Zine: The Last Messiah by Peter Wessel Zapffe

I’m getting back on track with regards to layouts. I’ve been sitting on this classic piece for a while and finally finished it: COVID malaise damnnnnn. It is well enough known, but not distributed too widely, except maybe by Enemy Combatants via LBC. Hopefully, this will drive more engagement with this important text.

This heavy-hitting essay is a pessimist interrogation of the approach to the problem of consciousness; the split between spirit and matter. The immanentization of God thru the earthly body of Christ, transcendence, oceanic feeling, dissolving the borders of the self, and many other historical/religious techniques: these are all methods to produce the reunion, or abolish the suffering of consciousness. Zapffe offers his own analysis of and shocking conclusions to the ur-myth and eternal problem of consciousness. 10/10.

From the text:

“The tragedy of a species becoming unfit for life by overevolving one ability is not confined to humankind. Thus it is thought, for instance, that certain deer in paleontological times succumbed as they acquired overly-heavy horns. The mutations must be considered blind, they work, are thrown forth, without any contact of interest with their environment. In depressive states, the mind may be seen in the image of such an antler, in all its fantastic splendour pinning its bearer to the ground.”

[READ] [PRINT]

Zine: Accursed Anarchism: Five Post-Anarchist Meditations on Bataille by Saint Schmidt

A freshly layed out zine of a provocative text from 2009. Saint Schmidt throws five fucking Bataillean bricks thru anarchism’s storefront windows. It’s not the first time in print, but not available online and I’m currently unaware of the distro/press/project that produced it or where to find it.

From the text:

“If we may say that hope is worth retaining, let it be for a world capable of shedding the authority of the idea and its subsequent form; while we may let a thousand hope blocs bloom, we may still only hope to find the words capable of short-circuiting the routine-consciousness of radicals: hope that these words will at once shock and rewire you: the only thing holding you anarchists back is your anarchism.”

[READ] [PRINT]

Zine: Boundlessness by Rydra Wrong

Announcing FAGGOTCRIMEWAVE as a new publishing project with our first offer:

Boundlessness by Rydra Wrong, originally a blog post on the Free Radical Radio site that deserves to be in print. Rydra’s resonant words explore the ethical and emotional implications of egoism, pessimism, nihilism, anarchism, and what it means to have a self.

From the text:

“What am I to do when I live in a world that is as indifferent towards me as I am towards it?  How do I live in this world when I am positioned in it physically, but against the entirety of the social constructions of man(and god!)?  How can I be in the world but also be on the margins of it? Does my center hold no matter which edge I exist on? Being anarchistic/nihilistic positions me on a fringe of the fringe, on an intellectual/conceptual and sometimes physical margin.  Being a nihilist or egoist or a label less amoral weirdo among weirdos puts me further on that fringe and deeper into the margins. This is something I have at times begrudged the world for but never truly minded.”

[READ] [PRINT]

Blog: Opening Volleys

Here I am, starting an anarchist blog and zine distro in 2020.

 

Why?

I’ve done a terrible job of nurturing this idea of a writing project or a blog for over a year now. Why is it interesting to me? What can I contribute? What do I gain? I’m still skeptical. Those questions never leave satisfying answers. But I’ve grown accustomed to not being satisfied, I guess, and that’s just the way civilization crumbles.

 

In examining this ‘why’, I’ve found that I am dissatisfied with the state of “The Discourse”. I’m awfully bored. I could argue for theory informing practice and vice versa. I could act and get the goods and skip the talk cuz the insurrection is noooooow. I could smash some windows for the jouissancejoy. Peu m’importe.

 

Do I believe I can repair, aid, uplift, or otherwise save The Discourse? No, but I can engage other goals and tensions. Do anarchist, “radical”, or leftist conversations typically leave me feeling inspired or provoked? Almost never. I also have difficulty accepting mediocrity, one of my many failings. This world is too shitty to just sit here and be fine with the tired, sterile, half-cocked rhetoric that’s on offer.

