Books

Books the band read

Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control by Kathleen Taylor

Brainwashing cover

"Brainwashing is the first book to combine the latest findings in social psychology and neuroscience to try to understand the incredibly complicated workings of the human brain. In elegant and accessible prose, and with abundant use of anecdotes and case-studies, Turner's fascinating book looks at the ethical problems involved in carrying out the required experiments on humans and animals, and the frightening implications of such research".

Bellamy was asked in 2007 about the last book he has read, and he said "The last book I read was called Brainwashing: The Science Of Thought Control by Kathleen Taylor. It's about the history of brainwashing, which has only really been around since the Chinese started doing it with prisoners of war in WWI, I think. I learned how to brainwash people, which is quite useful if you want to use it, but you have to use quite extreme methods". He also mentioned "The 12th Planet".

• Taylor's web site

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Confessions of an economic hit man

"On 17 September 2009, Bellamy discussed being politically influenced by reading "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins. He explains the book helped inspire the song "Uprising" and expressed his views that he feels lobbyists have undue influence on politicians as well as the political system." source : Matthew Bellamy on Wikipedia

Hyperspace by Michio Kaku

Hyperspace cover

"Are there other dimensions beyond our own? Is time travel possible? Can we change the past? Are there gateways to parallel universes? “Hyperspace” explores the amazing concepts of time travel, higher dimensions, wormholes, and explains the real science behind the quest to find the answers."

During the last part of his life and work, Albert Einstein was on a quest to find the "theory of everything", an equation perhaps only an inch long that would unify all four fundamental forces of the universe. Dr. Michio Kaku has continued this quest, and is the co-founder of string field theory, a leading candidate in the search for a "theory of everything".

This book was read by Bellamy.

• Kaku's web site

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Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus cover

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (published in May 1992) is a book by John Gray offering many suggestions for improving husband-wife relationships by understanding the communication style and emotional needs of the opposite sex.

The book, as suggested by the title, asserts the notion that men and women are as different as beings from other planets. Gray adopts this metaphor as the central theme of all his books and seminars, likening men and women to the classical Roman god Mars and goddess Venus as ideal types.

Bellamy: "The idea for Cave came from that rubbish American book, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. There's this bit about how men go into a cave when they get stressed and I think that's probably true, although, personally, I tend to let it out."

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My idea of fun

In an interview with Les Inrocks ( a french magazine ) in 2000, Matthew Bellamy said " About fictions, the only book which fulfiled me was My idea of ​​fun by Will Self, my favorite author. I love the complete honesty of Will Self, his inability to forbid him writting certain things, so sometimes going too far."

Nineteen Eighty-Four

is a novel by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949, it is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totalitarian regime. Orwell elaborates on how a massive Oligarchial Collectivist society such as the one decribed in Nineteen Eighty-Four would be able to repress any long lived dissent. The story follows the life of one seemingly insignificant man, Winston Smith, a civil servant assigned the task of perpetuating the regime's propaganda by falsifying records and political literature. Smith grows disillusioned with his meager existence and so begins a rebellion against the system that leads to his arrest and torture. The novel has become famous for its portrayal of pervasive government surveillance and control, and government's increasing encroachment on the rights of the individual. Since its publication, many of its terms and concepts, such as "Big Brother", "doublethink", and "Newspeak" have entered the popular vernacular. The song "United States of Eurasia", from the Muse album "The Resistance" is said to be partly inspired by Nineteen Eighty Four, as well as the book "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives" by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the song Resistance is also inspired by Nineteen Eighty-Four .

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Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs

Rule by Secrecy cover

The Hidden History that Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids. "The concept of conspiracy has long been anathema to most Americans who have been conditioned by the mass media to believe that conspiracies against the public only exist in banana republics or communist nations," writes Marrs. Jim Marrs is an award – winning journalist. He has become an authority on psychic phenomena and UFO’s.

This book was read by, at least, Bellamy, and it inspired him for Ruled by Secrecy.

• Marrs's web site

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Synthetic Terror

In a Kerrang interview with Matt about conspiracies in2006, Matthew Bellamy said "All you have to do is go on Google video and watch 'Terror Storm' or read books like'Synthetic Terror' by Webster Tarpley."

The 12th Planet by Zecharia Sitchin

The 12th Planet cover

"Over the years, startling evidence has been unearthed, challenging established notions of the origins of Earth and life on it, and suggests the existence of a superior race of beings who once inhabited our world. The product of thirty years of intensive research, The 12th Planet is the first book in Zecharia Sitchin's prophetic Earth Chronicles series -- a revolutionary body of work that offers indisputable documentary proof of humanity's extraterrestrial forefathers. Travelers from the stars, they arrived eons ago, and planted the genetic seed that would ultimately blossom into a remarkable species... called Man".

This book was read by Bellamy. In an interview, he was asked about the last book he read. He said: "The last book I read was called Brainwashing: The Science Of Thought Control by Kathleen Taylor [...] I've also been reading Zecharia Sitchin's The 12th Planet, a series of re translations of the Aramaic tablets that the Torah - which is the base of Islam and Judaism - was originally drawn from. The new translation content that references to "the heavens", for example, are really talking about space travel. The 12th planet is a planet with a civilization like ours who mined earth - I know this sounds laughable - cloning themselves with a fifth of their intelligence to do the work. it's been proven we only use a fifth of our brain."

