Two interrelated readings for Tuesday: Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (pp. 217 in the Illuminations volume) and Scholium’s “The Hollowing of Anarchy: Exhibition Value”. An optional addendum is Jason Rodgers’ zine “Transgression or Affirmation?”. Caveat lector!

On Tuesday we’ll look at Jackie Wang’s “Oceanic Feeling and Communist Affect”. Our friend thinks you might enjoy it.

Next time, we’ll consider a recent essay by Andrew Culp (Dark Deleuze, editor of Hostis) from the art history/political aesthetics journal Selva. “An An-arkhé-ology, or: Preliminary Materials for Any Future Account of the State”.

Hello friends, Dysnomia here. I’m still out of town, but since I heard no reading was settled upon last week, I thought I would recommend a recent favorite for you all in my absence. I received a book of Cioran’s as a gift from Athena at BASTARD a few months back and I’ve found it to be provocative. From History and Utopia, take a look at “Odyssey of Rancor” (pp. 57), a thoughtful meditation on the predicament of reactive forces (in a Nietzschean sense, i.e. resséntiment) qua vengeful resistance. The rest of the book is also splendid, worth a look if you’re so inclined. I hope you enjoy it. See y’all in a week.

“Perhaps, our hair entwined with holly and ivy, we can wassail every day.”

The Chronicle of Higher Jubilation

The Old Calendrists

Anarchy Bang Episode 47 – Holidays

Season of extreme earache torture carries on!

We are looking at Philip K. Dick’s “Piper in the Woods” and “The Erotic Life of Stones” by our friends Søren & Dominique, from Black Seed #5. My ear is all fucked up. That is all.

Sorry for the last minute post this week! We’ll give John Moore’s “Anarchy & Ecstasy” a read tomorrow. ‘Til then.

Okay, this one will be a bit long, but hopefully worthwhile. Next week we’ll read Nicola Masciandaro’s “Secret: No Light Has Ever Seen the Black Universe” and the text it is based on, François Laruelle’s “On the Black Universe”, both from Dark Nights of the Universe. All together these comprise about 40 pages, so give yourself time and come enjoy it with us on Tuesday!

This week we’ll forgo a reading in order to reflect on this weekend’s BASTARD Conference. Once we’ve said all we can say about the event, we’ll play a few impromptu surrealist games. If you weren’t able to join us on Saturday, you should still drop in, as you can experience the substance of several of the talks in our looking-back, as well as creating some weird stories, poems, and art together. Readings pick back up next week. Sorry for the late post; helluva weekend for many of us!

More from that beloved megalomaniac, Pierre Klossowski next week. His essay “Living Currency” (pp. 45-77) gets the reckoning. Toodle-oo!

The 2022 BASTARD Conference will take place this Saturday, November 19, from 11am-8pm at The Long Haul Infoshop (3124 Shattuck Ave in Berkeley, CA). For the twentieth year, we will convene for an afternoon of presentations and discussions about anarchy and anarchism, by anarchists. Our theme this year will be “Headless Action”. Join us for a day of convivial exchanges about the beautiful idea!