Clay Richards, anarchist blogger, writes about politics, art, sexuality and emerging digital realities. More poststructuralist than postmodern, politically incorrect to some, harshly critical to others, the Postmodern Anarchist believes in anarchy without anarchists, yet will freely discuss anarchism at the drop of a hat. Contact: postmodernanarchist(at)netweed(dot)com
The Postmodern Anarchist now resides at postmodernanarchist.com!
4/24/2005
A Note on My Identity
As some of you realized long ago due to my ineptitude at covering my tracks, I am Clyde Smith, the creator of netweed and the author of most of the work at Cultural Research as well as the hip hop trade blog, ProHipHop.
If I return to The Postmodern Anarchist at some future date, and I'd like to, I may continue to use Clay Richards as a pen name. I like the name but I'm giving up the secret identity. In a way, it makes me sad but it also allows me to tell the story of why I chose to publish this blog under a pseudonym, beyond the issue of making it look like there were more bloggers at netweed. Um, the more bloggers thing was a happy side effect rather than an initial intention.
So why Clay Richards? Remember 9/11 and how weird things got afterwards with the FBI showing up at people's doors because they had an antiBush poster on their dorm room wall (Durham, NC) or said something at the gym about understanding why people hate the United States (San Francisco)? That was kind of scary and it was hard to tell how bad things were going to get. So when I wrote Why I'll Still Burn the Flag after 9/11, inspired by the pending Superbowl, I wanted to get it out but I was scared. So I published it as Clay Richards. And then, after getting it out online at Freezerbox, I started this blog and posted it here.
But the name Clay Richards had actually been created when I wrote The Postmodern Anarchist Tries to Get a Job, which was originally published with a different title on the website of the Chronicle of Higher Education. I used Clay, the name of a character based on me that I created for an even earlier fictional experiment, and added Richards because I liked the WASPy sound. Richards was the opposite of what I thought most theory heads at the time would have chosen for a pen name. And there you have it.
I think I'll continue to behave as if I am Clay Richards and Clyde, that netweed guy, is someone else. On that note, Clyde has finally posted one of my favorite essays from his tragically short academic career. You can find Nonlinear Science and the Postpositivist Researcher over at Cultural Research.
And you can find me back in retirement as Clay Richards, though I do hope to return at some future date. It's just that, without an academic home, all this anarchy and poststructural theory jabbering doesn't pay shit and leaves me with few people with which to talk face to face.
If I return to The Postmodern Anarchist at some future date, and I'd like to, I may continue to use Clay Richards as a pen name. I like the name but I'm giving up the secret identity. In a way, it makes me sad but it also allows me to tell the story of why I chose to publish this blog under a pseudonym, beyond the issue of making it look like there were more bloggers at netweed. Um, the more bloggers thing was a happy side effect rather than an initial intention.
So why Clay Richards? Remember 9/11 and how weird things got afterwards with the FBI showing up at people's doors because they had an antiBush poster on their dorm room wall (Durham, NC) or said something at the gym about understanding why people hate the United States (San Francisco)? That was kind of scary and it was hard to tell how bad things were going to get. So when I wrote Why I'll Still Burn the Flag after 9/11, inspired by the pending Superbowl, I wanted to get it out but I was scared. So I published it as Clay Richards. And then, after getting it out online at Freezerbox, I started this blog and posted it here.
But the name Clay Richards had actually been created when I wrote The Postmodern Anarchist Tries to Get a Job, which was originally published with a different title on the website of the Chronicle of Higher Education. I used Clay, the name of a character based on me that I created for an even earlier fictional experiment, and added Richards because I liked the WASPy sound. Richards was the opposite of what I thought most theory heads at the time would have chosen for a pen name. And there you have it.
I think I'll continue to behave as if I am Clay Richards and Clyde, that netweed guy, is someone else. On that note, Clyde has finally posted one of my favorite essays from his tragically short academic career. You can find Nonlinear Science and the Postpositivist Researcher over at Cultural Research.
And you can find me back in retirement as Clay Richards, though I do hope to return at some future date. It's just that, without an academic home, all this anarchy and poststructural theory jabbering doesn't pay shit and leaves me with few people with which to talk face to face.
A Brief Return: IMMANENT MULTIPLICITY
Just a quick hello to suggest that all you theory heads might find IMMANENT MULTIPLICITY a blog worth reading. Smart stuff with well chosen and unique illustrations. I love this picture of Zizek. He was just in SF but I missed him.
