The Criminal Child – AudioZine

Explicit content warning

06/29/16 • -1 min

58:36 – The Criminal Child – By Jean Genet – Mp3 – PDF – Archive – Torrent – YouTube

A new translation of a previously censored and unavailable text by Jean Genet. “The Criminal Child” is a critical engagement with the French youth prisons, a reflection on Genet’s formative years within them, a document of hostility towards society and its benevolent reformers, and (as argued by the anonymous afterword) an initiatory magical system. *Music by CocoRosie*
“‘The Criminal Child’ has, until now, never appeared in its entirety in the English language. Such a remarkable oversight—remarkable because it concerns a writer as significant as Jean Genet—would be reason enough for us to render a translation and bring it to print. But, in reading it, reasons far beyond the bibliophilic impulse reveal them- selves and insist on the urgency, timeliness and import of this text.
Though never read on air, Genet intended ‘L’enfant criminel’ as a radio address. Fernand Pouey, the director of dramatic and literary broadcasts for French radio, solicited Genet to speak on his radio program, “Carte blanche”, in 1948 as a bit of commentary on proposed reforms to France’s youth prisons. (Around the same time Pouey also commissioned Antonin Artaud to broadcast ‘Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu’—both pieces were censored by the powers that be.) A small edition of Genet’s text was published the next year and was then all but forgotten.”

“Just as I am guarded by a prison door, so my heart guards your memory.”
-from the afterword

58:36 – The Criminal Child – By Jean Genet – Mp3 – PDF – Archive – Torrent – YouTube

“Just as I am guarded by a prison door, so my heart guards your memory.”
-from the afterword

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On The Poverty of Student Life – AudioZine

52:15 – On The Poverty of Student Life: considered in its economic, political, psychological, sexual, and particularly intellectual aspects, and a modest proposal for its remedy – by students and members of the Situationist International – MP3 – Text – Print – Archive – Torrent – YouTube

First published in 1966 at the University of Strasbourg by students of the university and members of the Internationale Situationniste. Attacking the subservience of university students and the strategies of student radicals, it caused significant uproar, led to the dissemination of Situationist ideas, and precipitated the events of May 1968 in France.
A few students elected to the student union printed 10,000 copies with university funds. The copies were distributed at the official ceremony marking the beginning of the academic year. The student union was promptly closed by court order, and the students responsible were expelled. The pamphlet was described by a local newspaper shortly after its release as, “the first concrete manifestation of a revolt aiming quite openly at the destruction of society.”

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Some Notes on Insurrectionary Anarchism – AudioZine

13:44 – Some Notes on Insurrectionary Anarchism – By Sasha K. – MP3 – Read – Print – Print (Handout) – Archive – Torrent – YouTube

“The state will not merely wither away, thus anarchists must attack, for waiting is defeat.”

This short zine provides a brief introduction to insurrectionary anarchism. In a clear and concise manner it articulates the basic concepts of insurrectionary anarchism including, the necessity of attack, self-activity, uncontrollability, permanent conflictuality, and informal organization. The text originally appeared in 2001 in the now defunct anarchist publication “Killing King Abacus.” Despite its age, it is one of the clearest pieces on insurrectionary anarchy and largely avoids the cumbersome rhetoric and writing style that characterized many of the later attempts at explaining insurrectionary anarchism.