[Part Two concluded by pointing out: "If we are to seriously consider the question of childhood sexuality, how can we do that without knowing what the children think or feel? We have no way to gauge how freely they are engaging in these activities and how much is coercion or a feeling of inescapability." We are all truly indebted to Ariel for her three-part post, concluding here, and for taking up some of the issues from Letters that none of us will soon forget, even if we don't always know how best to analyze and understand them.  -IT]

Yara’s Freedom?

This brings us back to freedom. The question of freedom, much like the questions of morality and desire, is an oft-talked about one in anarchist circles, so I won’t linger here long, but for our purposes the essential question is: How can one be sure they are making “free” decisions? This is a question left unanswered in Letters. Not only is it unanswered; Perlman seems to think it’s not a question worth considering, given that he never even attempts to address this subject in any way except through Sophia, and that’s only to show us how repressed and reactionary Sophia is to judge Tina and Ted’s relationship.

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[Part One concluded by asking what is "typical of the love found in Perlman’s novel"?  Ariel suggests that "it seems to be a predominately sexual love, or another way of putting this is that the only time the word love is used is when it is referencing a sexual relationship. While non-sexual relationships exist, it is the rare one that seems to be totally unhampered by sexual tension."  -IT]

Non-Sexual Relationships in Letters?

One of the few non-sexual relationships is between Sophia and Sabina.  Sophia says:

“When I saw tears under those long black eyelashes I felt an emotion I can’t describe with words like friendship and love. Sabina hadn’t even been ‘Jose’s Girl,’ she hadn’t ever shared his bed, she hadn’t ever desire him physically, yet she loved him; I understood her love for him only because I thought it must be similar to what I felt toward Sabina when I saw her tears.”

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[The following is Part One of a three-part contribution by Ariel Amend-All. Parts Two and Three will be posted over the next few days. - IT]

* * * * * * * *

My post will be broken up into three parts because I am covering a few chapters in one go. Also, I’m trying to cram an entire book’s worth of feelings into this, which is difficult to say the least. I am focusing on some of the more emotion-inducing topics, namely the incest and childhood sexuality. Childhood sexuality is a very complicated topic, not well understood at all, and I don’t claim to be an expert. My opinions are merely based upon my own experiences as a childhood survivor of rape and incest, nothing more or less. My take on these chapters has ended up a little more theoretical/thesis-y then I had hoped, and I look forward to your comments and thoughts!

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Early on in the Insurgent Summer project, we asked John Zerzan to contribute a description of his personal interactions with Fredy Perlman and his thoughts on Letters of Insurgents. We’re pleased here to share his letter, transcribed below.

“Fredy’s kind response to a TELOS article I’d written (about anti-work and the disciplinary role of unions) was our first point of contact. I think that this was 1974. He was already writing Letters, I believe, and I’d like to think that my piece may have had a slight influence on the book.

“It was Fredy who told me of 5th Estate, the Detroit periodical which is still publishing and was about to become a uniquely valuable source of ideas relatively new to the U.S. Camatte, for example, and Perlman himself. Our correspondence began in the mid-70’s but I only spent time with him once.  In 1976 he and Lorraine visited San Francisco where I lived at the time. We spent a wonderful couple of days together.  My first visit to Detroit, by the way, was over twenty years away, well after Fredy’s death from heart valve failure.

“To me a remarkable thing about his work – one of many, to be sure – is that virtually every book has its own style. Letters certainly has its voice. More important is how that big fat book has held up. Over a third of a century later it seems to me as freshly insightful as ever. Only Against His-story, Against Leviathan rivals its importance in my estimation.

“I see the Left as the biggest obstacle to real change. Colossal in its failure, but insidious in its gatekeeper function. Letters breaks down all the ways there are to be “radical” without being so, and thus is extremely timely.

“Upon its appearance Fredy insisted that the letters were real, that Yarostan and Sophie were not fictional characters. His Detroit friends, I recall, made it clear how little credulity that claim had and in riposte would sometimes refer to the book as Letters of Detergents.”

- John Zerzan, May 2010