TIQQUN a Very Special Edition Brought to You by Hit the Bricks

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

TIQQUN a Very Special Edition Brought to You by Hit the Bricks “Th e innate part of the failure that determines a collective enterprise The like the avant-garde is its incapacity to make a world. All the splendors, problem all the actions, all the discourses of the avant- garde unceasingly fail to give it a body; it all hap- of the pens in the head of the few, where the unity, the organic content of the en- head semble fl ourish, but only for thinking, that is to say, externally.” hit the bricks//2010 ///////////////TIQQUN A very special edition brought to you by Hit the Bricks For more gestures of tex- tual social war, please visit hitthebricks.tumblr.com TThehe pprob-rob- llemem ooff tthehe hheadead originally published in TIQQUN 2 as “Le problème de la tête” in 2001 22 so that the watchword of community, of secret society, fi nally will absorb the reality of these terms. Acephale was almost exclusively, and more reasonably than Surrealism for example, an aff air of men. Acephale did not know, to crown it all, how to pass by the head and how to not be, from one end to the other, the community of only Bataille: as he alone wrote the genealogy, the “internal journal” which gave birth to Acephale, as he alone defi ned the rites of this order, he fi nished alone, imploring his pale companions to sacrifi ce at the foot of his scared tree: “It was very beautiful. But we all had the senti- ment of participating in something that happened on the part of Bataille, in the head of Bataille.” (Klossowski). It would not seem opportune to take a conclusion, even less a program, from what is go- ing to be said. Following from what I know, a certain relation must be able to be established with the Invisible Committee; be it only in the sense of a generalization of insinuation. It must be said in passing: there is not a problem of the head, there is but a paralysis of the body, of the act. 21 zensberger was not all wrong to see in the Bild-Zeitung the achieved realization of the avant-garde, as much from the point of view of formal transgression as from collective elaboration. A certain dose of Situationism also seems demanded for all well-paid work, at present. Th e particular appropriately incisive tone of this intervention meets here its Democracy reposes upon a neutralization of antago- content: it is only a matter of liberating ethical signifi cation from the avant-garde. nisms relatively weak and free; it excludes all explosive condensation...the only free society full of life and force, Epilogue the sole free society is the bi or polycephal society that As epilogue to this, it does not seem superfl uous to evoke a point of reversal for the gives to the fundamental antagonisms of life a constant avant-garde. Acephale, symbol of the crowd without a leader, names one of its extreme explosive outlet, but limited to the richest forms. Th e points. Acephale tends to liberate itself from the problem of the head. All the agitation, duality or the multiplicity of heads tends to realize in all the gesticulation of the avant-garde, be it artistic or political, Acephale would like to the same movement the acephalous character of exis- erase this in erasing itself, in renouncing a form of action “that is but the placing of exis- tence, for the principle even of the head is reduction to tence for later.” Acephale would like to be this secret existential society, this elective com- unity, reduction of the world to God. munity that would assemble “the individuals truly decided to undertake the struggle, at Acephale, January 1937 a small scale to the need, but on the effi cacious path where their attempt risks becoming epidemic, to the end of measuring itself with society on its own terrain and to attack it with its own arms, that is to say to constitute themselves in a community, more still, I consider all the acts of the “avant-gardes” in their supposed succession. Th ey all come in ceasing to make the values that they defend the perquisite of rebels and insurgents, out with an injunction, with a commandment: a commandment regarding how to un- regarding them in the inverse as the fi rst values of the society that they would like to derstand them. Th e “avant-gardes” demand to be treated in a certain fashion; I do not see installed and that as the most social of all they must be somewhat implacable...To believe that they ever were anything else, all told, than this demand, and the submission the constitution in groups presides the desire to combat society in so much as society, to this demand. the plan to confront it as the