Hakim Bey, Real and Unreal

Hakim Bey, the pen-persona of Peter Lamborn Wilson, was a deliberately constructed character, which one might with equal justice call a brilliant creation of personal theater and a hoax. He himself didn’t know where the con ended and the art began. Scamming and the stage have this in common: the performance only succeeds insofar as the actor himself believes in it.

Thom Metzger is best known for his frenziedly poetic verbal surges. I once described him as “a disoriented archangel, soaring berserkly earthwards, on wings of pidgin English,” and I don’t think I can improve upon the formulation today. In this book, Thom brings his talents to bear on recreating the spell Hakim cast: a glimmering glamorous mix of genuine insights—and bogus self-serving syntheses. And Thom has succeeded to admiration . . . —Mildred Faintly; read her full review of this book here.