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Post-Capitalist Desire
Negli ultimi mesi del 2016, poco prima di togliersi la vita, Mark Fisher tenne una serie di lezioni e conferenze alla Goldsmiths University di Londra, esponendo i tratti essenziali di un nuovo progetto che la morte avrebbe lasciato incompiuto.
Prendendo le mosse da un quesito fondamentale - vogliamo sul serio ciò che sosteniamo di volere? - Fisher esplora il rapporto tra desiderio e capitalismo, e si domanda quali nuove forme di desiderio sia ancora possibile ricavare dal passato, dal presente e dal futuro. Dallo sviluppo e fallimento della controcultura negli anni Settanta all'elaborazione di una linea di pensiero sempre più fondata su quello che è ormai diventato un termine di uso quasi comune - l'accelerazionismo progressista - le lezioni di Fisher offrono un'occasione preziosa per riflettere sull'opportunità di approdare a nuove forme di coscienza e consapevolezza, e sulle implicazioni culturali e politiche che ne conseguirebbero.
Un volume indispensabile per comprendere quali sarebbero state le nuove direttrici che il pensiero di Fisher avrebbe sviluppato, inoltrandosi nei territori della psichedelia e spaziando tra sociologia e musica, filosofia, arte e letteratura.
Prendendo le mosse da un quesito fondamentale - vogliamo sul serio ciò che sosteniamo di volere? - Fisher esplora il rapporto tra desiderio e capitalismo, e si domanda quali nuove forme di desiderio sia ancora possibile ricavare dal passato, dal presente e dal futuro. Dallo sviluppo e fallimento della controcultura negli anni Settanta all'elaborazione di una linea di pensiero sempre più fondata su quello che è ormai diventato un termine di uso quasi comune - l'accelerazionismo progressista - le lezioni di Fisher offrono un'occasione preziosa per riflettere sull'opportunità di approdare a nuove forme di coscienza e consapevolezza, e sulle implicazioni culturali e politiche che ne conseguirebbero.
Un volume indispensabile per comprendere quali sarebbero state le nuove direttrici che il pensiero di Fisher avrebbe sviluppato, inoltrandosi nei territori della psichedelia e spaziando tra sociologia e musica, filosofia, arte e letteratura.
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First published September 1, 2020
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About the author
Mark Fisher
86 books1,972 followersMark Fisher (1968 – 2017) was a co-founder of Zero Books and Repeater Books. His blog, k-punk, defined critical writing for a generation. He wrote three books, Capitalist Realism, Ghosts of My Life and The Weird and the Eerie, and was a Visiting Fellow in the Visual Cultures department at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 278 reviews
December 21, 2020
Finished, in the haste of catching trains and flights, trapped in the liminal space of stations and airports, even more eerie in the dismal light of pandemic regulations. That Fisher is as captivating a teacher as he was a brilliant writer, did come as a surprise, but not his transparent ability to blend theories and ideas with real life. Mark Fisher was a believer in a way out of the nightmarish spiral of capitalism right until the very end, and this comes across in his brilliant lectures. As with his writings, the air of sympathy, of kindness, of caring for something greater and beyond, is always present. I was instantly fascinated by his proposed syllabus and plans for the entire course, but of course we were denied the pleasure of watching how Fisher would conclude his intimate exploration of libidinal desire and how we can reclaim and reshape it to set the world free.
This book is immensely precious. It is a worthy companion to Fisher's published work as one of the influential cultural critics and thinkers in our time, and for the countless people he has inspired, a bittersweet trail of his ideas and theoretical aspirations, before he left us.
This book is immensely precious. It is a worthy companion to Fisher's published work as one of the influential cultural critics and thinkers in our time, and for the countless people he has inspired, a bittersweet trail of his ideas and theoretical aspirations, before he left us.
