THE GIAP DIGEST ARCHIVES
2000
  Prior to /Giap/: Flesh And Blood, One Person After Another
(Wu Ming 1's Last Words on His Experiences in the Luther Blissett Project)
'An inalienable clause of style will prevent me from talking about L***** B******* after the symbolic seppuku (ritual suicide) I am about to commit. If I continued in the future to reply to questions and requests, I would rapidly turn into a "B*******ologist" - a fate which does not appeal to me - and, what's more, I would be perceived as a sort of "Breton of the L***** B******* Project", which would not do justice to the horizontal, open character of the transnational network that adopts the multi-use heteronym.'
From Italy to Indochina - November 5th, 2000
'Comrade "Gap" has not slept alone for thirty-two years. Every night, hundreds of faces keep him company, almond-eyed faces in the dark green of the jungle, mud-covered and frowning, they scream and torment him. "I killed too many men". The quiet countryside near Imola, with its neat vineyards, does not bear any resemblance to the forests of Indochina, and Vitaliano Ravagli looks like a peaceful man, a 66-year-old man in very fine fettle ("My punch is still like a hammer blow"). This is a land of bull-men, generations of peasants with big shoulders. Nothing reveals that this man was a Vietcong.'
The best interview since...- 3 December 2000
An interview about Wu Ming's second novel Asce di guerra [Hatchets of war], co-authored by Vitaliano Ravagli.
 2001
From Luther Blissett to Wu Ming -21 January 2001
'we object to the notion of the past as a mausoleum we ought to garrison, or a memorial tablet we ought to polish and embellish with plastic flowers. We are not interested in the "immanent rationality" of an era, we want to know how a community in struggle can make use of certain stories, we want to explore the link between the reasons of the past and the present, between yesterday's junk food and today's indigestion. When one looks at the "immanent rationality" of the past, s/he takes the risk of justifying any position and choice in the name of the "spirit of the times". That way, we'd end up blurring any distinction between the Partisans and the [fascist] Black Shirts'
The Fascists get frightened!- 4 april 2001
"Hate lecture at the university!", the hate lecturer screamed.
We're All Outlaws Now (and other stories) 10 April 2001
'We firmly deny that Vitaliano Ravagli exhorted the audience to "shoot" anybody. There is no doubt, however, that he invited the students to revolt should a fascist dictatorship be established again. If the Italian right-wing has really abandoned its fascist tradition, it strikes as a surprise that the young pupils of the party led by Gianfranco Fini felt so offended by Ravagli's exhortation to fight Fascism.'
Comments on the Quebec City Riots 28 April 2001
SVENSKA - Tankar från Quebec City
'the Wall went down and several breaches were to be defended by the cops until the end of the summit. Unlike the Italian cops in Naples last March, the Canadian police and the government couldn't get away with mass shambles and everlasting comb-outs, thus they chose remote-controlled "low intensity" conflict, shooting thousands of gas bombs almost 24 hours a day for the whole week-end. While most besiegers -helped by the wind, the gas masks and some good Samaritans - could protect themselves in some way, the besieged suffered some side effects: there was so much gas that their food was contaminated and the kitchen of their hotel had to be shut down.'
From the Multitudes of Europe Rising Up Against the Empire
Is there not blood enough upon your penal code, that more must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven, and testify against you? How will you carry the bill into effect? Can you commit a whole country to their own prisons? Will you erect a gibbet in every field and hang up men like scarecrows? Or will you proceed (as you must to bring this measure into effect) by decimation?... Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace? |
The Magical Mystery Tour of the Fake Black Bloc in Genoa
DEUTSCHE - Die Magical Mystery Tour des gefaketen Schwarzen Blocks in Genua
'I was in Genoa, I came back worn out, angry, disappointed and feverish, with the ligaments of my knees destroyed and completely out of voice, and I say: do not go hunting anarchists, do not criminalize the international Black Bloc. It is our duty to draw distinctions between the Black Bloc and what happened in Genoa. It is our duty not to charge with being a carabiniere in disguise anyone who took direct action in Genoa. Pogroms and paranoid conspiracy theories do not belong to our culture'
Myth-making and catastrophes - 19 October 2001
SVENSKA - Tute Bianche, den praktiska sidan av att mytskapande
DEUTSCHE - Interview mit Roberto Bui: Luther Blissett, tute bianche etc.
'In an interview conducted with some members of the Cahiers du Cinema in 1974, Michel Foucault made a very clear distinction between the baby and the water. He said: "Beneath the sentence 'There are no heroes' is hidden a different meaning, its true message: 'there was no struggle' [...] Can you make a film about a struggle without going through the traditional process of creating heroes? It's a new form of an old problem." Luther Blissett In Italy, since the early and mid-1990's a whole bunch of comrades have focused their attention on an even newer form of that old problem.'
