{"product_id":"utopian-trace-an-oral-presentation-9780578491103","title":"Utopian Trace: An Oral Presentation","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the late 19th and early 20th century Peter Lamborn Wilson hosted The Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade on WBAI-FM in NYC, where he would read his essays as \"Radio Sermonettes.\" One of these, \"Utopian Trails in Central Park,\" was thought lost until the publisher of Logosophia found some tapes he had made of Wilson's shows. \u003cem\u003eUtopian Trace\u003c\/em\u003e contains this essay, with Wilson's on air running commentary (in a green font), extensive updated notes (in maroon font), and dozens of period and contemporary illustrations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTaking as his springboard a lengthy letter Frederick Law Olmsted wrote to a friend in 1852 (quoted in full), detailing his visit to the North American Phalanx in New Jersey, a community founded on the aesthetic and utopian principles of Charles Fourier, Wilson imagines what Walter Benjamin's essay \"Central Park\" would have been if it had been about NYC's Central Park.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Actually, Central Park would have provided a perfect subject for Walter Benjamin, as a setting for his hero, the \u003cem\u003eflâneur\u003c\/em\u003e, or \"aimless stroller,\" as an emblem of the emergence of commodity culture, as an echo or embedding of utopian dreams. Walter Benjamin loved Charles Fourier, both for his utopian socialism and his proto-surrealist \u003cem\u003epanache\u003c\/em\u003e. Did Benjamin know that Frederick Law Olmsted, the chief architect of Central Park, had been influenced by the wave of Fourierism that swept America in the 1840's and 50's? Had he guessed that Central Park was meant as an embodiment of this enthusiasm?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeter Lamborn Wilson weaves aesthetics, history and philosophy into a panegyric illuminating the numinous heartbeat of the miracle that is Central Park, and the people who made it possible for us to walk this paradise on \u003cem\u003eterra firma\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWilson, Peter Lamborn:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Peter Lamborn Wilson is co-author of \u003cem\u003eGreen Hermeticism: Alchemy and Ecology\u003c\/em\u003e (Lindisfarne Books, 2007) and has published more than sixty books in 16 languages, including VANISHED SIGNS (Lunar Chandelier Collective), ESCAPE FOR THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND OTHER ESSAYS: FOURIER, MARX PROUDHOM AND NIETZSCHE (Autonomedia, 1998), \u003cem\u003eThe Temple of Perseus at Panopolis, Pirate Utopias, Sacred Drift, Night Market Noodles\u003c\/em\u003e, and UTOPIAN TRACE (Logosophia, 2019), amongst many others, and the upcoming \u003cem\u003eCauda Pavonis: Esoteric Antinomianism in the Yezidi Tradition\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe American Revolution as a Gigantic Real Estate Scam\u003c\/em\u003e.","brand":"Logosophia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50491828207890,"sku":"9780578491103","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6986ed92-3799-4276-b9d3-f5cb974a2c7b.jpg?v=1730557919","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/utopian-trace-an-oral-presentation-9780578491103","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}