Monday, March 26, 2007

Fredy Perlman's Against His-Story, Against Leviathan! the whole enchillada

soon there will be other stuff besides the main text in this entry, but here are links to all 24 chapters, plus my paraphrasings of their contents.

some day there will be a killer introduction, and maybe a few other things. the original has illustrations, woodcuts by william blake.

i'd be interested to hear who all's reading this and what they think.

thanks to spunk.org and Mysty of the amazing band Spellbox, which you can check out at myspace, for helping me type some of this up. and thank you Fredy Perlman. a lot. i'll do a ghost dance with you after i finish typing.

Chapter 1 (healthy human communities)

Chapter 2 (Morgan's progress, the first cities with a Lugal)

Chapter 3 (gift economy vs. trade, Ur & Sumeria)

Chapter 4 (armed opposition; Jewish Exodus from crumbling Egypt)

Chapter 5 (Israel, an interlude, octopi proliferate)

Chapter 6 (octopi and worms; Assyrian, Phoenician, and Chaldean Leviathans)

Chapter 7 (Zoroastrianism and Darius's Persia)

Chapter 8 (the Phoenecian-like Greek polis)

Chapter 9 (tragic rise of the Roman empire)

Chapter 10 (Isis, Mithras, Jesus; the Roman Empire's beginning of the end)

Chapter 11 (Mani, Gnostics, Yellow Turbans; State Religion Christians rule through Rome's splintering)

Chapter 12 (Byzantium, Donatists & Vandals, Persian Revolution, depopulation of Italy, Mohammad and those armez)

Chapter 13 (Muhammad, his Ummah and Islamic Empire; Arabs,Turks and Mongols)

Chapter 14 (evolution of the Western Spirit, dehumanized invaders, the Vicar of Christ, Northern Europe falls)

Chapter 15 (bullshit Frankish/Catholic Empire: marauders, priests, Vikings and the first nation-States)

Chapter 16 (the Crusading West: Capitalism, Islamization, Catholic Agro-Business, genocide, commodified Earth)

Chapter 17 (Francis recuperation, Albigensian Crusade; Hanseatic League & Teutonic Knight evil, Worldeating)


Chapter 18 (Original Sin and the Inquisition vs. a post-Albigensean movement-Waldensians, Beguines, BotFS, etc.)


Chapter 19 (Plague and Prison; a last hurrah of anti-Leviathanic community: rise and fall of the Taborites)


Chapter 20 (extirmination of the Guanches, Witches, the "enlightenment" [spreading darkness], Humanism)

Chapter 21 (Potawatomi, banishment of Wiske, cyclical time, Maya and Quetzaquatal)

Chapter 22 (depopulation of the Fortunate Isles, Scientific Detachment and the murder of Dream Time)

Chapter 23 (the Last Leviathan, invasion of Great Lakes, Renegades, Merry Mount, Puritans/Quakers, gift/theft)

Chapter 24 (Land Grabbers, Civil Wars, the Illuminati, Ghost Dancers and ? end)

8 comments:

D. Lollard said...

mega e-props, sir.

hakim

Anonymous said...

Everyone I've recomended this to said "Ah, I see what you mean!", which is to say, the best book I've ever read. So thanks again.

F.

Gunnar Six said...

Great work! Amazing what you've done!

This book is really one of my favorites.

shane said...

Thanks for posting this!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks mate! This one's a lifesaver. More so 'cause its impossible to find it in India. Rabbi

Anonymous said...

good that this is on the internet.

if you'd like a bound copy, Lorraine is still selling copies out of her basement:

http://www.blackandred.org/

Anonymous said...

One of the 2 books (together with Raoul Vaneigem's The revolution of Everyday) that completely changed the way I look at the world. Still leave me panting for breath.

the realization that the leviathan actually needs its margins to survive, blocks me from acting: what on earth can i do that will not be used by the leviathan against life? (sorry Hakim Bey, but the TAZ are just too T for me)
also i think i learned that as soon as one touches money, one contributes to the leviathan.

so for the moment, out of a strong urge to share all the insights i have translated into dutch a few of FP's shorter essais. most of my attention went to the contents so i'm rather sure readability suffered. any help welcome, let me know gcarpels at gmail dot com.
cheers
Geert

0friendsrecordings said...

Yes Yes and Yes. Read this 3 or 4 years ago, don't own a copy though so this is an amazing thing here.