Although I have been posting here with less and less frequency, I have been writing and publishing elsewhere. Aside from my upcoming co-authored book, Methods Devour Themselves, in the past several months I have written and published a few articles. In lieu of writing a proper post, here is what I have published since January.
1. Benjanun Sriduangkaew's Winterglass and Necropolitics
My first (and maybe only?) officially published review of a work of fiction. As regular readers are probably aware, one of my favourite contemporary SFF authors is Sriduangkaew. Indeed, she guest posted on this blog about the book I reviewed just before it was released. Winterglass is a phenomenal novella, tightly plotted and beautifully written, and my review focused on the philosophical notions it evoked. Thankfully, minor literature[s], the literary journal that published my review, promotes the kind of book reviews that a philosopher would write. I hope the review, despite at least one flaw I noticed after the fact, encourages people to read this lovely piece of literature; I read it twice, since it was published, because it is that good.
2. Radiating Disaster Triumphant: Modernity and its Discontents
An article written for abstrakt, an excellent Turkish journal, on Enlightenment and modernity and the ways in which a critical revolutionary Marxist should understand these concepts. As one of my close friends has joked for years, the concept of "demystification" has long been an obsession of mine and this is an article where I deal with that obsession, along with the connected concepts of Enlightenment and modernity, in a manner that hopefully befits revolutionary communism. Moreover, in the face of rightist appropriations of Enlightenment thought––as well as post-modernist rejections of Enlightenment––it is necessary to think through the meaning of these concepts anew. I'm really proud of this article, the lines of demarcation it draws, and hope that readers interested in scientific thought would engage with it critically. I am honoured that abstrakt reached out to me to write for them and would hope that every critically minded Marxist with an anti-revisionist bent would take this journal seriously.
3. Mark Steven, Splatter Capital: The Political Economy of Gore Films
A review of Mark Steven's Splatter Capital, published by Symposium. As I'm sure many long time readers are aware, I'm a fan of horror cinema. So it should be no surprise that I was excited by a book that used a particular iteration of horror films to critique capitalism. Steven's Splatter Capital is an engrossing and accessible read that begins with the recognition that capitalism is horror itself. Steven has also written a book about modernism's connection with communist ideology (Red Modernism, that I have yet to read), and one might make the case that horror cinema is a particular outgrowth of politically engaged modernist expression. Steven does locate the origins of splatter film in the work of Eisenstein. And like I wrote in the review, the horror film analogy he uses to explain the labour theory of value is on point––it's far better than most of the explanations I've encountered in my academic training.
So until I can put my thoughts together to write another post, and while I'm working on other publications, hopefully you will enjoy the above work. Logging off to head to bed. Got to get up early to head to the picket lines as we hit the middle of the 11th week of this gruelling strike.
1. Benjanun Sriduangkaew's Winterglass and Necropolitics
My first (and maybe only?) officially published review of a work of fiction. As regular readers are probably aware, one of my favourite contemporary SFF authors is Sriduangkaew. Indeed, she guest posted on this blog about the book I reviewed just before it was released. Winterglass is a phenomenal novella, tightly plotted and beautifully written, and my review focused on the philosophical notions it evoked. Thankfully, minor literature[s], the literary journal that published my review, promotes the kind of book reviews that a philosopher would write. I hope the review, despite at least one flaw I noticed after the fact, encourages people to read this lovely piece of literature; I read it twice, since it was published, because it is that good.
2. Radiating Disaster Triumphant: Modernity and its Discontents
An article written for abstrakt, an excellent Turkish journal, on Enlightenment and modernity and the ways in which a critical revolutionary Marxist should understand these concepts. As one of my close friends has joked for years, the concept of "demystification" has long been an obsession of mine and this is an article where I deal with that obsession, along with the connected concepts of Enlightenment and modernity, in a manner that hopefully befits revolutionary communism. Moreover, in the face of rightist appropriations of Enlightenment thought––as well as post-modernist rejections of Enlightenment––it is necessary to think through the meaning of these concepts anew. I'm really proud of this article, the lines of demarcation it draws, and hope that readers interested in scientific thought would engage with it critically. I am honoured that abstrakt reached out to me to write for them and would hope that every critically minded Marxist with an anti-revisionist bent would take this journal seriously.
3. Mark Steven, Splatter Capital: The Political Economy of Gore Films
A review of Mark Steven's Splatter Capital, published by Symposium. As I'm sure many long time readers are aware, I'm a fan of horror cinema. So it should be no surprise that I was excited by a book that used a particular iteration of horror films to critique capitalism. Steven's Splatter Capital is an engrossing and accessible read that begins with the recognition that capitalism is horror itself. Steven has also written a book about modernism's connection with communist ideology (Red Modernism, that I have yet to read), and one might make the case that horror cinema is a particular outgrowth of politically engaged modernist expression. Steven does locate the origins of splatter film in the work of Eisenstein. And like I wrote in the review, the horror film analogy he uses to explain the labour theory of value is on point––it's far better than most of the explanations I've encountered in my academic training.
So until I can put my thoughts together to write another post, and while I'm working on other publications, hopefully you will enjoy the above work. Logging off to head to bed. Got to get up early to head to the picket lines as we hit the middle of the 11th week of this gruelling strike.
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