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Hakim Bey + TAZ + Situationists + Psychogeography + Discordianism = Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck may have created some fire but it was Hakim Bey who discovered the flame.
-----------------------------------------> KALLISTI <-------------------------------------------------
Poetic Terrorism
by Hakim Bey
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.
Bolt up brass commemorative plaques in places (public or private) where you have experienced a revelation or had a particularly fulfilling sexual experience, etc.
Go naked for a sign.
Organize a strike in your school or workplace on the grounds that it does not satisfy your need for indolence & spiritual beauty.
Grafitti-art loaned some grace to ugly subways & rigid public monuments--PT-art can also be created for public places: poems scrawled in courthouse lavatories, small fetishes abandoned in parks & restaurants, xerox-art under windshield-wipers of parked cars, Big Character Slogans pasted on playground walls, anonymous letters mailed to random or chosen recipients (mail fraud), pirate radio transmissions, wet cement...
The audience reaction or aesthetic-shock produced by PT ought to be at least as strong as the emotion of terror-- powerful disgust, sexual arousal, superstitious awe, sudden intuitive breakthrough, dada-esque angst--no matter whether the PT is aimed at one person or many, no matter whether it is "signed" or anonymous, if it does not change someone's life (aside from the artist) it fails.
PT is an act in a Theater of Cruelty which has no stage, no rows of seats, no tickets & no walls. In order to work at all, PT must categorically be divorced from all conventional structures for art consumption (galleries, publications, media). Even the guerilla Situationist tactics of street theater are perhaps too well known & expected now.
An exquisite seduction carried out not only in the cause of mutual satisfaction but also as a conscious act in a deliberately beautiful life--may be the ultimate PT. The PTerrorist behaves like a confidence-trickster whose aim is not money but CHANGE.
Don't do PT for other artists, do it for people who will not realize (at least for a few moments) that what you have done is art. Avoid recognizable art-categories, avoid politics, don't stick around to argue, don't be sentimental; be ruthless, take risks, vandalize only what must be defaced, do something children will remember all their lives--but don't be spontaneous unless the PT Muse has possessed you.
Dress up. Leave a false name. Be legendary. The best PT is against the law, but don't get caught. Art as crime; crime as art.
how long ago was this written? because it's not really a new idea.
the cacophony society has been doing stuff like this for years! Long before Chuck got his break.
Even before then there was Kesey and his Merry Pranksters back in the 60's.
I'm sure there's been others.
Nathaniel Parker, this Poetic Terrorism text was written by Bey in 1985 and is just one of the chapters of his book CHAOS: THE BROADSHEETS OF ONTOLOGICAL ANARCHISM. And you are right, it is far from being a new idea. Bey was inspired by others anarchists authors and elements to create the TAZ concept.
My point here is that the Cacophony Society it is all about Hakim Bey + TAZ + Situationists + Psychogeography + Discordianism + others inside the theme, but the shame is that anyone here seems to know this. I can guarantee you Chuck read Bey's works and explicitly applies thoses theories in his writting.
What really makes me surprise it is the fact that Hakim Bey has never been cited in this forum before. I think it is kind of non-sense to see you guys reading books like Blindness [don't get me wrong, I am a big Saramago's fan and also read pretty much all the books of the forum's list] and ignoring the existence of the anarchists authors such as Guy Debord. You guys should be discussing about the Principia Discordia and observing how the symbology of chaos inside Fight Club it is the same as the one inside THE TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE but instead you are waisting your time reading bullshit like A Million Little Pieces.
Thanks for the spelling correction wickerkat. ; )
James Frey's books are completely irrelevant, his literature is totally dispensable and A Million Little Picies it's pure bullshit. The opposite of Cormac McCarthy, James Joyce, Chuck himself and others good names on the list.
I did not mean to sound rude or anything, Synnove. This kind of situation just usually make me wonder if people really understands the symbology and meanings behind Chuck's books. Do they know what is him making reference to? It seems like most people just don't get it.
Just seems like you think we don't...... know this?
It's fine to have opinions on books, authors, whatever, but acting like the way YOU feel about a certain subject is the RIGHT way..... that's always going to make you sound like an asshole.
Nathaniel Parker, this Poetic Terrorism text was written by Bey in 1985 and is just one of the chapters of his book CHAOS: THE BROADSHEETS OF ONTOLOGICAL ANARCHISM. And you are right, it is far from being a new idea. Bey was inspired by others anarchists authors and elements to create the TAZ concept.
My point here is that the Cacophony Society it is all about Hakim Bey + TAZ + Situationists + Psychogeography + Discordianism + others inside the theme, but the shame is that anyone here seems to know this. I can guarantee you Chuck read Bey's works and explicitly applies thoses theories in his writting.
What really makes me surprise it is the fact that Hakim Bey has never been cited in this forum before. I think it is kind of non-sense to see you guys reading books like Blindness [don't get me wrong, I am a big Saramago's fan and also read pretty much all the books of the forum's list] and ignoring the existence of the anarchists authors such as Guy Debord. You guys should be discussing about the Principia Discordia and observing how the symbology of chaos inside Fight Club it is the same as the one inside THE TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE but instead you are waisting your time reading bullshit like A Million Little Pieces.
We don't have a search function working right now but all those things have most likely been brought up before. they're just lost in the internet ether. As for influences on Chuck's writing, more than Bey, you can look towards him being influenced by [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_Education]Landmark Education[/url] and all that est stuff.
I don't know why you would think we [i]should[/i] be reading stuff like Principia Discordia and whatnot. This isn't a Fight Club fan site filled with religious fervor. Hell, it's barely a Chuck fan site anymore. It's branched off into too many different areas of interest with Chuck just being the central drawing point.
If you're wanting to discuss Principia Discordia you should go ahead and start a thread for it. I know there was one made a while ago, but like i said there's just no way to look for them anymore. See if it draws any interest. Although most people don't like going through those "dry" sort of philosophical textbooks. Unless some student happens to be going through it at the moment it might not get many posts.
The opposite of Cormac McCarthy, James Joyce, Chuck himself and others good names on the list.
Have you read some of Chuck's latest books? I don't know if I'd put him on the list. Or Cormac Mccarthy, i've never seen someone go on and on about nothing and get so much credit for it. Heck, i don't know if i'd even put Joyce on that list except I guess he does have enough that [i]could[/i] be worth discussing, just whether or not it's interesting enough to bother.
There are many members here that are extremely well-rounded in the works of literature. Obviously many enjoy discussing the popular authors that highly influence the 20 somethings that enjoy reading, but your remarks are overall unwarranted.
We could endlessly discuss the influences of philosophical approaches to our favourite works of fiction, don't assume people haven't already had interesting talks as such. It sounds to me that you've recently written a paper or something. The way you have cited this info almost appears to me that you've read it from another secondary source.
I enjoy reading Chuck as much as the next guy,but in all honesty his work isn't intellectual in any sense. He isn't either influenced or derivative from any focus of philisophical arguement more than any other typical writer that has dialogue about society in their fiction.
I wouldn't peg him as an anarchist writer either. I like it here in these forums because there are many well read people here. I can happily say that most of these people don't rip apart people's work and come across as pretentious little shits.
Darling, do you smell pretentia? I don't know where it's coming from right this moment...
Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States. --Ishmael Reed
who actually cares who hakim bey is?
way to be a badass anarchist, guy.
sid viscious and johnny rotten would be proud
[Ritt] 11:55 pm: I come down cold and strong like WINTER HAIL/ When I drop bombs they score tens on RICHTER SCALES!/ I get on the stage spit a VERSE AND BLOW/ everybody back within the FIRST TEN ROWS!!
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