Fri, 01 Apr 2005
Hacker Manifesto
McKenzie Wark, A Hacker Manifesto, Harvard University Press
This book was initially greeted with some excitement which
turned to dismay when it was found that the prose was a little
on the obfuscated side for most people. It is not a particularly
easy read but then who said it had to be?
People who are resolutely against dumbing down will find themselves
automatically defending the book but when you've used up all
your initial energy on that front, you might still find it a
little annoying.
Part of the problem seems to be a child of an urge to be a little
bit timeless and not be boxed between say Xbox2 and 3, for example.
Another is given by the first clue in the book -- a dedication to
the author Kathy Acker (Blood and Guts in High School amongst others).
She wote dystopic, disconnected stories in what some people have
called unreadable prose. Oh well.
Not that this is disconnected. It has a completely logical flow
through the arguments it professes. Ok here's a completely random quote,
from paragragh 153 as it happens ..."In the overdeveloped world, the
total transformation of nature does more than complete the disappearance
of nature as nature and lead to its return as the representation of
what desire lacks."
So the people expecting to be told to hack their iPods and games
consoles to make a better world, and the reasons for why, find
themselves in an unaccustomed place, floating above what they want
to see, which has become a blurry thing.
What it's really about is to be found in the large and useful "writings"
section at the back of the book (paragragh 072 as it ...) in which
he says "If A Hacker Ethic (referring to the book The Hacker Ethic by
Pekka Himanen) seeks to resurrect the spirit of Max Weber, then A
Hacker Manifesto offers a crypto-Marxist response."
Aha! Crypto-fascists will turn red (the color of the book) but most
others, disatisfied with feral capitalism, laws for the rich, and
the mindless the-market-will-sort-it-out mob, will find the ideas
at least worth a look but they will have to work hard to fully
appreciate what's on offer.
It's a nice little production done in red cloth hardback with black
plates and white lettering. The paper and print is also nice and
it has handy (or presumptious, according to your feeling) numbering
of the paragraghs. It'll look just great alongside your hardback set
of Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming.
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pre Dec 04 reviews are here