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The Temporary Autonomous Zone: Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, Anarchy & Conspiracy

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The underground cult bestseller! Essays redefining the psychogeographical nooks of autonomy. Recipes for poetic terror, anarcho-black magic, post-situ psychotropic surgery, denunciations of spiritual addictions to vapid infotainment cults—this is the bastard classic, the watermark impressed upon our minds. Where conscience informs praxis, and action infects consciousness, T.A.Z. continues to worm its way into above-ground culture. Second edition, with a new introductory essay by the author and additional appendical materials.

152 pages

First published January 1, 1991

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About the author

Peter Lamborn Wilson

79 books92 followers
Peter Lamborn Wilson also writes under the pseudonym Hakim Bey.

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5 stars
991 (39%)
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813 (32%)
3 stars
451 (17%)
2 stars
163 (6%)
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90 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 161 reviews
Profile Image for David Beavers.
11 reviews15 followers
January 30, 2008
First off, it would be criminal of me not to mention that you don't need to buy this book unless you're really into having books around as physical objects (and Autonomedia, the publisher, is a very worthy recipient of your 10 bucks).

But this text is freely available, at the author's request, online (just google it), and in the spirit of the book itself, you can "pirate" the text (not to mention the rest of Peter Lamborn Wilson aka Hakim Bey's insane works) from a world that asks you to pay for literature. It's not a bad system when the money goes to someone like Autonomedia, honestly, but if Random House ever issues a "Collected Works" ... well, you know your duty, matey.

My favorite (and an oft-quoted) bit of TAZ is as follows:

"THE UNIVERSE WANTS TO PLAY. Those who refuse out of dry spiritual greed & choose pure contemplation forfeit their humanity--those who refuse out of dull anguish, those who hesitate, lose their chance at divinity--those who mold themselves blind masks of Ideas & thrash around seeking some proof of their own solidity end by seeing out of dead men's eyes."

The whole book runs something like that; a genuine diatribe that feels like the sort of punk newsletter you xerox at kinkos, only with more elegant sentence structure -- Bey is achingly smart & poetic in his survey of anarchy, and not a purely political anarchy, but anarchy as a spiritual movement; anarchy as an appropriate response to a universe which is playful the way an enormous, enormous dog is playful.

This is either a very funny or a very difficult book, depending on how you feel about wildly disorganized but wildly brilliant philosophical-political rantings; it is also very enlightening if your inner pirate is awake & listening: and no disrespect to J-Depp and the legions of alleged "pirate" fans that seem to have sprung up, but I mean a REAL pirate, the kind that is living always in danger, the kind that exists always ahead of the big thumb of the State.

I think this book, which has always been quite popular with the punk-anarchist set, is "popular" for obvious & legit reasons -- it is a scathing condemnation of Empire and the State, and a celebration of the fringe cultures and societies -- the titular Temporary Autonomous Zones -- that crop up through history. For me, this is primarily a psychological text, and in many senses a proto-mystical text. It is a mess, yes, but it is honest -- if the universe (and the inner universe) is chaos, then it has to be met on equal terms in that way. Ontological Anarchy FTW!

Profile Image for Flint.
59 reviews46 followers
June 12, 2007
http://libcom.org/library/leaving-out...

When I first read this, I would have rated it higher. Since then, I've learned a lot more about anarchism and how out of touch Hakim Bey is with social movements. Still, it has some romantic prose that can be very appealing. If I had to describe Bey's writing methodology; it's sort of like someone who name drops at a party--instead Bey drops esoteric concepts to make himself seem both well read (which he seems to be) and wise (which is very debatable). He gets one star after I learned that a lot of his politics are ideological justification for paedophilia.
Profile Image for Chloe.
51 reviews75 followers
November 24, 2012
By turns fascinating and hilariously pretentious, this tract of high-level postmodern romanticism mixes linguistic gymnastics with hippie-child idealism and the strongest desire to be truly revolutionary. It boasts starry writing and starry-eyed naivete, sometimes reminding me of the iconoclasts of ages past and sometimes of the mentally unstable, self-proclaimed "messiah"/hobo who once gave me a link to his wordpress blog.
Reading this book reminds me of how toothless revolution can be when it doesn't risk anything, and make no mistake, this book takes no risks. It's thesis is basically the bumper sticker that says "random acts of kindness, senseless acts of beauty", if the sticker were paired with the idea to set off fireworks in order to scare people. This is about as dangerous as the book gets, and because of that I kept looking at real freedom fighters and revolutionaries, in the Middle East, in China, in South America. And I found this book really very toothless and uninteresting. It bites, but it's a gummy bite that results in a moist level of discomfort and embarrassment, but never anything else. The most controversial statements are the author's orientalist exoticism, which is simply unintentionally offensive and ignorant rather than impressive and global. The other is the author's sexual politics, which amount to some half-coherent rants about how sexuality is frowned on in media and violence is not. Never mind how much sexuality is available in all media, the argument is basically that of a 16 year old internet user. At any rate, who is being victimized here? It all just feels like entitled whining. However, darker phrases, those mentioning children, struck me as more sinister and less revolutionary as it is a bunch of privileged men trying to sound perverse instead of realizing the very real people they use to make their own middling attempts at "shock art".
In all, I would call this book the bourgeois college student's guide to fake revolution for would-be fighters who consider sidewalk chalk revolutions and firecrackers to be the epitome of anarchist policy. This must be nice, as it poses no risks, probably sounds cool at the bar, and is very unlikely to necessitate the reading of very difficult material. (This book is many things, but certainly not difficult. Behind its style, the substance is nothing more than a few quips and slogans.) It is to revolution what suburban kids making hand signs is to being a gangster. It may unsettle your mother, but it is unlikely to seem even vaguely interesting outside of its writing to anyone else.
I recently read the wonderful and brilliant book, The Rebel by Albert Camus, a real intellectual giant whose work ought to be more well-known than it is. In his section on metaphysical rebellion, he discusses the dandy:
"The dandy, therefore, is always compelled to astonish. Singularity is his vocation, excess his way to perfection. Perpetually incomplete, always on the fringe of things, he compels others to create him, while denying their values. He plays at life because he is unable to live it. He plays until he dies, except for the moments when he is alone and without a mirror."
This is the image I have of Peter Lamborn Wilson. I see him as a very dull person, desperately trying not to be bourgeois, and therefore awkwardly grabbing at anything that may seem iconoclastic. He's the literary version of that boy from high school who wore Hot Topic and dyed his hair blue. He'd upset his mother, but, in the end, there are many such boys, and most either grow up or grow old enough to become caricatures of themselves.
Again in Camus' book, he mentioned the inevitability of conformity in the rebel, that once the rebel has cast off everything he must suddenly accept the legitimacy of the institutions he cast aside, simply from logical continuation. That's where I see this going. I miss the writers who risked persecution, death, imprisonment, torture, and miseries of all kind in order to write against a system. True or false, there's something admirably sharp in that, and this declawed booklet fails to meet those levels. As such, I will stick with real rebels, real risk-takers, and people who have something worth saying.
This is a very pretty bit of nothing, likely to only impress the same people who think that The Matrix was mind-blowing philosophy, and who wear corporate-owned Che shirts. It's for those anarchists who do not read philosophy, political writings, or history, and who have very little idea as to how anything in society really works. It's the political version of those who find The Memory Keeper's Daughter to be brilliant literature or The Help to be provocative and artistic cinema.
Even the writing, by far the only interesting part of the book, begins to feel formulaic, and I became tired of the shtick long before I was finished. The self-aware quirkiness was tired, a well-trod level of experimentation that has been done many times by greater artists, including E.E. Cummings. Those who do not read very many experimental works will probably find it mind-blowing, just as people who do not read great political writings and philosophical works will find this deep. And it wants to be. Oh, how it wants to be. It has pretensions to greatness beyond anything the world has known, but really just mimics works from the '50s and '60s, and even earlier, wishes to be a Beatnik, and falls flat on its ass.
Profile Image for Nativeabuse.
287 reviews45 followers
November 14, 2012
Here is an excerpt from the book for people to judge for themselves, 90% of the book was this cut-up quasi-mystic-native-american-sorcery-voodoo mess, could someone please tell me what any of this has to do with anarchism? It reads like a el cheapo Burroughs imitation, and being a Burroughs fan I would normally see this as a great thing, if not for the fact that this was supposed to be a book about the history of the TAZ movement, and it reads like crappy hippie poetry.

