Tag Archives: classic

Some of My Favorite Things: Films With Anarchists and Sex Workers

Recommended? Both films, but Lady L is better.

I’m a ho and an anarchist and I feel a special connection to art portraying anarchists and sex workers. So, I started on a quest to find and watch as many films about anarchists and sex workers ad possible. My current partner being very supportive and patient; (also they might have a personal interest in the topic as well considering they’re an anarchist dating an anarchist whore) I give you my two favorites so far: Lady L and The Front Page.

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Tarzan of the Apes

Tarzan_of_the_Apes_in_color

Tarzan of the Apes

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

1914, A. C. McClurg

Recommended? Not as such

Every time I sit down to write for the Anarcho-Geek Review, I think about how limiting it is to say “Recommended?” and then answer in the binary. But, I suppose, a reader comes to AGR wanting a recommendation from the point of view of “can an anarchist recommend this politically.” And with Tarzan, no, I cannot in good conscience recommend it. It’s a story of its time, with all the evil black men and damsels-in-distress that entails.

It’s a well-written, well-paced adventure and romance the likes of which we don’t see too often anymore. So what’s good (a little bit) and bad (a hell of a lot) about old Tarzan?
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The Last of the Masters by Philip K Dick

Orbit Science Fiction #5

“The Last of the Masters”

by Philip K. Dick

1954, Orbit Science Fiction #5

Recommended? Eh

I like Philip K. Dick. I appreciate how earnestly weird he is. Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep meant almost as much to teenaged me as Blade Runner did. Dick was a pioneer of science fiction that explores the mental and spiritual landscape instead of just outer space.

“The Last of the Masters” is one of his first stories (technically a novellete, I suppose) and was published when he was 25. It’s also, in my research thus far, the only story he’s written that explicitly deals with anarchism.
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Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers

by Robert Heinlein

1959, G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Recommended? Know thy enemy

I can’t talk about a Heinlein book, let alone Starship Troopers, without talking about my dad.

My dad’s a lot like I am. We look alike. We both have wanderlust. We both instinctively refuse authority and we both give to people flying signs by the side of the road. We’re both writers, and he raised me to read science fiction. In particular, he raised me to read Heinlein.

My father’s also a marine. He never saw combat—he was honorably discharged for medical reasons not too long after bootcamp. But, you know, once a marine, always a marine.

It’s hard not to imagine that, had I joined the military, my experience would have been similar to my father’s. And his experiences (as I understand them) entirely belie Heinlein’s glorious presentation of the armed forces.
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