most dense and solid structure tending to install itself as a cancer in the heart of a structure more unstable and loose, although incomparably I listen to the history of the Red Brigades, of the Situationist International, of Futurism, more voluminous.” (Caillois, Le Vent d’Hiver). Th e papers of Henri Dussat, member of of Bolshevism or Surrealism. I refuse to grasp them cerebrally, I raise my fi nger to search Acephale, contains a note dated March 25, 1938 “To tend to ethics, there is the resolu- for a contact: I feel nothing. Or rather I do feel something: the sensation of an empty tion that one recognizes, or of that which is wicked to recognize the Christian as the su- intensity. preme value. Another thing is to move oneself in ethics.” Looking explicitly to constitute itself as a world, Acephale did not only break with the avant-garde, it retook also that I observe the defi le of avant-gardes: they never cease to exhaust themselves in tension which, in the avant-garde, had been something other than the avant-garde, that is to say against themselves. Th e scandalous actions, purges, grand dates, noisy ruptures, orienta- precisely the desire that was aborted there: “Since the end of the dada period the project tion debates, campaigns of agitation, and splits are milestones on the road to their termi- of a secret society charged with giving a sort of active reality to the aspirations that were nation. Torn between the present state of the world and the fi nal state toward which the defi ned in part under the name of surrealism has always rested an object of preoccupa- avant-garde must guide the human herd, ripped apart in the suff ocating tension between tion, at least in the background.” Recalled Bataille in the conference of the College of that which is and that which must be, waylaid in the organizational auto-theatricalization Sociology on March 19, 1938. Acephale, however, would not come to exist so much as of itself, in the verbal contemplation of its own power projected into the heavens of the to contaminate. Although being full of rites, of habits, of sacred texts and ceremonies, masses and of History, failing, without stop, to live nothing if it is not by the mediation the proclamatory politics that, externally, had disappeared remained internally; so much of the always already historical representation of each of its movements, the avant-garde turns round in the ignorance of self that consumes it. Th en it collapses on this side of 20 5 birth, yet without even coming to its proper beginning. Th e most ingenuous question such constellations, to liberate each aesthetic from its ethical content. Th ose of our days on the subject of avant-gardes—that of knowing as the avant-garde of what, exactly, they who move closer, in the same cavalier fashion, to the punk of certain para-existential regard themselves- fi nds there its response: the avant-gardes are fi rst in the avant-garde circles of the after-war years, then those of the Gnostic eff ervescence of the fi rst centuries of pursuing themselves. of our era, do nothing else as well. Beyond the temporal spacing which separates them from the points of illusion, each of these constellations understands gestures, rituals, I speak here in so much as a participant in the chaos that develops at present around enunciations, uses, practical arts, determined forms of life, in brief: a proper Stimmung. Tiqqun. I do not say “us”; no one can, without usurpation, speak in the name of a collec- It assembles by attraction all the details of a world, which advertises being animated, be- tive adventure. Th e best that I can do is to speak anonymously, not of but in the experi- ing inhabited. In the context where the avant-gardes affi rmed themselves and a fortiori ence I take part in. Th e avant-garde, at all costs, will not be treated as an exterior demon today, the question has, for a long time, not been to make a novelty, but to make a world. that one must always guard against. Each thing, each being, that coming into presence brings with it an economy given by presence confi gures a world. Going from that, it is a question solely of inhabiting the Th ere is therefore an avant-garde comprehension of “avant-gardes”, an act of “avant- determinity of the constellation which deploys itself always-already in our presence, to gardes” that is in no manner distinct from the avant-garde itself. One could not explain follow our derisory, contingent, and fi nite taste. All revolt that goes from self, of the hic without this, as the articles, studies, essays and hagiographies of which they are still the et nunc where it reposes, of the inclinations that traverse it, goes in this sense.