"As guests of the Old Man of the Mountain Hassan-i Sabbah they climb rock-cut steps to the castle. Here the Day of Resurrection has already come & gone--those within live outside profane Time, which they hold at bay with daggers & poisons.

Behind crenellations & slit-windowed towers scholars & fedayeen wake in narrow monolithic cells. Starmaps, astrolabes, alembics & retorts, piles of open books in a shaft of morning sunlight--an unsheathed scimitar.

Each of those who enter the realm of the Imam-of-one's-own- being becomes a sultan of inverted revelation, a monarch of abrogation & apostasy. In a central chamber scalloped with light and hung with tapestried arabesques they lean on bolsters & smoke long chibouks of haschisch scented with opium & amber."

WHAT ON EARTH AM I READING?!!? Here are some more choice quotes I noticed before I put this book down.

"Paste up in public places a xerox flyer, photo of a beautiful twelve-year-old boy, naked and masturbating, clearly titled: THE FACE OF GOD."

"If "meat is murder!" as the Vegans like to claim, what pray tell is abortion? Those totemists who danced to the animals they hunted, who meditated to become one with their living food & share its tragedy, demonstrated values far more humane than the average claque of "pro-Choice" feminoid liberals."

So he likes little boys, but is against abortion? I am so confused.
Profile Image for Michelle.
32 reviews62 followers
January 21, 2008
Quite possibly my most favorite book, and one everyone should read! I re-read it periodically. It's insanity, but mainly about thinking outside the box, about intellectual freedom, about living creatively. I read it during my "travel the country by train and/or bike, live in caves, camp out with rock-climbing hippies, make chain mail and sell it" phase. But I still find it applicable.
Profile Image for Michael.
976 reviews173 followers
September 13, 2010
I approach this book differently from most readers, because I've known the author since my youthful days as an anarchist punk rocker, because I read parts of it before it was published in this form, and because my own Path (or "Trip") has both paralleled and diverged from his in so many interesting ways. I still see this book as a vital introduction to antinomian thought that also transcends most of the shortcomings of other similar projects. I fall in love with the prose every time. I also see this as an important early articulation of new trends in anarchism that have influenced ideas even among those who regard themselves as being in opposition to Bey.

The book consists in three parts. The first is "Chaos: The Broadsheets of Ontological Anarchism." This is the part I had read while still in High School, when it was available in self-published Zine format. It borrows stylistically from the Discordian movement, and therefore is often confused with another post-Discordian experiment, Chaos Magic. But it goes far beyond CM or the largely "safe" Discordianism of Benares, Wilson, et al, and delves into radical territory, celebrating Chaos' liberating potential as well as its destructive power without flinching or letting up. The second section is "Communiques of the Association for Ontological Anarchism," and it may be the best part. Hakim Bey is most talented as short-and-fast propaganda artist, moreso even than as an essayist (he is in no way a writer of "books"). Each of these chapters is a quick kick in the balls of authority, a playground game for adults, or an inspired poem of suggested action. The final section, "the Temporary Autonomous Zone," is theoretically the most significant. TAZ anticipates the move away from "revolutionary" anarchism, which sought to impose freedom on unwitting masses through the use of force to bring down the State, and toward the "insurrectionary" model, which is based on creating freedom here and now in small doses for those with the smarts and the guts to use it. Insurrections are not new, but because they rarely last (are "temporary"), they are often discounted as means of liberation. The TAZ suggests that they can also be fun and creative, not just bloody and ill-conceived.

