book cover

From Fifth Estate, # 416, Spring 2025
by Jason Rodgers

A review of: Hakim Bey: Real and Unreal by Th. Metzger. Motgus-sanlux, 2023

Hakim Bey: Real and Unreal is the newest entry in a growing genre of literature, books about having met anarchist author and poet Peter Lamborn Wilson/Hakim Bey (1945-2022) and how it changed the author’s life.

There was Michael Muhammad Knight and Jacob Rabinowitz before him. This is halfway to the reading list for a college course on the subject.

Wilson/Bey, who wrote frequently for the Fifth Estate, is perhaps best known for his book, T.A.Z.: Temporary Autonomous Zones, written under the latter name. He wrote countless books throughout his life, perhaps as many as 60, on subjects ranging from anarchist theory to comparative religion to media studies to poetry.

Thom Metzger’s book is about his introduction to Wilson, his reception of what he had to convey, and the intermingling of their morphic fields. Metzger has written several novels beginning with the avant-shock title, Big Gurl, in 1989. Several others issued by a mainstream publisher followed, as well as a social history of the electric chair. He wrote for the defunct Anarchy magazine and became associated with Autonomedia through Wilson and was an editor of Wilson’s Moorish Science Monitor.

Wilson had a knack for giving a special insight into whatever your current ideas or obsessions were. Some of this was that he had just read so many damned books that he could often provide shortcuts to a bibliography, suggesting titles of which you had previously been unaware. But it was also more than this, as he had a knack for providing a subtle new perspective on a subject, which would sometimes add a whole other depth to what you were looking at.

The text’s lack of distance from its subject weakens the book considerably since it would most likely make little sense to anyone who isn’t already familiar with Wilson’s work. There is little in the way of straight biographical explanation nor is there one provided here, but his life and travels are worth discovering.

Metzger describes Bey as “half magus and half mirage.”

There was a sense of illusion to Bey, as if he were performing an elaborate conjuring trick.

“Yet Hakim Bey did not really exist in the standard sense of the word,” Metzger tells the reader, “unless a real person can be conjured entirely out of words.” Bey was a literary hoax made flesh, from a master of literary hoaxes. The conjuring trick also worked as an escape act.

Metzger writes “Fact and fiction, for Hakim Bey, were opposite only in the way images in a mirror oppose the so-called real world.” In this, he per formed a Houdini act against the black iron prison that constrains imagination, an act complete with exotic imagery embedded within the stage design.

One theme of this book is what Wilson called “Mail-Order Mysticism.” Metzger and Wilson met through letters and often inhabited this world. The mysticism has to do with the ephemeral qualities of postal communications. Letters have a special aura to them. The placement of stamps, a ritual quality.

Metzger writes, “Voices from the unseen—documents as amulets.” Letters have a talismanic quality, something archaic. Metzger says of Wilson’s letters: “His letters were one of a kind and private in a way that digital communication can never be.” As this book is also a memorial, it is important how letters can function as a voice from the dead. When you have years of letters from a friend who has died, it can be like communicating with their spirit.

Mail-order mysticism relates to older tendencies in esoteric thought that are often disregarded by serious scholars. One is reminded of correspondence courses from mystical brotherhoods or mail-order catalogs. They are often considered declasse, crude, or even crass commercialism. Nonetheless, they had a great influence on a variety of esoteric tendencies, ranging from Neo-Paganism to ceremonial magic, from Afro-centric magic to chaos magick.

In order to give these currents respectability (as well as help to provide more of a sometimes falsified lineage) these disrespectable elements are minimized. However, I’d rather just look at the wild and gnarly lineage. Also, in the post-chaos magick world, it is important to look at the purely pragmatic element: Do these work? Yes, sometimes as well as other forms of magick.

Metzger and Wilson played up these mail order mystical tendencies by creating their own brand of snake oil: “Fez Brand Moorish Blessing Oil.” Made from water, food coloring, and a few gold flakes, these weren’t “to bilk credulous saps into buying scabrous crap. Our intention was far more esoteric. Like hoodoo root doctors, faith healers and snake-oil salesmen who traveled the back roads of America, we hoped to bring a whiff of the wondrous into otherwise banal lives.” There is an element of détournement to how they reappropriated this.