Recommended publications
  • Anarchist Cybernetics Control and Communication in Radical Left Social Movements
    ANARCHIST CYBERNETICS CONTROL AND COMMUNICATION IN RADICAL LEFT SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester by Thomas Swann MA (University of Glasgow), MA (Radboud University Nijmegen) School of Management University of Leicester September 2015 Thesis Abstract Anarchist Cybernetics Control and Communication in Radical Left Social Movements by Thomas Swann This thesis develops the concept of anarchist cybernetics in an attempt to elaborate an understanding of the participatory and democratic forms of organisation that have characterised radical left-wing social movements in recent years. Bringing together Stafford Beer’s organisational cybernetics and the organisational approaches of both classical and contemporary anarchism, an argument is made for the value of an anarchist cybernetic perspective that goes beyond the managerialism cybernetics has long been associated with. Drawing on theoretical reflection and an empirical strategy of participatory political philosophy, the thesis examines contemporary social movement organisational practices through two lenses: control and communication. Articulating control as self-organisation, in line with cybernetic thought, an argument is made for finding a balance between, on the one hand, strategic identity and cohesion and, on the other, tactical autonomy. While anarchist and radical left activism often privileges individual autonomy, it is suggested here that too much autonomy or tactical flexibility can be as damaging to a social movement organisation as over-centralisation. Turning to communication, the thesis looks at social media, the focus of another kind of hype in recent activism, and identifies both the potentials and the problems of using social media platforms in anarchist and radical left organisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Communization and Its Discontents
    Minor Compositions Open Access Statement – Please Read This book is open access. This work is not simply an electronic book; it is the open access version of a work that exists in a number of forms, the traditional printed form being one of them. All Minor Compositions publications are placed for free, in their entirety, on the web. This is because the free and autonomous sharing of knowledges and experiences is important, especially at a time when the restructuring and increased centralization of book distribution makes it difficult (and expensive) to distribute radical texts effectively. The free posting of these texts does not mean that the necessary energy and labor to produce them is no longer there. One can think of buying physical copies not as the purchase of commodities, but as a form of support or solidarity for an approach to knowledge production and engaged research (particularly when purchasing directly from the publisher). The open access nature of this publication means that you can: • read and store this document free of charge • distribute it for personal use free of charge • print sections of the work for personal use • read or perform parts of the work in a context where no financial transactions take place However, it is against the purposes of Minor Compositions open access approach to: • gain financially from the work • sell the work or seek monies in relation to the distribution of the work • use the work in any commercial activity of any kind • profit a third party indirectly via use or distribution of the work • distribute in or through a commercial body (with the exception of academic usage within educational institutions) The intent of Minor Compositions as a project is that any surpluses generated from the use of collectively produced literature are intended to return to further the development and production of further publications and writing: that which comes from the commons will be used to keep cultivating those commons.
    [Show full text]
  • From Squatting to Tactical Media Art in the Netherlands, 1979–1993
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2019 Between the Cracks: From Squatting to Tactical Media Art in the Netherlands, 1979–1993 Amanda S. Wasielewski The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3125 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] BETWEEN THE CRACKS: FROM SQUATTING TO TACTICAL MEDIA ART IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1979–1993 by AMANDA WASIELEWSKI A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Art History in partiaL fulfiLLment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhiLosophy, The City University of New York 2019 © 2019 AMANDA WASIELEWSKI ALL Rights Reserved ii Between the Cracks: From Squatting to TacticaL Media Art in the Netherlands, 1979–1993 by Amanda WasieLewski This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Art History in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of PhiLosophy. Date David JoseLit Chair of Examining Committee Date RacheL Kousser Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Marta Gutman Lev Manovich Marga van MecheLen THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Between the Cracks: From Squatting to TacticaL Media Art in the Netherlands, 1979–1993 by Amanda WasieLewski Advisor: David JoseLit In the early 1980s, Amsterdam was a battLeground. During this time, conflicts between squatters, property owners, and the police frequentLy escaLated into fulL-scaLe riots.
