liberally in the text of newpapers and magazines, causing fear and anxiety in those following current events. However, there are no fnords in the advertisements, thus encouraging a consumerist society.
Another concept found in the books is that of immanentizing the eschaton, a catch-phrase meaning "bringing about the end of the world" or "creating heaven on earth", and derived from a quotation in the works of Eric Voegelin. In this trilogy it is taken to mean a secret scheme to bring about a mass human sacrifice, the purpose of which is the release of enough "life-energy" to give eternal life to a select group of initiates, among others Adolf Hitler.
All views of reality ever mentioned in the book are self-derided in some way, and then the opposite view is derided too, and the fact that the two derided ideas oppose so much as to hide other things from the view of reality. This forces the reader to think about ever-opposing points of view (such as two ever-opposed political parties) as a meaningless comedy destined to narrow the mind into thinking that there is nothing one can do but vote for the lesser evil (this is to some extent true, and to some extent false). But the alternatives in the book to the two dominant views on any subject are delirant, extremely self-mocking, and entirely unrealistic to a non-hippie. This allows the reader to think about non-dominant views that are realistic and better than current society but certainly not the ones in the book which are clearly a joke!
In theory, separating the new alternative view (left to the reader to choose) from the rejection of the two dominant views reduces the reader's cognitive dissonance, in the form of uncomfortable "hippie" ideas such as that of his daily consumerism and quiet law-abiding as support for a mind-shrinking corporate-manufactured political world. This is too much to absorb all at once for some, and fans of the book clearly prefer progressive buildup of ideas that sound totally absurd if said all at once (and the explicit mocking of their absurdity by various characters in the book).
The trilogy also features the Devil himself, repented, as newly powerful ignorant fools form the new "evil". Discordians are the original source of evil and the Illuminati are the original source of good (according to one Discordian movement anyway). The American Medical Association (a band in the trilogy, named after the actual AMA) is pure evil and represents massive ignorance. Kinky sex is prevalent throughout the book, and is mocked by the book reviewer character in the books themselves as "only to sell a bad book filled with shallow characters pushing a nonsense conspiracy". Hagbard Celine realises himself that he is a world-class liar with delusions of grandeur and authority, and therefore abdicates his spiritual leadership and authority to a teenage girl who traps him into a rant. Ultimately, readers are left to form their own interpretations as to which, if any, of the numerous contradictory viewpoints presented by the characters are valid or plausible, and which are simply satirical gags and shaggy dog jokes.