Another aspect that relates to the mail is Metzger and Wilson’s shared involvement with the zine network. Metzger first came into contact with Wilson, circa 1988, when he was asked to contribute to the anthology Semiotext(e): USA, a fat compendium of weirdness from the world of zines. By being included, Metzger was inspired to enhance and expand his participation in the zine network.

Much of the zine material is presented in a hard past-tense, which is unfortunate. There is a narrative that zines ended at the end of the 1990s, when in actuality they continue to thrive. Wilson/Bey stayed involved with zines up until the end of his life (when he got too sick to keep up with the mail). He sent me manuscripts of some of his later works, still typed on a manual typewriter. He never got online; never even had a computer. His submissions to the Fifth Estate also arrived in typescript.

Not all of the book is based upon distant communications through zines and letters. A great deal of it involves discussing during in-person visits, conviviality breast to breast. There is often a great sense of place in this book.

Both Metzger and Wilson had travel practices that related to psychogeography. Both loved to visit mysterious historical sites, from the 19th century popularizers of Spiritualism, the Fox sisters’ cabin to an island on which Aleister Crowley performed an occult ritual.

Metzger describes some of this magical psychogeography: “So, with a pen and some colored markers, I converted a standard travel map into an esoteric document. Doing magic to maps, Hakim Bey agreed, can change the real landscape. The map is not the territory—and yet it is.” Colorful descriptions of visits, urban neighborhoods, and Wilson’s disheveled living quarters fill this book.

There are very few criticisms of Wilson/Bey in the book, which might be unfortunate considering that there were problematic aspects to him. Nonetheless, this isn’t a systematic biography; it is about Metzger’s friendship with Wilson. It was written in the year after Wilson’s death, so there is an element of tribute to a friend.

One of the areas in which there is some clear criticism, but in a humorous and bemused fashion, is the reminiscence of the Hakim Bey fad of the 1990s. At this point, there were a great number of people latching onto Wilson, trying to become a follower.

Metzger wonders why Temporary Autonomous Zone “so ensorcell the minds of dissolute poseurs and wannabe revolutionaries?” One woman is described as wearing a t-shirt that read, “Hakim’s Baby” over her pregnant stomach. Metzger describes how a “gaggle of hipster twenty-year-olds literally sat at Hakim Bey’s feet.” To Wilson’s credit, he never allowed a cult to form around him though he didn’t mind soaking up adoration for short periods of time, such as being the center of attention at a dinner party.

Another criticism of Wilson is the discussion of his high level of speculation. He had a powerful imagination and was prone to speculation, flights of fancy, and exaggeration, which could sometimes mean the reader had to be cautious with his work. But if you were able to take things with a grain of salt, remain grounded, you would often find startling lines of speculation, leading to places you’ve never been before.

This turns out to be less of a fault and more of a virtue, Wilson’s greatest magic trick: attempting to arm the imagination. He created the unreal Hakim Bey in order to deploy crazy wisdom, illumination that undermined all authority, even his own.

Jason Rodgers is an autonomist critical theorist with a specialization in critical-paranoia, esoteric counterculture and mail order mysticism. Her most recent book is War of Dreams: A Field Guide to DIY Psy-Ops. Her previous book was Invisible Generation: Rant, Polemic and Critical Theory Against the Planetary Work Machine. Both are published by Autonomedia. She can be contacted at PO Box 701, Cobleskill NY 12043.

Comments

Le Way Fri, 08/29/2025 - 02:27

Eventually the cracks start appearing, the mystical part, wisps of guru hierarchy based on esoteric knowledge experience, woos the novice boys,,,,,,*pauses * The innocence of childhood naivety must remain unpolluted by idealized delusions of mastery.