    [Show full text]
  • Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl
    Preliminary Materials For a Theory of the Young-Girl SEMIOTEXT(E) INTERVENTION SERIES ©Tiqqun This translation© 2012 by Semiotext(e) All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, elec­ tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. Published by Semiotext(e) 2007 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 427, Los Angeles, CA 90057 www.semiotexte.com Thanks to Robert Dewhurst, John Ebert, Joshua Jordan, John Kelsey, Jason Smith, Sarah Wang and Noura Wedell. Design: Hedi El Kho!ti ISBN: 978-1-58435-108-5 Distributed by The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. and London, England Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Tiqqun Preliminary Materials a Theo of th Young-Girl Translated by Ariana Reines semiotext(e) intervention series o 12 Contents Preliminaries 11 1. The Young-Girl as Phenomenon 23 2. The Young-Girl as Te chnique of the Self 48 3. The Young-Girl as Social Relation 62 4. The Young-Girl as Commodity 74 5. The Young-Girl as Living Currency 88 6. The Young-Girl as Compact Political Apparatus 97 7. The Young-Girl as War Machine 105 8. The Young-Girl Against Communism 114 9. The Young-Girl Against Herself 121 10. Putting an End to the Young-Girl 131 - I did love you once. Hamlet PRELIMINARIES I Behind the hypnotic grimace of official pacifica­ tion there is a war being waged. A war that can no longer merely be called economic, social, or humanitarian.
    [Show full text]
  • 02955 the Aesthetics of Violence OA
    Violence and Other Unpolitical Acts in the New Cycle of Protests Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen For us, ultimately, violence is what has been taken fom us, and today we need to take it back.1 Tiqqun, Introduction to Civil War Within three decades they [the Social Democrats] managed virtually to erase the name of Blanqui, though it had been the rallying sound that had reverberated through the preceding century.2 Walter Benjamin, “Teses on the Philosophy of History” It is now becoming generally accepted that demonstrations, marches, spectacles and shows don’t lead anywhere… . Te methods of struggle therefore must be put through analysis because they present an obstacle to the creation of new modes of action.3 Jacques Camatte, “Against Domestication” 61 the aesthetics of violence Afer a 30-year long period of one-sided neoliberal counter- revolution, the last ten years have been characterized by the return of universal disgust against the political status quo. So- cial movements, assemblies, occupations, multitudes, uprisings, riots, and revolts have moved discontinuously across a world united in distrust or outright hatred toward a corrupt political class. Millions of people have taken to the streets, occupying squares, or rioting to protest the austerity and corruption of local political regimes. Most of these protests have been directed at the state, not the economy; it has been the state’s crisis manage- ment that has been the object of resentment and critique. People are disobeying and rejecting the state and its exercise of power. Te threat of a situation of “double power” forces the state to react, and in most places, from Egypt to Hong Kong to France, the state has responded aggressively.
    [Show full text]
  • Art, Revolution and Communisation Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen Version of Record First Published: 02 Apr 2012
    This article was downloaded by: [University of Iowa Libraries] On: 09 January 2013, At: 14:10 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Third Text Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ctte20 Art, Revolution and Communisation Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen Version of record first published: 02 Apr 2012. To cite this article: Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen (2012): Art, Revolution and Communisation, Third Text, 26:2, 229-242 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2012.663973 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Third Text, Vol. 26, Issue 2, March, 2012, 229–242 Art, Revolution and Communisation On the Transcendence of Art as Meaning without Reality Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen If the revolution is to take place, mankind has to progress from ten to eleven fingers.
