Letters of Insurgents, some thoughts

Recently I worked my way through Fredy Perlman's novel Letters of Insurgents, I had previously read it in pieces before, but this time I read it cover to cover and made use of Audio Anarchy's massive audiobook.

Apologies if you're in a online chat group or forum with me and had to put up with me plugging the book on and of for the past month.

Here's some thoughts on, I typed this up for Goodreads.

Letters of Insurgents is difficult to describe, appropriate given how one of its main themes is the difficult of communicating with other human beings, and the dangers miscommunication can cause.

I've been aware of this book for some time, everyone I've known whose read this book has been glowing in its praise, one even said it drove them to tears. But I was intimidated by the books length, thankfully there's a free audio version that's not hard to find to help.

The format, a series of correspondence between two revolutionaries in different countries can make keeping track of events and people somewhat difficult as the narrative jumps between them and in time, but this does give an excellent demonstration of complexity as events and people keep having layers added to them throughout.

The content is largely concerning humanity, what it means to be free and revolution in its purest sense and all the ways many fall short. Its very critical, but everything it criticises has its chance to have its say and its rare for a character or strategy to have no positive features and attractions.

Political parties, Unions, Communes, underground armies, and urban guerrillas are all scrutinised and appraised from the point of view of human happiness and freedom. 


There's a few things I'd like to add, while the structure of the book is just a very long conversation between two old friends trying to catch up and then later reach out to each other, its not just a long book about people talking to and at each other. Much of the analysis and criticism is woven into the actual events, so we see the effects and achievements of local militia's and "Popular" armies. We see how different groups of the New Left react to the growing militancy and social upheaval of the 1960s. 

I saw one of the few dissenting reviews I've come across of this book complain that it is one encounter with a strawman after another, and I couldn't disagree more. Its true its easy to see where Perlman's sympathies lie, but the characters who come closest to that are by no means perfect, and characters on the other side who aren't total reactionaries do have redeeming features. Ultimately I think what Perlman was getting at is that people are complicated and no one is perfect, and correct politics if such a thing exists does not make for correct behaviour.

Personally I found it very interesting when a character who turned to primitivism showed up. Perlman earned a lot of respect for his early writings but nowadays he's something of an embarrassment because in later life he turned to Camatte's primitivism.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see his primitivist stand in get so much criticism. Thought the book does have a strongly pro edgrowth vibe with the desirability of abolition work and mass industrial consumption. 

In short I highly enjoyed my time with Letters of Insurgents, I can see why its both almost universally praised by readers and never managed to break out into mass readership despite the praise and the abundance of cheap and free versions available. In addition to its length its really, really hard to summarise accurately.

Here's just a few screen caps of bits that stood out to me while reading.