"Anarchy, freedom, more games to play?"

--Crass, "You Can Be Who?"

introduction

Welcome to Alamut, an ongoing project inspired by literary theory & anarchist texts. Alamut is essentially a study of the works of Hakim Bey and Deleuze & Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus, as befits its genesis as a final project for a literary theory class. However, the author being perhaps a touch under-disciplined and inclined to over-estimate the amount of interest his ramblings hold to the world at large, this text will certainly sprawl into something larger.

Please note that this is, and will remain, a changing document. A due date (of December 19, 1996, for those who care) on the first draft of Alamut will certainly prevent it from initially being the tsunami of wisdom and insight that it may (but probably will not) eventually become.

about alamut

Alamut is a product of Steve Cook, and was written for Prof. George Landow's "Hypertext & Literary Theory" class in December 1996. Perhaps one day I'll get around to writing a formal manifesto or statement of intent, but there's certainly nothing like that now. Draw your own conclusions. It may prove useful to the reader, however, to know where I'm coming from in terms of some of the ideas I'm tossing around.

All opinions in this document are my own unless otherwise noted. They should not be taken as fact. I'll attempt to document all use of outside sources, but you should probably read my disclaimer.

enter alamut

Bey's TAZ provides Alamut with some of its central metaphors: pirates, Tongs, and Alamut itself. Further, his idea of the temporary autonomous zone vibrates throughout much--most?--of the concepts examined within.

Hakim Bey's ideas are foreshadowed by Deleuze & Guattari's; by plundering the notions of the rhizome, the nomad, the map and applying them to TAZ theory (or vice versa), the reader of these admittedly dense & inscrutable texts can hopefully better pry the lid off and see what complex clockwork hearts are beating within.

postscript

Alamut is designed to allow exploration to begin from any corner, even such loosely related lexias as those about me or the English class that spurred this web. Please explore and enjoy; I'd appreciate any and all feedback!

alamut/first appearance: December 19, 1996

alamut/last updated: December 19, 1996