July 16, 2023
Mark Fisher is my great discovery 2021. I know 100 years after everyone else. Anyway, somehow I came across his 2009 book Capitalist Realism and then went down the Mark Fisher rabbit hole and found out that some of his former students/ colleagues just published a collection of transcripts from Mark Fisher's final series of lectures at Goldsmiths, University of London, in late 2016 called “Postcapitalist Desire” (Repeater, 2021). It also shows what an amazing lecturer he must have been.
Within the Marxist spectrum of preferences and interests, I am definitely a lot more on the economic (rather than the cultural) end of thing and enjoyed this series of lectures on the relationship between desire and capitalism. This relationship is also one of the things that really stuck with me wheni I read Fisher’s Capitalist Realism "To reclaim real political agency means first of all accepting our insertion at the level of desire in the remorseless meat-grinder of Capital".
The five lectures start off with covering various approaches to post-capitalism from counterculture in the 1970s to the ongoing left-accelerationist line of thinking (also something I haven’t quite fully conceptualized as such). Of course it’s infused with Fisher’s own thinking. I haven’t read the key authors of most of the lectures, mainly because I find Lukács and Lyotard unreadable also because I don’t really know much (aka nothing) about Freud and Lacan (I think I need a Lacanian boyfriend for a while to walk me through all of those difficult texts before I switch back to the traditional Marxist. Also not a very feminist statement, I know. lol.). There are tons of thoughts about approaches to moving beyond capitalism, including thoughts about potential ‘post scarcity’ and post work society (some of the Paul Mason stuff).
What I found politically quite interesting (this is not the main point of the lectures but something I found interesting) is the return of “class” in the 21st century but in a way that serves the right rather the left, a return in the form of an identitatrian resentment. In late capitalism, ‘the poor’ identify with the rich and resent the professional class ‘liberal elites’ (reminds me of much in Ehrenreich’s must read on the professional middle class PMC), Fisher describes this as a result of the 1970s and onward identitarian capture of class which was necessary to neutralize class consciousness (in Fordism). So this is something I am going to follow up on.
I know this reads quite random but this is exactly how read these five lectures, somehow part of a coherent reading on post-capitalism (think Fisher’s main line of capitalist realism, ie that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism) but then I also read each lecture somewhat independently, mainly because I was struggling so much 🤷♀️
Within the Marxist spectrum of preferences and interests, I am definitely a lot more on the economic (rather than the cultural) end of thing and enjoyed this series of lectures on the relationship between desire and capitalism. This relationship is also one of the things that really stuck with me wheni I read Fisher’s Capitalist Realism "To reclaim real political agency means first of all accepting our insertion at the level of desire in the remorseless meat-grinder of Capital".
The five lectures start off with covering various approaches to post-capitalism from counterculture in the 1970s to the ongoing left-accelerationist line of thinking (also something I haven’t quite fully conceptualized as such). Of course it’s infused with Fisher’s own thinking. I haven’t read the key authors of most of the lectures, mainly because I find Lukács and Lyotard unreadable also because I don’t really know much (aka nothing) about Freud and Lacan (I think I need a Lacanian boyfriend for a while to walk me through all of those difficult texts before I switch back to the traditional Marxist. Also not a very feminist statement, I know. lol.). There are tons of thoughts about approaches to moving beyond capitalism, including thoughts about potential ‘post scarcity’ and post work society (some of the Paul Mason stuff).
What I found politically quite interesting (this is not the main point of the lectures but something I found interesting) is the return of “class” in the 21st century but in a way that serves the right rather the left, a return in the form of an identitatrian resentment. In late capitalism, ‘the poor’ identify with the rich and resent the professional class ‘liberal elites’ (reminds me of much in Ehrenreich’s must read on the professional middle class PMC), Fisher describes this as a result of the 1970s and onward identitarian capture of class which was necessary to neutralize class consciousness (in Fordism). So this is something I am going to follow up on.
