This week we are reading Animism and the Alphabet. In this essay David Abram parenthetically addresses our last reading (Plato’s Phaedrus) and goes further in addressing the emergence of writing and a purely phonetic alphabetic system and how these shape our world and our interaction with it. The chapter is taken from Abram’s book The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World which can be found in full on zinelibrary.

Also, here are the initial suggestions for future reading group readings. Feel free to propose others.

we asked participants in the group to do a little brainstorming and think of fun future readings. we can always add more to the list (and we intend to since most current events readings come unexpectedly from any number of website). if anyone wants to add to this list you are free to do so at any of the weekly meetings we have. here are the initial results.

come at 7pm and bring tasty treats and party with your pals. all the lovable rascals will be there!

at 8pm we will discuss Plato’s Phaedrus. it is a long essay/dialogue so we are breaking the discussion into two parts (pages 506-533 and pages 534-556). we will read the first half first and the second half second. genius!

note: for the thuggish nerds who care, the translators for this particular version are Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff… i hope this means we won’t have to face your wrath.

(download link updated)

This week we read 2 essays by Jean Baudrillard.

photocopies are at the long haul. we should remember to get them on tuesday.

One by Dora Marsden and one by Sidney E. Parker.

This week we are reading a few words from Aleister Crowley and a few words about him. We will be reading by candle light so bring your candles.

Also, bring a piece of paper with a few suggestions for what you want the reading group to be reading in the coming weeks and months.

This week we travel to the tropical beaches of Germany with Gustav Landauer and Max Nettlau as our guides. Landauer will tell us about his Anarchic Thoughts on Anarchism and how to go Through Separation to Community. Max will provide us with a whirlwind tour of Anarchist ideas in Germany from Max Stirner to Eugen Duhring and Gustav Landauer. We will laugh, we will cry, we will come out stronger on the other end. Be sure to bring sunscreen to smear on the person to your right.

last time we brainstormed on future readings. it was a bit muddled at the end, but i think we left it that we will be reading stuff on isabelle eberhardt for this coming week, and something of crowley’s for the second week in june.
in the direction of eberhardt,

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Nomad is an enthusiastic rendition of her life (this will be made more interesting by questions that are raised in the following link)

here is an academic paper (a review of a review of a play about her life! couldn’t get more academic than that!), that seems interesting to me so far.

here is an article by eberhardt…

and for more of a sense of what was happening when eberhardt was alive, here is an interview with an anthropologist about her and her time…

(one of the things that comes up for me while reading about eberhardt is the question of how we will/want to be remembered after we’re dead, how frequently a person’s anarchy is disappeared once they’re not around.

AND POTLUCK!

This week we are reading the new anarchist publication Fireworks. There are also hard copies available at the Long Haul, the Hold Out and wherever fine anarchist events are held. Here is their website: http://fireworksbayarea.com/