Le Way Sun, 08/31/2025 - 08:33

In reply to by anon (not verified)

The platonic ethic somehow elevates and gives status to the practioner, just as Gandhi used the method, which in the East is interpreted as a form of yoga, of self-discipline, inner autonomous purpose and resistance to outer forces, and Hako (my nickname for Wilson) professed to having this power. The "hustler" book projected the popular petty criminal rebel script seen in the West in the 60s 70s Vietnam war, counterculture and alter-morality were breaking out of the authoritarian patriarchal cast. Religiously, the alter-morality centred on sexual freedom, the Guru became the free unhindered expression of ultimate enlightenment. Gandhi had 2 naked girls lie beside him and he remained un-aroused sexually, and this is what Hako, I assume, could maintain with boys, afterall, his TAZ, purported to be of a pure anarchic area, did not operate under the withering glare of the moral authoritarian inquisitors, and his love of boys was Platonic like the love of a father for his son, or granfather for his grandchildren. hugging and kissing was cool, like a group of primates in the jungle, the touch, hug, kiss and delouse eachother, all age groups, exploring and getting social equity and joy from eachother's interactions and relationships. There's no TV in TAZ. But yes, Guru-ness can become a schtick used by fakes to gain mastery and dominance over a group of fawning subservient believers, and they are corrupted.

anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/29/2025 - 10:00

Why are the mods deleting serious questions that relate to discussion of Wilson's predilections and complications? We should be able to criticize a piece of writing that glosses his issues by referring to them simply as "problematic aspects". Indeed, it seems like the article itself invites that kind of criticism.

alex (not verified) Sat, 08/30/2025 - 08:39

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

wilson's pedophilic poetry that i've seen draws on the neo-platonist medieval literary traditions that take the beloved/object, to be a vessel or conduit or even just reference point for the lover/subject to use or to travel to and through and past to a greater conception and experience of Beauty or the Good etc. it is a way of appealing to god (however described) as the justification and authority of the lover to gaze, to long for, to obtain the beloved regardless of whether there is a physical component to that relationship. it is a way of mystifying the desire of the lover/subject and the body of the beloved/object: as long as the lover is sufficiently well trained to appeal to the greater law or concept of the good that is revealed by the beauty of the body of the beloved, his desire for that body (in whatever capacity) is excused, authorized, justified. in reality, licensed.

any anarchist and/or feminist critique of that position, in my opinion, should reject the mediation of human embodied relationships by third, abstract referents which are only consciously accessed and known by one party. a return to plato's treatment of the subject from this position should reveal a conception of romantic love and the spirited form of life that can emerge from it that focuses on the creative and destructive possibilities that arise from mutual, dynamic conversation between two people. including the danger to them in that context posed by betrayal, deception, etc.

instead of doing any of that work as far as i can tell wilson chose to write petrarchan hymns about his friends' children for NAMBLA or whatever. perfectly sensible to condemn him on those grounds alone, in my opinion, and absurd to ignore as a facet of any analysis of his other work. whether he or people like him were guilty of any specific violence is sometimes wielded by supporters and apologists--and taken as bait by opponents--as a distraction from the fact that he was ideologically a pedophile: he intellectualized and systematized pedophilia into an aesthetic theory. that, for me, is a fundamental error and not just some isolable aspect that merely needs to be excised (ignored) to cure the rest of the body of work

lumpy (not verified) Sat, 08/30/2025 - 09:50

In reply to by alex (not verified)

... yep! which adds an unsettling quality to quotes like this

"The conjuring trick also worked as an escape act."

and then the writer goes on to have a chuckle about the orientalism tending towards mail-order flim flam. apparently they view the "neo-paganism", "chaos magick" and other similarly embarrassing 90s woo in a more generous light than i do?

this is more than a bit like believing you could send a few bucks by snail mail and get a VHS tape that would teach you how to do the dim mak when the other teens bullied you at school. anyway ... that mall ninja cringe seems light and funny compared to alex's point!

alex (not verified) Sat, 08/30/2025 - 10:18

In reply to by lumpy (not verified)

yea i think the link im trying to point to is the specific kind of ephemerality and play in wilson's work points towards a necessarily shallow, consumeristic engagement with ideas--and people!--that fails to appreciate them as lasting and grounded beings, treating them instead as touchpoints or channels towards a separate, individual truth or power. its a conception of chaos that is undifferentiated, monistic unity or potential at heart, versus a more dynamic view that affirms difference, embodiment and personhood as they are rather than as they ought to be. the former i think tends towards debasement and commodification of ritual and tradition. the first moment of that process is presented as a kind of liberation, but soon the rags and pieces left behind by the circus act are picked up and reconstituted into the sham kinds of traditionalism then sold by reactionaries and grifters.

