Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
I first read about Norton I, Emperor of the United States of America in one of the Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. He was also mentioned in the book I’m reading now, The Schroedinger’s Cat Trilogy, by Robert A. Wilson. Quite the interesting — and very real — character, he declared himself Emperor of the United States in 1859. Lots more information about him in his archives — could make for some very interesting reading.
(via MeFi)
Conspiracy theories amuse me to no end. I think they’re silly, fairly ridiculous, and don’t believe a single one of them, though I do enjoy playing with them from time to time. However, a couple years ago I read The Illuminatus Trilogy, and by the time I was done, I was almost ready to believe every conspiracy theory out there. Great, bizarre, wacky stuff.
An online conversation got me remembering that, and so I picked up the companion volume, The Schroedinger’s Cat Trilogy. While not quite as good as Illuminatus, it was still much of the same style — bizarre, confusing, and entertaining, with a wonderfully twisted sense of humor throughout.
The only thing that would worry me would be if Wilson actually took any of this stuff seriously…which I’m thinking he just might, given the results when I do a search on his name on Amazon. I’m not quite sure what to think of that.