Month: July 2012

Contr'un

Han Ryner, “The Secret of Don Juan” (1915)

July 20, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[I’m working my way through the translation of six shorts stories by Han Ryner, published in French in The Smart Set between July 1913 and January 1920. These initial translation are definitely rough, “working” versions, as I get better acquainted with the peculiarities of Ryner’s style. But I think even the rough renditions give a good indication of what is interesting about the works. For those unfamiliar with the Don Juan story, or who need a refresher, this will probably help.] THE SECRET OF DON JUAN By Han Ryner All of the accounts of the interview of Don Juanand the […]
fiction

Han Ryner, “The Little Exile” (1920)

July 19, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
ORIGINAL The Little Exile By Han Ryner On this heavy, stormy summer Sunday, how did I let myself be led to these noisy celebrations? Under a scorching sun, that my companions declared “almost southern,” I had stopped with the crowd at various points of the town of Sceaux and, in front of some minuscule busts, I listened to the buzz of interminable talk. Through the torpor that wove heat and rhetoric around me, some words, doubtless more often repeated, alone reached my mind. But, in the confused speeches of the orators who succeeded and resembled one another like shrill brothers, […]
Beyond the Labyrinth

A Voyage from Pole to Pole by way of the Center of the Earth (1721)

July 16, 2012
An Account of a Voyage from the Arctic to the Antarctic Pole by way of the Center of the Earth. With the description of that perilous Passage, & of the marvelous & astonishing things that were discovered beneath the Antarctic Pole. WITH FIGURES.   Amsterdam M. DCC. XXI   TABLE OF CHAPTERS. I. Departure of the Author from Amsterdam for Greenland; how the Author & his Companions began to realize that they were nearing the dreadful maelstrom which is under the Arctic Pole; description of the maelstrom. II. How the Vessel was swallowed up at the center of the maelstrom; […]
Contr'un

Notes on Occupancy & Use (The Infamous Summer House Thread)

July 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] The question of occupancy and use is one which seems particularly difficult to address in a way which escapes a constant return to the same questions. There are certainly logical reasons for that: There are arguably two different models for this sort of land tenure in Proudhon, one based on simple possession and the other on simple property. Questions of “use” quickly lead into questions about “rent,” and we are not always particularly careful to distinguish between “economic rent,” “rent” as a form of “increase,” and “rent” as payment for services directly rendered. As long as we stick close […]
Contr'un

A couple of notes on “The Molyneux Problem”

July 8, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Just so that it is not necessary to reconstruct this every time the question of the adequacy of Universally Preferable Behavior arises, I’ll just place these comments (originally from Reddit) here for the benefit of posterity: [To see the problems with the book] you might look at the beginning of the section “UPB: Five Proofs,” where he lays out the supposed logical proof from UPB. When he lays it out as a syllogism, the key proposition is that: “Arguing against the validity of universally preferable behaviour demonstrates universally preferable behaviour.” Now, that’s not the clearest of sentences, but here’s the […]
Beyond the Labyrinth

W. M. Stannard, “Mr. Corndropper’s Hired Man” (1900)

July 8, 2012
Mr. Corndropper’s Hired Man. (A Companion to “Ely’s Automatic Housemaid.”) BY W. M. STANNARD. _____ THERE was a mild sensation at the East Slowcombe railway station when a stranger, bearing a two-gallon can, carefully crated, stepped off the 3.30 accommodation, and there were many speculations hazarded as to his identity, business and destination, but, without stopping to question or exchange words with any of the waiting crowd, he stepped across the platform to where Farmer Corndropper was waiting with his gray mare and buggy. He handed the fanner a letter, stepped into the buggy and was driven slowly away. Without […]
Beyond the Labyrinth

Elizabeth W. Bellamy, “Ely’s Automatic Housemaid” (1899)

July 8, 2012
Ely’s Automatic Housemaid. BY ELIZABETH W. BELLAMY. _____ IN order for a man to have faith in such an invention, he would have to know Harrison Ely. For Harrison Ely was a genius. I had known him in college, a man amazingly dull in Latin and Greek and even in English, but with ideas of his own that could not be expressed in language. His bent was purely mechanical, and found expression in innumerable ingenious contrivances to facilitate the study to which he had no inclination. His self-acting lexicon-holder was a matter of admiring wonder to his classmates, but it […]
Contr'un

The “FAQs”

July 7, 2012
One of the basic assumptions driving this blog is that we’re not really in a position for definitive answers to a lot of the most important, and most frequently asked questions about mutualism. We can say a lot of true things about a lot of mutualist tendencies, but MUTUALISM as such, has only had, or will have, the sort of unity that allows us to simply explain or define it at a few moments in the past and perhaps in some more orderly future—provided we can do the work now of getting a handle on the current, rather far-flung debate. […]
Contr'un

Mutualism at the Owenite High Tide

July 6, 2012
For a look at the concerns of the Owenite current at the moment, in the 1820s, when some members were trying on the label “mutualist” and Josiah Warren was taking the steps that would lead him to individualist anarchism, I’ve assembled a collection of texts in the first volume of a Documentary History of Mutualism: Mutualism at the Owenite High Tide. In it: The letters of the “1826 Mutualist” are followed by Josiah Warren’s “The Motives for Communism,”—an account of his involvement with the Owenite movement,—a speech given at New Harmony by communist Paul Brown,—author of Twelve Months in New […]
Contr'un

Notes on the origins of the term “mutualism” (1822-1850)

July 6, 2012
I contributed most of the following to Wikipedia, so we can just make use of it here to get started on a bit of basic mutualist history: Mutualism, as a term, has seen a variety of related uses. Charles Fourier first used the French term “mutualisme” in 1822, although the reference was not to an economic system. The first use of the noun “mutualist” was in the New-Harmony Gazette by an American Owenite in 1826. In the early 1830s, a labor organization in Lyons, France, called themselves the “Mutuellists.” Pierre Joseph Proudhon was involved with the Lyons mutualists and later […]