I recommend this to everyone who feels bored by the world - Hakim Bey has the power to make it new and exciting again.
Profile Image for Algirdas.
303 reviews135 followers
August 4, 2017
Chuliganiška knyga, bet pro tą chuliganizmą prasišviečia naujos epochos spinduliai. Skaitosi lengvai, labiau panašu į poezija, visiškai nesausas kūrinys ir labai linksmas. Man patiko.
Ir vis tik anarchizmas, tai visiškai naujo žmogaus būties forma. Kaip rašo autorius: „Be „aukštesnių sąmonės būsenų“ anarchizmas nusigaluoja ir nusenka iki nykios formos, verkšlenančio skundo“.
Tiesa, pagarba vertėjui, labai jau neįprastas tekstas.
Visiems linkiu smagaus, tačiau kartu ir gilaus skaitymo.
Profile Image for Max Nemtsov.
Author 187 books565 followers
November 17, 2022
Прекрасный, яростный манифест истинной свободы, зубастого гуманизма и анархического идеализма. Самое время перечесть и заполнить лакуны (в середине 90х я делал распечатки того, что возникало в тогдашней сети, но они растворились в небытии с тех пор - да и сеть уже далеко не та, ее деградацию сам автор блистательно предсказал с самого начала, пошагово). А тут даже предисловие, через 20 лет после второго издания (и через полгода после смерти самого Уилсона), читается свежо и актуально, прям как творения брата по разуму (и соседа по дому) Берроуза - а он, как известно, бессмертный гений.

То же и Уилсон - на счету этого чисто нью-йоркского, клейма ставить некуда, чудака, ебаната и изгоя, не только вдохновение "Горящего человека" и движения "Занимай", но и, не забываем, "Майдан" и вообще, в некоторой части своей "цветные революции" (с националистической основой в т.ч.), кои суть что как не Временные Автономные Зоны (пока не узурпируются разнообразно понимаемой "Системой"), основанные на бунте, а не на революции. Но у него в основе всех построек лежит обязательный духовно-идеалистический элемент, "высшие состояния сознания" - чего, разумеется, не хватает критикующим его анархистам-материалистам (те еще и педофилию пристегивают к обвинениям, само собой, - это любимый прием подавления опасных для системы воззрений). Как и у Пинчона, все базируется на хиппейском идеализме более ранних времен, восходящем к представлениям о свободе у битников, восходящим, в свою очередь, к ним же у маргиналов (не только спиритического толка) и анархистов начала ХХ века и конца XIXго. Весь прошлый век, понятно, проникнут линией передачи учения позапрошлого века (по коему поводу наш автор слегка покряхтывает). Ну а потом уже всевозможные "свободные религии", включая дискордианство.

Польза же при чтении этой книжки в том, что Пинчон явно пользуется наработками Хакима Бея в обрисовке своих идеальных человеческих общностей - что в "Винляндии", что во "Внутреннем пороке", что в "Крае навылет". И уж конечно - в "романе в работе": тут он как раз набрасывает генезис Временных Автономных Зон по мере начала ХХ века, прослеживает их корни из классического анархизма века XIX, и их у него в текстах полно - это естественные карассы, сгустки энергии, узлы силовых линий, чья успешность замеряется не длительностью существования, а действенностью организации.

Да и "истерический реализм" ТРП имеет много общего с "онтологическим анархизмом" и "поэтическим сопротивлением" ХБ. Потому что: "Between tragic Past & impossible Future, anarchism seems to lack a Present". Тема с "маршрутом Сфинчуно" у Пинчона тоже напрямую (гм... насколько прямые тут применимы) выведена из суфийского понятия "путешествования", т.е. ВАЗ, распределенной темпорально и спатиально. Да и сам автор поминает Зону Пинчона в "Радуге тяготения", так что взаимное опыление там явно присутствует (ссылкам же на Интерзону Берроуза там несть числа).

Ну а его прокламации - дивный образчик риторической спецпропаганды под грибной пылью. Жаль, мой прадед, сочинявший листовки для РСДРП, так не умел. Моя собственная ВУС в 80х тоже не предполагала такого владения стилем.
Profile Image for Shawn.
912 reviews230 followers
October 28, 2011
As all the reviews show, pretty polarizing - I'm happy I can walk the middle line on this and got what I could out of the book. Some good stuff here, and the dubious stuff can be covered mostly under the "romantic" approach of the philosophy and writing (really, it makes all the complaints about Bey not being part of some accepted philosophical system or history of Anarchism pretty redundant, and those that claim such things seem to have missed the point entirely - people don't storm barricades after reading dry, analytical texts. And I'm not even much of an anarchist). "Lifestyle Anarchism"? Absolutely! - as if there's anything wrong with that. Everyone preens, everyone postures, everyone's pretty much a hypocrite - no point in divvying up vituperation and blame based on the high-ground of your personal circumstances - is that moral relativism? Absolutely - as if there's anything wrong with that - a term currently slung by those who ignored it when torture was suddenly "expedient" a few years ago, or the wholesale theft of their banking masters was made obvious even more recently (job creators = thieves)... The NAMBLA stuff, yeah, troubling (I certainly don't share the predilection - I'm as straight vanilla as they come) - but at least he's honest and it might make people start to grapple with the grey area between adults attracted to 8-year-olds and adults attracted to 16-year-olds (much more accepted culturally - if still frowned upon - when it's heterosex and not homosex, our entire pop-music culture is built around "jailbait ass", for one, and anything good for the economy...). And I don't have any interest in discussing or debating that point further, so no need to comment....
Profile Image for Graham.
86 reviews21 followers
November 16, 2007
Awful. I put this book here cause it is the kind of individualistic anarchist crap that has the potential to suck in otherwise bright young kids. Punks out there that are supporting Ron Paul have probably read this garbage. The worst part: hipsters read this and actually believe it has some merit. But I guess that goes without saying.

There is no love of humanity in this book, just a love of self-centered 'hipness'. Yuck!
Profile Image for Vaggelis.
61 reviews9 followers
June 1, 2021
Ο Bey είναι σίγουρα από τίς πιο αμφιλεγόμενες προσωπικότητες τής "αναρχικής"βιβλιογραφίας.

Τόν έχουν κατηγορήσει για τά πάντα, από τό ότι έκανε τον "αναρχισμό lifestyle"(όρος ενός άλλου τεράστιου διανοητή, του Murray Bookchin, πού προφανώς δεν μπορώ νά αναλύσω εδώ αυτήν την στιγμή), μέχρι ότι είναι παιδεραστής.

Παρόλο πού ανατριχιαζω στην σκέψη ότι τό δεύτερο μπορεί νά ισχύει ( δεν βρίσκω βέβαια πουθενά σοβαρές αποδείξεις , ούτε έχει αποδειχθεί κάτι ποινικά κολάσιμο εναντίον του, από όσο μπορώ νά γνωρίζω), ο άνθρωπος γράφει καταπληκτικά.

