#writting collaboration

[darkhorrorblog]

Is anyone into writing fiction? Specifically, screen writing? I'm good with ideas, but not actually writing, I'm more of a director/cinematographer. I am looking to collaborate to make short stories into short films. DM me if you would like to talk more about a collaboration.

[tina-aumont]

"A nuestro primito Armando con profundo cariño"...

This beautiful sentence (to our Cousin Armando with deep love) was written to Armando Gracia Sanfiel (1913-1997), María's cousin who lived in Madrid, he was the son of Aquilino Gracia García. Aquilino was Isidoro's younger brother.

Here you have a photo of Aquilino that was on display at "María Montez, de la Palma a Hollywood" exhibit held in Garafia and La Palma back in 2012 to celebrate María Montez' birth centenary.

This photo is courtesy of "Cabildo de la Palma", the governing and administrative body of La Palma and had been shared to me by my friend @74paris.

Aquilino was Antonio Gracia Sanfiel's dad, he was born on January 3rd 1875 and he migrated to Cuba and established himself as a cigar maker, and upon his return to Garafía he was elected Mayor. He married Graciliana Sanfiel, and had María, América, Armando, Isidoro, Aquilino and Lisandro Gracia Sanfiel as children.

Maria Montez kept a writing correspondence with her cousin Armando, who lived in Madrid. In these letters, María appears simple, close, communicative and curious about her relatives in Spain, coinciding with the moment in which she was already at the peak of her film career.

These letters were in Armando Gracia Santamaría personal archives (he was Armando Gracia Sanfiel's son) and he shared them to researcher and historian Maria Victória Hernández.

My friend @74paris went to "María Montez, de la Palma a Hollywood" exhibition and saw the letters displayed there, and he contacted "Cabildo de la Palma" governing administration and I will add the transcription to some of them here in this site.

I would like to display the letters here under the title "A nuestro primito Armando" since I find it's a very touching and beautiful sentence and under the very same tag we will find the correspondence Maria and her sisters kept with Armando. It's beautiful to know that although Maria and Armando never met, Teresita did in 1952 when she travelled to Spain to work in the film industry.

I hope you like all the posts displayed here, as I'm sure they will be very touching and we will meet the personal side of Maria.

Thank you very much!!

Eleni xoxoxo

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hello, I want to congratulate for gaining such big audience on this blog. Also wanted to say thank you for all your hard work. You are one of the blogs that made me come to this fandom in 2020-2021.And thanks for all emotions that you're precious writtings gave me.

As for headcanons, can you please write another "How it to be friends with... " but with Leona, Sebek, Jamil, Ortho and Deuce? The first one was cute and funny

Have a nice day and stay hydrated 💐💐

Thank you for your support!!

It’s been so long, I forgot I had written friend headcanons in the past 😅 (They’re here if you’re interested! Featuring Idia, Riddle, Ruggie, Floyd, and Kalim~)

Curiouser and Curiouser...

You do many of the typical things that friendly schoolmates do together: walking to class, collaborating on assignments, eating lunch in the cafeteria, studying, etc. You even get into trouble together, though Deuce attempts to be the "honors student" that keeps you two out of it. (He just ends up getting dragged into the situation with you anyway.)

He’s pretty low on pocket money, but if he notices that you don’t have much to eat yourself or you’ve forgotten or skipped over a meal, Deuce offers whatever he has on him. A protein bar, a juice box, whatever! You can always share, right?

The first to throw a punch in your honor! … Okay, maybe that’s not something to be so proud of, but he’ll still do it if someone’s really rude to you. Deuce will at least try to get them to apologize. If they put hands on you though, all bets are off.

Eager to help! Is your phone busted? Hand it to Deuce, he’ll try tinkering with it until it’s operational again. The snack you paid for isn’t falling out of the vending machine? He’ll kick the crap out of it until your chosen snack falls out (along with about 10 other items).

His mom knows all about you because Deuce is constantly telling her about his cool new buddy. Sometimes you’ll walk in on him on the phone and he’ll put his mom on speaker so you can say hi to her. She often thanks you for “looking out” for Deuce while she’s not there—he needs more people like you to support him!

Being friends with Leona grants you a number of "privileges" (which is what he calls them). These so-called "privileges" include: entry to Savanaclaw and/or the Botanical Gardens (without risking the threat of being wailed on to get out), slightly more patience when you call out to him in public, and the random chance for him to chuck his credit card at you and command you to run an errand for him. ("While you're at it, buy yourself something nice for the trouble," he adds.) How... kind (?) of him, right?

He's the kind of friend you have to practically harass to convince him to get out and do something with you. Leona would rather snooze or hang out indoors reading or playing chess or logic games. Sometimes you have no choice but to bend to his whims because otherwise you're not seeing him at all. It's his way or the highway!

If he's in the mood, he'll play a little rough. Leona's not exactly super affectionate (like, he's not going to hug you), but he'll occasionally ruffle your hair or get you in a headlook and noogie you. It's his way of greeting you or saying, "job well done".

A lot of your conversations with Leona are essentially extended exchanging of quips. He’s still every bit as sarcastic and snarky as he is with his enemies, perhaps even moreso with you. It’s not done out of animosity, but rather because Leona wants to keep you on your toes. After all, he let you into his pack—so you can keep up with him, can’t you?

In spite of how lackadaisical he may appear, Leona's the first person you know you can go to if you ever need help. A school assignment, physical training, life advice, whatever. He has this way of saying what you need to hear (even if it isn’t pleasant; he's a realist, not an optimist, and he's not going to sugarcoat it for you) and kicks your ass into high gear.

Definitely the “mom friend”, though out of habit and not because he wants to or actively tries to be. The kind of guy to fuss over whether you’re eating enough or sleeping at an appropriate time.

He often looks frazzled when you greet him in the halls or hang out after classes (which he so rarely does anyway because he’s usually for his hands full and with some Kalim-related task). Jamil vents to you later about what he has to put up with. You’ve never heard him use such colorful language and creative phrases outside of these vents. (He makes you swear to secrecy.)

On hangouts, Jamil comes overprepared. Even if it’s not raining, he brings an umbrella. Even if it’s not sunny, he brings sunscreen and bug spray. In fact, Jamil always shows up with this massive bag of what he calls “essentials”. First aid kit, water bottles, hand sanitizer, hand cream, portable battery, snacks, lip balm, sewing kit, travel toiletries, pens, spare eating utensils, a flashlight, a multitool, sunglasses, a notebook, a mirror, tissues—

His homemade lunches look so good; you tend to stare with quiet longing until Jamil sighs and asks if you would care for some. He acts like it’s a slight inconvenience to him (to salvage his pride and to come off as humble), but really he’s fishing for an excuse to share his food and get a compliment from you. In exchange for feeding you, you feed his ego.

Jamil insists he doesn’t need you to come to his basketball games, he can play just fine without you there. Well, that doesn’t stop you from showing up with a homemade poster to wave around and shouting his name. He acts embarrassed about it and scolds you afterwards, but he’s secretly pleased to have your support.

Ortho's the friend you feel the instinctive need to protect (on account of his small, boyish stature)--but don't be fooled! It's him who's jumping to shoot a laser beam at people who pick on you and you having to hold him back from firing.

