The Whinger – Irregular Journal of Hysterical Madterialism issue 4, May 2004

I picked this up while I was at the Use Your Loaf occupied social centre for Neil’s pamphlet launch. It’s by Paul Petard, whose cartoons I ripped off in this entry about community politics and suchlike.

Anyway, it’s great – not least because it has more artwork in it. But also because Paul is someone who seems to have digested an inordinate amount of hard ultra-left political theory. but retained a sense of humour and balance.

Some good stuff on the war, the ongoing “downturn”, and an interesting review article on the Chronos pamphlet critiquing John Zerzan. That last bit may not mean much to many, but it includes some good insights into primitivism and its loony adherents in Green Anarchist.

I also like this bit:

Who says commodity relations are everywhere and have taken over everything? Who says the entire life of societies in which modern conditions of production reign announces itself as an immense accumulation of commodities? One of the things I have learnt recently by helping out one day a week in a left-wing bookshop is that we are not surrounded all the time by commodities. To the contrary, half the time we are surrounded by a big pile of junk that nobody wants to buy, and we have no chance of selling.

You can get probably get hold of copies from Use Your Loaf, or by getting in touch direct via ppetard at hotmail dot com

I’ve also been reading:

Paul Morley – Nothing (Faber & Faber)

I enjoyed this much more than Words and Music (which it’s good to see Dubversion mentioning). I think this is essentially because it’s still ‘clever-clever’ in that “I once wrote a book called ” and on page 73 of it…” way, but it’s rooted in more human stuff because it’s autobiographical. Certainly the stuff on adolescent sexuality, and school, had me remembering the sheer emotional intensity and fear of those years in my own life. It’s deeply personal (not least because the book’s main theme is Paul coming to terms with his father’s suicide) and involving, and funny, and thought provoking, and maddening.

Some time (but not soon) I will have to do something on all those ZTT records Paul Morley did the liner notes for.