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Mythmakers and Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction Edited by Margaret Killjoy (AK Press, 2009, 220p, £8)
Reviewed by Richard Howard
In Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology David Graeber addresses anarchism's absence from academic discourse by suggesting that whereas Marxism is authoritarian in attitude, its various schools named after individual academics and thinkers, anarchism's non-hierarchical philosophy results in a mode of thought that is instead based on the practices of the actors involved. As anarchist ideas filter into publishing via the Occupy movement, it is inevitable that there will be more academic engagement with anarchist philosophy. Margaret Killjoy's collection, however, is organised horizontally, being a set of interviews that lets anarchist fiction writers speak for themselves about the connection between their politics and their fiction.
If Mythmakers and Lawbreakers feels uneven as a blueprint for the intersection of anarchist philosophy and fiction, it is indicative of Killjoy's success...