He's cute and he knows it. Whenever he wants to get his way (like, say he wants to pick what you do today), he'll put his acting chops to use and pretend to get all sad or claim that you're bullying some innocent little kid to win the disagreement.

You play a lot of video games and board games together but you can never quite win most of the time. Ortho's advanced learning algorithms allow him to learn your playstyles and adapt on the fly, leading to him cinching victory after victory. He takes it easy on you once in a while though, just because it wouldn't be fun to go entirely unbeaten! More recently, you've been really into this racing game called Sugar Rush--and Ortho likes to play dirty and targets you with all the traps he can get his hands on.

You have movie nights too! Sometimes it's mainstream productions but sometimes Ortho shows you sneak peeks of the Film Research Club's latest projects (where he stars). He doesn't eat or drink, so you can monopolize all the snacks and chill as Ortho gets the film rolling... from himself! He has a built-in projector which makes it possible to watch movies on any wall.

Being besties with a supercomputer has its perks. Ortho can fact check you on the spot and provide any and all information you might be looking for in the blink of an eye.

Sebek is one of those friends who speaks callously even to his own friends. He does this with Silver, and he does this with you as well. Every nice thing he says is phrased like an insult (not necessarily aimed at you; it’s usually condescending others when comparing them to you), and it takes some time getting used to his… unique way of communicating.

Big golden retriever energy. He gets so excited when he sees you and practically charges over to give a greeting in the mornings. Same goes for him catching you in the halls--he'll shout from the other end and wave excitedly.

He's in the habit of making book recommendations to you, even if you're not a reader. Each book is selected with the utmost consideration for your interests and reading level; Sebek has oftentimes already gone to the trouble of reading these books and now is waiting on you to give them a shot so the two of you and talk over it and share your thoughts.

He strives for self-improvement and encourages you to do the very same. Sometimes he invites you to join him and Silver for a workout, but if that's too much for you then he can recommend some simple weight-lifting, stretches, or a brief jog.

If you're feeling down, he'll give you a thunderous pep talk that'll get you right back up on your feet! It's like being hit with a jolt of lightning--you're revitalized and ready to tackle the world again.

[transgenderer]

I was biking around the burbs last night (I grew up in the burbs, but encysted in a weird hippieish pocket with a different geography. Now I'm in the flesh itself). (Wealthy) Suburbia feels like...an endless monument to a universal urge indulged to the point of ruin. Like a Crack house, writ large. And that urge is the desire for everything to be exactly the way you want it. There's nothing wrong with that urge, in a way that urge drives all art! (Altho cf collaborative art, the compromises it requires) And on a more prosaic level, it's just /nice/ to have things the way you want! But I think the way dense living (not just cities, but also the traditional village, houses clustered together with lands around them) forces your preferences against other people's is valuable. Way more than the big dramatic stuff about the way people emotionally hurt each other, the day-to-day of human interaction is full of resolving the places your preferences disagree. That's sort of how you know someone is *there*, you can't feel something without it pushing back. And suburbia has this...solipsism, everyone in their own sovereign domain.

[thebestofoneshots]

Gilded Constellations | ANNOUNCMENT

Hey guys! As some of you may have read on my previous post, I got my wisdom teeth removed on tuesday and I just couldn't post yesterday, but the chapter is comming out in a few minutes so don't worry too much about it.

Now, the IMPORTANT news regarding the posting schedule: We're going on a mini hiatus!

There WON'T be a new chapter 18th of September.

There is a POSSIBILITY that there WON'T be one on the 25th either.

I'm going on a roadtrip and then I'm going to have some visit over and a lot of activities (got some friends comming over from abroad) and I highly doubt I'm going to be able to mantain my writting schedule.

But rest assured, we're definetly going to be back by the 2nd of October (if it's not by the 25th).

I have no idea how the network connection is going to be on my trip so there's also a high chance you might not hear from me much next week, but If you have any questions or anything, just DM or send me an ask and I'll get to it as soon as possible <3

I'll come back with cute pictures like last time, so keep an eye out for those  (๑>؂•̀๑)

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:

As you might have read already, GC is ending soon, I'm thinking 10-15 chapters left (if I don't get carried away) and I want to print and bind my own physical copy. It will probably contain pictures, fan art, and other bonus material. Either way, if you want to collaborate, either in the revision (editing) or in bonus content, please don't hesitate to hit me up.

Thanks for reading, have a fantastic day,

xxx, Lils

[sinning-23]

Publicity (Introduction)

Gorillaz 2D/Stuart Pot x Music!Artist!Reader

Warnings; language

A/N: Alright so I’ve gonna back to one of my old hyper fixations and was distraught by the lack of Gorillaz content(damn me for not the best writer and a damn child back 2009🥲😂)

ANYWAY! I might crack out a few of these while I’m still obsessed with it (I made a FAWKING oc and everything-) I also might make this a multi-part cause every fanfic I found was from 3-6 years ago and unfinished lol

PS> Bear with me sometimes i like writting the accents in and sometimes if drives me insane-

ENJOY!

Link to Publicity Pt.1

Being a singer, songwriter, and all-around musical artist was a lot harder to accomplish than people gave you credit for. Demands were all you'd grown used to from fans and your record label as you had gone on a 5-year hiatus.

Scrolling away on your phone you sigh, at an influx of fan emails, comments, likes, and shares on each platform your social celebrity presence graced.

However one in particular had caught your eye...well ear more accurately. Tik tok was one of your favorite pastimes, and on this specific post, \ there was someone mashing together two songs. One of your own, and one from a separate band You immediately fly to the comments, taking in the nice, familiar melody as your vocals come in paired with the lead singer.

-Holy shit this is actually really good -Wait this eatttsss -someone tag her in the comments i NEED them to -collab like yesterday- reply: yeah if she ever hops her ass outta retirement- WE MISS YOU QUEEN reply: honestly i dont see this hype this mashup kinda ass -Gorillaz x Y/n Collab whennn???

You chuckle, scrolling past comments as you note the artists. Huh, when was the last time you'd heard from Gorillaz? Last you heard they were on hiatus far longer than you had been and-

Wait....

Taking a breath you press the record icon, fluffing your hair and testing a 'glamour' filter before filming. And right as you posted, the glorious internet we WILD.

-Somewhere in Los Angeles-

"Check this out," Noodle smiles, turning her phone screen to the two gentlemen before her.

"Oh, that's that one girl uhhh, Y/n?" Russel confirms as Noodle nods, your stitch of the video playing amongst their conversation.

"If we get this all the way to the UK...I'll collaborate with Gorillaz to commemorate the end of our hiatus. That is if they are accepting of my invitation!" You challenge, with a smile.

"Ah, we don't need to do all tha'" Murdoc grumbles, plopping into the seat before kicking his boots up on the table. No decorum.

"What're you talking about? You know how cool that would be?" Noodle is already convinced, turning the phone back to the group.

Despite the bickering, 2D's eyes are glued to the screen. Pretty girl from the States. Her hair was wow...and that smile? The way she lowkey called them out for being gone but also herself...the confidence to request a collab?

