Paper short abstract:

The presentation will look at how the ideas of Principia Discordia are written into new creative literature evolving through the times and through the writers’ imagination. This creates a continuity of Discordian worldview transferred via the technology of writing, and the act of reading.

Paper long abstract:

“A Discordian is prohibited of believing what he reads. It is so written!” says Principia Discordia, the central literary work of Discordianism. This, by contradiction, makes the acts of writing and reading part of the Discordian catma (or dogma for dog people). The Discordian worldview has always spread through, among others, the medium of written text both off and online. The Black Iron Prison was created by Discordians who, to an extent, have been inspired by Principia Discordia; likewise, 2023 (Ancients of Mu-Mu) was inspired by the Illuminatus! trilogy (Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea), which in turn refers again to Principia Discordia. Heretical deviance and excommunication of others are also pivotal Discordian practices, which makes co-writing new spiritual or inspired texts with other Discordian thinkers a very Discordian way of expression. Writing never happens in a vacuum, but co-authoring underlines its communal practice, and is reflected in the conglomerate of discordant ideas present in these volumes. Discordianism is also known for its elusiveness and transgressive camp attitude towards religion and spirituality which is very apparent in all the four works.

In this presentation I will look at how the ideas of Principia Discordia are written into new fantastic, artistic, and creative literature, evolving through the times. This creates a continuity of Discordian thinking through the act of reading and the technology of writing, and then reading again, and so forth. While Discordianism is much more than just the most popular published works, these books are so closely related that they are great material for analysing how writing is utilized to develop the philosophy and to spread the ideas of a religious or philosophical movement in a time of scientific and post-modern thinking.