Dante Readline reviewed Bolo'bolo by Hans Widmer (Foreign agents series)
My problematic fav
5 stars
I read this book about 12 years ago and it was definitely a Moment for me, but even the first time through I cringed a little. Each subsequent visit my spine curves in reaction a little more but I still think there's something magical in the core. Maybe call this anarchist fantasy writing?
Every radical political text has to name it's antagonist. Anticivies talk about the earth wrecker or whatever, marxists have ideology or the logic of capital. bolo has one of my favorites: The Planetary Work Machine. If you want to attack our current problem you should stab at the idea of working, of necessary work, of endless improvement on the treadmill of progress that never lets you actually enjoy what you're doing. Attack the idea of working hard now to make the world better for the next generation of children, indeed "we are already those children". bolo is …
I read this book about 12 years ago and it was definitely a Moment for me, but even the first time through I cringed a little. Each subsequent visit my spine curves in reaction a little more but I still think there's something magical in the core. Maybe call this anarchist fantasy writing?
Every radical political text has to name it's antagonist. Anticivies talk about the earth wrecker or whatever, marxists have ideology or the logic of capital. bolo has one of my favorites: The Planetary Work Machine. If you want to attack our current problem you should stab at the idea of working, of necessary work, of endless improvement on the treadmill of progress that never lets you actually enjoy what you're doing. Attack the idea of working hard now to make the world better for the next generation of children, indeed "we are already those children". bolo is at it's best when it lets you laugh at the absurdity of our little economic arrangement, when you can wake the next morning from the madness of yesterday. The book even starts with us having "A big hangover".
For me the best parts of bolo are something I would consider near spoilers. Not that it would ruin a narrative curve, but more that encountering silly yet tangible ideas at the right pace has a different effect when you read for yourself. Learn the language, learn what's provided for you at the bolo, learn what you can do in that world that you can't do here. Bored at your home? Go walk across the planet for six months through 'fasi'! Frustrated with your neighbor? Challenge them to 'yaka'! Want to quit the game? Open the 'nugo' and swallow your pill.
The downside with bolo is it's written in the 80s by a Swiss guy. There's several dumbass lines given to praising what amounts to magical "3rd-worlders" and other sorts of eyeroll-worthy colonial mindset bullshit. There's a ton of attempts to weave together the three worlds of the coldwar era into a kind of resistant network, but I don't think much of what he proposed was realistic then and certainly doesn't vibe now. This also is where the book most attempts realism relating to the european squatting movement as some kinda vanguard, not realizing the razor thin category of exception that stuff was happening in. This is (un)fortunately mostly limited to the beginning parts of the book, before he expands into fantasy and philosophy.
Maybe the problem in the end with bolo is that it's not silly enough, that it claims some relevance to current politics and traps itself in being realistic. And maybe that's the test for people who aren't yet sold on our anti-state game: Do you consider it unrealistic to imagine radically different futures, or do you consider it unrealistic to continue on as we have?
