Page 8-The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, September 10, 1991 ws9 I Cosmic Trigger 2: Down to Earth ,by Robert Anton Wilson New Falcon Publications Everybody has heard that if you use every letter in RONALD 'WILSON REAGAN, permutated, you will obtain INSANE ANGLO WARLORD - but did you know that GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, similarly cracked open to reveal its ugly secret, gives us WUGE BERSERK REBEL WARTHOG? We all know how to deal with an nsane Anglo Warlord; we've had lots of them in our history. But :nobody is really prepared for a Huge Berserk Rebel Warthog. It's like living in a surrealist painting. - Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger 2 J'eople who think they're living i, a surrealist painting tend to like xRobert Anton Wilson's books. The ,notion that a surrealist painting is the most accurate depiction of "the" "real" world is the unstated assumption behind each of his pub- lished works, well over 20 of which are now in existence. In Illuminatus!, the science fiction classic co- authored by Wilson, that notion bubbles very close to the surface; here, in Cosmic Trigger 2: Down to Earth, it is finally brought out into lished in 1977. The original was a mind-altering substance of the sort that usually brings instant State re- pression. There are, I suppose, other close examinations of secret soci- eties, alien pancakes, and telepathic emissaries from Sirius, the Dog Star, but none written with such zetetic wit and anarchist charm. A "zetetic," as is explained in Cosmic Trigger 2, is a person skeptical both of challenges to consensus reality and of consensus reality it- self. They are, for this reason, anathema to both overcredulous New Agers and Establishment materialists. the open, for the benefit of those readers who still believe they are living in Leonardo Da Vinci's "reality." Cosmic Trigger 2 itself might be called a -surrealist autobiography. It is the sequel, ostensibly at least, to Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati, another surrealist auto- biography which was first pub- (A "zetetic," as is explained in Cosmic Trigger 2, is a person skepti- cal both of challenges to consensus reality and of consensus reality it- self. They are, for this reason, anath- ema to both overcredulous New Agers and Establishment material- ists.) Cosmic Trigger 2, meanwhile, is both more staid and more surreal: more staid because Wilson's sub- jects here are less obviously an affront to polite thinking, and more surreal because the conclusions he reaches are nonetheless the same. The reader of the first book might feel justified in ignoring Wilson's philosophical points on the grounds that the author had been dropping a good deal of acid and, thus, is One Of Them. Why take seriously a man who can consider the possibility that he is receiving telepathic com- munications from outer space? Never mind that he never embraces the notion; the very fact that it crossed his mind in the first place is cause enough for committing him to the Loony Bin. But Cosmic Trigger 2 is some- thing else. Here the topics are more "down to Earth," as the subtitle implies. Growing up in working- class Long Island during the Depression. Seeing King Kong as a boy. Working as a medical orderly. Protesting segregation. Reading books. Meeting people. Learning from mistakes. And Wilson's conclusions, common to both Cosmic Triggers? An endorsement of critical thought over uncritical belief-systems (or "BS"). A preference for individual liberty over authoritarianism and the State. A commitment to peace and a hatred of all war. A hope that the information explosion (or, as he charmingly named it in another book, the "jumping Jesus phe- nomenon") will lead to global prosperity instead of nuclear obliv- ion. In general, a libertarian, agnos- tic, pacifist point of view, shot through with a distrust of all re- ceived authority. Read this book, whether or not you've read its predecessor. Then, look out the window, and see if you can spot the melting clock dripping from the cliff next door. -Jesse Walker LA'S Continued from page 5 goes on and you just interprzt it the way you can... The first album's just an interpretation... (The songs) were written in '86 and '87 by Lee... "You can get a feeling across to people anyway with doing (an overtly political song)... I mean, no one ever sits down and says we're going to write about that. None of us. It's more of a thing, just like tuning into the airwaves, like, and receiving.... 808 State is more than just a drum machine, as you can see from the above photo of the four computer engineers it took to program the music on their latest album, EX:EL. 0* 808 State EX:EL Tommy Boy/TT Records EX:EL? I smiled. I danced. 808 State's latest release is not only better than most of the wimpy beat, wimpier bass, wimpiest vocal tunes that are currently assaulting the airwaves and dance floors, but it is also quite a bit better than the band's previous release, Utd. State 90. EX:EL takes the listener, and, more importantly, the dancer, on a ride through lush, layered synths, airy strings and deep, shuffling drums. Although we here at Daily Arts in no way, shape or form condone illicit drug use, it's easy to hear how the music of 808 State became closely linked to the drug-catalized rave parties in England that started in the late '80s. Whirling sounds surround the mind as beats rush through the body. At dance club volume, the music of State stops becoming a song and easily turns into an experience. The 808 Experience is not limited to that "one drum-machine pattern x 8 songs = an album" dance crap either. It subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, drifts between different styles that all manage to keep the feet moving, from the softer "ambient" style of dance with its richly stacked strings and droning drums, to the "acid house" style, with its distorted synths and hyperactive beats. Also of note is that while EX :EL is mostly instrumental, it does contain special guest-vocal appearances by Bernard Sumner of New Order and Electronic fame and Bjork Gudmundsdottir of the Sugarcubes. Of the two, Gudmundsdottir's undulating Icelandic vocals are undoubtedly better suited to the swirling music which surrounds her. 808 State -EX:EL 'ent. -Richard Davis "To be honest with you, when I write a song, I don't know what it's about. Until I finish it. And even then you don't know it all, like. It's got so many different meanings to so many different people, like, that it's never about one set thing. Unless it is." The La's perhaps draw their strength and determination from their working class background. "i you really, really, really. want i, you're not going to change your ideas no matter what people say oi tell you that you're shit or tell you this, you know, and you keep going for it. You'll catch on it in the end," Power explained. "You've got t5 find the root and then you're laughin'. You can grow from that, you know what I mean? 'Cause there's only one root of music, like; All the different types of music they all stem from one thing, like; you know what I mean? One certain root and branch out. Jazz, rhythm 'n' blues, rock 'n' roll, all of it, like." Tomorrow, learn about Northside John Power says, "Northside, la I'll say nothing, all right? It' does nuttin' for me, spiritually or physically or mentally." for UAC I MUSKET's Production of !o '9 0bernhard Saturday, Sept. 20 8pm Power Center Monday, September 16 @ 7:00pm in the Anderson Room of the Union Study in dL ondon, England r Emphasis in Liberal Arts, International Business, and Criminal Justice Mainstream classes with British students, plus specially designed courses just for American Students All courses approved by University of Wisconsin-Platteville and validated on an official UW-P transcript $4,200 per semester for Wisconsin and Minnesota residents $4,550 per semester for non-residents A I