Είναι πολυγραφότατος, καί αναπτύσει τίς θεωρίες του συνεκτικά καί συγκεντρωμένα.

Παρόλο πού περίμενα πώς θά ήταν καλύτερο από τό"Αμεσοκρατια"( τό αγαπημένο μου),δεν μπορώ να πώ πώς τελικά τό ξεπέρασε σέ ενδιαφέρον. Είναι ίσως λίγο λιγότερο καλό. Πολύ λίγο όμως.

Η μετάφραση είναι πολύ καλή, καί ευχαριστώ τούς εκδότες που τό εξέδωσαν.
Το έψαχνα πάνω από δεκαετία.

Αν περιμένετε νά βρείτε εύστοχα πολιτικά/κινηματικά κείμενα εδώ θά νιώσετε απογοήτευση. Το βιβλίο αποπνέει έναν αέρα μποεμισμου και φαντασίας.

Εδώ υπάρχει υλικό για σκέψη σχετικά με τόν τρόπο που ζεί κάποιος/α. Με τόν τρόπο πού σκέφτεται και πράττει. Μοιάζει περισσότερο με βιβλίο φιλοσοφίας τής ζωής, πάρα με κάποια πολιτική/ιστορική ανάλυση.

Προσωπικά ότι έχω διαβάσει από τον Bey, το βρίσκω υπέροχο. Είναι πραγματικός καλλιτέχνης.

(Εύχομαι νά μήν είναι ανώμαλος γιατί θά νιώσω απίστευτη ενοχή καί θυμό με τον εαυτό μου,που για χρόνια μου άρεσε τό προϊόν σκέψης ενός καθαρματος.)

4.5/5
Profile Image for Eden.
2 reviews9 followers
February 23, 2013
I want to say that this book is brilliant. Indeed, that was my impression upon reading it. Bey/Wilson is a unique talent - his writing is poetry: all of it hits you in the heart. I still want to say that this is an excellent book, definitely essential for anyone who wants to start up a cultural space and for anyone who likes dreaming and is inspired by the tenuous relationship between dreams, creativity and reality.

I also want to maintain that this is certainly one of the best books I've ever read, and I wholeheartedly disagree with the people who maintain that there is no love for humanity here, or that it's all self-centered. I think the ideas are a lot more utopian and important than that - to put it all down to mere self-centeredness is rather shallow. There are hints of the mystical and a utopian ideal of merging art with life, which I find an incredibly valuable contribution.

So, the problem I have with this book (and why I'm giving it a 3-star rating instead of a 5-star one) is really with the authour himself. In his life and other work, his justification for pedophilia is beyond disturbing, as is his support for NAMBLA. I find this behaviour unacceptable, and important to condemn (for reasons that I think are obvious, but that I won't go into in this review).

I say read the book, take what works (and certainly there are a lot of ideas in here that could work very, very well), read up about the authour and the controversy surrounding him and come to your own conclusions.
Profile Image for Ronnie.
652 reviews3 followers
May 2, 2023
I don't like not finishing books. I really, really don't. At all. Especially when they're super short books (this book is barely 100 pages long, and I made it to page 19).

This review has a content warning for pedophilia

It became almost immediately obvious to me that every time there was a reference to sex, children were brought up. Any time children were brought up, sex was brought up. For a minute, I wondered if I was hallucinating, so I looked up some reviews that confirmed it.

I tried to continue on, and on page 14, there was a reference to children masturbating, and on page 17 there are the lines "It does not want to seduce you unless you're extremely young & good-looking" and "it does not want you for a disciple but it might kidnap your children."

Just gonna throw it out there that anarchy does not, nor should it, involve the sexual exploitation of children. That's fucked up.

Anyway, this book is going in the trash, and I'm kind of bummed out I spent actual money on it. Whatever merits the rest of the ideas in this might have been, I really can't get over how pedophiliatic this is.

Kind of bummed out I spent actual money on this instead of just downloading it for free.
Profile Image for Jo .
28 reviews17 followers
June 30, 2007
A snippet:

"WEIRD DANCING IN ALL-NIGHT computer-banking lobbies. Unauthorized pyrotechnic displays. Land-art, earth-works as bizarre alien artifacts strewn in State Parks. Burglarize houses but instead of stealing, leave Poetic-Terrorist objects. Kidnap someone & make them happy. Pick someone at random & convince them they're the heir to an enormous, useless & amazing fortune--say 5000 square miles of Antarctica, or an aging circus elephant, or an orphanage in Bombay, or a collection of alchemical mss. Later they will come to realize that for a few moments they believed in something extraordinary, & will perhaps be driven as a result to seek out some more intense mode of existence."
Profile Image for sarah rouan.
53 reviews4 followers
March 27, 2008
astonishing writing.

"Pomegranate, mulberry, persimmon, the erotic melancholy of cypresses, membrane-pink shirazi roses, braziers of meccan aloes & benzoin, stiff shafts of ottoman tulips, carpets spread like make-believe gardens on actual lawns--a pavilion set with a mosaic of calligrammes--a willow, a stream with watercress--a fountain crystalled underneath with geometry-- the metaphysical scandal of bathing odalisques, of wet brown cupbearers hide-&-seeking in the foliage--'water, greenery, beautiful faces.'"
Profile Image for Brian.
11 reviews3 followers
August 20, 2007
a guide to painting small pieces and putting them under windshield-wipers of parked cars
Profile Image for Omar Ali.
232 reviews239 followers
May 15, 2013
Great fun if you are young. Maybe less so as you age. But still, great fun. Broaden your mind..
Profile Image for matilda haze.
82 reviews75 followers
November 21, 2020
turintis pakankamai proto, kad slapta gertų vyną ir nebūtų pričiuptas
Profile Image for Kazimir.
19 reviews2 followers
January 1, 2023
One of the few books I couldn't properly read to the end. I just skimmed through it after already being familiar with some passages already, but whenever I properly read something in it I gave me a headache.

