Writing on Raving

by McKenzie Wark, Zoë Beery, Geoffrey Mak

New York rave culture is having a moment. The music, mostly, is techno, certain flavors of which became the soundtrack to a dancefloor culture that is queer in a different way to house music-centered gay nightlife. Wark, Mak, and Beery want to document and annotate and celebrate, but also critique, this world in the making. Writing on Raving centers the New York scene, but isn’t limited to it.

This is a book for all of those who need the rave. Who need to dance. Who have at some point needed that beat in their lives. This is a book for all those who have journeyed through the night, through sound, through movement, through chemistry, into other places, other times, other encounters.

Contributors: hannah baer, Zoë Beery, Destiny Brundidge, Harry Burke, Ev Delafose, Zoey Greenwald, Isabelia Herrera, Kumi James, Zora Jade Khiry, Geoffrey Mak, madison moore, MORENXXX, Afsana Mousavi, Brittany Newell, MX Oops, E. R. Pulgar, Slant Rhyme, Gavilán Rayna Russom, Anne Lesley Selcer, Journey Streams, Linn Tonstad, cranberry thunderfunk, McKenzie Wark, Frankie Wiener, Simon Wu, Chris Zaldua.

Genres: Music

240 pages, Paperback

Published May 27, 2025

About the author

McKenzie Wark (she/her) is the author of A Hacker Manifesto, Gamer Theory, 50 Years of Recuperation of the Situationist International, and The Beach Beneath the Street, among other books. She teaches at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York City.

Reviews

[seamus slattery]

we should do less Writing on Raving and more Writing around Raving or even Writing while Raving

[Katy]

scattershot, kind of a paradoxical project to begin with, and a significant portion of the essays really felt like first drafts. And yet, I enjoyed, and am I glad I purchased it so I can return to it.

[Brad Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

In general a pretty lovely collection of writing about raving. Again, anything that tries to intellectualize and reclaim the practice from its perception and/or popular form (the version that generally involves a lot of talking and cocaine and keinemusik), will have always my admiration. It doesn't quite overlap with phenomenology as much as I generally think or would like it to, but rather focuses on the political, social, and queer aspects of raving as a practice. I'm happy to get behind this, but I felt like some of the essays covered the same bases about queer-ness within the scene. Writing that is more about the environment and anthropology than the phenomenon itself: lots of intellectualized language that can often feel exclusionary to those who might not find themselves predisposed to drug-filled sex with strangers at Berghain. And again, I'm not against this, but this is personally not what I find interesting in the act of raving.

That being said, there's a lot of love here, and a desire to protect a community that needs protection.

[Kaitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is tightly edited and it shows. As with most anthologies, there's a variety of approaches. The more poetic/lyric texts were a bit hard for me to get into. At the launch event, the editors mentioned many pieces going through 3-4 rounds of editing, and I appreciate that most of them are succint, "and can be read in the time it takes to make your coffee." Many of them capture the embodied, sensual and political stakes of raving in very special ways. I liked that the book didn't get too high and mighty about sex and dancing and drugs, it was both matter of fact and artful in its own way. Its a little insider-baseball but definitely a testament to a scene, a zeitgeist, and a network of relationships.

[Rúben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice anthology about raving, with a big diversity of written pieces, ranging from people who makes raves, to door, to those who participate in it, historical views on it, political views and more.

I did like some of the pieces in it, and I like that it wasn't super focused on the whole drug & sex part of a rave, although it's present in this anthology. Some of them felt really well-structured, and it was a delight - even sad how short some of these are - reading them.

Others, I was a bit confused by the narration of whatever was going there.

Overall it feels well edited and I think it's worth a reading.

My favorite ones were by McKenzie Wark, Destiny Brundige, Kumi James aka BAE BAE, Geoffrey Mak, MX Oops, Shawn Dickerson

[Hannah Vliet · Rating 4 out of 5]

sacred. seminal. scattered.

a lovely time capsule, as prickling and sensual as it’s popping pink cover might suggest.

had a lot of fun reading this on the train, in the bath, over coffee. will be returning to many essays again. this is the kind of book one has the joy of revisiting for a long time!

oh and if i was president we would all get tax incentives for going dancing!

[Michelle Musheyev · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Medical condition of a lip flip. Medical condition of a beat drop. Medical condition of a broken heart. Bit by bit, we inch closer to heaven.”

I feel like raving is in some peoples survival guides.

[Tim Owe-Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag - but some real gems in here; MX Oops, Chris Zaldua, Shawn Dickerson and the pieces by the three editors were my favourite. 3.5

[Kristina Zlatinova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved. Captures well the freedom and otherworldliness of the techno community that you can only really experience, well, when you’re experiencing it.

[caroline bates]

I bought this book when I was drunk at 1 AM on St. Marks Place. There's a reason why bookstores shouldn't be open at 1 AM.