• Sitchin's web site

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The Black Swan : The Impact of The Highly Improbable

This book, written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, inspired Unnatural Selection ( as Matthew Bellamy said in the I Tunes The Resistance notes ).

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code cover

"A stunning new thriller that will provoke much debate. Dan Brown's extensive research on secret societies and symbology adds intellectual depth to this page-turning thriller. His surprising revelations on Da Vinci's penchant for hiding codes in his paintings will lead the reader to search out renowned artistic icons as The Mona Lisa, The Madonna of the Rocks and The Last Supper. The Last Supper holds the most astonishing coded secrets of all and, after reading The Da Vinci Code, you will never see this famous painting in quite the same way again."

• Brown's web site

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Hello,

We have just finished our first recording session for the new album...
We lost it in Chateaux Miraval hanging around the ghosts of the Knights Templar
(apparantly Jesus' ex-girlfriend was hanging around these parts once).

Bellamy has obviously been reading Da Vinci Code, not to mention to the whole Cryptology phase.

The elegant universe

In 2001, Muse promoted Origin Of Symmetry on Steve Lamacq's programme. Matthew Bellamy said : "I was reading "The Elegant Universe" and "Hyper Space" which contains theories about what the universe is, and it has different perspectives on it .. It had a lot of mathematical concepts in it and I'm not very good with that, but I was trying to grasp them, and the book explained that the next big question is "what is the origin of symmetry". I related this to what I had on a computer screen that had the wave form of the music on screen, and I became interested in the fact that music is completely random vibrations in the air, but we make sense of what is chaotic and make it in to something beautiful. Music has always been an escape for me, and when I play music it is like I don't exist and everything becomes very simple and to me that is the only thing that actually is me. Music is my origin of symmetry and it is rationalising all the chaos."

The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives

Is one of the major works of Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United States National Security Advisor under the administration of President Jimmy Carter. The Grand Chessboard presents Brzezinski’s geostrategic vision for American preeminence in the twenty-first century. He focuses much of his analysis on the geostrategy of United States in Central Asia, focusing on the exercise of power on the Eurasian landmass in a post-Soviet environment. This is the book from which the song, "United States of Eurasia", from the album "The Resistance", is said to largely have been inspired by, along with influences from George Orwell's book "Nineteen Eighty-Four".

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Thinking, Fast and Slow

For Ask Muse Panic Station, @Maja_S_83 asked "Whats your favorite book at the moment?". Matthew Bellamy answered "thinking fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman.

World War Z

Matthew Bellamy said the Max Brooks novel "World War Z" inspired tunes on The 2nd Law.

Back to Muse

Books about the band

MUSE Inside The Muscle Museum by Ben Myers

MUSE Inside the Muscle Museum cover

"The Muse story so far is one of excess and ideas, technological paranoia and magic mushrooms, sci-fi fantasies, ouija boards and pushing musical boundries. This first-ever book on Muse tells that full unofficial story right from their inception and includes interviews conducted both with the band and many of those who have witnessed at close quarters their climb to the top - a position they show no sign of relinquishing any time soon."

For once the script on the back of the book actually sums up quite nicely what's inside. Ben Myers, a self-confessed Muse fan has done a worthy job to fill the gaps in our Muse knowledge with this well-written book.

MUSE Inside the Muscle Museum 2007 reedition cover

Myers about the book: "In writing this book I immersed myself completely in the world of one band. For weeks on end I listened to nothing but Muse, followed them on tour, intervewed many of their associates, traweled through press cuttings and TV footage, played their albums continuously for sixteen hours a day - this after five years of many other Muse gigs and interviews. It was fucked up. And full-on. But I think it worked - and I can still listen to them. Being of a similar age and background as the band I realised we shared many of the same references points of smalltown life, teenage drinking and a love of all things rock, so I was able to at least come close to seeing things through their eyes. The general reaction from fans of the band has been a very positive one."

The first version was published in 2004, updated until the Absolution tour. Coinciding with the first Muse show at Wembley Stadium by Muse, on 16th June 2007, a new edition of the book containing updates from the Black Holes and Revelations disc and tour was released in the UK.

• Myers' web site

• Buy this book

Out of This World: The Story of Muse cover

Out of This World: The Story of Muse by Mark Beaumont

From a battle of the bands contest in Teignmouth to the first band ever to sell out the new Wembley Stadium, the story of Muse's stratospheric rise is one of UK rock's most fascinating and incrediary tales.

As three unassuming kids from Devon plot a course to become the biggest British rock band on this or any other planet, they take in seances, aliens, conspiracy theories, jet-packs, hallucinogens, mind control, Martian horsemen, Berlioz, gigantic floating globes, on-stage satellites and some of the most powerful, bombastic and magnificent music of modern times.

From the first time they smashed up all the stage equipment as 16-year old punk kids, Muse were always a stadium band in waiting, and this new in-depth biography from one of the UK's leading award-winning music journalists follows their every step in the road to Wembley, with detailed accounts of all four of their studio albums including the million selling Black Holes And Revelations and all of the wild nights, theories and falsettos they experienced along the way.

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