New title by Peter Lamborn Wilson

Xeroxial Editions has recently published a new book by Peter Lamborn Wilson, Abecedarium.

Amazon.com’s product description is remarkably brief, describing it as an: “Alphapoetic meditation on the etymology of the English alphabet with diagrams by the author.”

It shouldn’t surprise me given the poetry of his work published under the name Hakim Bey, but Wilson has published two other books of poetry with Xeroxial Editions: The Universe: A Mirror Of Itself (1993) and Gothick Institutions (2005). More to add to the list. ¹

From the review on Brainwashed.com:

In this meditation on the mysteries of A through X (Wilson affirms that X is the actual and secret last letter of the alphabet), seed thoughts are planted as he rambles through a mnemonic chain of Cabalistic associations connoted by each letter. He cracks their individual codes and makes public what had previously been private and veiled. In doing so he continues the work Gerard de Nerval begin when writing in Aurelia that “the magic alphabet, the mysterious hieroglyphics, reach us only in a defective corrupted form, altered and falsified either by time or by those beings who have a vested interest in our remaining ignorant.” Ancient imageries are unearthed by following the mutation of the alphabet from Hebrew to Hieroglyphic to Proto-Sinaitic and into its transition phase before it was stamped and sealed in the Roman mold.

The keyword for this week seems to be poetry. First with Ashley Naftule’s review of Datura, then my stumbling across Crowley in a litcrit book on poetry, now Wilson has a new title. Poetry often seems overlooked, yet it ranks highest in literary esteem.

Abecedarium’s release spotted on Technoccult.com

Footnotes:

1. Update: Oh heck. I just ordered them. And Aimless Wandering, published under Hakim Bey, too. What can I say? I’m a bibliophile. [back]

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4. Original Falcon puts out new material from Robert Anton Wilson
5. New title by Three Hands Press