Peter Lamborn Wilson

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Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey, 1945, near Baltimore, Maryland [1] - 20 May 2022, Saugerties, New York) was an anarchist cultural critic, poet and author of TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone (1991). He worked with the not-for-profit publishing project Autonomedia in Brooklyn, New York, and wrote essays on such diverse topics as Tong traditions, the utopian Charles Fourier, the Fascist Gabriele D’Annunzio, alleged connections between Sufism and ancient Celtic culture, sacred pederasty in the Sufi tradition, technology and Luddism, and Amanita muscaria use in ancient Ireland.

After studying at Columbia University, he traveled through the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. He was a consultant for the World Islam Festival, London and Tehran. He worked at the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy in Tehran, leaving the country during the Islamic Revolution.

His early writing concentrated on theology and poetry, but on returning to the US he began to inflect his ideas with anarchism, Situationism, and Deleuzian philosophy. His most influential work, TAZ, argued for the creation of spaces of liberation from authority in everyday life, which are capable of disappearing from sanctions before they can be crushed by government and all powers. Hakim Bey was a central figure in post‐left anarchy and his critical writing was highly influential amongst rave youth culture and a range of anarchist countercultures – not least in Reclaim the Streets, a global organization dedicated to unsanctioned events that typified anti‐globalization activism in the 1990s. However, he also suffered heavy criticism.

Hakim Bey’s thought has been criticized and publicly attacked by other anarchists (such as Bookchin 1995), and in 1996 the Luther Blissett collective published a hoax collection of his writing. He also received criticism for writing approvingly of pederasty since 1985 in the NAMBLA Bulletin.

Works[edit]

