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Ishtar Rising: Or, Why the Goddess Went to Hell and What to Expect Now That She's Returning (1974)

by Robert Anton Wilson

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1902142,017 (3.95)None
"And herein lies both Wilson's typically mischievous nature and serious intent -- in its original, weaponized form, the book that became 'Ishtar Rising' is nothing less than a mytho-feminist screed masquerading as an antique stroke book; a brilliant, compact summary of 'matrist' attitudes, their cruel demotion and degradation, their struggle for survival, and their hoped-for triumphant restoration."'Ishtar' is a book of revealing -- the undressing of the Goddess as she descends into the Underworld, where, shorn of the accoutrements of Divinity, she must confront her True Naked Being to survive the ordeal. It speaks also of the return of the repressed. The journey of the now-enlightened Goddess back from the murk and mysteries of the Nether World to Get Some Shit Tidied Up. It speaks from its rear-view mirror times of a still-overdue resurgence of connectivity, kindness, sex-positivity, respect for Nature and for Life. It wonders what a world ruled by the Goddess would look like, in contrast to those Dark Satanic Mills and centuries of slaughter presided over by an unforgiving God.- Grant Morrison, from his Introduction to Ishtar Rising… (more)
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Did not review when first read
  ritaer | Jun 18, 2022 |
The Book of the Breast is a sort of quintessential Robert Anton Wilson manifesto. It plainly shows his background in the Freudian mind-control Madison Avenue culture of the 1950s and 60s, along with his libertarian futurist aspirations. On these bases he offers a wide-ranging theory of society and religion. Wilson's canon of heroes are on display: Aleister Crowley, Lenny Bruce, Timothy Leary, and Buckminster Fuller, among others. There are a modest number of black-and-white photo illustrations of women and their breasts as featured in different cultures.

The intellectual framework is a little overdetermined, tending to straightjacket all human behaviors and perspectives into oral and anal categories. While Wilson admits the shortcomings of oral mentalities, he doesn't seem to allow for any possible benefit of the anal. A genital cathexis must be inferred or brought from other sources by the reader. Also, the book includes a number of factual errors. In particular, the history is weak. (Cathars as sex cultists? I don't think so.) But it is chatty, entertaining, and basically sane. The final chapter is especially good, combining a plea for erotic liberty with remarks on technique, rousing misquotes from Liber Legis, and sadly over-optimistic forecasts of cultural emancipation.
4 vote paradoxosalpha | Feb 3, 2013 |
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"And herein lies both Wilson's typically mischievous nature and serious intent -- in its original, weaponized form, the book that became 'Ishtar Rising' is nothing less than a mytho-feminist screed masquerading as an antique stroke book; a brilliant, compact summary of 'matrist' attitudes, their cruel demotion and degradation, their struggle for survival, and their hoped-for triumphant restoration."'Ishtar' is a book of revealing -- the undressing of the Goddess as she descends into the Underworld, where, shorn of the accoutrements of Divinity, she must confront her True Naked Being to survive the ordeal. It speaks also of the return of the repressed. The journey of the now-enlightened Goddess back from the murk and mysteries of the Nether World to Get Some Shit Tidied Up. It speaks from its rear-view mirror times of a still-overdue resurgence of connectivity, kindness, sex-positivity, respect for Nature and for Life. It wonders what a world ruled by the Goddess would look like, in contrast to those Dark Satanic Mills and centuries of slaughter presided over by an unforgiving God.- Grant Morrison, from his Introduction to Ishtar Rising

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