Since last April all good Italian bookshops have been selling A Ruota
Libera - Miseria del lettore di TAZ [more or less: "Freewheeling - On the
poverty of the TAZ Readers"], a collection of pieces by Hakim Bey published
by Castelvecchi (Rome).
Multitudes of fans of that notorious guru of 1990's counterculture have
bought the book (which has quickly sold out). The left-wing press has
reviewed it enthusiastically. Concurrent publishers have gone off their
nuts and charged the publisher and the editor/translator (the mysterious
Fabrizio P. Belletati - born in Caserta, Southern Italy, in 1969 - now
living in Nottingham, UK) with "incorrectness" for having copyrighted
"texts freely circulating on the Net". None realized that A Ruota Libera is
apocryphal, nay, no more euphemisms!, it is a FAKE.
"Fabrizio P. Belletati" doesn't exist. I, Luther Blissett, wrote A Ruota
Libera. It is not a mere parody of Bey's writings, rather, it was a way of
testing how gullible and tardy is the average buyer and/or reviewer of
cyber-drivel, and how accountable is the output of an overestimated
"santon" whose anal orifice, just as anybody's butthole, spouts ordinary
shit instead of gold.
A Ruota Libera includes:
--- A preface by "Belletati":
This book is a selection of articles and essays by Hakim Bey, written
during the period 1993-95, previously untranslated into Italian [...] Why
have I "invented" for the Italian market a book that does not yet exist in
the USA? Maybe I had to await the author to improve and collect his
writings himself, didn't I? As always, the reason is one of the several
"Italian" anomalies, i.e. the surprising untimeliness of Bey's critical
success in Italy [...] Shortly before, during and immediately after the
publication of TAZ...Hakim Bey was actually without interlocutors: the
reviews of his major theoretical work were marked by an uproarious "greed
for novelties" and a passive admiration of Bey's syncretic acrobatics. The
main result was a depressing banalization of his positions, which in many
ways were mistaken for those "cyber-gnostic" ideas which Bey explicitly
detests. Bey appears to be the first person to complain about these
foolishly new-agey or pseudo-cyberpunk interpretations [...] Luckily
enough, this trend has recently been inverted. An useful, indeed
indispensable critique of Bey's theories is revealing itself and
retro-acting on his latest texts [... quick overview of the things written
by John Zerzan, the Neoist Alliance, the London Psychogeographical
Association and the Berlin-based magazine Super! Bierfront...] Apparently,
this is only the beginning: Hakim Bey is no longer that awfully trendy, he
isn't worshipped as an untouchable santon any longer. This doesn't mean
that his bias on the countercultural debate is about to end; rather, the
understanding of his next pieces will be easier than before, also thanks to
the rudiments of "immediatist self-criticism" which he is inserting in
them. And as to Italy? Here is necessary to bring the debate up-to-date,
because we're still facing the long rambling speech on the TAZs: "Geez,
this party really seems to be a TAZ!", "Hey, won't you come down at the TAZ
in the squatted centre?"...That's why I decided to publish these
texts...which provide us with a complete picture of Bey's theories, here
and now, without enervating and useless waits.'
--- A few lark-mirrors, i.e. true and "serious" (as well as questionable)
Bey's texts: "PAZ", "Media Creed For The Fin De Siecle", "Primitives &
Extropians".
--- Some true, ludicrous Bey's texts - shameful bullshit, newagey nonsense:
"Evil Eye", "Moorish Weather Report".
--- Some interesting (as well as questionable) apocrypha, things that Bey
would write if his ideas were clear enough:
a) "Fart Strike", in which "Bey" suddenly changes his (banally
pro-situationist) position on art and the Art Strike 1990-93;
b) "Albigensis Postscript", formerly "A Conspectus On The Evolution Of
Cyberspace", a text by the London Psychogeographical Association, with such
ludicrous inserts as a reference to one Lee Mortais (which sounds like "Li
Morte'!!!" [...your deads!], i.e. a Roman insult meaning "[Fuck] the souls
of your dead parents!") as well as a mega-stupid final roller-coaster ride;
c) "On The Poverty Of The TAZ Readers", which does not break the promise of
its title. Since I imitated the style of the Italian translations of Bey's
writings, any translation "back" into English would betray the text. It's a
pity. Anyway, the piece is a radical critique of Bey's fans.
--- apocryphal crap, indifferently swallowed by the readers, which proves
that the "new underground" conformist posers would believe anything:
a) "An Immediatist Self-criticism" (actually a 1928 Stalin's speech, which
I slightly altered without softening its arrogant, authoritative tone);
b) An appendix to "Evil Eye" entitled "Toccarsi le palle" [Touching One's
Own Balls], which I couldn't comment without getting sick of my own laughters!
MORE ON...
http://www.ecn.org/deviazioni/blissetto/ramp/fakebey.html
