I know slavoj zizek is a fucking loser now, but his movie A Pervert's Guide to Ideology was the first piece of media that began to rub away the sheen/shellac of pretense that the world operates smoothly. It was my first time really engaging with a Marxian analysis and sitting with it. I was in high school, and it set me up to care about critical theory. From this movie, I'd read Mark Fisher's really quick book "Capitalist Realism: is there no alternative?" Fisher grounds a lot of his theory in culture/media in a very similar way to Zizek. After that, I'd follow recommendations made by others in the thread!
Jun 18, 2024

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capitalist realism is great… it’s dense but i also like “capital is dead. is this something worse?” by mckenzie wark which has some interesting critiques mentioned about capitalist realism. not the main focus of the book but it’s interesting
Jun 19, 2024
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marxinista okay so I have a terrible memory but I think I struggled with capital is dead... I felt like Wark didn't really address the sheer amount of manual labor that goes into managing information... But I guess since that's not the mechanism of accumulation it doesn't disprove anything...? IDK I need to go back and reread it!!
Jun 19, 2024
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fetadata def some of it went over my head bc my engagement with critical theories have been primarily from a sociological lens! so parts of it veered a little far into philosophy for me lol. but the way i was understanding it was kind of that it was partially building on marx’s theory of superstructure and expanding on his theory (and engels’) of ways the ruling class rules dominant ideas too? by focusing on how it’s not merely a relationship within society related to class, but the increased importance/presence of information in shaping the world (and social/class relations) has made information a form of capital
Jun 19, 2024
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marxinista appreciate this synopsis !!! Gonna have to skim this book today and reconsider it !!!
Jun 19, 2024
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I honestly hadn’t heard about this book until I saw a shit ton of memes about it a few years ago. Capitalist Realism is a very worthwhile read and I can definitely see why it's so popular now. Fisher does a great job articulating the cultural experience of neoliberalism. This book set me on the right path in life. I also got much smarter and more attractive after reading it.
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(honorable mention to Zizek’s Hitchcock anthology) but I read Jameson’s cinema work throughout undergrad and it helped me visualize film as space and how we think about art as representative
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