Stories Belong to Everyone - October 21st, 2001
NEDERLANDS - Verhalen zijn van iedereen
'US patent #5443036: "A method for inducing cats to exercise consists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct.'
2002
Child Abuse, Frame-Ups and Free Speech: Wu Ming's legal troubles - 28 Jan 2002
'In those days "pedophilia" was described as the most serious problem in the world. It sounded like "pedophiles" were everywhere, a very powerful clandestine organization, practically the occult masters of the Internet, whose agents were on the prowl in all public spaces of every town. It was an "emergency", indeed, a collective psychosis whose main consequences have been a general retreat from the field of individual liberties'
We are all "field negroes" - 10 April 2002
What good is a vanguard so ahead that nobody can catch up with them?
About "54" And A Few Short Stories - 22 April 2002
'In this novel "official" history does never take over the narration, it is just used to bond the events, all the political conspiracies and intelligence operations, the smuggling and the horse racing and the gambling and the fighting and the loving and the everyday life of a petty populace which is depicted with fondness, sometimes in a slightly caricatural way but usually with lifelike quality.'
Genoa, July 20, 2002: A Little Secular Miracle 11 August 2002
'One says solid things when he tries not to say extraordinary ones'
News, Interviews And A Piece Of Abuse -12 August 2002
OSZTRAK-MAGYAR - Wu Ming, 54 - The Snafu Interview
SVENSKA - Popkultur och kommunism. Intervju med Wu Ming av Snafu
'The making of pop culture was a collective process during which the borders of ever-changing open communities were constantly re-traced, subcultures constantly re-shaped themselves around myths. We'd better understand what "pre-requisites of communism" were at work in that process, instead of believing that millions of people were being brainwashed. '
2003
WHY NOT SHOW OFF ABOUT THE BEST THINGS?
Notes On Social Conflict In Italy And The Metaphors Used To Describe It - 9 January 2003
' "Sedimentation" refers to the process of depositing sediment, that is, according to the Oxford Dictionary, "sand, stones, mud, etc. carried by water or wind and left somewhere, eg at the bottom of a lake, a river, the sea, etc.". The waters and winds of social conflict have carried and left us a plenty of experiences and examples. Among the sand and the stones are so many nuggets that it would be absurd not to keep digging. Stories are shovels. That's the way we use them. ' |
Q in English and the Springtime of the Movements - May 2003
Pieces of news and a radio broadcast on the Italian turmoil.
DEUTSCHE - Wu Ming zum Krieg
Die vier folgenden Artikeln sind im Februar/April 2003 geschrieben und wurden in der Zeitschrift "Carta", erschienen als auch in verschiedenen Website. Der erste ist eine Einladung zu "Trainstopping", als gegen-Kireg Aktion. Die anderen Artikeln sind Kommentar der Kriegsentwicklung im Irak.
The Return of Proletarian Postmodernism - 12 June 2003
British author Stewart Home reviews Q + Dean Martin Had A Hard-on (a short story by Wu Ming 1)
On Lawrence of Arabia and the Fight Against Copyright - 26 July 2003
NEDERLANDS - Lawrence of Arabia: over de strijd tegen het copyright
'technological innovation is being hijacked in order to cypher or conceal important data, and the whole media system is being used as a loudspeaker for the record industry's edicts. In the former case, quite soon the Net's collective intelligence will provide the keys to re-access the concealed data (e.g. how to rip anti-copy CDs). In the latter case, the Net will spread counter-information and ridicule the invaders' claims. '
A Lot of New Stuff - 28 August 2003
Several reviews of Q and other pieces of news.
Two Interviews And Pieces of News - 15 December 2003
'A "free media" doesn't exist. The media are things, and things don't feel. Things can't feel any sense of freedom. People can feel freedom. So, what we have is people who want to accomplish a greater freedom in communication, and try to do it by using the media system (some parts of it) the way they like it. It's a war, you know. Freedom is never given away by a power structure, it must be conquered, defended and re-conquered all the time. There is no certain thing. You put the foot in the door and try to walk right in. You try to take a step beyond, and try to do it with style.'
2004
 FORGIVE ME, I'M JUST A FRUIT PICKER.
Notes on Pricks, Sons of Bitches, the Language We Used in Q, and the Edulcoration of the Past - 29 February 2004
'In 1525 we weren't yet born, but we bet nobody, NOBODY, used to talk like characters of historical novels or period piece movies usually do. Perhaps the critics' expectations of how "period" language should sound depend too much on either hi-brow bourgeois literature or Hollywood cloak-and-dagger flicks, or even both things.' |
Ten Years of Luther Blissett and Wu Ming - 21 September 2004
Volunteer Translation Work Wanted. The 10th Anniversary Interview. An Advance Chapter of Our Novel 54. Our Movie on Radio Alice Awarded at the Venice Film Festival. The Italian Effect: Radical Thought, Biopolitics and Cultural subversion.
