Sep 12
2009
From Mythmakers and Lawbreakers:
Alex Comfort (1920–2000), the author of the best-selling The Joy of Sex, said that he would much rather be remembered for his anarchism, his pacifism, and his novels (which include On This Side of Nothing). He also wrote an essay, The Novel and Our Time, exploring the novel as an agent of liberation.
Tags: Dead, English, Essayist, Pacifist, Scientist
Sep 10
2009
From Mythmakers and Lawbreakers:
Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) is famous today as the author of A Clockwork Orange, but it was only one of his over 30 novels. He said that he deeply regretted how the film adaptation seemed to glorify sexual violence, and how easily people misread that book. He was also an anarchist: “I’ve never had any money, therefore I’ve no sympathy for capitalists … I suppose I end up as an anarchist” (from Anthony Burgess, a biography by Roger Lewis, 2002). In his younger life, while serving in the British army, he was often in trouble for defying authority, including being arrested for insulting Spanish fascist Franco. In addition to being a novelist, he was an accomplished literary critic, linguist, composer.
Tags: Dead, English, Poet, Screenwriter, Songwriter
Sep 10
2009
From Mythmakers and Lawbreakers:
William Blake (1757–1827), poet and author of “Illuminated Manuscripts” (proto-graphic-novels), was an anarchist before the word was coined. He was also both a mystic and completely unrenowned in his time. He attacked organized religion fiercely, and published the heretical The Marriage of Heaven & Hell. One interesting quote from that book: “Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.”
Tags: Artist, Dead, English, Graphic Novel, Poet, Romantic
Sep 10
2009
From Mythmakers and Lawbreakers:
Jens Bjørneboe (1920–1976), once called “the greatest failed novelist of the twentieth century,” was a Norwegian novelist, playwright, and anarcho-nihilist. Jens wrote honestly and angrily, a trait that found him convicted of obscenity and resulted in his novel Without A Stitch being banned in Norway for a time. Perhaps his strongest allegorical work is his last novel, The Sharks. He also wrote anarchist theory, expounding on the idea that anarchism was scientific (contrasting with the dogmatic Marxism) and existed in varying degrees. After a lifetime of controversy and alcohol, he took his own life.
Tags: Dead, Nihilist, Norwegian, Playwright
Sep 10
2009
From Mythmakers and Lawbreakers:
Rafael Barrett (1876–1910), a Spanish immigrant to Paraguay, was the sort of writer whose works were influential on other people who themselves became more influential. He wrote all types of things, including short stories, but his primary vessel was journalism. He wrote and published a lot, running an anarchist newspaper. One of his more famous pieces was Lo que son los yerbales, an account of the conditions on Yerba Mate farms. He was also an outspoken anarchist (very much the sort that preferred the pen to dynamite), and for this he earned contempt and was at one point exiled to Uruguay. In his essay My Anarchism (as translated by Paul Sharkey), he begins simply: “The etymology is good enough for me ‘Absence of government.’ The spirit of authority and the standing of the laws must be destroyed. That says it all.”
Tags: Dead, Journalist, Paraguyan, Spanish
Sep 10
2009
From Mythmakers and Lawbreakers:
Fabrizio De André (1940–1999), a renowned Italian songwriter, poet, and anarchist, was known for his epic and political music. He translated the works of Leonard Cohen (among others) into Italian, and he wrote a novel, Un destino ridicolo (A Ridiculous Fate). He made the island of Sardinia his home, and was once kidnapped and ransomed by Sardinian rebels (terrorists/freedom-fighters, take your pick). After his father—a wealthy industrialist who had once been an anti-fascist partisan—paid his ransom, and the kidnappers were brought to trial, Fabrizio reportedly told the court that the rebels “They were the real prisoners, not I.” (Although he did not offer sympathy to the higher-ups in the rebel group, who were wealthy already.)
Tags: Dead, Italian, Poet, Songwriter
Sep 10
2009
From Mythmakers and Lawbreakers:
Edward Abbey (1927–1989), the author of the controversial novel The Monkey Wrench Gang (which was considered too radical by the mainstream and too sexist by many anarchists), is also the “spiritual father” that inspired Earth First!. He was at least philosophically involved in anarchism in college, editing an anarchist paper and eventually writing his thesis on the topic “Anarchism and the Morality of Violence,” in which he declared that a peaceful anarchist society could not be created by the use of violence.
Tags: American, Dead, Eco, Essayist
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