Jesus. The whole building just shook in the mind.
Anyway. In 1977, Robert Anton Wilson wrote Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati. In 1981, Philip K. Dick wrote Valis. In 2004, The RZA wrote The Wu-Tang Manual.
This book, like the other two, is an account of the spiritual path of its writer. The RZA takes us through the philosophical importance of Islam, Marvel comics, Zen Buddhism, capitalism, martial arts, Shaw Bros. kung fu movies, and of course hip-hop.
I can't get behind everything he says (see: capitalism above) but there's a lot of good thought in here. Plus there's an entire great chapter just geeking out about samplers, and some good anecdotes about scoring Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai. Lots of mysterious Wu-Tang slang is also clarified, and there are interjections by several members of the Clan (most notable the GZA).
For those interested in the further thoughts of the RZA, here he is interviewing a Shaolin monk: link
and here he is guest-editing the Spirituality special issue of Bold Type: link
Edited on suggestion from clubmix.
Posted by joey at June 16, 2006 1:13 PMI thought you wrote "Jesus. The whole building just shook in the MIND."
Posted by: michael at June 18, 2006 1:10 AMI did now.
Posted by: Joey at June 19, 2006 10:59 AM