How and when did you first learn about Discordianism?
December 10, 2003 9:18 PM Subscribe
How and when did you first learn about Discordianism?
Schrodinger's Cat and RAW led me into the vortex, when I was about 13 (a long long time ago, you whippersnappers!). It broke my brain permanently, I suspect. Which is not entirely a bad thing, 'cause it happened in a fun way. The whole nexus of Dobbsian-Subgenius/WilsonesqueDiscordian/BavarianIlluminati goofiness, sophomoric as it often is, still gives me giggles.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:48 PM on December 10, 2003
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:48 PM on December 10, 2003
At 18, when my roomate and I learned that our university shell accounts came with 10mb webspace, he whipped up a quick "links of stuff" page, and a discordia website was one of his links. I guess I should have actually read it.
posted by Hackworth at 9:53 PM on December 10, 2003
posted by Hackworth at 9:53 PM on December 10, 2003
Read Illuminatus! when i was young & impressionable.
posted by muckster at 9:54 PM on December 10, 2003
posted by muckster at 9:54 PM on December 10, 2003
How and when did you first learn about Discordianism?
Whaaaa?
posted by The God Complex at 12:01 AM on December 11, 2003
Whaaaa?
posted by The God Complex at 12:01 AM on December 11, 2003
It was either RAW or Steve Jackson. At this point, I'm not really sure. (Yeah, I'm a late-comer...)
posted by kaibutsu at 1:28 AM on December 11, 2003
posted by kaibutsu at 1:28 AM on December 11, 2003
I started dating a girl who mentioned that she was into it. So of course I had to go furiously look it up.
Actually, thats how you could account for a lot of what i know.
posted by vacapinta at 3:33 AM on December 11, 2003
Actually, thats how you could account for a lot of what i know.
posted by vacapinta at 3:33 AM on December 11, 2003
Hail Eris!
A friend of mine handed me a copy of the big I in college. Jesus and the bingo, oh man.
posted by cortex at 5:35 AM on December 11, 2003
A friend of mine handed me a copy of the big I in college. Jesus and the bingo, oh man.
posted by cortex at 5:35 AM on December 11, 2003
Schrodinger's Cat and RAW led me into the vortex, when I was about 13 (a long long time ago, you whippersnappers!).
Haw. Sonny, I was drawn down the primrose path by Illuminatus! when I was about 16 and the books had just come out. I'd concur that it permanently broke my brain, in a good way (undoing - almost - the previous breakage a couple years before from Atlas Shrugged.) Then when Schrodinger's Cat came along it was like taking the cream of that series and throwing away the chaff, filtering out some of the dada-esque nonsense (and, admittedly, most of the outright Discordianism) and adding an actual, comprehensible storyline along with some .
But the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles really blow me away. The way Wilson mixes the historical underpinnings of the Illuminati with known and fictionalized plot threads about the establishment of our country is both a delicious satire on the orthodoxy of "history" and an informative, thought-provoking and even more subversive product than the earlier, sillier books.
I sometimes wish I had been able to start with those latter books and move into the wilder and more Burroughs-esque stuff by degrees, working backwards through RAW's oeuvre - anyone do it that way?
Then again, I remember how much of a kick it was when I was 16 or 17 to get the title "Illuminatus!" after I had already finished all three books. As I had read them I had just shrugged off the exclamation point as a silly, Broadway-esque ornamentation. But how come the word was in the singular when the book kept referring to the plural "Illuminati"? Then it hit me...
posted by soyjoy at 8:12 AM on December 11, 2003
Haw. Sonny, I was drawn down the primrose path by Illuminatus! when I was about 16 and the books had just come out. I'd concur that it permanently broke my brain, in a good way (undoing - almost - the previous breakage a couple years before from Atlas Shrugged.) Then when Schrodinger's Cat came along it was like taking the cream of that series and throwing away the chaff, filtering out some of the dada-esque nonsense (and, admittedly, most of the outright Discordianism) and adding an actual, comprehensible storyline along with some .
But the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles really blow me away. The way Wilson mixes the historical underpinnings of the Illuminati with known and fictionalized plot threads about the establishment of our country is both a delicious satire on the orthodoxy of "history" and an informative, thought-provoking and even more subversive product than the earlier, sillier books.
I sometimes wish I had been able to start with those latter books and move into the wilder and more Burroughs-esque stuff by degrees, working backwards through RAW's oeuvre - anyone do it that way?
Then again, I remember how much of a kick it was when I was 16 or 17 to get the title "Illuminatus!" after I had already finished all three books. As I had read them I had just shrugged off the exclamation point as a silly, Broadway-esque ornamentation. But how come the word was in the singular when the book kept referring to the plural "Illuminati"? Then it hit me...
posted by soyjoy at 8:12 AM on December 11, 2003
I first heard of Discordianism at approximately 11:35 AM, on the 11th of December, 2003. I came across it while reading a thread on ask.metafilter.com. I'm still not sure what it is.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:36 AM on December 11, 2003
posted by jacquilynne at 8:36 AM on December 11, 2003
I also feel like I enjoyed the Historical Illuminatus stories more than the previous, more wild-eyed books, although they could never exist in a world where the former were not completed first. (Quicksilver sort of reminds me of them, in a way...) I went through a heavy RAW/Leary phase during and right after college. Man, crazy times.
Imagine my surprise when, later on, I discovered that "fnord", the eye in the pyramid, and "Illuminati" were all trademarked/copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games, who were most vehemently opposed to any of these "traditional" marks being used by anyone but them...
posted by majcher at 8:38 AM on December 11, 2003
Imagine my surprise when, later on, I discovered that "fnord", the eye in the pyramid, and "Illuminati" were all trademarked/copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games, who were most vehemently opposed to any of these "traditional" marks being used by anyone but them...
posted by majcher at 8:38 AM on December 11, 2003
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23!
posted by dobbs at 9:20 PM on December 10, 2003