Breaking the Alphabet Hilaritas Podcast

Book cover of "Breaking the Alphabet" by Sascha Engel

From Hilaritas Press Podcasts

In this episode, Mike Gathers chats with Sascha Engel on the Hilaritas podcast about the themes of his book, "Breaking the Alphabet," the tyranny of the written word, the critique of language, and the Anti-Alphabet.

This hour long interview takes a deep dive into Sascha's creation--the anti-alphabet--and how it can help us transcend the controlling boundaries of writing, the alphabet, and authoritarian iteration.

“Breaking the Alphabet:” https://littleblackcart.com/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=870
Keep an eye out for a forthcoming release from Little Black Cart Sascha’s website: http://thinkcontinuum.eu/
To contact Sascha directly: uncivletters@gmail.com
Sign up for Sascha’s newsletter: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeLa1epZL4uGkjXGQfBCLYv-M_I3SMt...

Hilaritas Press Podcast: https://www.hilaritaspress.com/podcasts/
Host/Producer Mike Gathers: https://linktr.ee/mgathers23
Engineer/Producer Ryan Reeves: https://ryan4reeves.wixsite.com/ryanreeves

Book description from Little Black Cart:

This small booklet is a reflection on the tyranny of writing as a rigid practice (from the act of writing to what we're allowed to write), and what it would mean for our way of writing to be as liberating as what we're trying to say. Pictographs! Breaking out of ruts! The text is reminiscent of some big anarchist names in its push to re-think things that we take for granted every day, but it's more fun and also more practical (in a playful, imaginative way) than other more theory-heavy essays.

Perhaps learning how to write letters is most openly and nakedly the point where iteration itself is at stake. Perhaps it points to the essential and primary movement from joyful exuberance to iterative drudgery. "The repetitive nature of patterns,"  with which children start to learn how to draw letters, "emphasizes the rhythmic movement which we aim for when writing," This tames the children's muscles, helping to "maintain the consistency of size."

Practical, provocative, poetic, this text points out one of the many ways that we are trained, and perpetuate, in our own subjugation, and then offers some ways to do things differently.

There are 5 Comments

Got tipped off about this book a while ago from J Zerzan. Glad it's getting more light. Really changed how I thought about the alphabet is REALLY used.

Spoken/written language is a low-hanging fruit and to claim "language-breaking" as world-changing practice seems liberal as fuck to me. Do it in your apartments and lofts and all you go is circle jerks between friends, in enclosed private spaces. This is lacking the fundamental analysis of what makes social relationships into what/how they are. Like the situation of reading/hand-writing is one of sitting down... being focused on a page or a screen, and usually being in weak or null interaction with the direct environment, while to others you're a still, uncommunicative human not unlike your usual cell phone black mirror holder.

It's about the s-i-t-u-a-t-i-o-n, not just the mere words. The words and letters, LIKE OTHER SYMBOLS, will only work as the coding of a radically different situation. This is where people like the Situationist and PLW were getting at. But this level of actual radicalism is more demanding and -I know- likely scary to our comfy would-be intellectuals of US anarchism.

On the other hand... to be using language-breaking on corporate social media might be a great idea for both above-ground cryptography and for subverting machine-driven online discourse that is literally formatting the youth, So, yes, it's all again situational.

It's another tool in the kit. Why not? Doesn't look to me like this guy says it's the only way to change the world. Which would be stupid

Looks like this guy has a new book too,. Maybe there's more about this in that one? Breaking the crypto drones would be worthwhile in any situation

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