PLASTIC IN UTERO no.2
44 pages of material from Artxmis Graham Thoreau, Sean Swain, Cien, Steve Kirk, John Zerzan, Minona, Illustrious_Monarch, Sascha Engel, Jason Rodgers, Walks with Knives, Nazel Pickens & Abrum Ahul
"Plastic in Utero: a journal of anti-civ anarchy reborn from the compost of wasteland modernity is a journal of anti-civilization anarchism. It is anti-left, anti-politics, and anti-stupid. Importantly, it is pro-fun. It isn’t pushing any blueprints for “fixing” this society, which isn’t possible. Instead, it seeks out uninterrupted critique. The people who contributed their work did it because they enjoy the process and want to contribute to a new affinity. We aren’t the vanguard, we aren’t the party, we aren’t the messiahs."
From the introduction to Issue no.2:
"PIU, by its nature as a cut and paste zine that isn’t reliant on digital distribution, is a great example of McLuhan’s idea that “the medium is the message,” meaning the emphasis is on the medium of expression, and less so the content. As the world becomes more and more reliant on the Internet, social media, and information overload, zines like this (and so many others of higher importance) are needed now more than ever! I’ve had folks ask me to upload it online. My answer is and will continue to be an emphatic NO. If others wish to upload, that is fine by me, I simply don’t want to digitize my hobby and life further.
Speaking of the medium and message, readers of PIU #1 might notice there is less art in this number. I wanted to be more intentional with the background art I included, favoring more text content. Many of those close to me felt PIU #1 would have benefited from more pieces and I took this to heart. I’ve done my best to include as many different authors as possible, particularly to show the diversity of thought around Anti/Post-Left anarchy and the topic idea of “identity” which is the central idea of this issue.
I chose the topic idea of identity because the Left (in particular, the professional-academic form of it) has monopolized how radicals discuss issues of identity, and how we deal with conflicts of identity, internal and external.
More often than not, the Left pushes “if you’re not x identity, you can’t engage with y discourse” which only essentializes identity, instead of negating it. Identity is a tool we’ve been enslaved to…
…or, to put it as Max Stirner does, 'Only when nothing is said about you and you are merely named, are you recognized as you. As soon as something is said about you, you are only recognized as that thing…'”