History of Barbelith

From Barbelith

Barbelith has existed as a web community for almost seven years.

The Underground started in summer 1998 as an adjunct to The Bomb, a website dedicated to annotating writer Grant Morrison's comic book series The Invisibles. The conversation expanded to encompass the larger themes of the comic book: freedom, insurrection, drugs, pop culture, sex, magick, fringe science and overall fabulousness. And as the conversation expanded, more voices were added, each bringing something to the party.

We agree on almost nothing: there are as many manifestos here as there are individual members. There's no ideology at work here, and plenty of room to disagree, to debate, to learn. If we can be said to have a common guiding principle, it can be summed up in the single word that was put forth in The Invisibles as "the most important lesson": disobedience.

As an adjunct to that; your Barbelith may vary. Some people see it primarily as a place to hang out with their friends, others as a useful information resource, others again, still, to talk about The Invisibles. It's probably worth remembering, however, that it is a very long time since Barbelith was a site devoted exclusively to Grant Morrison. Thus, claiming that something is "not what Grant would have said" or that you are disgusted that a board named after Barbelith should contain an opinion like x is unlikely to get you much attention or sympathy.

See: Grant Morrison and Barbelith. This is test.