  • editor, with Jim Fleming, Semiotext(e) USA, 1987.
  • editor, with Rudy Rucker and Robert Anton Wilson, Semiotext(e) 5(2): "SF", New York: Autonomedia, 1989, 384 pp, PDF. Special issue of Semiotext(e). TOC.
    • Strani attrattori: antologia di fantascienza radicale, eds. & trans. Fabio Gadducci and Mirko Tavosanis, Milan: Shake, 1996, 301 pp; repr., 2008, 270 pp. (Italian)
    • Futuro Proibido, trans. Sergio Kulpas, Ludimila Hashimoto Barros, Alexandre Matias, a.o., São Paulo: Conrad Editora do Brasil, 2003, 223 pp. (Brazilian Portuguese)
  • Hakim Bey, T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, New York: Autonomedia, 1991, viii+141 pp; 2nd ed., new pref., New York: Autonomedia, 2003, xii+147 pp. Contains three parts written 1981-1988: "Chaos", "Communiques", and "Temporary Autonomous Zone". [2]
    • T.A.Z. Die Temporäre Autonome Zone, trans. Jürgen Schneider, Amsterdam/Berlin: ID-Archiv, 1994, 161 pp. (German)
    • Tijdelijk autonome zone, trans. Marc Hurkmans, Eindhoven: Raamwerk Letterexploitatie, 1994, 36 pp. Trans. of third part. (Dutch)
    • TAZ: de tijdelijke autonome zone, trans. Sakhra-l'Assāl, Amsterdam: Ravijn, 1994, 104 pp. (Dutch)
    • T.A.Z.: Zone Temporaneamente Autonome, trans. Syd MIGX, Milan: ShaKe, 1995, 176 pp; repr., 2002, 163 pp; repr., 2007, 182 pp. [3] (Italian)
    • T.A.Z.: Zona Temporalmente Autónoma, trans. Guadalupe Sordo, Madrid: Talasa, 1996, 199 pp. (Spanish)
    • TAZ: zone autonome temporaire, trans. Christine Tréguier, Paris: l'Éclat, 1997, 90 pp; repr., Schizoïdes, 2006. Trans. of third part only. (French)
    • Chaos ontologisch anarchisme: vlugschriften, trans. Sakhra-l'Assāl, Amsterdam: Wereldbak, 1999, 48 pp. Trans. of first part. (Dutch)
    • TAZ: zona autônoma temporária, trans. Patricia Decia and Renato Resende, São Paulo: Conrad Livros, 2001, 82 pp. (Brazilian Portuguese)
    • Tymczasowa Strefa Autonomiczna, trans. Jan Karłowski, forew. Mateusz Kwaterko, Kraków: Frisch vom Faß, 2001, 97 pp. (Polish)
    • T.A.Z. Geçici otonom bölgeler, trans. Rahmi G. Öğdül, Istanbul: Stüdyo Imge, 2002, 103 pp. (Turkish)
    • Khakim Bey (Хаким Бей), Khaos i anarkhiya [Хаос и анархия], Moscow: Hylaea, 2002, 172 pp. Trans. of second part. (Russian)
    • Poetycki terroryzm, trans. & notes Jan Karłowski, Kraków: Der Rumtreiber & Stowarzyszenie Tripanacja, 2003, 161 pp. (Polish)
    • Privremene autonomne zone i drugi tekstovi, trans. Larisa Petrić, Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk, 2003, 134 pp. (Croatian)
    • TAZ: ezor oṭonomi era, trans. Liat Sabin, Tel Aviv: Ressling, 2003, 107 pp. (Hebrew)
    • Dočasná autonomní zóna, trans. Blumfeld, Prague: tranzit.cz, 2004, 88 pp. Trans. of third part only. [4] (Czech)
    • Dočasná autonomní zóna, trans. Yosef, 2007, PDF. (Czech)
    • "Káosz: Az Ontológia Anarchizmus nyomtatványai", "Az Ideiglenes Autonóm Terület", trans. Imola Nagy, Helikon 4: "Az autonómia új esélyei", ed. Zsolt Sőrés, Budapest, 2008. Trans. of first part and abridged third part. [5] (Hungarian)
    • Vremennaya avtonomnaya zona [Временная автономная зона], c.2008. (Russian)
    • Tymczasowa Strefa Autonomiczna, trans. Iwona Bojadżijewa and Jan Karłowski, Krakow: Korporacja ha!art, 2010, 160 pp. [6] (Polish)
    • TAZ: temporära autonoma zonen, trans. Isak Hall, Stockholm: Bokbål, 2013, 62 pp. [7] (Swedish)
    • T.A.Z. Zona temporalmente autónoma + Caos + Inmediatismo, intro. Servando Rocha, trans. Valentina Maio, Enclave de Libros, 2014, 249 pp. [8] [9] (Spanish)
    • TAZ: Zona Autônoma Temporária, trans. Alexandre Barbosa de Bouza, São Paulo: Veneta, 2018. (Brazilian Portuguese)
  • Radio Sermonettes, New York: Libertarian Book Club, 1992; repr. as Immediatism: Essays, new pref., Edinburg/San Francisco: AK Press, 1994, 59 pp.
    • Via radio. Saggi sull'immediatismo, Milan: Shake, 1995. Trans. of 1992 edition. (Italian)
    • Immediatismo!, trans. & ed. U. Scoppetta Adelfio, afterw. R. Quinto, Roma/Salermo: Ripostes, 1995. Trans. of 1994 edition. (Italian)
    • Radio sermonettes, Klagenfurt: Selene, 1996, 117 pp. (German)/(English)
    • Inmediatismo, trans. & notes Carlos Barona, Barcelona: Virus, 1999, 78 pp, PDF. (Spanish)
    • "Immediatizmus", trans. Ágnes Deák and Dávid Koronczay, Helikon 4: "Az autonómia új esélyei", ed. Zsolt Sőrés, Budapest, 2008. (Hungarian)
    • Immediatismo: caos, desiderio e civiltà, Milan: Lanfranchi, 2014, 90 pp. (Italian)
  • Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs and European Renegadoes, New York: Autonomedia, 1995, 208 pp; 2nd ed., rev., 2003, 219 pp.
    • Utopie pirata: corsari mori e rinnegati europei, Milan: Shake, 1996, 158 pp; new ed. as Le repubbliche dei pirati : corsari mori e rinnegati europei nel Mediterraneo, Milan: ShaKe, 2008, 204 pp. (Italian)
    • Kalóz utópiák: Mór korzárok és európai renegátok, trans. Ágnes Ivacs and Imola Nagy, Budapest: Chiron, and Budapest: Media Research Alapítvány, 1997, 202 pp. (Hungarian)
    • Utopies pirates: corsaires, Maures et renegados d'Europe, trans. Hervé Denès and Julius Van Daal, Paris: Dagorno, 1998; repr., Eclat, 2017. (French)
    • Utopias piratas: mouros, hereges e renegados, trans. Leila de Souza Mendes, São Paulo: Conrad Livros, 2001, 190 pp. (Brazilian Portuguese)
    • Merirosvoutopiat: maurilaiset kaapparit ja kristityt luopiot, trans. Asmo Koste, Helsinki: Nastamuumio, 2005, 224 pp. (Finnish)
    • Korsan ütopyaları, trans. Yurdakul Gündoğdu, Istanbul: Aykırı, 2005, 208 pp. (Turkish)
    • Piraten en hun Utopia: Moorse zeerovers & Europese renegaten, trans. Mariska Hammerstein, Amsterdam: Pennenstreek, 2007, 196 pp. (Dutch)
    • Piraten, Anarchisten, Utopisten: mit ihnen ist kein Staat zu machen, trans. Jürgen Schneider, Berlin: Kramer, 2009, 170 pp. (German)
    • Πειρατικές ουτοπίες: Μαυριτανοί κουρσάροι και ευρωπαίοι αποστάτες, trans. Ιουλία Π. Ραλλίδη, Athens: Alexandria, 2009, 255 pp. [10] (Greek)
    • Kaizoku yutopia: Haikyosha to nanmin no junanaseiki maguribu kaiyo sekai [海賊ユートピア: 背教者と難民の17世紀マグリブ海洋世界], trans. Shinsuke Komoda, Ibunsha, 2013, 308 pp. Trans. of 2nd ed. (Japanese)
    • Piraternas utopi, Lund: Bakhåll, 2016. (Swedish)
    • Piratskiye utopii: mavritanskiye korsary i yevropeytsy-renegaty [Пиратские утопии: Мавританские корсары и европейцы-ренегаты], trans. V. Sadovsky, Moscow: Hylaea (Гилея), 2021, 320 pp. [11] (Russian)
  • Millennium, Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 1996.
    • Millennium: dalle TAZ alla rivoluzione, Milan: Shake, 1997. (Italian)
    • Millennium, trans. Konrad Szlendak, Mielec: Inny Świat, 2005, lxxxix pp. (Polish)

Interviews[edit]

Responses to TAZ[edit]

Literature[edit]

  • Hakim Bey, A ruota libera. Miseria del lettore TAZ. Autocritica dell'ideologia underground [Free of All Restraints: On the Poverty of the TAZ Readership], ed. F.P. Belletati, Rome: Castelvecchi, 1996, 108 pp. Hoax collection released by the Luther Blissett collective. [12] [13] (Italian)
  • Helikon 4: "Az autonómia új esélyeil", ed. Zsolt Sőrés, Budapest, 2008. (Hungarian)
  • Olga Pavlova, Adam Borzič, Ondřej Slačálek, Proroci postutopického radikalismu. Alexandr Dugin a Hakim Bey, Prague: Vyšehrad, 2018, 256 pp. TOC & Introduction. Excerpt. [14] [15] (Czech)

Links[edit]