"Noodle's got a point. We could add her to the new album before it drops." Russel includes, a smile already over his features

2 outta four convinced

"Y'know how expensive collabs are? You runnin' my pockets into the groun' " Murdoc grumbles again, glancing back down at the screen as the video loops.

He presses the stitch icon to watch the original before folding his arms over his chest in thought.

" Think we should 'ave a go at it? I mean, she invited us?" 2D finally pipes up, gaining his bandmates' attention.

Murdoc's been overrulled with a whopping 3 outta 4.

"Oh you would wan' to collab you dog-" Murdoc scoffs, despite being one to talk.

That man probably had more illegitimate children than there were stars on the flag- 2D opens his mouth to bicker and respond back but Noodle beats him to it.

"Well, we don't have a choice because I already contacted her team." Noodle interrupts, flashing the email.

"Since when the hell 'ave you had control over media and collabs?!" Murdoc shrieks

-Meanwhile-

You'd gone from vanished to trending in a matter of minutes. People in your comments were thriving off the fact that their favorite artist/artists would possibly be coming out of their hiatus over some silly mash-up! It didn't take long for word to spread from the States all the way to the UK because, within 2-3 hours, you received an email.

It was fairly simple and friendly acceptance to your collab invitation...something you knew was a possibility but, fuck it was happening now!?

Apparently, the Gorillaz guitarist, Noodle, said the whole band had seen your video and were wondering if you were serious about a collab. The combination of your talents would surely kickstart your careers once again and besides, what kind of celebrities would you be if you didn't give the people wanted?

Good fuckin music.

You pause for a moment, thinking this could easily be a scam, but upon further examination (and a brief chat with your media team who hadn't approved your video at all (yeah they were pissy about it)) you were sure you had the right people.

According to your coordinators, you’d been booked to fly out to LA within a day! Fuck things were happening fast and the sudden dread from 5 years prior managed to worm its way into your chest, sinking further into your stomach.

Shit.

Shit this was actually happening

SHIT!

You stand from your bed, now pacing as your breath quickens. When was the last time you wrote a song?! Hell, when was the last time you touched a fucking keyboard, or a microphone, or a fucking synthesizer?! When was the last time you'd opened your lyric book?

You scramble, thinking of the next best thing to distract yourself but the notion was cut short when your phone rang. With a deep breath, you answer, the fate time call immediately revealing a woman with dark, black hair and large round 3D-esque glasses. She has this huge smile on her face and faint bickering can be heard in her background.

You both speak,

"Hi!"

"Helloo!"

The two of you giggle and the woman who you soon learned to be THE Noodle who had contacted you prior, was wondering about your travel dates.

"You'll be headed this way in a day or two?" She confirms as you nod.

"So soon I know but, good to get started while the creative juices are still flowing. It's an honor to be able to work with such talented artists like yourselves." You compliment, hearing a gruff, more rugged voice call out,

"She's a nice one in' she? All in the day's work darling all in the day's work-" in the back before swiftly being cut off.

"We can't wait to have you! I'm sure we can all come up with something together, you've got quite the skillset." Noodle compliments back, the bond between girls only growing by the minute.

The two of you would get along just fine.

The conversation didn't last much longer though, because your team works damn near fast as the speed of light. Before you knew it you were being escorted onto a plane with a nice first class seat on its way back to your home state. With the occasional photo and autograph, the airport went a lot smoother than usual.

Once the plane had taken off, your 6 hour flight was filled with the very band you'd be collaborating with. From the discography to lore, history, and drama, you were determined to know as much about these guys as you could...

-6 grueling flight hours later-

It had been a while since you'd been home. The salty sea air of LA warms you to your core and the sun paints the sky a vibrant blue. Your luggage is carted away and just as you manage to shuffle past fans down an escalator. There, someone with a sign is already waiting for you.

Scribbled in chicken scratch damn near is your name on a large white sign. Holding said sign is a lanky-looking guy, hair bright blue and eyes black as night.

Part of you considers walking past him and pretending you dont know who it is, but your stupid 6 hour research journey told you everything you needed to know. Besides, your heart knew that would be quite rude to ignore the lead singer going out of his way to grab you from the busy airport.

Don't they have people for that though? To transport celebrities without making a fuss? This guy might as well be walking around with a target on him with his rather defining features. And what's up with that sign?! Isn't the whole point to avoid attention and a swarm of fans???

"Hi! I'm uhh, assuming you're-"

"Oh my god is that 2D!? AND Y/N?!?! She was serious, oh my god look!"

The speed at which your head moves to the direction of the sound ought to have given you whiplash. A swarm of people began to grow, and the flash of cameras and video surrounded the two of you as your heart raced. This is why you hire people for this shit.

A sea of fans demand autographs and pictures as they closed in, each of them asking different questions faster than you can process them

"Are you happy to be back in LA?"

"Over here Please can I get a picture!"

"Is there a reason you two are here alone?"

It's hot, the breath of now hundreds circling as your stomach turns, each poke and taunt making it harder to breathe as the airport terminal spins. Fuck you needed to get out. NOW.

"Why isn't the rest of Gorillaz here?"

"Are you nervous about your new song?"

"What happened at your last show?"

"Why did you run away y/n?"

Turning almost comically, your eyes narrow, sweat beaded and falling down the side of your face.

"What?"

You're soon being dragged, the one faceless figure in the crowd not bothering to follow the swarm as they rush after you and the blue-ette. Speaking of which, that was who was dragging you now, trying to run away from feral fans.

His fingers are long and cold against the skin of your wrist as he tries to navigate not only out the airport but also away from the swarm that is slowly dispersing.

So, this was the man behind those gorgeous vocals? You couldn't help but recall the entirety of their discography, that echo, something so unique about his sound. Like a distant, melancholic megaphone.

But when he opened his mouth-

"Murdoc 'ad me come pick you up! I-" You can't help the sound that comes out of your mouth. It's like a mix of complete shock and your face is about the same. You had no idea what you were expecting. The accent was a given, duh. But, there was no way that was his voice?! How could you have missed this in your research???

"Y'ok miss? Look like y' seen a ghost?" He asks again, his voice snapping you back to reality.

Oh that was 100% his voice, he was NOT fucking with you. And this was gonna be a long car ride.

Author's Note: OKAYYY so im gonna make some more parts this is definitely gonna have some smut and hopefully while I on winter break I can update my masterlist- Ayway see yall next chapter, yes I know this is cringe but I am free lmao

[spinergy-69]

Finally I can show you this, I put a lot of effort and love into it, since it has been the cutest writting we have created, just too pure! As always, this One Shot is a collaboration between me and @anima-letters

Hope you like it

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - September 1-7

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my new(ly repurposed) Patreon!

1. Rescue Dog Who Helped Raise Dozens of Foster Puppies Finds Forever Home

“Three and a half years ago, Noel arrived at Lucky Dog as a pregnant pooch pulled from [an] animal control shelter. […] Once the puppies were old enough to start life on their own, Lucky Dog found homes for all of them. […] Noel was an "amazing mom" to over two dozen foster puppies while staying at [a foster] house.”

2. Radiant cooling device uses significantly less energy than traditional air conditioning

“Testing of the device […] showed the cooling device capable of cooling the skin by approximately 7.3°C. It also showed that it consumed 50.4% less energy than an average air-conditioner of comparable ability. The research team notes that the device can also be run in reverse, to serve as a radiant heater.”

