Penny Rimbaud - Grumpy Old Man?

We're back from an interesting weekend at the Dark Mountain Festival, and there'll be more to report about what we experienced and thought. But first, we'll deal with good old Penny Rimbaud.

Now in our last post, we stated that we were looking forward to the conversation between Tom Hodgkinson and Penny that was due to take place on Sunday afternoon. Prior to that, there had been a portent of what was to come which was observed by us prior to Hodgkinson's own presentation on 'Back to Freedom' earlier in the day: Penny turned up to take his seat in the main hall and chose a row right in front of George Monbiot, whom he noticed, leading to them greeting each other like long-lost friends. Remember how Monbiot had hacked away at his straw man version of Anarchism some time ago in the Guardian? That was reason alone for most Anarchists to chin him if he got close enough (or at least have a full and frank discussion). But no, Penny clearly knows George well and feels warmly enough about him to kiss him on both cheeks. As does George. Does this mean that Monbiot doesn't think Penny is an Anarchist, or that Penny can stomach Monbiot's awful Liberalism? Answers on a postcard...

Anyway, the discussion between Hodgkinson and Penny was supposed to be about 'The End of the Enlightenment', and no doubt that it was in many ways, but it turned out to be an edgy, hostile, philosophical rambling session - as well as inaudible: Penny refused to speak in front of the microphone, the cause of some complaint from many in the audience. It increasingly became clear that Penny was in a foul mood, with long silences (and some one word answers) following Hodgkinson's questions, with Hodgkinson looking visibly uncomfortable throughout. To these ears, even if all those things had been equal, it would still have been impenetrable, and our notes betray the feeble soundbites that were on offer: Rimbaud stating "I don't read newspapers, watch TV - I don't want to know", quoting Lennon "life is what happens whilst you're making plans", announcing "I've never done psychotropic drugs". But what convinced us that Penny was in fact auditioning to join to cast of the BBC's Grumpy Old Men was his labelling of the Health & Safety Executive as the "Cartesian SS", and then underlining this by telling the amused audience that he was serious when he said this.

The give away line was last. Penny apologised for his mood explaining "I felt grumpy when I arrived". It could prove to be his epitaph.

Hanging out with Dystopian Liberals...

... is what we're up to this weekend. Yes, we're joining Paul Kingsnorth, Dougald Hine and other fellow travellers at 'Uncivilisation', the first Dark Mountain Festival. Billed as a 'training camp for the unknown world ahead', the weekend festival takes place in Llangollen, and features music, poetry, art and discussion - and not political action.

We've a feeling that people with views like ours will be in a tiny minority for the next couple of days, but we have noticed from the programme that none other than Penny Rimbaud is 'in conversation' with Tom Hodgkinson, editor of The Idler, so there is at least one person affiliated with Anarchism present, possibly talking about Anarchism (or not) - we'll report back at some point in the next few days. But what else holds our interest about this event?

Well, our curiosity was  piqued some time last year with the publication of the Dark Mountain Manifesto, and after reading one or two articles written by Kingsnorth that seemed to be less than enchanted with the mainstream environmental movement, and also not unwilling to slaughter some sacred cows too (our particular favourite was this diatribe against the building of windfarms and green re-industrialisation). We recognised some interesting ideas in there, particularly as Kingsnorth has spent a fair amount of his time in said movement over the years.

But we should add that with Kingsnorth, you have to take the rough with the smooth: he's more than a little concerned with the quest for some kind of 'English Identity' and believes that bringing about an English Parliament will be some kind of progressive step. The newly published first edition of the Dark Mountain journal (a sort of Dystopian McSweeney's) contains a new essay by him, parts of which are a diatribe against leftists colonising the environmental movement - before any of you think he might be onto something, this is clearly from a Liberal standpoint and contains hints that Kingsnorth is actually travelling further to the right as time goes by.

Our interest is in the progress of this milieu, which seems to be establishing itself at a steady pace and garnering more and more interest. Now this may be entirely undeserved, but if nothing else, it is an interesting way to spend a weekend - so bear with us. We'll be reporting back soon.