Jump to content

Peter Lamborn Wilson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 203.170.144.1 (talk) at 17:56, 11 February 2007 (→‎Life & work). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

File:Hakim Bey.jpeg
Hakim Bey

Peter Lamborn Wilson (b. New York, 1945) is an American political writer, essayist, and poet, perhaps best known for first proposing the concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ), based on a historical review of pirate utopias. He sometimes writes under the name Hakim Bey. The pseudonym may or may not have been a name-of-convenience or collective pseudonym used by other radical writers since the 1970s [citation needed] and is a combination of the Arabic word for 'wise man' and a last name common in the Moorish Science Temple. Bey, originally a Turkic word for "chieftain," traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled bey, beg or beigh. They are all the same word with the simple meaning of "leader." Also in Turkish, Hakim means judge and Bey is a generic word for a gentleman (mister) generally used after a name.

Life & work

Wilson spent two years in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and seven years in Iran (where he was affiliated with the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy[citation needed]), leaving during the Islamic Revolution. In the 1980s, his ideas evolved from a kind of Guénonist neo-tradionalism to a synthesis of anarchism and Situationist ideas with heterodox Sufism and Neopaganism, describing his ideas as "anarchist ontology" or "immediatism". In the past he has worked with the not-for-profit publishing project Autonomedia, in Brooklyn, New York.

In addition to his writings on anarchism and Temporary Autonomous Zones, Wilson has written essays on such diverse topics as Tong traditions, the utopian Charles Fourier, the fascist Gabriele D'Annunzio, the connections between Sufism and ancient Celtic culture, sacred pederasty in the Sufi tradition, technology and Luddism, and Amanita muscaria use in ancient Ireland.

Wilson's poetic 'texts' and poems have appeared in: P.A.N.; Panthology One, Two, and Three; Ganymede; Exquisite Corpse; NAMBLA Bulletin; the various Acolyte Reader paperbacks. Many of these poems, including the 'Sandburg' series, are collected in the as-yet unpublished DogStar volume. Currently his works can be found regularly in publications like Fifth Estate and the NYC-based First of the Month.

Wilson's so-called "translations" amount to one volume of the poems of Abu Nuwas, O Tribe That Loves Boys. It is worth noting that, on the first page of this volume, he openly confesses that the contents are not translations. After all, the "translator" does not speak, or read, Arabic. So he confines himself to "versions" derived from the horrible translations by Arthur Wormhoudt, plus some other stuff which seems to be gleaned from "The Delight of Hearts." On top of the Wormhoudt and the Tifashi, there seem to be some "originals" tossed in. The best part of the book, which is the biography of Abu Nuwas, is simply lifted from Ewald Wagner's article in "The Encyclopedia of Islam."

He has also published at least one novel, The Chronicles of Qamar: Crowstone (a sword and sorcery boy-love tale) (Coltsfoot Press, 1983).

Criticism

Wilson is a controversial figure within the anarchist milieu. Many social anarchists denounce his ideas as "lifestyle anarchism", seeing his ideas as a kind of extreme individualist anarchism that is ultimately apolitical. Many atheist and materialist anarchists dislike the tendency toward mysticism, occultism, and irrationalism in his work.[1]

Wilson has also been criticized for his defense of spiritual pederasty[citation needed].

Writings

  • The Winter Calligraphy of Ustad Selim, & Other Poems (1975) ISBN 0-903880-05-9
  • Science and Technology in Islam (1976) (with Leonard Harrow)
  • Traditional Modes of Contemplation & Action (1977) (editor, with Yusuf Ibish)
  • Nasir-I Khusraw: 40 Poems from the Divan (1977) (translator and editor, with Gholam Reza Aavani) ISBN 0-87773-730-4
  • Kings of Love: The Poetry and History of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order of Iran (1978) (translator and editor, with Nasrollah Pourjavady)
  • Angels (1980, 1994) ISBN 0-500-11017-4 (abridged edition: ISBN 0-500-81044-3)
  • Weaver of Tales: Persian Picture Rugs (1980) (with Karl Schlamminger)
  • Loving Boys: Semiotext(e) Special (editor as Hakim Bey) New York: Semiotext(e), 1980
  • Crowstone: The Chronicles of Qamar (1983) (as Hakim Bey)
  • CHAOS: The Broadsheets of Ontological Anarchism (1985) (as Hakim Bey)
  • Semiotext(e) USA (1987) (co-editor, with Jim Fleming)
  • Scandal: Essays in Islamic Heresy (1988) ISBN 0-936756-15-2
  • The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry (1988) (translator and editor, with Nasrollah Pourjavady) ISBN 0-933999-65-8
  • Semiotext(e) SF (1989) (co-editor, with Rudy Rucker and Robert Anton Wilson)
  • TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism (1991) (as Hakim Bey; incorporates full text of CHAOS) ISBN 0-936756-76-4, ISBN 1-57027-151-8
  • Immediatism (1992, 1994) (as Hakim Bey; originally published as Radio Sermonettes) ISBN 1-873176-42-2
  • Aimless Wandering: Chuang Tzu's Chaos Linguistics (1993) (as Hakim Bey)
  • Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam (1993) ISBN 0-87286-275-5
  • The Little Book of Angel Wisdom (1993, 1997) ISBN 1-85230-436-7 ISBN 1-86204-048-6
  • O Tribe That Loves Boys: The Poetry of Abu Nuwas (1993) (translator and editor, as Hakim Bey) ISBN 90-800857-3-1
  • Pirate Utopias (1995, 2003) ISBN 1-57027-158-5
  • Millennium (1996) (as Hakim Bey) ISBN 1-57027-045-7
  • "Shower of Stars" Dream & Book: The Initiatic Dream in Sufism and Taoism (1996)
  • Escape from the Nineteenth Century (1998) ISBN 1-57027-073-2
  • Wild Children (1998) (co-editor, with Dave Mandl)
  • Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in the City & the World (1999) (co-editor, with Bill Weinberg) ISBN 1-57027-092-9
  • Ploughing the Clouds: The Search for Irish Soma (1999) ISBN 0-87286-326-3
  • rain queer (2005) ISBN 0-9766341-1-2
  • Orgies Of The Hemp Eaters (2004) (co-editor as Hakim Bey with Abel Zug) ISBN 1-57027-143-7
  • Gothick Institutions (2005) ISBN 0-9770049-0-2

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Lamborn_Wilson&oldid=107355513"