anon (not verified) Sun, 08/31/2025 - 07:25

In reply to by lumpy (not verified)

extent you believe that it works. However, i do think the possible legacy's of abuse by esoteric/exoteric anarchist pedos is worth talking about with any censorship or fear of retribution, it seems like a lot of people have been dancing around this for too long. It also leaves the door open for being able to separate "pedophilia" from actual troubling behavior, which anarchist counterculture seems fully un-equipped to do. That way, people can finally stop just randomly insulting people who have made nods to the inherent puritanism and scapegoating these conversations usually invite, BUT a lot of "magic" has to happen before that...

anonymous (not verified) Sat, 08/30/2025 - 18:40

In reply to by alex (not verified)

I found a copy of “The Hustler: The Love without a Name” (maybe a precursor to bey’s dirty secrets) in a small town thrift store when I was pretty young. I can say with a strong emphasis that it didn't turn me to boys or egoism. But it was completely different from anything I read before. It was like Lolita but we could probably distrust the writer as much as the narrator. But, I related to the street hustler and there weren't other books like that around that didn't end in a boring second half redemption. These confusions and certainties lead me to anarchists. chaff and wheat in the fire

alex (not verified) Sat, 08/30/2025 - 20:00

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

no doubt. and im not on some crusade here. i dont know why people familiar with the full scope of wilson's work feel so compelled to defend his name and his legacy, and i think it is foolish to do so, at best. the only reason i commented at all was because i dont know what comments were deleted and i think its worthwhile for people interested in engaging critically with this shit to work for themselves with what they found to be compelling rather than carp for dead assholes and the bygone moments that celebrated them

anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/29/2025 - 14:19

Cry harder.

anon (not verified) Sun, 08/31/2025 - 07:10

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

admitted the whole thing was scammy anyway:

"Metzger and Wilson played up these mail order mystical tendencies by creating their own brand of snake oil: “Fez Brand Moorish Blessing Oil.” Made from water, food coloring, and a few gold flakes, these weren’t “to bilk credulous saps into buying scabrous crap. Our intention was far more esoteric. Like hoodoo root doctors, faith healers and snake-oil salesmen who traveled the back roads of America, we hoped to bring a whiff of the wondrous into otherwise banal lives.” There is an element of détournement to how they reappropriated this."

I mean, the idea that it's really possible to "tear down leviathan" doesn't make any sense anyway, but i'm pretty sure it's still fine to wish it were true. Just don't drag me into your idiotic "the militarists are oppressed crap". It's like a lot of folks on here want to keep denying that they use anarchist intellectualism as a form of escape, which looks pretty horrible to tell you the truth.

anon (not verified) Sun, 08/31/2025 - 07:17

really take people to? The only thing i ever read was his book "anarcho-pessimism", and i the thing i like about pessimism is it's designed precisely to take you away from magical places and into more constructive/useful territory...

Like LeWay, i'm getting so sick of this occultist rag. Investigate the Amityville horror, and you will see what occultism is really all about if you can keep your skepticism wits about you through the whole process....

Le Way Sun, 08/31/2025 - 08:44

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Back in the 70s there was a "Mystical" author called Lobsang Rampa who made a killing selling his books to hippies, stuff like "The Temple Cat" set in Budfhist Thailand, about a ferious Siamese cat who was in telepathic connection with the Buddha spirit. It ends up that Lobsang Rampa was some pulp fiction writer in a small village in Wales or Scotland. I kept to the great skeptics, Swift, Voltaire, Neech, Camus. One has to keep a critical mind.

CalvinSmith Sun, 08/31/2025 - 15:09

In reply to by anonymous (not verified)

Pedo rant on @library which claims PLW and HB are the same person. Don't worry, it is just about the alleged NAMBLA affiliation, yet part of me is just waiting for a real sex assault story to pop up just so we can stop with these pedo talks.

Disorder of 9 (not verified) Sun, 08/31/2025 - 18:08

Let sleeping pedos lie.
What matters is today.
Make a new world cry
Turn the streets aflame;
Anger is love ....

Viva la Revolucion...

Tru Guru (not verified) Sun, 08/31/2025 - 18:48

Gentle hands at work,
love needs no sexy passion—
Pubic lice removed

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