Hakim Bey is an avant-garde poet-philosopher whose work departs from the academic tradition, rediscovering mystery and magic as means of reconquering joy of life and defeating boredom. Also, the jihad is on those who would make life obey rules.

Bey is truly a refreshing read. He does not degenerate into ideological dogma, but rebels against it, invoking irresistible incantations. He writes on using Moorish curses to banish muzak companies and the use of electronic networks to establish temporary autonomous zones with equal credibility.

Go naked for a sign.

Some Hakim Bey texts

Note that some of these texts (notably T.A.Z and The Radio Sermonettes) have been HTMLized in order to better fit into the Web medium. If you want plaintext versions (for printing, off-Web perusal etc.), go here for guaranteed HTML-free ASCII versions.

• Temporary Autonomous Zone (hypertext, indexed edition divided over several files), HTMLized by Mike Morrison. There is also a single file version, with some minor corrections (note that this file is 265 kb.)
• A French translation of the Temporary Autonomous Zone (only the essay), translated and HTMLized by Christine Treguier of Les Virtualistes (also, see BabelWeb)
• The Radio Sermonettes, HTMLized by Tom Jennings
• The Jubilee Saints Project, HTMLized by Jonathan Rochkind.
• Permanent Autonomous Zone
• The Evil Eye
• Sijil: The Triple Rose of the Adept Chamber, transcribed & HTMLized by ashton@netcom.com.
• Mailorder Mysticism, transcribed & HTMLized by ashton@netcom.com.
• The Information War, taken from CTHEORY.
• La Guerra De La Información, a Spanish translation of "The Information War", translated by Bruno Canales.
• Criminal Bee, a transcription of a San Francisco performance in 1993. Transcribed and HTMLized by Ovid.
• The Lemonade Ocean & Modern Times
• Media Creed For The Fin De Siecle

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

External links

Information about Hakim Bey exists several places on the web. Many sources are excellent. Try searching Lycos with the query "hakim bey" for a list of possible starting points (and a lot of dead ends.)

• Be sure not to overlook the Moorish Observatory Archives, an excellent "guidebook & map to the self organizing textures of human space-time experience", maintained by Imam Barbarossa Bey. They also have a Gift Shop, with some printed works by Hakim Bey on sale.
• Nor should you miss Hakim Bey at Public Netbase, an excellent infozone from our Austrian friends.
• The Dreamtime Village, an "experiment in combining the ancient technology of permaculture with the unlimited possibilties of hypermedia arts...", the formation of which Hakim Bey had a hand in.
• An excellent Hakim Bey home page with graphics exists here.
• Dutch translations of TAZ and Radio Sermonettes are stored at Desk.nl.
• Catalogue of Hakim Bey books available from Freecyb in France.
• AK Press has some Hakim Bey books in their catalog. They also distribute Autonomedia and Semiotext(e) books with Hakim Bey material.

Information about Bey

• A telephone interview with Hakim Bey conducted by Mordecai Watts (no relation whatsoever to Marius Watz - honest).
• Another telephone interview with Hakim Bey, conducted by Enzo23.
• Some information from Dan Whitworth
• Information about the dreamtime talkingmail newsletter published by Xeoxial Endarchy based in Dreamtime Village where Hakim Bey resides. The newsletter regularly features material by Hakim.
• Last year, Axiom put out a Hakim Bey spoken word album by the name of T.A.Z. The album has backing music by Material, one of Bill Laswell's project. The combination of Hakim's hypnotic drone and Laswell's shifting dub is highly recommendable.
• A double-CD collection titled State of the Nation features a track by Hakim Bey.
• High Times has an interview with Hakim Bey.

Lux et voluptas

Related material

• "Why I wrote a fake Hakim Bey book and how I cheated the conformists of Italian Counterculture", a communique released by Luther Blissett in the second week of July 1996, explaining why he wrote "A Ruota Libera - Misera del lettore di TAZ" and got it published by Italian publisher Castelvecchi. Luther Blissett has a homepage here, but it does not mention the prank.
• Virtual Enclosures, a paper by Peter Lamborn Wilson, presented at the Doors of Perception 2 conference.
• The Spunk Press Home Page. An online project for the collection of anarchist-related texts.
• bolo'bolo by ibu. An incomplete version of the introduction to Semiotext(e)'s pamphlet.
• Incunabula - "A Catalogue of Rare Books, Manuscripts & Curiosa". A fictitious catalogue of books and curiosa relating to the Conspiracy. Sample book: Von Bitter Rucker, Dr R." 'The Cat Was Alive, But Looked Scared As Hell'
  • Incunabula part 1
  • Incunabula part 2
  • Incunabula part 2.5
  • Incunabula part 3
• Aspects of Chaosophy, by Frater Harpo Ben Ishmael Bey. No relation to Hakim, except maybe spiritual.

Last updated: October 3rd 1996 (created May 1994)

Marius Watz - Mail to: mailto:mariusw@notam.uio.no