3. How a Native elections official is breaking down voting barriers in Arizona

“Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, Pima County Recorder, [… ran for office in 2020] to represent people who were being ignored by the democratic system and denied the right to vote. […] “People started getting the voter registration cards back, getting their voter IDs in the mail, and they were so excited to show me or thank me for helping them register,” she said.”

4. Scientists are growing [coral] babies in a lab to save animals from extinction

“Each August, corals in Florida release their eggs and sperm into the water[, … but “they] can’t reproduce on their own anymore.” [So, researchers are] collecting and freezing the spawn and growing them into genetically diverse baby corals that can be replanted into the wild[….] These resilient corals could pass important adaptations to their babies[….]”

5. New Legislation Will Accelerate Offshore Wind Energy in Delaware

““The responsible development of offshore wind and the transition to renewable energy is essential for the protection of wildlife, habitats, and communities from the havoc of climate change[….]” “This legislation is the product of careful consideration and input from multiple state agencies, industry experts, energy researchers and environmental advocates[….]””

6. Removal of Apache Trout from Endangered Species List Due to Collaborative Conservation Efforts

“[A]fter more than five decades of recovery efforts by federal, state and Tribal partners, […] the restoration of Arizona’s state fish marks the first […] trout delisted due to recovery, a significant conservation success[….] The Apache trout is found exclusively in streams of the White Mountains in the eastern part of Arizona […] and is sacred to the White Mountain Apache Tribe.”

7. [Texas] State court rules Austin must release files on police complaint

“Under the act, records of any complaint – even if no disciplinary action was taken – must be handed over to the civilian-led Office of Police Oversight. [… T]he ruling ushers in a new level of oversight of the complaint process and the department writ-large.”

8. Super-rare hairy-nosed wombat caught waddling through a woodland in Australia

“Ecologists at Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) say the video footage provides exciting evidence wombats are breeding in the refuge again. […] There are only 400 of them in the world, making them rarer than the giant panda and the Sumatran tiger. […] “Although this isn’t the first joey born at the refuge, it is the first juvenile spotted for a few years.””

9. The country’s biggest electric school-bus fleet will also feed the grid

“[The] country’s first all-electric school-bus fleet[,…] which serve the district’s special-needs students, […] can charge with low-cost power and discharge spare capacity at times of grid stress[…. V]ehicle-to-grid charging is something for which electric school buses are particularly well suited.”

10. The Push to Save Horseshoe Crabs Is Gaining Momentum

“Conservationists hope new restrictions on harvesting and synthetic alternatives to a crab-blood compound used in biomedical testing can turn the tide for the ancient arthropods, whose eggs are a vital food source for Red Knots [threatened migratory birds]. […] Now conservationists are in the thick of a multi-pronged push to save both species.”

August 22-28 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[communist-ojou-sama]

Among Palestinians there are collaborators and traitors like Mahmoud Abbas and the PA writ large, who have had countless revolutionary thinkers and poets (Nizar Banat among the ones in more recent memory) killed, and of course among black people there's no shortage of lowlife monkeys like Lloyd Austin and both of the US's embassadors to the UN who are willing to do anything, betray anyone, sell out their mother and father and ancestors for the sake of headpats from their white owners. Don't be fooled by their attempts to create the impression of a rift between the Black and Palestinian peoples.

[youroriginalsublimecupcakestuff]

Tim , damian and duke collaborating for an artistic contest with damian drawing, Tim photography complimented by Duke writting they're many bickering at first especially between Tim and damian but they bond and get along better.

[schraubd]

Blamed for Surviving

A new book tells the gripping story about a Polish Jew and brilliant mathematician who, during the Holocaust, pretended to be a member of the Polish nobility to survive the Nazi occupation. Janina Spinner Mehlberg's deception actually ran two layers deep: she worked for a Polish welfare organization during the war, while secretly being a member of the Polish Underground -- but in the Polish Underground, she maintained her cover as a Catholic "Countess" in order to hide her Jewish identity from her fellow resistors. There's much that could be said about this story, not the least the lengthy period where publishers ignored it out of a general disinterest in hearing survivor narratives. But I want to focus on something slightly different.  In her "public" role during the war, Mehlberg regularly worked with the Nazi occupiers, negotiating for more food or resources to enter the work camps by arguing that it would serve the interests of the German war machine (non-starving workers could replace German men sent to the front, for instance). Even this at best indirectly benefited Jewish inmates, who were typically slated for direct extermination -- the hope was that some of these provisions would end up reaching the entirety of the camps and so improve the survivability for Jews as well as ethnic Poles. Mehlberg, in short, may not have saved any Jews at all. And her "arguments" were ones expressly framed around aiding the Nazi's military ambitions. Yet I cannot imagine anyone reading her story and not thinking she acting bravely and heroically. This is why, whenever I see some soulless cretin on the internet running the "Zionists collaborated with Nazis" narrative, with a smirk and a sanctimonious "see how evil they are and always have been!", I positively radiate with fury. In the most horrifying circumstances imaginable, yes, Jews were forced to negotiate with Nazis -- and negotiate from positions of weakness and supplication. The "deals" we got obviously were not good ones, but that didn't make them any less necessary. To treat this as cowardice or betrayal is not just to miss the point, it is to act with an almost impossible cruelty towards the survivors and the Jewish community writ large placed in truly impossible circumstances. It blames survivors for surviving, and trying to help others survive as well. Even if I thought, with the benefit of hindsight and comfortable distance, that the deals were objectively "bad" (and I make no such claim), I would still never dare indict those who made them. I cannot imagine having the hubris or the heartlessness to do otherwise. I do not judge Mehlberg for doing what it took to survive. I do not judge her for trying her best, in the best way she could, to save innocent lives. It was not her who placed her in those circumstances. Anyone who tries to make her, or those in analogous circumstances, into a villain, is beneath contempt. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/KXDZVcW

[librarycards]

I'm surprised youre pro-Z lib but against AI. If you dont mind could you explain why?

sure - zlib is a crucial way readers access books when that access is otherwise difficult/unavailable. as a writer, this is beneficial to me! it helps more people find my book/helps my words reach more readers, which is the goal of writing.

pushes by publishing et al to incorporate AI are chiefly concerned with replacing human writers in the name of 'efficiency,' as is the inevitable result of automation + capitalism. further, and perhaps even more distressingly, the creation of what some call "AI slop" requires a mixing of a huge number of peoples' creative work without citation + acknowledgement of lineage.

a crucial part of making art + writing is citation, whether literally in a bibliography or via an intentional craft practice of reading / viewing / practicing / thinking with the work of our foreparents and peers. our works are informed by our lived experiences writ large, but especially encounters both chance and planned with others' work.

creative practice requires a degree of collaboration, and, ethically, an acknowledgement that we do not work alone. the usage of AI, trained oftentimes on data scraped non-consensually and stripped of lineage, makes that process impossible. further, again, the push to "facilitate" writing / art with AI can't be divorced from reactionary anti- arts/humanities ideologies, which seeks not only to demonize these disciplines + their perceived "unproductivity" but also render their practitioners obsolete.