Hakim Bey aka Peter Lamborn Wilson is notorious for abusing anarchist ideas to justify pedophilia, and even though he doesn't defend molesting children in this work, there are many sentences where he talks about children in very uncomfortable sexual contexts. If I did not know what I know about this author, I'd have given him the benefit of the doubt, and assumed he was just trying to be edgy and provocative, but unfortunately there's more to these weird mentions of young teens masturbating (at some point he encourages people to print child pornography, and put these images up in public areas).

Besides the underlying pedophilia the book strikes me as someone with zero grounded perspective on the world attempting to be witty and intelligent. He tries so hard to be poetic that barely any meaning escapes the pretentious wording of virtually everything. These are the ramblings of a self-absorbed, out-of-touch manchild who wants to rebel, but has no real idea how, yet he believes he does.

This book is a bunch of hipster, weed induced irrationalism paired with language that appeals to angsty teens looking for inspiration in life... which is probably the unfortunate reason for its popularity. A terrible waste of time.
Profile Image for Jeffrey.
137 reviews15 followers
July 15, 2008
Part of the thought cloud that contains the Church of the Subgenius, the Discordians, Fight Club, Flash mobs, Burning Man (prior to the corporate take-over), and Illuminati. This is the seamy underbelly of Western culture and what happened to the hippies that didn't sell out. In many ways the whole thing is a bizarre parody of/homage to the catch-phrase spouting dialectic of the Cold War idealists, in that jargon and obscure claims of repression replace any sort of intelligent discourse; except this guy is serious. Why am I reading it? I was hoping for something more akin to the Anarchy exemplified in Spain just prior to the Spanish Civil War. Why do I keep reading it? Well, I'm stubborn, and I would claim that the list with which I started this review isn't that far removed from my own mish-mash wannabe thought cloud of Maker, Technophile, Mormon, and Jeffersonian Democrat.

So, perhaps the best question is why is the book written the way it is? The best answer I can come up with is because he is trying to (to steal a phrase from fandom) "freak the mundanes". Something Robert Anton Wilson would call (cover your kids' eyes, folks) Mindfuck. I think he was more incomprehensible and therefore less effective than other attempts at this process and that is the failing of the book.
Profile Image for Drew.
34 reviews
January 31, 2019
Bey's TAZ followed of P.M.'s foray of post-state prefiguration bolo'bolo, with something less permanent, and an attempt at a roving temporal project of freedom for free people. What's this look like in 2019, with the ever present surveillance from the skies, from our phone-computer-camera, is this TAZ possible in the 21st century? Can we rely on participants in the TAZ to not bring along their portable surveillance devices thus subverting the autonomy to the listening ears of advertising algorithms and/or the state? I'm not sure there's a place for the TAZ to assert itself, but I'm interested in the ways people used the concept to manifest autonomy over the last few decades.

29 years out the essay section of this collection feels a bit like a relic, although it is really astonishing how on point Bey was about the oppositional forces in conflict over the fate of the internet, but I'm certain neither he nor any of those early web partisans could have imagined how boring the internet would ultimately become. The non-TAZ half of the book sometimes reads like mad street preaching from a Burroughs disciple, occasionally entertaining to this reader, certainly amusing to the writer.
Profile Image for Brian.
9 reviews1 follower
January 5, 2008
"kidnap someone, and make them happy" embodies the general stance taken by this cultural anthropologist luddite. refreshing ideas of play as alternative modes of existence to our hyper-capitalist climate. i thoroughly enjoyed the post-revolutionary approach which reminds me of a time where i had lost my copy of t.a.z. and attempted to locate it at liberation books, downtown los angeles. after looking between the marx and mao to no avail, i asked the clerk if they had any hakim bey. the clerk asked about the subject matter, where i volunteered my post-revolutionary opionion. the clerk responded condescendingly "we only deal with the revolution here". that's unfortunate, i thought, as i walked out the door.

this is also available in a cd version of the text being read over a bill laswell soundtrack. the levels are a little muddy at times, but it is well worth it for inflection alone.

as a side note: it was interesting to see how many people were quoting "poetic terrorism" or hakim bey in general as influence during the rise of "street art" a few years back.
Profile Image for Hex75.
986 reviews59 followers
August 17, 2017
non so, forse mi aspettavo qualcosa di diverso, forse l'ho letto davvero troppo in ritardo rispetto a quando il dibattito intorno ad esso era vitale...però non mi ha convinto (per non dire di certi passaggi decisamente discutibili). bey scrive molto bene, è una sorta di burroughs politico, epperò finito il fuoco d'artificio del linguaggio non mi è rimasto molto. forse potrei riprovarci e dargli una seconda lettura, ma non so se ne ho così tanta voglia...
Author 16 books13 followers
August 3, 2016
Aunque la he sentido más una formulación de una utopía que una teoría real y aplicable (básicamente el anarquismo), tiene pasajes interesantísimos y que permiten despegarnos del maldito aquí y ahora y pensar en posibles futuros distintos del que nos han trazado. Me pregunto qué pensará Hakim Bey del internet actual, aunque viendo los comentarios al final que aparecen en la edición que tengo yo nada bueno y desde luego, nada parecido a lo que él hubiera querido.
Profile Image for Ganglion Bard-barbarian.
42 reviews9 followers
December 22, 2010
Hakim Bey is a pedophile, monarchist, anti-abortionist, pro-porn, anti-feminist, orientalist who prefers Fiume to anarchist Ukraine and Catalonia. Thinks anarchists should just become bohemian decadents who don't care about fighting the state. Claims to be an expert on Sufism despite his abject lack of scholastic credentials. Totally worthless. Recommended for New Age fruitcakes.
Profile Image for Alexander Rubin.
3 reviews
August 29, 2016
Felt 2/3 of the essays in this book were pointlessly antagonizing, masturbatory exercises in surreal psychobabble. The actual TAZ essay however, in which a historical context and inlet into Bey's vision of the topic, I found to be very enjoyable.
Profile Image for Eric Steere.
119 reviews8 followers
August 6, 2013
This seemed dada masturbation masquerading as instruction. Entertaining, but not worth it, even though it's free on the internet.
Profile Image for Igor Montenegro.
78 reviews3 followers
January 14, 2025
"...desta vez, no entanto, eu venho como o vitorioso Dionísio, que transformará o mundo numa festa... Não que eu tenha muito tempo..."
Nietzsche
(em sua última carta "insana" a Cosima Wagner)
[posição 22]