I know this reads quite random but this is exactly how read these five lectures, somehow part of a coherent reading on post-capitalism (think Fisher’s main line of capitalist realism, ie that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism) but then I also read each lecture somewhat independently, mainly because I was struggling so much 🤷♀️
October 15, 2022
If you've read Fisher you'll mostly already know what you'll be getting here - A moving, creative critique of post-Fordist, neoliberal capitalism and the systemic ways it shuts down our beliefs in any possible alternatives. However, these last lectures of Fisher do seem to strike a more optimistic chord of possibility than his other writings. How sadly ironic given his end...
Definitely a springboard for your mind though as he opens up small gaps of possibility through his reading and presentation of critical texts by others. Certainly created a strong reading list for me.
As I just wrote for my review of Fisher's introduction to his last unfinished work Acid Communism Fisher's project seems very much Walter Benjamin's one of redeeming history through reexamination and bringing it to shine in its relevance for the present. I am also reminded of Thomas Pynchon's most optimistic work Against the Day in which Pynchon seems to posit a time in which everything could have gone another, less malevolent, direction.
Definitely a springboard for your mind though as he opens up small gaps of possibility through his reading and presentation of critical texts by others. Certainly created a strong reading list for me.
As I just wrote for my review of Fisher's introduction to his last unfinished work Acid Communism Fisher's project seems very much Walter Benjamin's one of redeeming history through reexamination and bringing it to shine in its relevance for the present. I am also reminded of Thomas Pynchon's most optimistic work Against the Day in which Pynchon seems to posit a time in which everything could have gone another, less malevolent, direction.
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August 29, 2023Who knew I'd be reading lecture notes for fun?
I'm used to a certain tone from Mark Fisher. What I'm not used to is (although it's hardly surprising) an almost-playful classroom demeanor. Fisher welcomes his students into the world of Lukacs, Lyotard, etc., and he almost makes me want to go back to read Lukacs and Lyotard and see if I can see them as anything other than bullshit-spinners.
And then one day, class ended, and it was not to resume. That incompleteness – which I did not know was part of Postcapitalist Desire, until I suddenly found myself confronted with an appendix – adds a whole other tone. Fisher the hauntologist haunts me again.
I'm used to a certain tone from Mark Fisher. What I'm not used to is (although it's hardly surprising) an almost-playful classroom demeanor. Fisher welcomes his students into the world of Lukacs, Lyotard, etc., and he almost makes me want to go back to read Lukacs and Lyotard and see if I can see them as anything other than bullshit-spinners.
And then one day, class ended, and it was not to resume. That incompleteness – which I did not know was part of Postcapitalist Desire, until I suddenly found myself confronted with an appendix – adds a whole other tone. Fisher the hauntologist haunts me again.
August 10, 2023
a treasure
May 29, 2022
The obvious inchoate nature of these lectures leads to a stage direction: [silence]. This volume boasts a dense introduction, one which I frankly found daunting. The lectures however recall the wonderful Foucault Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976.
There is an interesting reading of Marcuse, one both of and beyond the counterculture. There is also more than one vision of Universal Basic Income on display. Alas it didn't appear to be enough to sustain. This is followed by a heartfelt reading of Great Expectations and then attention to Lyotard who's bizarre reading of Marx appeared to be an antipode apart from the Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia project of Deleuze and Guattari.
The playlist at the end from Fisher's blog is an interesting inclusion. I have yet to be thrilled by Fisher's erudition or ideas. This was a pleasant detour despite such.
There is an interesting reading of Marcuse, one both of and beyond the counterculture. There is also more than one vision of Universal Basic Income on display. Alas it didn't appear to be enough to sustain. This is followed by a heartfelt reading of Great Expectations and then attention to Lyotard who's bizarre reading of Marx appeared to be an antipode apart from the Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia project of Deleuze and Guattari.
The playlist at the end from Fisher's blog is an interesting inclusion. I have yet to be thrilled by Fisher's erudition or ideas. This was a pleasant detour despite such.
