The people at the Platypus Review interviewed me about my pamphlet Whither Anarchism? Usually this would have been in the print edition, but thanks to the pandemic, you can read it online.
In contrast, the G&LR reviewed my Wilde book, Resist Everything Except Temptation, but it is behind a paywall. You can get a taste on their website, but not even enough to know whether they liked it.
I have an essay in the latest New Politics, in which I compare George Orwell’s writing about capital punishment with Albert Camus’, with particular attention to the essays “A Hanging” and “Reflections on the Guillotine.” Following Orwell, I suggest that there is a relationship between each writer’s moral views concerning state violence and his prose style.
Meanwhile, Fifth Estate just ran a review of my book Resist Everything Except Temptation: The Anarchist Philosophy of Oscar Wilde. Written by Nick Mamatas, the review ends with an urgent (and flattering) argument for Wilde’s relevance:
We must not cede individualism, and bohemian culture, to the right. The right wing today is making great inroads into popular culture, and posing as advocates for free speech against the “cancel culture” of online mobs, and as libertines contra the neo-Puritan left. Oscar Wilde is a model for the left of artistic achievement that holds neither to Party lines or the demands of a “scene,” and a model for artists of an explicitly left-wing and implicitly anarchist mode of being in the world as a creator and activist that doesn’t sacrifice aesthetics and individuality. Resist Everything Except Temptation is a case study in how one artist balanced, sometimes even successfully, the often contradictory demands of individual creation and social transformation. Intriguing, vital stuff.
I’m especially pleased to receive praise from Nick. He was my first editor at Soft Skull, when they put out Our Enemies in Blue, and he contributed in a roundabout way to the Wilde book, though he may not even realize it.
Years and years ago I delivered a lecture on Wilde and anarchism at the San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair. During the Q+A, I got a question that depressingly stumped me: “Is there a figure in anarchism today who seems to be following Wilde’s path?” My mind went blank. I could think of literally no one, and had to confess as much. After the talk, Nick came up to introduce himself and suggested a candidate for Wilde’s heir: Alan Moore.
A decade later, the book nearly done, I remembered this exchange and insisted, I think to the surprise of my publisher, that Alan Moore was exactly the right person to provide a foreword. I didn’t really think he would — but he did.
Thanks, Nick!
Just in time for the national election/civil war/general strike/ total shitshow, I have a new piece at Three Way Fight, looking at our current moment in terms of Richard Hofstadter’s classic essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.” I give particular attention to the idea of paranoia as style, as aesthetic.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the right wing lately. I can’t imagine why.
I wrote a short piece for Truthout detailing recent instances of the cops colluding with heavily armed right-wing knuckleheads, placing that collaboration in its historical context. And then I wrote a review of Corey Robin’s The Enigma of Clarence Thomas, contemplating the significance of Thomas’ move from left-wing black nationalist to right-wing black nationalist.
This is more interesting, though: Halloween weekend, I will be speaking on an online panel about incipient fascism in the United States. The panel will follow reading of Tony Kushner’s play A Bright Room Called Day, put on by the Faultline Ensemble. Act One is on October 30, and Act Two on November 1. Discussions will follow each act, but I don’t know which day I will speak. (So I guess you will just have to show up for both.) More details soon!
Update: My panel will be on November 1. Tickets for both dates are available here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-bright-room-called-day-tickets-125689012219
