Attentat

by Various

Attentat – the journal of the nihilist position. This is a journal intended to explore the collision between anarchist and nihilist ideas. The position itself is more about collision than about words. For too long we have suffered the limitations of words and identities that collapse into insignificance without gaining the corresponding heft of a weapon. This seemed to be a hallmark of big ideas in the 19th and 20th century. But we recognize now that the words aren't important in the same way anymore.

Genres: Anarchism

157 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty spectacular book, and it would be great to see it gain more of a buzz.

The standout piece for me was "History as Decomposition," a thinking of Against His-Story, Against Leviathan through a situationist lens. I feel the piece gives me a deeper look at Perlman's book once we consider Civilization as a continuously decomposing entity that resurrects its parts only to decompose again. In a way this aligns with other studying I have been doing with regards to history, and coincides with me currently reading Hegel.

Another bit I really appreciated was the translation of "Professional Anarchy and Theoretical Disarmament: On Insurrectionalism," which is a critique of Bonanno-ism. I have always been a bit uncomfortable with some insurrectionary theory (in particular, the vanguardism), but I have tried to justify and work around it with linguistic games, in part because its the type of anarchy in vogue and is the closest to my position (barring nihilism).

I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the "attack" shades of anarchy.

...

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the structure of the book a bit confusing and that the different chapters could benefit from some editorial comments. The "Professional Anarchy and Theoretical Disarmament" chapter is a critique of Bonanno, and the chapter after that, "Insurrectionary Anarchism as Activism," is a commentary/critique of *that*. Maybe I've getting a bit lazy or dense, but I found the "History as Decomposition" chapter a bit obtuse, even though I've successfully slogged through Derrida and other such French deconstructionists before. However, there were quite a few interesting passages and thoughtful moments in a short book, so I appreciate that. I'm just not sure I walked away with a solid sense of what "nihilist anarchism" is really about.

[tout · Rating 2 out of 5]

The destructive character lives within the perceptual twilight of anarchism, within the sensed limit point reached in the obsolescence of the need for strict identity to attach oneself to an ethical life. Recognizing this, anarchism polarizes and pursues an identity that is form without content (bloom), and denies away what is called taking a position, forms of life, the political, ethics, by reducing these to the abstractions that are not them. By reducing what can’t be reduced or abstracted the destructive character thus is the indicator of its prolonged end, of the meaningless of personal identity opposed to the meaning of life’s content, at a time when the western tradition and the conditions of a cybernetic capitalism have already necessitated such a malleable human being (a changing form without content).

[River · Rating 2 out of 5]

This journal has gotten a fair amount of attention lately, but I don't really see what's so great about it.

The two essays critiquing insurrectionary anarchism were interesting and in many ways on point, but there wasn't much else here that was all that interesting.

[ػᶈᶏϾӗ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short book. It's got some really good passages, and also some dry boring history. But the overall ideas ... nothing short of priceless.