NEDERLANDS - 10 Jaar Luther Blissett / Wu Ming
DEUTSCHE - Die Kulturindustrie von der Graswurzel her reformieren
2005
 The Fascists - 29 March 2005
Thanks for the volunteer translation work - 54 in the UK - Q in Poland - Getting Rid of the Constitution - The Fascists, a gonzoid story by Wu Ming 1 - We Wonder if We've Answered the Question (an interview).
SVENSKA - Fascisterna! - av Wu Ming 1
Working Slowly in the UK - Screenings of Our Movie in London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh - April 2005
Working Slowly in New York City and Other Despicable Habits - 29 May 2005
Radio Alice/Working Slowly in New York City - Working Slowly is a Film for Everyone - The Seventies? What Seventies? - You're Lazy - The Calcutta Telegraph on Q - 1995-2005: What Happened to Luther Blissett? A Commemorative DVD.
Burlesquoni, Tony Blair and Us - 24 June 2005
New Features and Reviews from the UK- Switters + Wu Ming 1 = New Thing - Download, Enjoy.... and Buy for Your Friends - Dirt Chep, and Yours for Good.
Man, Did They Clash (The Two Sevens) - 15 July 2005
Like a By-the-way Thing - An Interview in 2 parts on 3ammagazine - Everyone Wants to be Cary Grant: The Independent on 54, again - Bargain Books
What Copyleft? - 25 August 2005
An Interview on Copyleft and Intellectual Property from Blow Up Magazine (Italy). Translated by Jason Di Rosso.
SVENSKA - Vilken Copyleft? - 25 Augusti 2005
En intervju med Wu Ming om copyleft och intellektuell egendom, Blow Up Magazine (Italien). Translated by Thomas.
2006
Yo Yo Mundi in the UK (and Ireland!) - 30 January 2006
This is no ordinary gig.
Style as a Martial Art - 16/18 February 2006
54 in the US - On Being an Ecocentric Storyteller - Cary Grant: Style as a Martial Art. A Conversation with Wu Ming 1.
The May Day & Football Issue - 1st May 2006
Luther Blissett, Football (Soccer) and the Refusal to Work - Luther Blissett (the footballer) interviewed twice and talking about us (audio & video) - Capitalism is a Dead Frog, or: Energy Saving as a Threat on the Western World - 54, UK Paperback, 6th May 2006
Nope, They Sure Don't Like Us!
A few notes on the differences between European and American reviews of Q and 54, appended with the Washington Post and the AV Club reviews of 54.
But Then You Guys Turn Up - 18 September 2006
Piermario's last interview - What's a Vietnamese general got to do with it? - If 54 were an animal it would be a giraffe - 54's Amazon ProductWiki - Chicago (p)Review: Wu Ming special - Yo Yo Mundi: their space on MySpace - Jeffrey from Australia -  Piermario's last words
A Tribute to Piermario Ciani, Italian Artist and Cultural Saboteur, 1951-2006
First of all, please watch this video
Farewell to Piermario
Comments on the funeral
Pier Ciani, the master of cultural guerrilla warfare
Mind Invaders & Trax: an excerpt from Luther Blissett's Book Mind Invaders, 1995
Video. The Disney Trap: How Copyright Steals Our Stories
Video. Cary Grant's Style as Revealed by Valentin Spirik's Experimental Edit of His Girl Friday
2007
 What Kept Us Busy: Manituana
What happened is: we just basically gave up the idea of running a regular newsletter in English in the 2006-07 period. No way we could keep up with that task. Too much work for and around the new novel. Writing Manituana kept us so busy we didn't even have the time to wipe our arses. It kept us so busy we didn't have the time to be tired. Now, after three years of literary toil, the book is out (in Italy). Indeed, it's been out for more than two months and it's doing great. Now that we have a little more time, we understand that we're the next thing to shell-shocked veterans (and our arses are dingleberried). And yet we're jumping from city to city for an extensive book tour, and we're already working on the next novel of the "Atlantic Trypthic" ('cause that's what it is: a kind of trilogy, although each book will be 100% independently readable).
End/Beginning of the Year
RADIOHEAD AND, ER, US - L'AXIOME DE WU MING (!) - 2008 INTERNATIONAL TOUR: CANADA, VERMONT, FRANCE, BELGIUM, SPAIN, SWEDEN - A MURAL IN SAN FRANCISCO - ROBERTO SAVIANO (AUTHOR OF GOMORRAH) ON OUR BOOK MANITUANA - MUSIC INSPIRED BY MANITUANA: JET SET ROGER AND WU MING 5
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