[docgold13]

Hello Doc, I was diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder recently but my therapist didn’t make a full diagnostic report. I asked her about it and she said she could write up an official report if I wanted it. Is it worth it? Do I need an official report?

That is a tough one.  I will give you my thoughts on the matter, but do keep in mind that while I am a doctor I’m not your doctor and I can only comment on matters in a highly generalized fashion.  

That said, in my opinion, yes.  This is a significant diagnostic label and you deserve a fulsome explanation as to why your therapist has arrived at her conclusions.  Understanding why she has made this determination may prove very helpful in terms of your ability to benefit from psychotherapy.  In my opinion, the best clinical treatment plans are ones that are collaborative... where patient and doctor are equal partners in understanding the problem and crafting solutions.   

Here I’m going to go on a tangent that may or may not be applicable to you…

The term ‘schizoid’ dates way back to 1908.  Over the last century plus, the field of clinical psychology has progressed a long way… in particular it has become more refined in better understanding different types of typical and non-typical neurological functioning.  

As such, the rate at which individuals have been identified as possessing schizoid features has significantly declined; matched with a substantial increase in those identified as being on the higher end of the autistic spectrum.  

While schizoid personality and autism share many clinical features, the etiologies are drastically different.  And this can have a huge impact on the relative efficacy of treatment approaches.  

Traditional schizoid personality is characterized by a pervasive disinterest in social relationships, a solitary lifestyle, perceived emotional coldness, discomfort in interpersonal relationships, and a general sense of apathy toward the world writ-large.  This is often matched with a vibrant internal world of elaborate fantasies and intense fixations on a variety of idiosyncratic interests.  

Here we see a degree of overlap with autism.  The importance difference, however, is that schizoid personality is viewed as manifesting from early attachment traumas where the individual comes to associate connecting with others as leading to rejection, pain and sorrow.  The outer world has proven dangerous and unsatisfactory, leading to a retreat inward.   This is not necessarily the case with autism.  Autism is a neurological condition and autistic features are not ‘caused by’ early life traumas and insecurities of attachment.  

Schizoid personality can be treated.  The individual can be helped to come out of their shell and gradually cultivate a more gratifying inter-personal life.  Autism, however, cannot be treated; it can’t be treated because it is not a disorder but rather a difference.  

Instead of being treated, those who are autistic can be helped to embrace their differences and learn skills and strategies for navigating a world more oriented toward those who are neuro-typical.

[dirtyoldmanhole]

while i think it'd be incorrect to say i write/draw gunter As a capital-L-Leatherdaddy (the concept of one didn't exist back with knights in the same sense for one, and not in-game either in a fantasy sense ), i do feel comfortable in saying it's certinally one of the most surprising and consistent influences in the actor/director role i've talked before with how i .... picture(?) characters internally and work with them to depict the right acting.

since especially in acting-heavy drawings or works (yrmr, this hentai strip, where the plot is driving the porn) - curiously the internal dialogue between us stays pretty professional; it's pretty similar to how i talk with kink collaborators IRL about when i think X artist or actor successfully depicted Y sexual trope and what in the body language worked for charismatic dominance, how the line weight helped or whatever. the depiction (if you did it right) is iddy/sexual as hell but there's a technical know-how construction directing the craft, like a leather elder working in a dungeon for decades. a pride for doing a professional job with the craft itself.

and weirdly, i do think gunter as a character is aware of that. it doesn't feel ooc to me. he's too consistently, tightly controlled (in-game) to not be aware of power dynamics writ this way. he manipulates dynamics with the skill of somebody who knows this shit over the course of decades (just look at his S-support as an exceptional example). he won't use the exact same language, but there's an intellectual curiosity/built in knowledge to how to elicit certian reactions and tilt ""scenes"" (both non-sexual and sexual) either way.

idk it's fascinating.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Ig a plausible disjunctive explanation for the almost total lack of attention to the polish genocide as more than a footnote to ww2 in my cultural environment is that said environment is made up mostly of soviet chauvinists and (much more numerous) soviet antichauvinists, the former of whom are invested in downplaying the atrocities partly bc they had a direct hsnd in them, partly bc cold war soviet geopolitical strategy dictated an annulment of polish claims to reparations, the latter of whom like to pretend afainst all reason the eastern front was pretty much a sideshow anyway, and both of whom (in concert with israel partisans, who tend to favour a very specific and narrow understanding of the moral/political lessons of the holocaust writ large) can point to real and serious polish collaboration with the nazis in the course of the war. This final point is ofc of the utmost importance in evaluating the events of the time, given that genocides are not really that objectionable when a small number of criminals and evildoers morally taint all their co-ethnics with collective national guilt, or in the case of parts of thr genocide preceding any of those crimes, prove their nation to be naturally inferior and spiritually corrupted from the outset and therefore unworthy of concern

[dailyanarchistposts]

Summary

The logic and sincerity of Marxist appeals to unity on the Left are worthy of critical scrutiny. I argue against such pleas, suggesting that the devil is in the details. In practice, ‘Left unity’ could only result in the co-optation of anarchism under a Marxist leadership. Such vanguardism is one of the fundamental divisions between the two approaches, having long been rejected by anarchists. I further argue that Marxism cannot withstand the anarchist critique, striking fear into the heart of Marxists as it threatens their worldview. It also means that despite appeals to ‘fertile collaboration’ between the red and black, there is an explicit lack of willingness among some Marxists to actually engage with anarchists in legitimate debate. So be it. Anarchists will continue to raise hell all the same.

* * * * *

‘I sympathize (but don’t entirely agree) with Murray Bookchin, who in his late writings (after he had severed his long-standing connection to anarchism), felt that "the future of the Left, in the last analysis, depends upon its ability to accept what is valid in both Marxism and anarchism for the present time and for the future coming into view". We need to define "what approach can incorporate the best of the revolutionary tradition--Marxism and anarchism--in ways and forms that speak to the kinds of problems that face the present". Springer, judging from his piece, would want no part in such a project. He seems mainly bent on polarizing the relation between anarchism and Marxism as if they are mutually exclusive if not hostile. E It is this exclusive and exclusionary dogma that stands in the way of exploring appropriate and effective solutions.’ (David Harvey: 2015a, 10 June)

‘the dogmatic anarchists should go to hell.’ (David Harvey: 2015b, 12 June)

