Against the Vortex: Zardoz and Degrowth Utopias in the Seventies and Today

by Anthony Galluzzo

'Like a pastry chef who can MacGyver a five-star dessert out of a Twinkie or a Jell-O packet, Anthony Galluzzo confects something special from the unlikeliest of industrial the 1974 Connery-Rampling vehicle Zardoz.' Matt Tierney, author of What Lies Void Aesthetics and Postwar Post-Politics

Alongside scientific knowledge and collective effort, building a degrowth ecological society will require a different set of stories and myths than the big and fast Promethean fables we're accustomed to. Using Boorman's Zardoz as a tool, Into The Vortex unearths the artistic and intellectual output of a decelerationist 1970s, with an eye toward imagining a very different sort of future.

90 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 3, 2023

Reviews

[Jon Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is wonderful for those of us who love this often-maligned film. Although I'm not familiar with most of the theory to which Galluzzo refers, I enjoyed his recasting the meaning of the film as both myth and satire. There is a greater project here too: near the end Galluzzo refers to Graeber and Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything, and like that book he calls for a synthesis between utopian concepts and our needs as human beings.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Against the Vortex, Anthony Galluzzo has written a dynamic and critical piece of cultural criticism. Anchoring the work in an entertaining reading of the Seventies era John Boorman film Zardoz, Galluzzo builds outward from a discussion of the film to capture the spirit of the age. The promethean spirit that can be seen in Silicon Valley types who today seek to defeat death and overcome our humanity. Galluzzo charts an alternative genealogy, what he labels Critical Aquarianism, a discourse that seeks a limited utopia, where we can live humane lives in relation to rather than in domination of the rest of the biosphere. With brilliant readings of an impressive group of radical thinkers such as Christopher Lasch, Fredric Jameson, Ursula K Le Guin and Victor Turner, the author performs an impressive intellectual genealogical feat. After this enjoyable and enthralling piece of criticism, the reader will eagerly anticipate Galluzzo’s next fiery literary volley. An important read.

[Kermodii · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5.
too short when it is built upon so many different cultural movements. require a heavy background check and a keen/critical eye for current techno-centrist trends. highly enjoyable if you decide to go through with it. long live Zed, but die short as well.

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The anti-modernist 'critical aquarianism' of this is very much not my tendency but as a reading of the political-ethical import of the flying head loincloth film it is v nicely done.

[Monk Duro Landry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting interpretation from someone who has clearly done their research, I think it just needs to be expanded on more