    [Show full text]
  • Temporality and Praxis in Guy Debord's Hegelian Marxism
    Published Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy #20, 2014, available online at: http://www.parrhesiajournal.org/parrhesia20/parrhesia20_bunyard.pdf “History is the Spectre Haunting Modern Society”: Temporality and Praxis in Guy Debord’s Hegelian Marxism Introduction1 Within fields associated with the conjunction of Western Marxism and philosophy, the work of Guy Debord and the Situationist International (S.I.) often tends to receive rather less attention than it deserves. Whilst focussing on their famous concept of ‘spectacle’, this essay will try to show that Debord’s work may offer a richer resource to contemporary political philosophy than might otherwise be imagined. We will begin with a brief discussion of some of the problems and trends that have coloured the academic reception of this material, before presenting an initial interpretation of Debord’s account. This will serve to relate the concept of spectacle to the S.I.’s broader aims and ambitions.2 Our principal aim, however, is not simply to develop a reading of Debord and the S.I.’s critique of spectacular society per se, but rather to show that spectacle should also be seen to function as a much broader historical and ethical problematic. Addressing it in this manner can serve to highlight the theory of communism qua collective historical praxis that it contains. The approach attempted here is thus intended to augment more explicitly Marxian readings of Debord’s treatment of capital and commodities, by highlighting the broader, more existential and Hegelian conceptions of temporality, subjectivity and agency that support his analyses, and which inform the wider conceptual framework that underlies his mature oeuvre.
    [Show full text]
  • WRAP Theses Corcos 2016.Pdf
    A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/88598 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Guy Debord’s Situationism: Theory, Politics, Ethics, Protest by Alex Corcos A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in French Studies University of Warwick, School of Modern Languages and Cultures July 2016 Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Marxism and the Theory of Spectacle Alienation and the Commodity 11 Professional Marxism 22 Art, Leisure, Consumerism 36 Technology and Desire 49 Chapter Two: The Theory and Practice of Détournement 62 Plagiarism and le communisme littéraire 64 The Strengths and Limits of Situationist Propaganda 75 Avec et contre le cinéma 85 Chapter Three: Ethics 112 Derrida, Play and the Decision 113 Friendship and Exclusion 141 Chapter Four: ‘The Beginning of an Era’ 157 Les événements 158 Labour, Subjectivity, Communication 173 Debt, Exchange and Time 180 The University and Protest 185 Conclusion 199 Bibliography 212 Declaration I confirm that the material in this thesis represents my own work and has not been submitted for a degree at another university. Abstract Guy Debord (1931-1994) was the director of the International situationniste journal and de facto leader of the group of artists, writers, filmmakers and political agitators who went by the same name.
    [Show full text]
  • Abahlali Basemjondolo, Black Beyond Bolivaria Consciousness and More
    AUGUST 2013 • www.bolobolo.co.za/it • ISSUE #1 • PRICE: R10 - R20 according to means INCENDIARY TIMES THE PETIT-BOURGEOIS ANARCHIST COUNTER-REVOLUTION YOUR MOTHER WARNED YOU ABOUT in·cen·di·ar·y: (a device or attack) designed to cause fires, e.g., ‘incendiary grenades’ / tending to arouse strife, sedition, etc., e.g., ‘an incendiary speech’ / tending to inflame the senses, e.g., ‘an incendiary extravaganza of music and dance.’ In this issue Walking Featured interview: Reflections on the state of We talk to Biko Mutsaurwa, activism in Cape Town. an anarchist from Uhuru Network in Zimbabwe. We can’t educate our way out of inequality + Writing on: radical What would a truly radical environmentalism, education look like? capitalist realism, Abahlali baseMjondolo, black Beyond Bolivaria consciousness and more. A critical look at the fetishising of South + Creative writing | poetry | Art | Events | Book reviews American socialist leaders Radical/anarchist views by the South African left. from around the world Anarchists: basically just a bunch of wild-eyed, angsty teenagers... A love letter from Walking some anarchists. The bolo bolo collective contemplate the state of political activism in Cape Town in 2013, exploring the attendant class Welcome to the very first edition of Incendiary Times, a joyous labour of love undertaken by and race divisions and asking how best we can move forward. the bolo’bolo collective and collaborators. Before you read any further, it’s only fair to warn you of something: we’re anarchists! In boldly stating this we realise “Comrades!” and down along the sidelines of the away and, after a couple of final aluta that we’re jumping in the deep end; although anarchism march, tirelessly photographing the continua‘s, the buses begin their long has been around for over 160 years now (and much longer, proceedings and stopping now and drive down the highway while the if radical anthropologists are to be believed), it has received The cheap sound then to make important calls.
