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RE: SEC S17W3: Tribute to the Book - Illuminatus!
If you ask me that is all what a book needs to do: expressing a point of few. It doesn't need to make sense, crazy is possibility and all the reader wants (needs) is to have something to think (talk/write?) about.
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I agree! imho the issue is when certain dynamics become an end to itself, without being backed by an authentic kind of effort. On the other hand, I suppose it depends on your ability to successfully pull it off, despite being dishonest potentially. Just don't get caught doing it.
Example: I remember falling in love with LOST and binging almost all of it in a few weeks. It was the kind of thing where every answer would raise additional questions, but initially that wasn't an issue. It only became an issue once I realized there were no honest answers. It was a show, obviously, and most of the mystery was just a story mechanic meant to keep you hooked for the next episode. Then eventually the whole show started to make less and less sense, ultimately collapsing underneath the weight of unanswered questions.
J.J. Abrams, the creator of LOST, would later end up elaborating on the concept of the mystery box, and how according to him the content of the box didn't really matter. It's just meant to hook your imagination, like the content of the brief case in Pulp Fiction, or the box in Barton Fink, but to me the content matters. Or rather knowing the author actually thought about its content and isn't just using empty placeholders. Generally speaking. Sadly LOST suffered from its own success and its formular being copied by shows like Alcatraz, to the point of the formular getting increasingly stale.
Compare this to something like Philip K. Dick's VALIS. Supposedly one of the inspirations for LOST that book seemed inaccessible, but at least honest. It didn't feel like Philip K. Dick was just playing around with placeholders, it felt like he was expressing something he wanted to say. Maybe he didn't know all the answers himself, but he was channeling something. Just my uneducated impression though.
In terms of Illuminatus! I figure some aspects of the book are also just there in order to fuck with the reader, but then a huge chunk is actually dedicated to spoiling itself and explaining some of the concepts. Overall I felt like it's being authentic despite it being also tongue and cheek.
I didn't mean to write a whole other essay, but there you go :-)
I love the cat btw!