R.Michael Johnson
Michael has taken lots and lots of college, but his raging autodidacticism (in which he has a fool for a teacher) has gotten the best of him. He's passionate about James Joyce, Pound, Nietzsche, Stravinsky, and other Paleomodernists. He's read widely in the history and philosophy of science and can't get enough of the sociology of knowledge and intellectuals. He's a longtime reader of Noam Chomsky and admires him but has some problems with where his linguistics has gone. Michael is a confirmed heresiologist; few are the heretical ideas that he will not try to learn more about. He's made a grand study of the US/UK/Canadian "counterculture" movements of c.1955-80. He's been writing a book on Robert Anton Wilson for...an embarrassing long time, let us just leave it at that.
He's traveled to Kathmandu, Edinburgh, Mexico, Paris, Tokyo, Amsterdam, and London, but also loves exploring in his own backyard in the San Francisco Bay Area.
He says he enjoys cats and dogs, yoga, watching film noir, and comedic-intelligent "yakking" with friends. He also says - but who knows whether we can believe him? - that he has never written about himself in third person, but if he did he thinks he might find the person who is being written about as coming off as sounding rather crass, self-involved, and sorta weird. But this remains to be seen.
Michael wanted to say: his childhood escapades and teenage criminal acts with J.T. Leroy and James Frey are behind him, but you may inquire into them if you must. Please do not write him personally about Theodore Kaczynski. "That ship has sailed." Whatever that means...
Finally, he says he thinks mean people suck. How profound!
He types at the speed of thought, greatly aided by the drug caffeine, at:
Latest Articles
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A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines: Book Review
Janna Levin has penned a poetic novel of ideas featuring two of the most enigmatic mathematical thinkers of the 20th century: Kurt Godel and Alan Turing.
Apr 13, 2011
- R.Michael Johnson
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Ezra Pound's Successful Revolution and Modernist Poetry
Around age 15, Pound declared he wanted to revolutionize poetry and bring into it a new sensibility. Rarely is it noted that his revolution succeeded.
Apr 6, 2011
- R.Michael Johnson
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Got Zeitgeist? Some Descriptions and Definitions of "Reality"
Different academics, scientists, and intellectual artists have sought to define, describe and deconstruct "reality" in the past 100 years. Can we know it?
Mar 30, 2011
- R.Michael Johnson
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IBM's "Watson" Wins at Jeopardy! Okay: What About Qualia?
Qualia in philosophy is a disputed idea: some philosophers say it exists, some say it doesn't. Others have ingenious explanations that fall in-between.
Mar 26, 2011
- R.Michael Johnson
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Alchemist Augustus Owsley Stanley III: His Impact on the 20th c.
Owsley, legendary maker of the most pure LSD in the 1960s, and who was one of the most eccentric figures of the 20th century, died on March 13, 2011.
Mar 23, 2011
- R.Michael Johnson
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Heavy Metal Shred Guitar: An Idiosyncratic History
Van Halen's 1978 debut revealed the dazzling virtuosity of the young Edward Van Halen, especially on "Eruption" and marked a renewed look at "shred."
Mar 18, 2011
- R.Michael Johnson
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Robert Anton Wilson: Illuminatus! and Guerrilla Ontology
Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007) was an American writer who is perhaps best known for co-writing the underground cult classic Illuminatus! trilogy.
Mar 7, 2011
- R.Michael Johnson
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