    [Show full text]
  • Libertarian Socialism
    Libertarian Socialism PDF generated using the open source mwlib toolkit. See http://code.pediapress.com/ for more information. PDF generated at: Sun, 12 Aug 2012 19:52:27 UTC Contents Articles Libertarian socialism 1 The Venus Project 37 The Zeitgeist Movement 39 References Article Sources and Contributors 42 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 43 Article Licenses License 44 Libertarian socialism 1 Libertarian socialism Libertarian socialism (sometimes called social anarchism,[1][2] and sometimes left libertarianism)[3][4] is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic society without private property in the means of production. Libertarian socialists believe in converting present-day private productive property into the commons or public goods, while retaining respect for personal property[5]. Libertarian socialism is opposed to coercive forms of social organization. It promotes free association in place of government and opposes the social relations of capitalism, such as wage labor.[6] The term libertarian socialism is used by some socialists to differentiate their philosophy from state socialism[7][8] or by some as a synonym for left anarchism.[1][2][9] Adherents of libertarian socialism assert that a society based on freedom and equality can be achieved through abolishing authoritarian institutions that control certain means of production and subordinate the majority to an owning class or political and economic elite.[10] Libertarian socialism also constitutes a tendency of thought that
    [Show full text]
  • Spectacular Developments: Guy Debord's Parapolitical Turn
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Goldsmiths Research Online GOLDSMITHS Research Online Thesis (PhD) Kinkle, Jeffrey Spectacular Developments: Guy Debord's Parapolitical Turn You may cite this version as: Kinkle, Jeffrey, 2010. Spectacular Developments: Guy Debord's Parapolitical Turn. PhD thesis, Goldsmiths. [Thesis]: Goldsmiths Research Online. Available at: http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/3225/ COPYRIGHT This is a thesis accepted for a Higher Degree of the University of London. It is an unpublished document and the copyright is held by the author. All persons consulting this thesis must read and abide by the Copyright Declaration below. COPYRIGHT DECLARATION I recognise that the copyright and other relevant Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of the above-described thesis rests with the author and/or other IPR holders and that no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. ACCESS A non-exclusive, non-transferable licence is hereby granted to those using or reproducing, in whole or in part, the material for valid purposes, providing the copyright owners are acknowledged using the normal conventions. Where specific permission to use material is required, this is identified and such permission must be sought from the copyright holder or agency cited. REPRODUCTION All material supplied via Goldsmiths Library and Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO) is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, and duplication or sale of all or part of any of the Data Collections is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for your research use or for educational purposes in electronic or print form.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theory of Bloom Tiqqun
    The Theory of Bloom Tiqqun Tiqqun The Theory of Bloom Olympia, January 19, 2010 A version of this text appeared in the first issue ofTiqqun , a French journal, in 1999. It was later refined and published in book form as The Theory Of Bloom by La Fabrique Editions in 2000. Some of the people arrested in France in 2008 and accused of writing The Com- ing Insurrection were involved in the creation of Tiqqun. Like anything else, you will either find something that resonates with you in this text, or you will not. We have provided an appendix so that some of the connections within it will not remain obscure. We recommend that you read the appendix. Nothing is simple. Nothing is complex. Nothing is faceless. You will find many labyrinths, dead-ends, portals and ladders in this text. But above all, if you are a discerning reader, you will glimpse Noth- ing. You cannot give Nothing a face. You cannot articulate what Nothing is. Nor can we. This text is a pact. This text is a labor of love. This text is a gift, to you. Letter to the editor Paris, November 24, 1999 Dear Eric, You will find enclosed the new version, largely augmented and di- vided into sections, of Men-machines, Directions for Use. Despite its appearance it does not behave like a book, but like an editorial virus. The Book is a dead form, in so far as it was holding its reader in the same fraudulent completeness, in the same esoteric arrogance as the classic Subject in front of his peers, no less than the classic figure of “Man”.
    [Show full text]