Authors and Anarchism
Apr 17 2006 22:59
Franz Kafka went to anarchist groups and worked for a workers insurance co-op. He was atracted to anarchism because he was disgusted at the homogenous nature of the offical union movement. In his diaries he describes the authoritarian nature of unions and the socialist parties when he saw a march of uniformed workers being led by their trade union and party bosses. I guess anarchism is reflected in his work too, 'The Metamophosis' is about human alienation in everyday life and is tied into Gregor's obsession to get to work on time even though hes a giant insect.
'The Castle' and 'The Trial' can be read as critiques of an all powerful state bureacracy while other short stories such as 'The great wall of china' are about the totalitarian nature of the state.
Other authors attracted to anarchism were Oscar Wilde who was a self described anarchist. In the late 19th century it was hip to be an anarchist in france, lots of the symbolist poets were interested in anarchism such as Mallarme and Verlaine although they were never activists.
And of course Leo Toltsoi was an anarchist, but of a mystical and christian bent, an anarchism which emphasises personal compassion.
Perhaps theres a bit of anarchism in thomas pynchon, im reading gravity's rainbow and anarchism is mentioned there a couple of times. it also reflects in the themes of giant corporations and state control and also underground subcultures.
does anyone else know of any other authors whether contemporary or historical that have described themselves as anarchists?
Apr 17 2006 23:03
#2
From an old thread on here (though many of these are libertarian socialists, and some are a bit tenuous - such as Tolkien
Literature
William Morris (also wallpaper and fabric designer)
George Orwell (while pretty reactionary in many ways, he did fight alongside the anarchists in the Spanish civil war, and write fondly of them in Homage To Catalonia)
John Henry Mackay
Aldous Huxley
William S. Burroughs
Kurt Vonnegut
James Joyce (according to Robert Anton Wilson, Joyce was an egoist anarchist, and was heavily influenced by Lysander Spooner)
Byron, both Shelleys
William Blake (also painter)
Daniel Quinn
Alex Comfort
Karl Jay Shapiro
Henry David Thoreau
Jeanette Winterson (contributed essays to the CrimethInc book Days Of War, Nights Of Love)
Robert Anton Wilson (tentatively favors mutualist anarchism)
Ursula LeGuin (sci-fi fantasy writer)
Arturo Giovannitti
Franz Kafka
Leo Tolstoy
Oscar Wilde
J.R.R. Tolkien
Kenneth Rexroth
Gary Snyder (Buddhist anarchist and poet)
Edward Abbey
Iain Banks
At least one person who goes by the name of Luther Blissett
Theodor Adorno wrote literary theory and criticism, so does Germaine Greer
Apr 17 2006 23:06
#3
Jaroslav Hasek, the guy who wrote the good soldier Svejk, was a Czech anarchist and I think a contemporary of Kafka, Solzhenitsyn wrote about Mutual Aid in Cancer Ward, William Godwin, the proto-anarchist bloke wrote novels. James Kelman is supposed to be one, although his stories are pish. And I'm sure there's more, and probably many more with links to the culture, but I can't think of any more obvious ones.
Apr 17 2006 23:11
#4
I don't think Adorno was an anarchist, he disparages anarchism in Dialectic of Enlightenment as being in favour of chaos, and also called the cops into his uni against the student demonstrators in 68. Good writer though.
Apr 17 2006 23:12
#5
Uhhh Germaine Greer - wtf?
im sure theres loads more sci-fi authors who are - where are the geeks to tell us?
Apr 17 2006 23:20
#6
Bodach gun bhrigh wrote:
Jaroslav Hasek, the guy who wrote the good soldier Svejk, was a Czech anarchist and I think a contemporary of Kafka, Solzhenitsyn wrote about Mutual Aid in Cancer Ward, William Godwin, the proto-anarchist bloke wrote novels. James Kelman is supposed to be one, although his stories are pish. And I'm sure there's more, and probably many more with links to the culture, but I can't think of any more obvious ones.
For about a week...
Apr 18 2006 00:38
#7
Ken Mcleod ftw!
His "Fall Revolution" series uses a sci-fi timeline to examine different types of society.
The first book is set in the near-future, after a third world war which America won. The UK was a socialist republic at the time and stayed neutral, but during the "peace process" was invaded and divided into mini-states owing vague allegiance to a restored monarchy. The key societies in this book are the remnants of the old republic, a right-libertarian state, and a theocracy. The hero is a Trotskyite cyborg mercenary working for the "Felix Dzerzhinsky Worker's Defense Collective"
The next two books are set far in the future. The second book features an "anarcho-capitalist" society, and the third an anarcho-communist society.
The fourth book is an alternate future based on a different ending to the first book, and is set in a primitivist-ish society. It also has flashbacks dealing with a "deformed worker's state" (sic) in Kazakhstan.
Apr 18 2006 07:38
#8
Hasek was most definitely an anarchist for most of his adult life. Just after the russian revolution, he did throw in his lot with the bolsheviks. But I don't think the bolsheviks were that impressed with him.
Svejk is a fantastic book, very funny and every anarchist should read it!!! Problem is, I suspect the Penguin edition isn't a great translation, which is possibly why some people find it difficult to get into. There's actually a new translation though of the first part of the book, available as print on demand. It seems to read a lot better than the Penguin version. I think the people behind the new translation will do the second volume when enough people subscribe to cover their costs.
Other anarchist novelists...
B.Traven, of course
Ramon J. Sender - he was a CNT member when he wrote Seven Red Sundays (available in English) which is a weird but interesting novel about a pre-civil war CNT strike/uprising in Spain.