January 13, 2025
Reading the last words Fisher said to his students brought tears to my eyes. But just as he was pessimistic sometimes he also had high hopes. The fact that his students arrived to class even though they knew fisher was dead, started a reading group of the class’ syllabus, and that the group grew bigger than it originally was, is a testament of fisher’s hope in the future. That maybe desire can find its way beyond capitalism and wage labor.
February 12, 2021
Reading ideas through the lecture format, with alot of the conversational aspects preserved well by Colquhoun makes it quite exciting to read. Kind of feel like you’re there in a way, I guess. Obviously, Lecture Five is dense as shit, and doesn’t really get any clearer when they discuss it tbh, but I guess it be like that sometimes... I was more excited when Fisher spoke on the political-history side of things, which I hadn’t heard much from him before. The lecture on Jefferson Cowie’s book “Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and The Last Days of The Working Class” is real good, and the recurring focus throughout the book on “where we are now” and “what do we do about it” is, if anything, simply helpful. Obviously, in the long shadow of his death, it’s quite sad to read what was meant to come, which was essentially more of the same. But still, definitely worth hearing Fisher this way, through the classroom.
December 10, 2024
Nonostante la presenza ossessiva di scostumatezze postmoderne (Deleuze eccetera eccetera), ti voglio bene. Mark Fisher, io ti amo. Esistono alternative ed esistono domani diversi. Esiste un mondo che dev’essere trasformato.
Rest in Peace <3
Rest in Peace <3
March 20, 2021
This is the second book of transcribed university lectures I've read, followed after Borges' wonderful Professor Borges: A Course on English Literature. Fisher's book is a bit harder because unlike Borges, Fisher wasn't blind, so there are slides you as the reader rarely get to see (they're sometimes summarised in the footnotes). Unlike Borges, Fisher died in the middle of these lectures, so after lecture five it's over, forever, the other ten lectures are now hauntological.
What sets this apart from other non-fiction books: you as the reader are not as well-informed as the students in these lectures. Wonderfully smart people who are steeped in the materials, who've finished the precursor units recently, and who have clearly read the prep material in the syllabus (unicorns!?). For this book to work best you'd best read the syllabus before each week, just like in any other uni course (the syllabus is at the end of the book, for secret reasons).
What sets this course itself apart from most other STEM-y courses is that Fisher is trying to find something together with his students, it's closer to a proper research unit rather than a knowledge-vomit with following regurgitation. There's a rough outline along Marxist literature, Paul Mason, Marcuse, Lukacs, Lyotard, along which Fisher lectures, jokes, laughs, discusses where 'the left' might go after capitalism: postcapitalism, push through capitalism instead of fighting it.
What sets this book apart from other non-fiction books is that there's no 'one message', you get to learn a lot about the current streams of far-left thought around postcapitalism. It's a uni course after all, it's not nicely packed up in a string of arguments, you jump into the deep end of contemporary thought, no swimming vests provided.
It's sad that we lost Fisher. Covid-19 has in some ways broken the old, in other ways shown that the old is not sustainable anymore. A voice showing the way forward is needed.
What sets this apart from other non-fiction books: you as the reader are not as well-informed as the students in these lectures. Wonderfully smart people who are steeped in the materials, who've finished the precursor units recently, and who have clearly read the prep material in the syllabus (unicorns!?). For this book to work best you'd best read the syllabus before each week, just like in any other uni course (the syllabus is at the end of the book, for secret reasons).
What sets this course itself apart from most other STEM-y courses is that Fisher is trying to find something together with his students, it's closer to a proper research unit rather than a knowledge-vomit with following regurgitation. There's a rough outline along Marxist literature, Paul Mason, Marcuse, Lukacs, Lyotard, along which Fisher lectures, jokes, laughs, discusses where 'the left' might go after capitalism: postcapitalism, push through capitalism instead of fighting it.
