Intellectual Vagabond Editions

Vagabond…

…One who has no home…

No place in this world…

An outsider everywhere…

Contemptuous of the values, the interests that rule this world.

Unlike the fugitive or the refugee, the vagabond wanders freely, by choice. She is not trying to escape, because escape implies that there is someplace to escape to, someplace to eventually settle down, a home. And the vagabond desires no home, no place that can define or identify him.

Rejecting the values of this world, the vagabond rejects its laws, its rules, its duties and its obligations. Thus, he strives to live his life on her own terms. And so she lives in conflict with the ruling order, with all the powers that be. And those that these powers can define and identify, they quickly ingest or destroy. This is why it makes sense for anarchists to be intellectual vagabonds… wild-eyed, poetic tramps wandering the uncharted terrain of the mind, if not of the earth itself.

But don’t think intellectual vagabonds are fickle dilettantes who flitter from one place to the next, one project to the next, one theory to the next, never really touching or being touched by any of it, with no idea why they are there. This would indicate that they didn’t have a clue about who they were or what they wanted.

Rather, the intellectual vagabond is quite clear about the most essential things. She knows that she chooses who she is, that he is the creator of his life. In a world not of her choosing, indeed, but this is why she also understands that her freedom exists only in conflict with this world. And so he is resolute in refusing to succumb to the values of this world, in refusing to play by its rules.

Thus, the intellectual vagabond’s refusal to be defined or identified is not a matter of changing with the tides of circumstance, accepting imposed necessity, justified perhaps in the name of tactics or strategy. Such a pseudo-practice is actually an expression of intellectual laziness and poverty of imagination. It can never move an individual beyond definition and identity. Instead it will merely lead her to change her identity the way he changes his clothes, in keeping with the demands of the moment rather than in defiance of them. The intellectual vagabond’s refusal to be defined and identified reflects the opposite; it reflects her insistence upon absolute divergence from all known paths, complete deviation from every norm, utter and contemptuous rejection of all givens… Because this is the first and most essential step in living his uniqueness.

In other words, the intellectual vagabond’s thought and life remain free, exploratory, experimental, aimless and useless (in the best sense), because they are resolutely anti-authoritarian, anti-state, anti-economy, anti-hierarchical and anti-institutional. Her thought is critical, but like Stirner’s biting critical thought, it founds its cause upon nothing. If it has a dialectic, it is not that of Marx or Hegel, but that of Heracleitus: “You can’t step in the same river twice.”

Intellectual Vagabond Editions…

…will reflect this anarchic vagabond attitude both in what I choose to publish and how I go about it.

I will publish works of outsiders, those whose writings reflect their refusal to accept the ruling values of this world: anarchists, egoists, dadaists, surrealists, insurrectionary bohemians, iconoclastic revolutionaries, utopian libertines, unreasonable atheists… all the wild, damned, mad rebel spirits whose laughter rings out at every “higher value,” every “greater good, shaking the foundations of a world based on boundaries, limits, borders of all sorts with their border guards checking for identity and guarding the “sacred.”

The way I go about this project will reflect my refusal of the institutional framework of this world with its mass orientation. It will also reflect my insistence upon enjoying myself while doing this.

Since the copyright is law-protected, state enforced right to sacred property, and since i have nothing but contempt for law, the state and sacred property, this project is anti-copyright. I will take, use and share words, ideas and images that I like without going through the formalities imposed by sacred property rights, and I expect and hope that others will do the same with anything I publish, using these writings as they see fit without feeling obliged to ask my permission.

I will avoid mass production and will aim at a method of spreading the material that relies mostly on the development of relationships of mutuality with those with whom I share the books, pamphlets and magazines that encourages them to use and share these works as they see fit. (For a clearer idea of what I mean by mutuality read Mutual Aid and the Enjoyment of Life)

Intellectual Vagabond Editions will come in a few formats. There will be pdf files which I will make available through links on this blog, so that it is easy for others who want to reproduce and share them to do so. There will be basic pamphlets, chapbooks, booklets and the like, which I hope will help fund the project. And there will be small quantities of nicely hand-bound booklets, chapbooks and a few longer books. I will give these as gifts to close friends, as well as to those who may choose to support this project in a practical way.

Intellectual Vagabond Editions will include: 1) reprints of a number of Venomous Butterfly Publication pamphlets; 2) new pamphlets and booklets of anarchist, anti-authoritarian insurrectionary and egoist theory and history; 3) new translations from Renzo Novatore, Giuseppi Ciancabilla, Zo d’Axa, Ernest Coeurderoy, Max Stirner and many others; 4) poetry and short fiction by various rebels and outsiders; 5) From the Armchair, an anarchist review of books; 6) The Daily Absurdist, an occasional publication of anti-authoritarian humor and satire; 7) Godless Publications, writings by fierce and fearless, bare-fisted atheists; 8) posters, broadsheets, flyers and newsletters. These will include occasional issues of The Cynical Utopian, commenting on current events. It will also include material of the Anti-Lackey Project, a project intended to use biting humor against servility, snitching and brown-nosing of all sorts.

Until I can get all that I need together to make the sorts of nicely bound and beautifully designed books, chapbooks and pamphlets that I would like to do, I will put out simpler, plainer, photocopied pamphlets, broadsheets, etc. as samples of the type of material I want to publish. These will be available for the cost of postage to send them. I currently have around twenty pamphlets of this sort available as well as several posters. You can send for them at the address below. Please be aware that I do not currently have any electronic means of receiving payment and (since I have never had credit) don’t know if I will be able to set that up.

My needs for getting Intellectual Vagabond Editions in motion include: 1) a stable place from which to operate; 2) cash for cost of printing, tools, materials and postage; 3) stamps for postage; 4) (once I have a stable place) a laser printer that I can link to my computer through a USB port… Anyone interested in offering support in any of these or other ways can contact me at:

E-mail: vagapub@gmail.com; apioludd@lavabit.com; My_Own@lavabit.com