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Black Box: A Record of the Catastrophe
The work of eminent writers—Richard Dyer, Silvia Federici, Ursula K. Le Guin—as well as a host of new thinkers illustrate continuity and rupture in ongoing theoretical and cultural critique
This volume contains an eclectic but accessible collection of reportage, interviews, letters, fragments, and theoretical responses from some of the brightest new—as well as a few established—minds in critical theory. Its authors have sent dispatches from American prison yards, the shipping graveyards of India, fatal overseas drone strikes, roads crisscrossing the Mississippi delta, childhoods in revolutionary Zimbabwe, and kitchens where undocumented workers wash dishes. As the serial disasters of capitalism’s current crisis—economic, political, environmental—continue to batter the world, Black A Record of the Catastrophe is a device for recording, analyzing, and transmitting events as they happen. It offers neither dire predictions nor false hopes; instead, it embraces the mystery of what might transpire. Contributors include scholars (Nina Power, Silvia Federici, Sami Khatib, Chris O’Kane, Tanya Erzen), cultural critics (Richard Dyer, Charles Mudede), authors (Ursula K. Le Guin, Miranda Mellis), poets (Emily Abendroth, Cathy Wagner, Alli Warren), and many others.
This volume contains an eclectic but accessible collection of reportage, interviews, letters, fragments, and theoretical responses from some of the brightest new—as well as a few established—minds in critical theory. Its authors have sent dispatches from American prison yards, the shipping graveyards of India, fatal overseas drone strikes, roads crisscrossing the Mississippi delta, childhoods in revolutionary Zimbabwe, and kitchens where undocumented workers wash dishes. As the serial disasters of capitalism’s current crisis—economic, political, environmental—continue to batter the world, Black A Record of the Catastrophe is a device for recording, analyzing, and transmitting events as they happen. It offers neither dire predictions nor false hopes; instead, it embraces the mystery of what might transpire. Contributors include scholars (Nina Power, Silvia Federici, Sami Khatib, Chris O’Kane, Tanya Erzen), cultural critics (Richard Dyer, Charles Mudede), authors (Ursula K. Le Guin, Miranda Mellis), poets (Emily Abendroth, Cathy Wagner, Alli Warren), and many others.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 23, 2016
My partner's step-mom gifted this to me a few months ago, explaining that it reminded her of me. We had only met once before, making the exchange an outstanding offer of warmth. Considering she runs a precious radical bookstore a few states away, she's the one and only person in my life who'd present me with a recent PM publication. But as I flipped through the pages, I was impressed by her character judgment--Tisa Bryant! CAConrad! Silvia Federici! It even has "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," my favorite Le Guin short story for close to a decade.
As I peer at the copyright page, I notice a list of editors--of course, an old professor of mine was partially responsible for its conception. That my predilections aligned so predictably with my past institutions oddly justified so much of the content within Black Box. But also, okay, I could have easily left bummed out that my education had prepared me to be an ideal consumer of the products of my superiors (after all, they taught me to be the type of reader they think writing deserves). Instead, I felt a lick of pleasure by the kinetic heading: VOLUME ONE. Maybe it felt so good because it was a proposal of participation--or maybe because it meant that someone I consider institutionally established, and *so brilliant* tried something new (just as he encouraged us to do) and it was probably hard (as it usually was for us, too). I refrain from commenting on content because it's honestly too much, so much, in every direction, but yeah, wow, good.
As I peer at the copyright page, I notice a list of editors--of course, an old professor of mine was partially responsible for its conception. That my predilections aligned so predictably with my past institutions oddly justified so much of the content within Black Box. But also, okay, I could have easily left bummed out that my education had prepared me to be an ideal consumer of the products of my superiors (after all, they taught me to be the type of reader they think writing deserves). Instead, I felt a lick of pleasure by the kinetic heading: VOLUME ONE. Maybe it felt so good because it was a proposal of participation--or maybe because it meant that someone I consider institutionally established, and *so brilliant* tried something new (just as he encouraged us to do) and it was probably hard (as it usually was for us, too). I refrain from commenting on content because it's honestly too much, so much, in every direction, but yeah, wow, good.
Displaying 1 of 1 review