AMMDI is an open-notebook hypertext writing experiment, authored by Mike Travers aka mtraven. It's a work in progress and some parts are more polished than others. Comments welcome! More.
On a new biography of Rosemary Woodruff, wife of Timothy Leary.
LSD as primarily a synchronicity generator? I don't see it maybe I have a different model for what those are.
Very anti-Leary. Hm. Not that I disagree with any of that, but I want to defend the guy.
Not to defend his character or his actions, but I sort of love the guy for being such a perfect expression of the zeitgeist. He's insanely perfect for his role in history and it almost seems as if the spirit of LSD has somehow brought this guy into being. The sleazy con man aspects, the medicine showman, the snake-oil salesman. they are essential parts of who he was. He's a trickster figure and those tend not to be nice guys, but kind of worth knowing anyway. An American archetype.
I understand that this particular book necessarily focuses on the human side rather than the mythic side of "Timothy Leary" and that's pretty flawed.
Comparing him to L Ron Hubbard. He remains an academic, PF says he puts all the academic social skills (of impressing people, taking center stage, stuff like that) and put it to use in bad ways. Hm, yes probably he did, but its all showmanship.
Owsley vs Leary – do you even get high? I can still smell the faculty club on you.
Greenfield Leary bio – oy, gues I need to read it before flaming off
Rosemary provided something he needed – authenticity
Leary had bad relations with his children (I do not know this gossip, ok, so I should really STFU)
Writing prompt: "you are the authority"
The betrayal of Rosemary when he finked to the feds. "hope he was a cia asset, otherwise its really low"
ref to trickster at 57:30 ok duh
John Benson Brooks as private history, female history, secondary history. I think I appeciate this too, but also feeling a touch of reaction. Sure, we're all feminists here. Yin history, that is a good phrase.
The place of divination
We've forgotten the politics of consciousness.
PKD came to distrust I Ching how did I not know that. (1:17 or so)
Deleuze & Guttari – calling us to experiment with our sense of selve...but caution the reader to the danger. Let in the weird but don't let it tear you to pieces.
Wise women found on the fringes of society, aligned to a higher integrity.