The novel "Telemachus Sneezed" by the character Atlanta Hope with its catchphrase "What is John Guilt?" is a spoof of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", the origin of the character John Galt. Ayn Rand is mentioned by name a few times in "Illuminatus!", and her novel is alluded to by Hagbard who says, "If Atlas can Shrug and Telemachus can Sneeze, why can't Satan Repent?" Rand is also disparaged in one of the appendices concerning property, ostensibly written by Hagbard, which serves as an explanation of anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's views on the subject. There are also references to Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" and his "Gravity's Rainbow", an equally enormous experimental novel concerning liberty and paranoia that was published two years prior to "Illuminatus!" Wilson claims his book was already complete by the time he and Shea read Pynchon's novel (which went on to win several awards), but they then went back and made some modifications to the text before its final publication to allude to Pynchon's work.Interview given to "EST" magazine in 1991, available at ESTWeb . Retrieved 4 March 2006.</ref> The phrase "So it goes" is repeatedly used in reference to death, a deliberate echoing of Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five".