"[...] procurando incansavelmente um presente de ação e autonomia, Hakim Bey propõe o levantamento de zonas autônomas, que libertem uma área (de terra, tempo, ou imaginação) existindo provisoriamente, e em seguida se dissolvam para voltar a reaparecer noutro lugar, em outro momento, antes que o estado as possa esmagar. A "Zona Autônoma Temporária" emerge espontaneamente, como uma insurreição mágica, cria-se para a realização dos seus objetivos e desaparece sem deixar vestígios."
"[...] grupos de indivíduos que se associam por afinidade, para conseguirem um espaço real de liberdade, sem terem de esperar pela abstração de uma utopia a acontecer num futuro pós-revolucionário. Significa interiorizar a revolta e reivindicar a autonomia, fazendo nascer a dissidência na prática, no dia-a-dia, recusar o domínio em todas as atividades da nossa existência como indivíduos."
[Prefácio - posições 38; 43]

"Os Hashshashins medievais fundaram um "Estado" que consistia de uma rede de remotos castelos em vales montanhosos, separados entre si por milhares de quilômetros, estrategicamente invulneráveis a qualquer invasão, conectados por um fluxo de informações conduzidas por agentes secretos, em guerra com todos os governos, e dedicado apenas ao saber.
[Cap. 1 - Utopias piratas - posição 82]

"A TAZ é uma espécie de rebelião que não confronta o Estado diretamente, uma operação de guerrilha que libera uma área (de terra, de tempo, de imaginação) e se dissolve para se re-fazer em outro lugar e outro momento, antes que o Estado possa esmagá-la. Uma vez que o Estado se preocupa primordialmente com a Simulação, e não com a substância, a TAZ pode, em relativa paz e por um bom tempo, "ocupar" clandestinamente essas áreas e realizar seus propósitos festivos. Talvez algumas pequenas TAZs tenham durado por gerações - como alguns enclaves rurais - porque passaram desapercebidas, porque nunca se relacionaram com o Espetáculo, porque nunca emergiram para fora daquela vida real que é invisível para os agentes da Simulação.
A Babilônia toma suas abstrações como realidades. É precisamente dentro dessa margem de erro que a TAZ surge."
"O ataque é feito às estruturas de controle, essencialmente às ideias. As táticas de defesa são a "invisibilidade", que é uma arte marcial, e a "invulnerabilidade", uma arte "oculta" dentro das artes marciais. A "máquina de guerra nômade" conquista sem ser notada e se move antes do mapa ser retificado."
[Cap. 2 - Esperando pela revolução - posições 157; 179]

"O nosso século é o primeiro sem terra incognita, sem fronteiras. Nacionalidade é o princípio mais importante do conceito de "governo" - nenhuma ponta de rocha no Mar do Sul pode ficar em aberto, nem um vale remoto, sequer a lua ou os planetas. Essa é a apoteose do "gangsterismo territorial". Nenhum centímetro quadrado da Terra está livre da polícia ou dos impostos... em teoria.
O "mapa" é uma malha política abstrata, uma proibição gigantesca imposta pela cenoura/cassetete condicionante do Estado "Especializado"."
"O modelo paleolítico é mais primário e mais radical: o bando. O típico bando nômade ou seminômade de caçadores/coletores é formado por cerca de cinquenta pessoas. Em sociedades tribais mais populosas, a estrutura de bando é mantida por clãs dentro da tribo, ou por confrarias como sociedades secretas ou iniciáticas, sociedades de caça ou de guerra, associações de gênero, as "repúblicas de crianças" e por aí adiante. Se a família nuclear é gerada pela escassez (e resulta em avareza), o bando é gerado pela abundância (e produz prodigalidade)."
"Hoje em dia, o "bando" de alguém inclui amigos, ex-esposos e amantes, pessoas conhecidas em diferentes empregos e encontros, grupos de afinidade, redes de pessoas com interesses específicos, listas de discussão etc. Cada vez mais fica evidente que a família nuclear se torna uma armadilha, um ralo cultural, uma secreta implosão neurótica de átomos rompidos. E a contra-estratégia óbvia emerge de forma espontânea na quase inconsciente redescoberta da possibilidade - mais arcaica e, no entanto, mais pós-industrial - do bando."
"Aqui poderíamos também invocar Fourier e seu conceito dos sentidos como base de transformação social - "toque do cio" e "gastrosofia", e seu louvor às negligenciadas implicações do olfato e do paladar. Os antigos conceitos de jubileu e bacanal se originaram a partir da intuição de que certos eventos existem fora do "tempo profano", a unidade de medida da História e do Estado. Essas ocasiões literalmente ocupavam espaços vazios no calendário - intervalos intercalados. Na Idade Média, quase um terço do ano era reservado para feriados e dias santos. Talvez os protestos contra a reforma no calendário tenham sido menos a ver com os "onze dias perdidos" do que com a sensação de que a ciência imperial estava conspirando para preencher esses espaços vazios dentro do calendário, onde a liberdade das pessoas havia se concentrado. Um golpe de Estado, um mapeamento do ano, a dominação do próprio tempo, transformando o cosmo orgânico num universo que funciona como um relógio. A morte do festival."
"[...] numa época na qual a velocidade e o "fetichismo da mercadoria" criaram uma unidade tirânica e falsa que tende a ofuscar toda a diversidade cultural e toda a individualidade para que "todo lugar seja igual ao outro". Este paradoxo cria "ciganos", viajantes psíquicos guiados pelo desejo ou pela curiosidade, errantes com laços de lealdade frouxos (na verdade, desleais ao "projeto europeu", que perdeu todo o seu charme e vitalidade), desligados de qualquer local ou tempo determinado, em busca de diversidade e aventura... Essa descrição engloba não apenas artistas e intelectuais classe-X, como também trabalhadores imigrantes, refugiados, os "sem-teto", turistas, e todos aqueles que vivem em trailers - assim como pessoas que "viajam" na internet, sem talvez jamais saírem de seus quartos (ou aqueles como Thoreau, que "viajou demais - em Concord"), para finalmente englobar "todo mundo", todos nós, vivendo em nossos automóveis, em nossas férias, aparelhos de TV, livros, filmes, telefones, trocando de emprego, mudando de "estilo de vida", de religião, de dieta etc. etc."
"O nomadismo psíquico como uma tática, aquilo que Deleuze e Guattari metaforicamente chamam de "máquina de guerra", muda o paradoxo de um modo passivo para um modo ativo e talvez até mesmo "violento". Os últimos espasmos de "Deus" e seus sacolejos no leito de morte vêm se arrastando por tanto tempo - nas formas do capitalismo, fascismo e comunismo, por exemplo - que ainda existe muita "destruição criativa" para ser executada por comandos ou apaches (literalmente, inimigos) pós-bakunianos e pós-nietzscheanos. Esses nômades exercitam a razzia, são corsários, são vírus. Sentem tanto o desejo quanto a necessidade de TAZs, acampamentos de tendas negras sob as estrelas do deserto, interzonas, oásis fortificados escondidos nas rotas das caravanas secretas, trechos de selva e sertões "liberados", áreas proibidas, mercados negros e bazares underground.
Esses nômades orientam seu percurso por estrelas estranhas, que podem ser núcleos luminosos de dados no ciberespaço ou, talvez, alucinações. Abra um mapa do território; sobre ele, coloque um mapa das mudanças políticas; sobre ele, ponha um mapa da internet, especialmente da contra-net, com sua ênfase no fluxo clandestino de informações e logística; e, por último, sobre tudo isso, o mapa 1:1 da imaginação criativa, estética, valores. A malha resultante ganha vida, animada por inesperados redemoinhos e explosões de energia, coagulações de luz, túneis secretos, surpresas.
[Cap. 3 - A psicotopologia da vida - posições 204; 231; 243; 251; 298; 306]

