Rants and Incendiary Tracts: Voices of Desperate Illumination 1558–Present is an anthology book of rants edited by Bob Black and Adam Parfrey. The book does not attempt to define what a rant is. Black was an anarchist, the author of The Abolition of Work, while Parfrey was a publisher. It was co-published by Parfrey's Amok Press and Loompanics Unlimited in 1989. The original co-editor was Hakim Bey, another anarchist, who left the project.
Following a prelude and a foreword from Parfrey and Black, respectively, the book is a collection of 56 rants from a variety of sources, arranged in chronological order from 1558 to 1988. The rants are either full texts or excerpts. Writers of the rants range from left-wing and anarchist activists to far-right writers, dictators, attempted murderers and murderers. The book received praise from reviewers, particularly for the perceived entertainment value and the diversity of ideologies. Several noted some content as offensive or immoral.
Background and publication history
The book was edited by the anarchist Bob Black and the counterculture publisher Adam Parfrey. Parfrey was then the co-founder of Amok Press, a publisher known for its publication of strange and taboo books. Parfrey was the editor of a similar volume, Apocalypse Culture, published by Amok in 1987, while Black had previously authored the 1985 book The Abolition of Work.
In compiling the book Parfrey asked for quotes from the neo-Nazis Joseph Tommasi and George Lincoln Rockwell from James Mason for their inclusion in the book. For unclear reasons these quotes were ultimately not included. The original co-editor was Hakim Bey, another anarchist. Its first edition was 219 pages long; Parfrey gives a prelude on the importance of rants, arguing that "to hold an opinion and dare to express it is the final prerogative of the free man", and that in contemporary times no one spoke their mind.
The book includes 56 rants in total; The final rant is Hakim Bey's rant against the book itself as "Intellectual S & M Is the Fascism of the 80s" in 1988.
Inclusions range from the well-known to the obscure. the Marquis de Sade,