By invoking Murray Bookchin and his split from anarchism, David Harvey seems to think he has exposed some irreparable weakness in the anarchist project. Giving so much weight to a single author is what Marxists are good at. It defines the worshipful and idealised image they have created out of Marx, and is a hallmark of the authoritarian logic that ferments Marxism. While Harvey has spent the latter part of his career organising online courses, writing companions, and generally proselytising Capital to rhapsodize Marx, such adulation of a charismatic authority figure certainly doesn’t matter to anarchists. Before Bookchin looked to exit from anarchism, some anarchists were only too happy to show him the door (Black 1997). On the other hand Harvey wants to play things off like he is willing to engage and build bridges with anarchists. Yet in appealing to the idea of unity on the Left, Harvey is being entirely disingenuous. His purpose is not to extrapolate Bookchin’s intellectual project or explore anarchism more generally, it is instead a thinly veiled effort simply to affirm his own position. While we all must apparently read Marx in excruciating detail, hanging on his every word as though they are of the divine, Harvey has clearly invested almost no time in actually reading anarchists. Indeed, relatively few geographers have. This was the point I was making in Why a Radical Geography Must be Anarchist (Springer 2014), where I called into question the assertive orthodoxy of Marxism among the discipline’s Left. Harvey represents a particular kind of hegemonic Marxism that is not used to, nor prepared to engage with, forms of emancipation like anarchism. It would seem that Harvey’s reaction to me stands in for conventional Marxism writ large, where Geoff Mann (2014), for example, responded with similar outrage. But this vexation is precisely why the debate between Marxism and anarchism is necessary. So how can I claim that Harvey is being insincere? After all, one of the final sentiments Harvey (2015a, 2017: 249) imparts in his response to me is that ‘Honest disagreements should be no barrier to fertile collaborations.’ I don’t disagree with this statement, and I think that autonomist Marxists and anarchists can find much to agree on. But I reject the notion that ego and academic hierarchy should be obstacles. As it turns out, these are key stumbling blocks for some of the more peremptory Marxists.

This is where things get a little peculiar and Harvey has made me doubt his intentions. Soon after he posted his reply to my paper on his website on June 10, 2015, I made my original reply (‘The Limits to Marx: David Harvey and the Condition of Postfraternity’) available on my own website (now published as Springer 2017b). Soon after the debate became public I was invited by Michael Ladner of the Marxist Education Project in New York to come to their space in Brooklyn to speak. His idea was to host a debate between Harvey and myself, to continue the idea of a collaborative dialogue. Rather than making me feel as though I was entering into a Marxist lion’s den, Michael actually wanted to hold the event over two nights, with one night in his space, and one in an anarchist bookstore somewhere else in the city. I immediately agreed, thinking it would be a wonderful opportunity to get to meet Harvey and have a more personal conversation. Michael tried for many months to arrange something to accommodate Harvey’s schedule, which should have been relatively easy considering he didn’t have far to go to get to Brooklyn. I told Michael I was willing to travel more or less anytime to make this possible. For whatever reason Harvey simply refused to accommodate this invitation and in February 2016 I went to New York anyway, where I spoke to the Marxist Education Project about my work in Cambodia instead. Michael was fantastic, as were the people who had gathered that evening. Having traveled across the continent to be there, it was a fun night in spite of Harvey’s absence, and the fact that he would have only had to take the subway across town to participate. Fortunately there are at least some Marxists interested in a genuine dialogue.

Two nights later I spoke at the City University of New York (CUNY), Harvey’s home turf. Given that Harvey had refused to participate in the debate Michael had tried to arrange, citing that he was too busy, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed he was traveling. I was, I think quite understandably, shocked to see Harvey walk into the room to attend my talk that evening. Rather than coming to the front of the room to greet me before my lecture, Harvey simply went and sat down. No harm, no foul. There would be an opportunity to talk to him afterwards. He remained almost motionless for the duration of my talk, clearly uninspired by anything I had to say. When I finished speaking he asked me a question, articulated in a way that I could sense his displeasure, but I answered him anyway and to the best of my ability. He again seemed unimpressed. Fair enough, as the talk I gave was for my paper ‘Earth Writing’ (Springer 2017), which won’t be to everyone’s taste. When the question period ended I chatted briefly with a grad student who came forward to ask another question, noticing that Harvey was speaking with a colleague at the back of the room. Once I had finished my own conversation, I approached Harvey and waited for a pause in his exchange, standing slightly to the side, as one does, so as not to appear rude and interject, but also to be clear that I would like to say hello. There was no break in their conversation for quite some time and an observant graduate student noticed the awkwardness of the situation and came to my rescue, asking me to come along with him to the reception room. He indicated that Harvey would join us there. I went along and when we arrived at the room, there was a line up going in as the snack table was situated as you walked in the door. We waited in the hallway, last in line, chatting about various things when finally Harvey came around the corner. As he came up the hallway the grad student and I continued to converse, and I didn’t want to cut my comrade off, assuming Harvey would simply stop to say hello. He didn’t. He just kept walking. Maybe he didn’t see me? I thought I would be hard to miss. It was difficult not to interpret this as a snub.

Undeterred and once more trying to give Harvey the benefit of the doubt, another opportunity presented itself. As part of ‘The City Talks’ speaker series on ‘Anarchism in the City’ that I was co-organising here in Victoria with my colleague Reuben Rose-Redwood, we had funds to bring Harvey in, all-expenses paid. The idea was to again host a debate in a public forum. Unfortunately Harvey declined a second time, citing that he had no time to do this. Maybe he didn’t want to travel? James Sidaway and Richard J. White later worked together on organising an author-meets-critic session at the 2017 American Association of Geographers (AAG) meeting in Boston for my book, The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipation (Springer 2016), and invited Harvey to participate. It’s not far from New York I thought to myself, and Harvey was already scheduled to be in Boston for the meeting. He once again declined.

Now comes the writing on the wall. Initially Dialogues in Human Geography was hesitant to publish my response to Harvey, suggesting it was too long. Given that Harvey’s distortions of anarchism are so profound, I insisted that my reply to him be published in its entirety. They refused and again asked me to shorten my response. Rather than cut that essay, which would dilute the message I wanted to impart, I composed this one that you are reading now as a placeholder. After almost two years of waiting, the editors of Dialogues in Human Geography informed me that no amount of emailing, texting, or calling produced a response from Harvey to his commentators, as is the standard format of their journal. What a peculiar way to value the labour of others (including myself Martha Ackelsberg and Myrna Margulies Breitbart 2017; Jenny Pickerill 2017; Joel Wainwright 2017; and Particia Burke Wood 2017), and an even stranger way to sow the seeds of collaboration. The silver lining was that his refusal to engage with his critics meant that more space was opened up in the issue of the journal and my original reply could be published in its entirety (see Springer 2017b). Nonetheless, it was becoming increasingly clear to me that I was, in Harvey’s mind, not worth the effort. Perhaps that stems from the fact that, as a younger scholar, I don’t have the clout that Harvey might require so that the ‘fertile collaboration’ he envisages isn’t simply left to rot in the field?

On 3 April 2015, just two weeks after Harvey first emailed me his essay, David Graeber tweeted, ‘David Harvey just proposed writing a book with me: first half "listen Marxist" second "listen Anarchist"’. I tweeted a reply to both Graeber and Harvey saying, ‘Strange considering this is already a debate between me & @profdavidharvey. I guess I’m not worthy of a book collaboration?’ Graeber responded, ‘want me to talk to the guy.’ I said ‘Up to you. Maybe another example of the hierarchy I critique him on? This time academic?’ Graeber replied to both Harvey and I saying, ‘don’t know background but if you 2 already debating this, makes sense you should continue.’ Graeber and I then exchanged emails where I indicated that, ‘I think the rather vulgar Marxist position [Harvey] takes is being shaken by recent developments such as Occupy, Arab Springs, or even the PKK, which don’t lend themselves well to the type of arguments he’s been making for the past 40 years. He’s not quite ready to admit even to himself that he’s wrong about anarchism, so he resorts to caricature. My reading is that he’s caught between being committed to what he built his career on and the anxiety of being yesterday’s news. To remain relevant he’s trying to appeal to anarchists, but unfortunately it’s not really working’. I stand by this assessment.