"'Cultura é a nossa natureza', e nós somos os corvos ladrões, os caçadores/coletores do mundo da Comunicação Tecnológica."
"[...] se a TAZ é um acampamento nômade, então a web ajuda a criar épicos, canções, genealogias e lendas da tribo. Ela fornece as trilhas de assalto e as rotas secretas que compõem o fluxo da economia tribal. Ela até mesmo contém alguns dos caminhos que as tribos seguirão só no futuro, alguns dos sonhos que eles viverão como sinais e presságios.
Nossa web não depende de nenhuma tecnologia de computação para existir. O boca-a-boca, os correios, a rede marginal de zines, as "árvores telefônicas" e coisas do gênero são suficientes para se construir uma rede de informação. A chave não é o tipo ou o nível da tecnologia envolvida, mas a abertura e a horizontalidade da estrutura."
"A TAZ deseja, acima de tudo, evitar a mediação, experimentar a existência de forma imediata. A essência da TAZ é o "peito-a-peito", como dizem os sufis, ou cara-a-cara. Mas, MAS: a essência da web é mediação, onde as máquinas são nossos embaixadores - a carne é irrelevante exceto como um terminal, com todas as conotações sinistras do termo."
"Toda 'catástrofe' na net é um nódulo de poder para a web, a contra-net. A net será prejudicada pelo caos, enquanto que a web vai prosperar nele.
Seja atráves de uma simples pirataria de dados, ou do desenvolvimento de formas mais complexas de relacionamento com o caos, o hacker da web, o cibernauta da TAZ, encontrará maneiras de aproveitar as perturbações, quedas e breakdowns da net (maneiras de gerar informação a partir da "entropia"). O hacker da TAZ trabalhará para a evolução de conexões fractais clandestinas como um rastreador de fragmentos de informações, um contrabandista, um chantagista, talvez até mesmo como um ciber-terrorista. Estas conexões, e as diferentes informações que fluem entre elas e por elas, formarão as "válvulas de poder" para a emergência da própria TAZ - como é necessário roubar energia elétrica dos monopólios distribuidores de eletricidade para iluminar uma casa abandonada que foi invadida."
[Cap. 4 - A internet e a web - posições 363; 382; 397; 449]