 

Do I believe that I can have meaningful or instructive interactions with others about topics that interest me? Perhaps, if I am fortunate. This wee potential to find others is lustrous enough to tempt. This is a call into the void then. Moshi moshi, swirling maelstrom of doubt and epistemic desolation.

I guess that a more satisfactory answer would be: I ‘commit to commitment’1. I have fallen prey to curiosity and I can probably live with that. So here I am, wanting better conversations, better anarchists, having little hope of either, and giving very little. HelloAre you out there?

 

Why now?

I’m exasperated. I’ve had a few big life changes recently and more are coming. Adjustments, re-evaluations, transvaluations; big griefs and little griefs. Competing desires among subpersonal agencies; futility, gasping and guffawing. Unmet needs. I’m trying something new. A lateral movement away from the feed and the eternal churning of the outrage cycle, the attention dynamics of cancel culture and activism, the way online spills into meatspace and the way in which anarchist/”radical” spaces are horizontally policed thru protocol and custom.

 

Update: I originally wrote this post before Aragorn!’s death. It has me reeling. I’m scared for North American Anarchism. My antagonisms are lonelier than ever. The Feels! I remember why I’m here. I’ve walked away from anarchism before, feeling exasperated, bored, and futile. I know what’s out there: fucking nothing. The best conversations are here, and they can be so much better. A! introduced me to an anarchism that had potential; that spoke to my imaginal interiority; that dreamed big AND honest, brave AND cunning; that brought anarchism back to the land of the living for me.

 

What’s the project?

This can be, at the very least: A place to structure my thoughts. A moment to re-commit to my refusals and curiosities. A channel for my readings and thoughts. An opportunity to connect with and embolden co-conspirators. A chance for inspiration. A stone to sharpen my wit, will, humor, desire, and power. I’ve always wanted to learn the skills of layouts, binding, printing, et cetera. Bonus Justification: I’ve always wanted to “write” in general and this is an opportune beginning.

And as a vague sort of answer: “The Spirit of Inquiry” and, even more vaguely, “Connection”. I could include, in a loose sense, critique and rebuttal, but those deserve their respective critiques and rebuttals. I intend also to leave a few doors open: to uncertainty, doubt, chaos, and smallness in the face of cosmic horror.

Let’s be more specific. I wish to explore where anarchism intersects with pessimism, egoism, memetics, humanism, theology, psychology, accelerationism, communization, aesthetics, and other worlds ad nauseam. I wish to waft over other horizons and tease out knots.

Where are we headed? Are our times any more troubled than usual? Why do anarchists love their failures? How do we counteract projection and neurotic victimization in anarchist spaces? Is there any way to combat atomization that has even marginal probability of success? How do we push back against Spectacle when so many anarchists can’t read? Why do I believe that if everyone read all the same books that The World would be any different2? And also, do I really have to read all that communization theory just to have a conversation with you? The queries are without end.

 

More Intentions: I wish to enfeeble my foes and their positions. This terrain, though it leaves much to be desired, is what I have. I wish to aim my meager arsenal at the world and all the rooting hogs that act as its guardians, especially the anarchisms of the do-gooders3 with their apologies, reverence, and promises; and the anarchisms of the rigid, juridical neurotics who sip from the twin latrines of duty and certainty. You know the drill: defenders, false critics, *eyeroll*.

 

pew pew pew. got ’em!

 

I wish to also distribute and produce “content”(mine and others), not to persuade, but to locate and to provoke. (Oh yoohooooo, where are you?)

I can probably count on one hand the number of anarchists who are actually engaging in conversations I find interesting. So, here’s to that then. I’m here now. Ready.

 

Pseudonymously,

Cumdump / Gangbang Gang / FCW

 


1. Anonymous, Hello (2013ish?), 7. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-hello

2. Rydra Wrong, Boundlessness(2019). http://freeradicalradio.net/boundlessness/

3. Hostis, The Politics of Cruelty (2017). https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/hostis-a-short-introduction-to-the-politics-of-cruelty#toc1