Octave Mirbeau - wrote Diary of a Chambermaid and the Torture Garden. These novels tend to get classified as 'classic erotica and SM porn' but Mirbeau was also a big and proper anarcho-communist in late 19th/early 20th century France.
I may be wrong about this, but didn't Alan Sillitoe define himself as a 'libertarian socialist' at some point?
Apr 18 2006 07:44
#9
gregor samsa wrote:
Franz Kafka went to anarchist groups...
kafka is 8)
in the penal colony is also anarchist insofar as it plays upon the irrational attachments to hierarchy and the meaninglessness of nationality.
"like a dog!" 
Apr 18 2006 07:59
#10
Quote:
James Joyce (according to Robert Anton Wilson, Joyce was an egoist anarchist, and was heavily influenced by Lysander Spooner)
Joyce read Tucker as well, Johann Most ,and Stirner.
He once said:
"The State is concentric, Man is eccentric. The artist is naturally opposed to the machinations of the State." Which is almost a paraphrase from something Wilde said...
he also said that he tried to read Das Kapital but after one paragraph found it so ridiculous he had to put it down, heh, heh.
I'm a Pynchon nut and definitely see him as anarchistic, there's a lot of histtorical references top Spain, the Argentine, etc.
If you look at John's list you realize that a massive portion of the greatest and most infleuntial literary artists were influenced by or had ideals very much compatible with anarchism/libertarian socialism. More proof...
Add John Cage as well, and perhaps Ishmael Reed...
Apr 18 2006 09:33
#11
Michael Moorcock
Apr 18 2006 11:11
#12
Serge Forward wrote:
Octave Mirbeau
pointed me towards anarchism before i read homage to catalonia. both my copies of torture garden have been nicked though, i should get another one. it's great stuff, it has a graphic description of a rat eating it's way through someone's arse.
Apr 18 2006 13:34
#13
GenerationTerrorist wrote:
both my copies of torture garden have been nicked though, i should get another one. it's great stuff, it has a graphic description of a rat eating it's way through someone's arse.
Kinky lot, that bourgoisie. Bless.
Apr 18 2006 15:52
#14
I like the fact that Ursula LeGuin is on the list.
She was approached and asked if she would come to London for one of the Mayday conferences (2000?) and replied saying that her fee would be a £1000.
I was all in favour of starting negotiations with her (putting forward an opening position of a fiver) but others preferred to drop the whole thing.....
Apr 18 2006 16:11
#15
John. wrote:
From an old thread on here (though many of these are libertarian socialists, and some are a bit tenuous - such as TolkienLiterature
William Morris (also wallpaper and fabric designer)
George Orwell (while pretty reactionary in many ways, he did fight alongside the anarchists in the Spanish civil war, and write fondly of them in Homage To Catalonia)
John Henry Mackay
Aldous Huxley
William S. Burroughs
Kurt Vonnegut
James Joyce (according to Robert Anton Wilson, Joyce was an egoist anarchist, and was heavily influenced by Lysander Spooner)
Byron, both Shelleys
William Blake (also painter)
Daniel Quinn
Alex Comfort
Karl Jay Shapiro
Henry David Thoreau
Jeanette Winterson (contributed essays to the CrimethInc book Days Of War, Nights Of Love)
Robert Anton Wilson (tentatively favors mutualist anarchism)
Ursula LeGuin (sci-fi fantasy writer)
Arturo Giovannitti
Franz Kafka
Leo Tolstoy
Oscar Wilde
J.R.R. Tolkien
Kenneth Rexroth
Gary Snyder (Buddhist anarchist and poet)
Edward Abbey
Iain Banks
At least one person who goes by the name of Luther Blissett
Theodor Adorno wrote literary theory and criticism, so does Germaine Greer
Yeah but how many of them are individualist fuckcases?? And what does this thread prove??
Apr 18 2006 21:47
#16
we also left off kathy acker who is specifically anarchist.
i lot of artists and writers would have been attracted to the individualist side of the theory e.g. stirner
I didnt know william burroughs was sympathetic to anarchism?
Apr 18 2006 21:57
#17
Alan Moore?
Apr 18 2006 22:00
#18
Quote:
I didnt know william burroughs was sympathetic to anarchism
Burroughs had an intense mistrust/hate towards any control system, detested beuracracy and had a special mad-on for liberals. Cities of the Red Night (best latter-day novel, imo) had Pirate libertarian communities as a central theme.
Apr 19 2006 11:37
#19
(I'd remove JRR Tolkien from the list - but this may be of intererst:
Quote:
Tolkien rarely talked about politics in terms of parties. It seems rather clear, though, that Tolkien would have felt most comfortable with traditionalist English conservatism along the lines of Edmund Burke.He despised ideologues of any stripe: communists, Nazis and fascists. He also held a strong bitterness against liberals and liberalism of any kind. He was certainly a man of his generation, and his views fit in very well with other traditionalist Roman Catholics in England.
English Roman Catholics tended to distrust liberals and liberalism not only as anti-clerical but also as conformist and statist. Tolkien once described himself as a philosophical anarchist. But he believed that true anarchy would ultimately result in a natural monarchy.
from here:
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0188.html
i suspect you'd not want to read this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0954478827/202-0390760-6962217
william morris wasn't an anarchist - more of a libertarian socialist. he worked with anarchists but had severe disagreements with many of them.
and much as i enjoyed ken macleod's books he is more of a trot than an anarchist
see his blogspot:
http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com/
lots of links to 4th international groups etc.
Might want to check out these:
http://www.libcom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9109
http://www.libcom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6637
http://www.libcom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8461
http://www.libcom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8574
http://www.libcom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7577
John lent me The Dispossed by Ursula K. Le Guin which was awesome... shes a self-described anarcho right?