What sets this book apart from other non-fiction books is that there's no 'one message', you get to learn a lot about the current streams of far-left thought around postcapitalism. It's a uni course after all, it's not nicely packed up in a string of arguments, you jump into the deep end of contemporary thought, no swimming vests provided.
It's sad that we lost Fisher. Covid-19 has in some ways broken the old, in other ways shown that the old is not sustainable anymore. A voice showing the way forward is needed.
January 14, 2025
El Fisher menos gris y más colorido, menos triste y más alegre, menos desolado y más comunitario, menos hombre y más crítico. Curiosamente, el último Fisher.
Los libros de clases recopilatorias siempre me dejan un movimiento visceral incontrolable. No es un libro de tesis. Sí que aprendes mucho de él. Pero lo que más he sacado de este viaje es cómo el espíritu más alegre puede convivir con la descomposición silenciosa; o, quizás, cómo la composición con la vida no debe entenderse como una burda literalidad, sino que la alegría se nos presenta en la despedida, que no en la huida.
Los libros de clases recopilatorias siempre me dejan un movimiento visceral incontrolable. No es un libro de tesis. Sí que aprendes mucho de él. Pero lo que más he sacado de este viaje es cómo el espíritu más alegre puede convivir con la descomposición silenciosa; o, quizás, cómo la composición con la vida no debe entenderse como una burda literalidad, sino que la alegría se nos presenta en la despedida, que no en la huida.
February 3, 2025
كانت بداية معرفتي بمارك فيشر في عام 2017، وذلك من خلال محاضرة كان يلقيها يتحدث فيها عن "إلغاء المستقبل" كتصوُّر يُروَّج من قِبَل المنطق الرأسمالي. للأسف، فارقنا الكاتب في نفس العام نتيجة معاناته من مرض الاكتئاب. ترك فيشر وراءه إرثًا ثريًّا يتضمن مدونة إلكترونية ومحاضرات كثيرة مصوَّرة ومسجلة صوتيًا. يُعتبر مارك فيشر من أبرز المنظِّرين في ما يُعرف باليسار الجديد، الذي يحاول أن ينتهج مسارًا مختلفًا عن اليسار التقليدي المتمثل في الأحزاب الكلاسيكية.
الكتاب الذي ألَّفه فيشر عبارة عن سلسلة محاضرات ألقاها تحت عنوان "رغبة ما بعد رأسمالية". اختار الكاتب هذا العنوان لمحاولة طرح تصوُّر جديد لنظام اجتماعي-اقتصادي بديل للرأسمالية، دون أن يصفه بأنه نظام اشتراكي أو شيوعي، وذلك بسبب ما لحق بهذه المصطلحات من تشويه جرَّاء ارتباطها بالسلطوية أو فشل النماذج السابقة. يرى فيشر أن فشل اليسار في تقديم بديل حقيقي للرأسمالية يعود إلى أن الرأسمالية لم تعد مجرد نظام اقتصادي يستفيد من الواقع، بل أصبحت قوة تشكِّل الواقع نفسه. فالواقع الرأسمالي ألغى أي محاولة، سواء كانت فانتازية أو واقعية، لتخيل شكل جديد للحياة لا يقوم على التراكم والربح القائم على الاستهلاك.
يرى فيشر أن حركة الثقافة المضادة التي انتشرت في الستينيات والسبعينيات كرد فعل على الرأسمالية الكينزية وتواطؤ الاتحاد السوفيتي مع أمريكا بعدم دعم حركات التحرر الوطني في الجنوب، كانت حركة ثورية وتقدمية مقارنة بالأحزاب اليسارية في ذلك الوقت. ففي فرنسا، خرج العمال والطلبة في مظاهرات حاشدة، مكتسبين وعيًا طبقيًّا وثقافيًّا أكثر راديكالية مما كان ينادي به اليسار اللينيني القديم، الذي كان همه الأساسي يتمحور حول السيطرة على الدولة عبر الحزب.
