Back to Vaneigem next time; more specifically, Section XXI — “Masters Without Slaves”. Until then!

Next week we’ll read Alan Moore’s Fossil Angels, an essay on magic. Read part 1 here and part 2 here.

This week we’ll begin Part Two of The Revolution of Everyday Life by reading sections XIX – Reversal of Perspective and XX – Creativity, Spontaneity, and Poetry. Apologies for the ultra late post this week, but these sections are pretty short to compensate.

Tuesday we’ll take another break from Vaneigem to read two pieces on the mind, its health, and its institutionalization: Wolfi Landstreicher’s “Revolt Not Therapy”, as well as Flower Bomb’s “Descending Into Madness: An Anarcho-Nihilist Diary of Anti-Psychiatry”. Until then!

Next week we’ll discuss the final sections of Part One of The Revolution of Everyday Life: “XVI – The Fascination of Time”, “XVII – Survival Sickness”, and “XVIII – Unbuttressed Refusal”. The end of the book is in sight!

Back to The Revolution of Everyday Life. XIV: “The Organization of Appearances” and XV: “Roles” are up next.

A final reminder that the 2021 BASTARD Conference will take place this Saturday, November 13th from 12-7pm at The Long Haul Infoshop (3124 Shattuck Ave in Berkeley). We have a day full of provocative and incendiary conversations about anarchy and anarchisms planned, presented by participants in the Berkeley Anarchist Study Group alongside some special guests from out of town. The event is free and open to all, so come out and join us for another day of discussing the beautiful idea. If you are presenting and have yet to send me a short (< one paragraph) blurb summarizing your presentation, please do so asap!

Next week, as per our tradition, we will discuss this weekend’s conference and read the responses to the questionnaires. Instead of a reading to accompany this, we’ll instead watch Guy Debord’s short film Critique of Separation. Feel free to bring snacks and drinks to share while we watch!

Hope to see you Saturday!

Completely forgot to post this week, apologies. Tuesday we’ll be reading the next two sections in The Revolution of Everyday Life, “Sacrifice” and “Separation”, starting on pg. 90. We’ll also be doing some final discussing of next weekend’s BASTARD Conference, so if you’re presenting please try and make it on Tuesday. See you then!

Next time we’ll take a little breather from Vaneigem to consider Peter Lamborn Wilson’s essay “Marx and Proudhon Escape from the Nineteenth Century” (pg. 38). A bit longer piece than those we’ve been trying to limit ourselves to of late, but well worth the extra time. The book’s other essays are also fantastic so be sure to give those a look.

Deadline for proposals for next month’s BASTARD Conference is Friday, November 5th (next week). If you’d like to participate and haven’t already let us know, drop a line to birdsoffire [at] riseup [dot] net

Last week we were apparently so enthused in talking with each other that we completely forgot to resolve on our next reading. Accordingly, we press on with Vaneigem. I’m late posting this week, so let’s keep the reading especially brief and just do the final section of The Impossibility of Communication — “Mediated Abstraction and Abstracted Mediation” (begins on pg. 77 in the PM Press edition). That will set us up nicely to start the next section in subsequent weeks.

Reminder that if you’re planning on participating in next month’s BASTARD Conference (and you should be), presentation descriptions are due by Friday, November 5th. We still need one or two more presentations to fill out the schedule, so seriously consider taking part, even if you’ve not done so in years past. Only you can prevent familiar faces from beating dead horses!