Escape from the 19th Century and Other Essays

Literary Nonfiction. ESCAPE FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY is a group of essays by cultural critic Peter Lamborn Wilson and tackles the notion of modern progress: Did the Nineteenth Century ever come to an end? Was the "Twentieth" Century just a rerun? And what about the Twenty-First Century, the New Millennium? Another lackluster confirmation of the Eternal Return? Another garden of secondhand time? If to know "History" as tragedy is to escape its repetition as farce, then perhaps we need to look more deeply at this Past that won't stop haunting us. Two illuminated madmen--Charles Fourier and Friedrich Nietzsche--and two too-sane geniuses--J.P. Proudhon and Karl Marx--are enlisted in the breakout plan. Contents Fourier!-Or, the Utopian Poetics APPENDIX A: THE HYMN TO DAWN (PHS II 109FF.) APPENDIX B: THE 1000 FLOWER SERIES APPENDIX C: "HARMONICON", BY STEVEN TAYLOR APPENDIX D: STEVEN PEARL ANDREWS APPENDIX E: NOTES ON FOURIER'S THEORY OF THE FOUR MOVEMENTS Marx and Proudhon Escape from the Nineteenth Century The Shamanic Trace 1. BIRTH OF A NOTION 2. MACHINATIONS 3. WILD MAN 4. EMBLEMATICK MOUNDS 5. REAL DONNYBROOK 6. UNSEEN TRACKS 7. HIDDEN IMAM 8. NINETEENTH CENTURY ESCAPISM 9. THE HIEROGLYPHIC MAP A Nietzschean Coup d'Etat I. INTRODUCTION II. CUMANTSA III. THE YOUNG HOSPODAR IV. THE Coup d'Etat V. BRIEF HISTORY OF AN EVANESCENT EVENT VI. NIETZSCHEAN UTOPIA VII. END AND AFTERMATH Index This group of essays by cultural critic Peter Lamborn Wilson and tackles the notion of modern progress: Did the Nineteenth Century ever come to an end? Was the "Twentieth" Century just a rerun? And what about the Twenty-First Century, the New Millennium? Another lackluster confirmation of the Eternal Return? Another garden of secondhand time? If to know "History" as tragedy is to escape its repetition as farce, then perhaps we need to look more deeply at this Past that won't stop haunting us. Two illuminated madmen#x14;Charles Fourier and Friedrich Nietzsche#x14;and two too-sane geniuses#x14;J.P. Proudhon and Karl Marx#x14;are enlisted in the breakout plan Did the nineteenth century ever come to an end? Was the twentieth century just a re-run? If to know “History” as tragedy is to escape its repetition as farce, then perhaps we need to look more deeply at this Past that won’t stop haunting us. Two illuminated madmen—Charles Fourier and Friedrich Nietzsche—and two too-sane geniuses—J.-P. Proudhon and Karl Marx—are enlisted in the break-out plan. The shape of this plan is then suggested in a final essay showing how old “rights and customs” of paleolithic reciprocity and eqalitarian spirituality have made innumerable re-entries into History.