It’s hard to ‘listen’ to someone when they won’t shake your hand and say hello, let alone tell you to ‘go to hell’. We’re all just human beings sharing this earth, every bit each other’s radical equals. So what’s the problem then? Here we see the appeal to hierarchy that torments the Marxist worldview. Given his proposal to Graeber rather than myself, Harvey evidently plays to this. He didn’t just want to ask me to ‘listen'. It would seem that he actually wanted to tell me to be quiet. He certainly wasn’t prepared for the response he received from me (Springer 2017b), which I wrote after being contacted by the editors of Dialogues in Human Geography, who indicated that they were planning to publish Harvey’s article, my response, and replies from several other academics, with a final response from Harvey. Unfortunately, as noted, the dialogue was put on ice for almost two years because Harvey simply chose not to respond. Great strategy. If he just publishes his original essay and puts it up on his website, it is like the final word. He knows his brand name will carry his message far further than any potential responses, and he thereby effectively insulates himself from critique, where his distortions of anarchism remain unhindered. When he posted his essay to his website on 10 June2015, since my reply was already prepared and I had already sent it to him on 27 May 27 2015, I requested that he please add a link to my response at the end. He didn’t. Is any of this in the spirit of the unified Left that he appeals to? I leave that open to interpretation, but either way, ‘Left unity’ is a code for Marxist co-optation. Aside from the autonomists, they simply won’t drop their vanguard spirit. It is what defines a great many Marxists as Marxist and not anarchist. Any ‘Left unity’ would merely allow Marxists to colonise anarchists under their leadership. No thank you.

On 14 November 2017 soon after my exchange with Harvey was finally formally published in Dialogues in Human Geography, Brett Christophers tweeted, ‘I view him as a worthy adversary". Simon Springer on David Harvey. I. Have. Not. The. Words.’ Christophers selectively and disingenuously removed this quote from my paper from the wider discussion and context of agonism in which it is framed (Springer 2017b). His goal was evidently to make me appear arrogant. Christophers played on the esteem that Harvey enjoys in the academy instead of acknowledging the adversarial politics of agonism and my use of this idea for what it is. Namely, removing Harvey (and Marx) from a divine pedestal and bringing him (them) back down to earth as human beings, with ideas worthy of critique and debate, not blank reverence. Christophers’ resistance to this challenge demonstrates the Marxist ‘great man’ complex and the cult of personality it entails. When Harvey barks ‘Listen, anarchist!’, I don’t have to shut up and bow down. The apparent expectation that I do further speaks to the authoritarianism of a Marxist outlook. ‘Left unity’ thus also represents a post-political move meant to silence the dissenting critiques of anarchists. We consequently often see Marxists suggesting that conversations about organising frameworks and the differences between Marxists and anarchists are pointless, taking away from building a stronger anticapitalist movement.

One such example is Joel Wainwright’s (2017: 257) reply to Harvey, which is hilariously titled ‘What if Marx was an anarchist?’, wherein he attempts to brush me off as an irrational ‘polemicist who would like to drive a wedge between Marxism and anarchism’ and himself and Harvey as well-reasoned ‘critics who are trying to think at the interstice of these critical traditions.’ It is amazing how the attempt to co-opt anarchism can be spun in such a positive light. The very idea that Marx was an anarchist is a dead letter argument given the events of the First International. Marx himself decapitated the possibility of ‘Left unity’ when he ‘implanted colonial and white supremacist attitudes in the heart of the anti-capitalist movement, and... broke the autonomy of this movement so completely that 150 years later we still haven’t recovered’ (CrimethInc. 2017: np). Marx was impenitent in his defence of colonialism, which he recognised as a violent but ostensibly necessary process on the path to ‘progress’ (Springer 2012). His Eurocentrism can be seen in how he viewed the inculcation of the culture of the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution around the world as a sowing of revolutionary seeds (Warren 1980). Anarchists like Elisee Reclus and Peter Kropotkin would have no part of such a racist outlook (Ferretti 2016; Ferretti 2017). When Marx realised that there were differing opinions within the International Workingmen’s Association (IWA),

"he conspired and made use of all the dirty tricks that have since become well-known methods of manipulating assemblies in order to kick out all those who differed with him and who opposed the obviously erroneous tactic of creating political parties. This was not merely a conflict between two positions, Marxist and anarchist, nor was it a duel between Marx and Bakunin. Marx excluded not only anarchists but anyone who disagreed with him, including feminists..." (CrimethInc. 2017: np).

The expulsion of Mikhail Bakunin from the International, the centralisation of authority within the General Council, and the transfer of its headquarters to New York did not end Marx’s campaign against anarchists. ‘Anarchism was perceived by them, and rightly so, as an ideological rival on the revolutionary Left’ argues historian Robert Graham (2015: 194), who continues by suggesting that, ‘Anarchism therefore, had to be discredited.’

Marx and his right-hand man, Friedrich Engels, accordingly campaigned against anarchism in their correspondence and published a number of articles and pamphlets that derided anarchism after the split in the First International in 1872. In an article called ‘Political Indifferentism’, Marx (1873: np) lays his authoritarian stripes bare, chastising anarchists ‘who are so stupid or so naive as to attempt to deny to the working class any real means of struggle’ by refusing a ‘revolutionary dictatorship’ in their desire to abolish the state. He argues that by locating power in society and refusing to use the instrument of the state, ‘the fatal conditions of this struggle have the misfortune of not being easily adapted to the idealistic fantasies which [proceed]... under the names of Freedom, Autonomy, Anarchy’ (Marx 1873: np). In ‘On Authority’, Engels (1872: np) for his part argued that revolutions are necessarily authoritarian and that the revolutionary party must maintain ‘rule by means of the terror which its arms inspire in the reactionists’. He also ridiculed anarchist notions of democratic worker self-management, suggesting that there is no organisation without authority, whereby he proclaimed that, ‘Wanting to abolish authority in large-scale industry is tantamount to wanting to abolish industry itself’. Reflecting on these lesser remembered Marxist writings, Graham (2015: 194) correctly points out that ‘Marx and Engels’s attacks on anarchism had begun in the 1840s in their attacks on Stirner and Proudhon and did not end with their "victory" at the Hague Congress’ when the IWA fractured, but rather ‘continued well after they had allegedly "saved" the International by reducing the New York-based version into a distant and irrelevant rump’. It is amusing to see such ‘historical materialism’ abandoned so that Marxists can play make-believe in an effort to wash the authoritarianism, racism, colonialism, and violence off of the Marxist project. If Marx was actually an anarchist why do his followers spend so much time defending him and espousing his authority? The cult of personality they produce is the antithesis of anarchism. The entire premise that Marx is an anarchist is a logical fallacy. Indeed, what if water wasn’t wet? What if pigs could fly? What if Puff, the Magic Dragon was real? What if 1 x1 =9? What if toys came alive at night? What if the sky was actually falling?

