Links:
- The Anarchists’ Noël (pdf)
- ‘Christmas’ [category feed]
Posting anarchist Christmas stories has become something of a tradition here in recent years, with some of the best coming from the individualist press, such as the various pieces by E. Armand and Gigi Damiani’s “Jesus and Bonnot: A Christmas Tale.” So I had been intending right along to steal a bit of time before the holiday rolled around to seek out a few new tales to translate. And then a mix of other tasks — work on the “Encounters with Anarchist Individualism,” native seed stratification, etc. — just completely wiped it from my memory, at least until Christmas.
So, just to see what I could see, I did a quick, if last-minute search for “Noël” in the pages of Le Libertaire and — once I had sifted through the surprising number of articles with authors by that name — was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a very promising batch of stories to be translated.
So I did a bit of quick, rough transcription, followed by some equally quick, rough translation and realized that, first, what I had found was good enough, in its way, to take at least a bit more time with, and, second, that there were perhaps good reasons not to inflict this particular batch of stories on everyone’s holiday spirit.
Twenty-four hours later, I’ve got presentable translations of eleven new anarchist Christmas tales, all from Le Libertaire, from the years 1899-1913 — and the world has moved on from the holidays to fresh, new horrors, alongside which the rather grim holiday scenes presented in them will no doubt seem quite tame.
As a taste of what’s in store for brave readers, I present this passage, from the end of one of several stories simply title “Noël”:
Noël! The prisons jealously guard men who wanted to think and write according to their conscience, having believed that in a Republic, all opinions were permitted.
Noël! The specter of war is still being stirred up by a militaristic fool, behind whom a whole gang of financiers is stirring.
Noël! The people, crushed under the weight of taxes, are becoming increasingly stupefied by parliamentary charlatans and trying to drown their misery in the adulterated alcohol complacently dispensed by the licensed, official bureaucrats.
Noël! The slaves are groveling more and more before the master who mistreats them…
When will the Red Noël come, which will sweep away, like a straw, the dross that poisons all of humanity?
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