Anarchy! (a small attempt at a book review)

"Book" (Zine) "Review:" Off the Map (by Hib and Kika)

This was a zine written by two girls who spent a summer backpacking and squatting across Europe. This book changed my life and I really can't tell you why, though I do know it's in part due to the absolutely gorgeous (in my opinion) language/writing and in part it just taught me a different way to view the world. (Also, I should add that had it not been for my friend Laurie bestowing me with this book as a gift, I may have gone through life never knowing about it. So I'm ever grateful to her for this.)

My friend (Laurie) said when our friend (Malka) read this, she (Malka) felt like they (the book's heroines) were just mooching, expecting others to take care of them, give them handouts.

I didn't feel that way at all. Instead, I felt they had to trust in a system that possibly wasn't there (anarchy, specifically this definition: a theory that regards the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal and that proposes the cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society). There were many uncertain nights where the late hour pressed in on them and they still didn't know where they were sleeping. They spent many a night in a yard or field under the great big sky full of stars, which may sound fun in a story, but the reality of that can be scary and icky.

I think the purpose of the book/zine was to tell what happens when you dream and hope, and when you try to find, and have to count on, human goodness. They found it. They always were appreciative. But they got burned a lot too; were treated less than human for how they looked; had too many instances of stumbling uncomfortably, painfully even, through the cities trying to find a semi-private place to relieve themselves because no businesses would let them use their toilets and washrooms. If someone did accommodate them they counted their pennies and bought a coffee, if it was someone's home they went above and beyond cleaning up after themselves and did dishes and housework, earning their keep.

I guess mostly I think what they did was very brave, and if they made an entire life out of it instead of a summer then I would argue that it was mooching. What they had to do, asking for people's help, having limited ways with which to repay, relying on human kindness, I personally would have a very hard time swallowing my pride and doing. I know it was a choice they made, a conscious decision, but to me it was a study in human nature, and a very beautiful one at that.

[gets off soapbox now, puts it away for a while]