Unfortunately unreflexive sentiments of ‘Left unity’ are as commonplace as they are blinkered. As Phil Dickens (2013: np) argues, ‘Genuine unity doesn’t mean us all signing the same membership form. It doesn’t mean silencing criticisms of bureaucrats and would-be leaders.... Rather, it means us standing in solidarity with each other... and taking direct action in our collective material interests, all the while openly and critically debating the best way to win.’ Such discussions are crucially important so that the movement on the Left doesn’t end in mass murder and genocide like Stalin and Pol Pot. As Bakunin recognised, the enemy of my enemy is not my friend, but the debate is nonetheless important. For anarchists, ‘Left unity’ with Marxists makes about as much sense as ‘libertarian unity’ with neoliberals,1 but the latter is of course one of the key distortions that Harvey wants to peddle.

So do I want to keep open the possibility of what I have called a ‘postfraternal’ or ‘postsororal’ politics on the Left (Springer 2015)? Yes. But only as a spirit of debate that keeps anarchist praxis reflexive and lively. I still contend that we should move beyond the idea that everything will be resolved between anarchists and Marxists in some imagined synthesis (Springer 2017b). That ship sailed long ago, but fortunately a new one has arrived. It turns out that Harvey telling me to ‘go to hell’ is actually sage advice. With Charon as my guide, I happily sail across the Styx to greet ‘Satan, the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds. He makes man ashamed of his bestial ignorance and obedience; he emancipates him, stamps upon his brow the seal of liberty and humanity, in urging him to disobey and eat of the fruit of knowledge’ (Bakunin 1882/2013: 4).

While Marxists need anarchists to acquire street cred in the contemporary moment of struggle, anarchists clearly don’t need Marxists. What do they have to offer aside from a series of foundational, moving, and dangerous contradictions? From class-centrism to political economism, the dictatorship of the proletariat to the primacy of theory, and vanguardism to hierarchy, Marxism unequivocally cannot withstand an anarchist critique. The crisis of Marxism this time around, Souza (2016: 124, 126) argues, is that it ‘has been weakened since the 1990s as never before, though its dilacerating theoretical flaws and political cul-de-sacs E have been exposed by [left-]libertarians since the nineteenth century’, where four ‘partly irritating, partly embarrassing’ reactions among academic Marxists have arisen: 1) melancholia; 2) adoption of a quasi-bourgeois, ‘Left-Keynesian,’ tacitly reformist discourse; 3) prophetic updating; and 4) mimicry. Harvey is guilty of all of these responses, and insofar as an anarchist critique is concerned, we can evidently now add a fifth category: active avoidance. Some Marxists have no intention of actually engaging anarchists in an open and inclusive sense. Instead they have relied on distortions, revisionism, and evasion to navigate anarchist criticisms, falling back on the arrogance of assuming they have some sort of theoretical upper hand on anarchism (Tabor 2013). According to Harvey (2015a; 2017: 238) it is apparently a ‘fact that anarchism, unlike Marxism, has no discernable theory of society’, revealing a lack of confidence in and even distrust for emancipatory social movements rooted in the everyday. Although I have responded to this nonsense with colleagues elsewhere (Souza et al. 2016), it would nonetheless seem that this is why Harvey won’t converse with me or entertain the idea of a legitimate, agonistic debate. Marxism is the lingua franca of radical geography, and unless he is met on those terms where his project and position are lionised, Harvey simply refuses to engage.

I never thought I would actually write these words, but here they are: David Harvey is afraid of me. He’s afraid of all anarchists, theoretically deficient, dogmatic fools that he assumes we all are. Why else would he start something that he’s not prepared to finish? As the anarchist turn in academia has started to take hold, within geography in particular, Harvey has recoiled in fear of Marxism losing the unconditional veneration he believes it deserves. Now, before any readers conclude that these are the words of a scorned younger scholar pining for a fatherly figure to take notice, recall that I didn’t ask for his attention. He wrote his essay, which reads with all the hallmarks of paternalism, not at my own prompting. Then recall that like all anarchists, I couldn’t possibly care less about the cult of personality that defines Marxism and its intellectual project. It would seem that Harvey won’t engage me any further because I refuse to play the game of academic hierarchy and afford him the reverence he and so many others believe he deserves. Harvey did a lot of good for the discipline. There is absolutely no doubt about it. I’m more than happy to give credit where credit is due. Yet I refuse to perpetuate the ‘great man’ complex that Marxists hold so sacred. Nobody, including Harvey, is beyond criticism. Any and all claims to superior status, academic or otherwise, are a death knell for radical politics. Like Karl Marx before him, David Harvey is just a man. A mere mortal like all the rest of us. No more or less important. If you find yourself begging to differ and are struggling with a feeling of indignation swelling in your belly, that’s the vanguardist in you speaking. Snuff it out. Eat from the tree of knowledge. Reject obedience. Destroy what destroys you. Raise some hell and claim your emancipation!

References

Ackelsberg, M., and Breitbart, M. M. (2017). The role of social anarchism and geography in constructing a radical agenda: A response to David Harvey. Dialogues in Human Geography. 7(3): 263-273.

Bakunin, M. (1882/2013). God and the State. St. Louis, MO: Dialectics Annotated Editions.

Black, B. (1997). Anarchy After Leftism. Albany, NY: C.A.L. Press.

CrimethInc. (2017). One hundred years after the Bolshevik counterrevolution: a timeline charting the repression of revolutionary movements. CrimethInc. Accessed 16 Nov 2017. https://crimethinc.com/2017/11/07/one-hundred-years-after-the-bolshevikcounterrevolution-a-timeline-charting-the-destruction-of-popular-movements

Dickens, P. (2013). "The real enemy?" Why we should reject left unity as a concept. Libcom.org. Accessed 16 Nov 2017. https://libcom.org/blog/%E2%80%9C-realenemy%E2%80%9D-why-we-should-reject-left-unity-concept-17022013

Engels, F. (1872). On authority. First published in the Italian, Almanacco Republicano. Translated by Robert C. Tucker. Marxists Internet Archive. Accessed 16 Nov 2017. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm

Ferretti, F. (2016). ‘The murderous civilisation’: anarchist geographies, ethnography and cultural differences in the works of Elie Reclus. 24(1): 111-129.

Ferretti, F. (2017). Evolution and revolution: Anarchist geographies, modernity and poststructuralism. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 35(5): 893-912.

Graham, R. (2015). We Do Not Fear Anarchy--We Invoke It: The First International and the Origins of the Anarchist Movement. Oakland: AK Press.

Harvey (2015a). "Listen, Anarchist!" A personal response to Simon Springer’s "Why a radical geography must be anarchist. Davidharvey.org. June 10th. http://davidharvey.org/2015/06/listen-anarchist-by-david-harvey/

Harvey, D. (2015b). The working class today. Closing panel of Boitempo’s ‘Rebel Cities

International Seminar’, Sao Paulo, Brazil. June 12th.

Harvey, D. (2017). ‘Listen, Anarchist!’ A personal response to Simon Springer’s ‘Why a radical geography must be anarchist’. Dialogues in Human Geography. 7(3): 233-250.

Mann, G. (2014). It’s just not true. Dialogues in Human Geography. 4(3): 271--275.

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Endnotes

1 Thanks to Eoin O'Connor for making this point.