Letters of Insurgents

I think that this is the best anarchist text I ve seen, and probably one of the better novels of all time as well It takes the form of fictional letters between two eastern european workers who were separated after a failed revolution one spent twelve years in statist jails, the other escaped to the west After twenty five years without contact, they begin to write each other about their experiences, their lives, their hopes, and their memories of the past The characters that emerge from these na [...]

Eight years ago I listened to this book during Insurgent Summer, an effort to get a anarchists in the US to engage with the ideas in this book The idea was that I would get together with comrades in my area and discuss the content Instead, I listened to it alone, and cheered I hungered at the time for this ultra left politics So much so that I shrugged off the really warped shit that in memory took up a small portion near the end of the book.Eight years later, I listened to a podcast where one o [...]

Spoiler Alert I ve had a really hard time thinking about how to rate this book I loved it, and I loved the structure and intimacy of alternating letters between friends finding each other again I loved Sophia and Yarostan s honesty with each other and their ability to look critically and challenge their perceptions and ideal abstractions of the past The conversations culled from their retrospective storytelling seemed so relevant still, and I had flashbacks to numerous talks and people I ve know [...]

Included in this book s description, One time lovers who share libertarian ideals find themselves on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain in the 1960s I d like to correct that Actually, the fictional Sophia and Yarostan are anarchists who ve lived through a composite of many of the 20th century s major revolutions and uprisings The reader reviews here do the book justice Yes, the reviews are effusively glowing and for good reason A complicated story with even complicated ideas beneath it Again a [...]

What is it to be an insurgent To become a pedagogue, preach an ideal To be anti social, rebel for rebellion s sake This book effectively eliminates all the stereotypes and dead ends, although for me it is too artificial and didactic to really work as literature And then what is one to make of what is held up as the true revolutionary path Yikes it seems too convenient to believe that when desires are unleashed everyone will happily have sex with everyone else Does it make sense to say we need no [...]

if you like long, rambling diatribes, this is your book you couldn t make this stuff up all the drama, all the infighting, and all the idealistic passion, wrapped up in one tidy package not necessarily structured for plot or character development, or course just cut and paste, judy, cut and paste

has given me to think about than any book i ve ever read unfortunately, it s out of printeck out insurgentsummer

Letters of Insurgents is one of the savage books I ve read about anarchism Told through a sprawling series of letters between two characters, one behind the Iron Curtain and one in the US, the exchange subjects the radical milieu of anarchists, various shades of red bureaucrats, professionals, liberals, hippies, etc and most of all the characters own life goals and projects to unrelenting criticism As the characters question each other and themselves, it in turn invites the reader to ask the sa [...]

at first i didn t realise this was fiction perlman s name is nowhere to be found in book and it s published to look like sophia and yarostan are in fact the true authors of the letters therein this is a long read, and i d recommend it despite it s shortcomings because it is unlike anything else i ve ever read or will probably read again the letters are written by two ex comrades who once took part in a revolution together in their home country, an unidentified state that seems to be in eastern e [...]

Although his name does not appear on the book Over 900 pages of letters exchanged between Yarostan just released from an 8 year stint in the prison of an unnamed eatern Bloc country the book takes place in the late sixties and 20 years before and Sophia now living in unnamed Detroit She and others had emigrated after a worker s revolution, while Yarostan was left behind to serve his first sentence This book is long, yes, with many pages that read like political essays or history But these are al [...]

The first day I got this book I was hooked and immediately read about 150 pages into the book I didn t know what to think of it It must be fiction, but who made this up Then I read online it was Fredy Perlman and the mystery was kind of gone I guess And when I continued to read I was just increasingly ignored by how characters are used as devices all portraying a certain ideology Perhaps I should go back and read it someday I don t know.

The brilliant Yugoslav american thinker Fredy Perlman, who knew rebellion against communist and capitalist regimes, wrote this great story as a series of letters My favorite part is actually his prescient commentary about technological progress he examines the notion that technology will save us, and concludes that the easier it becomes to communicate with those who are far away, the harder it becomes to have community with those who are nearby.

this book is by far one of the best books i ve read in ages i highly recommend it it covers a lot of the stuff i think about a lot a number of the arguments i have in my head about various things are laid out on paper with much coherent thoughts around them than i m able to probduce in my head i can t detail it , or else i ll spoil it.

See Insurgent Summer for a ten week, cooperative reading from the summer of 2010 There are character pictures, stories, links, and three weekly entries from the bloggers Gardens of Resistance, Aragorn , and art noose The full text and audio Is also available there, for free, and hopefully it can bring this important book back into print, eventually.

This is one of my favorite books I don t care what you think of Perlman read it It s a great story and deals with questions that many in the circles of people who have heard of this book are always asking And he doesn t give you the answer.

Best novel ever written.

I think I m going to have to read this again to really come up with a clear response, but I liked it and it made me think a lot.

Simple but thought provoking, this is a great way to get your feet wet in the subject of Anarchism Hear it for free at Audio Anarchy.

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One of our favorite books

A great look into the anarchist mindset in the form of back and forth letters exchanged between characters that deeply crave freedom of mind and spirit.

If I wanted to feel aggressively self critical I wouldn t read a book I gave up 1 fifth of the way through way too much talking, way too little story.

don t be a politician