"Caliban, o Homem Selvagem, é instalado como um vírus dentro da própria máquina do Imperialismo Oculto.
Florestas/animais/seres humanos são investidos desde o início com o poder mágico do marginal, do desprezado e do proscrito. Se, por um lado, Caliban é feio e a natureza é uma "imensa selvageria", por outro, Caliban é nobre e livre e a Natureza é um Éden."
"Então - a primeira colônia do Novo Mundo resolveu renunciar ao seu contrato com Próspero (Dee/Raleigh/o Império) e se uniu aos Homens Selvagens como Caliban. Eles deserdaram. Eles se tornaram "índios", viraram nativos, optaram pelo caos em detrimento dos atrozes sofrimentos de servir aos plutocratas e intelectuais de Londres.
A medida que os Estados Unidos surgiam onde antes havia sido a "Ilha da Tartaruga", Croatã permanecia embutida em seu inconsciente coletivo. Além da fronteira, o estado da Natureza (i.e., sem Estado) ainda prevalecia, e dentro da consciência dos colonizadores a opção pelo estado selvagem sempre esteve à espreita, a tentação de abandonar a Igreja, o trabalho no campo, a alfabetização e os impostos - todos os fardos da civilização - e, de um jeito ou de outro, "ir para Croatã"."
"As seitas puderam prosperar melhor sob as administrações menos rígidas e mais corruptas do Caribe, onde os interesses dos rivais europeus tinham deixado muitas ilhas desertas ou mesmo não-reclamadas. Especialmente as ilhas de Barbados e Jamaica parecem ter sido colonizadas por um grande número de extremistas, e acredito que influências igualitárias e ranterianas contribuíram para a "utopia" dos bucaneiros em Tortuga. Neste ponto, pela primeira vez, graças a Esquemelin, podemos estudar com alguma profundidade uma bem-sucedida proto-TAZ do Mundo Novo. Fugindo dos horríveis "benefícios" do imperialismo, como a escravidão, o servilismo, o racismo e a intolerância, das torturas do recrutamento compulsório e da morte em vida nas plantações, os bucaneiros adotaram os costumes dos índios, casaram-se com Caraíbas, aceitaram negros e espanhóis como seus iguais, rejeitaram toda nacionalidade, elegeram seus capitães democraticamente e se voltaram para o "estado da Natureza". Declarando-se "em guerra contra o mundo todo", eles navegaram os mares saqueando sob contratos mútuos chamados "Artigos", que eram tão igualitários que cada membro recebia uma parte integral e o capitão geralmente apenas 1 1/4 ou 1 1/2. O uso de açoites e outros tipos de punição eram proibidos - desentendimentos eram resolvidos por voto ou por duelo regulamentado.
Simplesmente não é correto rotular os piratas de meros ladrões de alto-mar ou mesmo de proto-capitalistas, como alguns historiadores tem feito. De certo modo, eles foram "bandidos sociais", embora a base de suas comunidades não se constituíssem como sociedades rurais tradicionais e eram, de fato, "utopias" criadas quase que ex nihilo in terra incognita, enclaves da total liberdade ocupando espaços vazios do mapa.
[...] Mais uma vez, escravos libertos, nativos e mesmo inimigos tradicionais como os portugueses eram convidados para se juntar a eles como iguais. (Libertar navios negreiros era uma de suas prioridades.) A propriedade da terra era comunitária, os representantes eram eleitos por períodos curtos, os saques eram repartidos. As doutrinas de liberdade pregadas eram ainda mais radicais do que aquelas do Common Sense.
Libertatia esperava durar e Mission morreu em sua defesa. Mas a maioria das utopias piratas foram criadas para serem temporárias. As verdadeiras "repúblicas" dos corsários eram seus navios, que navegavam sob o código dos Artigos. Os enclaves costeiros geralmente não tinham lei alguma."
"Nos anos 70, inspirados pela renascença dos índios americanos, alguns grupos - incluindo os mouros e os ramapaughs - inscreveram-se no Departamento dos Negócios Indígenas para serem reconhecidos como tribos indígenas. Eles receberam o apoio dos ativistas, mas o status oficial foi-lhes negado. Se tivessem ganho, afinal, poderiam ter aberto um perigoso precedente para desertores de todos os tipos, desde consumidores de peiote a hippies e nacionalistas negros, arianos, anarquistas e libertários - uma "reserva" para todos! O "projeto europeu" não pode reconhecer a existência do Homem Selvagem - caos verde é ainda uma ameaça muito grande para o sonho Imperial de ordem."
"[...] já que parte das pessoas que vivem em sociedades racistas e moralmente repressoras secretamente desejam exatamente esses atos licenciosos (sexo, sodomia, fornicação, masturbação), elas os projetam sobre os marginalizados, e assim convenvem a si mesmos que permanecem civilizadas e puras. E realmente algumas comunidades marginalizadas rejeitaram a moralidade consensual - os piratas certamente o fizeram! - sem dúvida realizaram alguns dos desejos reprimidos da civilização. (Você não faria o mesmo?) Tornar-se "selvagem" é sempre um ato erótico, um ato de desnudamento."
[Cap. 5 - "Fomos para Croatã" - posições 555; 566; 588; 612; 656; 691]

"Ninguém mais tentava impor uma ditadura revolucionária, seja em Fiume, Paris ou Milibrook. Ou o mundo mudaria, ou não. Enquanto isso, continue na estrada e viva intensamente."
[Cap. 6 - A música como um princípio organizacional - posição 772]

"Por que se importar em enfrentar um "poder" que perdeu todo o sentido e se tornou pura Simulação? Tais confrontos resultarão apenas em perigosos e terríveis espasmos de violência por parte dos cretinos cheios de merda na cabeça que herdaram as chaves de todos os arsenais e prisões."
"[...] a luta que não pode cessar mesmo com o fracasso final da revolução política ou social, porque nada, exceto o fim do mundo, pode trazer um fim para a vida cotidiana, ou para as nossas aspirações pelas coisas boas, pelo Mravilhoso. E , como disse Nietzsche, se o mundo pudesse chegar a um fim, logicamente já o teria feito, e se não o fez é porque não pode. E assim como disse um dos sufis, não importa quantas taças do vinho proibido nós bebamos, carregaremos essa sede violenta até a eternidade."
[Cap. 7 - A vontade de poder como desaparecimento - posições 811; 818]

"A alienação é muito mais perigosa para nós do que as velhas ideologias desdentadas e moribundas. O vício mental em "ideais" - que na realidade tornaram-se meras projeções do nosso ressentimento e do nosso complexo de vítima - nunca levará nosso projeto adiante. A TAZ não defende uma utopia social feita de castelos nas nuvens que diz que devemos sacrificar nossas vidas para que os filhos de nossos filhos possam respirar um pouco de ar livre. A TAZ deve ser o cenário da nossa autonomia presente, mas só pode existir se já nos considerarmos seres livres."
" A TAZ pressupõe um certo tipo de ferocidade, uma evolução da domesticidade para a selvageria, um "retorno", e ao mesmo tempo um passo adiante. Ela também demanda uma "ioga" do caos, um projeto de ordens "mais elevadas" (de consciência ou, simplesmente, de vida) das quais uma pessoa se aproxima "surfando a crista da onda do caos", do dinamismo complexo. A TAZ é uma arte de viver em contínua elevação, selvagem, mas gentil - um sedutor, não um estuprador, mais um contrabandista do que um pirata sanguinário, um dançarino e não um escatológico."
[Cap. 8 - Caminhos de rato na Babilônia da informação - posições 925; 958]

"[...] Você está esperando pela revolução? A minha começou muito rempo atrás! Quando você estará preparado? (Meu Deus, que espera sem fim!) Não me importo em acompanhá-lo por um tempo. Mas quando você parar, eu prosseguirei em meu caminho insano e triunfal em direção à grande e sublime conquista do nada! Qualquer sociedade que você construir terá seus limites. E para além dos limites de qualquer sociedade os desregrados e heroicos vagabundos vagarão, com seus pensamentos selvagens e virgens - aqueles que não podem viver sem constantemente planejar novas e terríveis rebeliões!
Quero estar entre eles!
E atrás de mim, como à minha frente, estarão aqueles dizendo a seus companheiros: "Voltem-se a si mesmos em vez de aos seus deuses ou ídolos. Descubra o que existe em vocês; traga-o à luz; mostrem-se!"
Porque toda pessoa que, procurando por sua própria interioridade, descobre o que estava misteriosamente escondido dentro de si, é uma sombra eclipsando qualquer forma de sociedade que possa existir sob o sol!" Renzo Novatore Arcola, janeiro de 1920
[Apêndice C - posição 1078]
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