يشير فيشر إلى أن المجتمع الرأسمالي، خاصة في دول الشمال، نجح في إلغاء مفهوم الطبقة واستبدله بهويَّات فرعية. فأصبح الجميع يرغب في تصنيف نفسه على أنه ينتمي إلى الطبقة الوسطى فقط، دون أي انتماءات أخرى. بذلك، تحوَّل المجتمع إلى كتلة متجانسة من الطبقة الوسطى، وفقدت الهويَّات الطبقية التقليدية مكانتها. كما يرى أن اليمين الشعبوي نجح في تجييش الحس الطبقي للجماهير وتوجيهها في الانتخابات، كما يفعل ترامب مثلًا، الذي يخاطب الطبقة العاملة البيضاء في أمريكا ليس لإكسابها وعيًا طبقيًّا، بل لدفعها في اتجاه سياسي معين.
في المحاضرة الرابعة والخامسة، ناقش فيشر الحركات الفكرية التي دمجت أعمال فرويد مع ماركس، وتناول نظرة جان-فرانسوا ليوتار على ما يُعرف بـ"ماركسية الرغبة" وتشيؤ الواقع من قبل المنطق الرأسمالي. يجب الاعتراف بأنني وجدت صعوبة في استيعاب موضوع هاتين المحاضرتين بشكل كامل، وذلك بسبب جهلي بالكتب والنظريات التي تمت مناقشتها خلالهما.
April 6, 2025
i love it when leftists say "i know nothing about economics" and in the same breath dream about postcapitalist futures.
this lecture affirms three long-held observations:
1-leftism is infinite infantilization, "i deserve to not work, and have endless leisure via UBI, force the productive ones to take care of me."
2-leftism is inherently anhedonic to the point of self-destruction, i cannot keep count of all the depressed / suicidal leftists i know / have read.
3-not even fisher is sure about any of his readings on the titans of poststructualist left, deleuze, guattari, lyotard, young nick land etc - because 90% of it is obscurantist bullshit and academic circle jerk.
that being said, this was very cozy. switching to audio made it feel like a real lecture.
edit: let old nick land reply to fisher: hyperstition.abstractdynamics (dot) org/archives/008891.html
this lecture affirms three long-held observations:
1-leftism is infinite infantilization, "i deserve to not work, and have endless leisure via UBI, force the productive ones to take care of me."
2-leftism is inherently anhedonic to the point of self-destruction, i cannot keep count of all the depressed / suicidal leftists i know / have read.
3-not even fisher is sure about any of his readings on the titans of poststructualist left, deleuze, guattari, lyotard, young nick land etc - because 90% of it is obscurantist bullshit and academic circle jerk.
that being said, this was very cozy. switching to audio made it feel like a real lecture.
edit: let old nick land reply to fisher: hyperstition.abstractdynamics (dot) org/archives/008891.html
January 8, 2022
even though its just a transcript, reading fisher truly in his element really is special and heartbreaking at the same time. we truly were so lucky to have a thinker as innovative and as deeply empathetic as fisher at the same time as us.
February 1, 2024
Wow I really want to know how this would’ve ended. I’m so captured by Fishers intertwining of desire and capitalism- the libidinal economy if you will (I do feel like that could’ve been a game). But overall Fisher was really teeing up this impressive critique of critique - one we still hear pretty often. The only down side would be in order to get the full experience I do think I would’ve had to do all the supplemental reading but unless you’re in grad school who has the time
June 13, 2021
like LSD, this book is a microscopic droplet containing the only doorway to liberation we'll ever find, no caveats. here we discover Fisher in all his grandeur—a sardonic blogger-philosopher splicing together the Freudian dreamwork of post-Cold War Silicon Valley, the anti-work hyperstitions of the 60s, the current degeneration of intersectional solidarity into false consciousness identitarianisms disarticuled from class, the impending necessity of Universal Basic Income, and the capital-libido meshwork ensuring the sweetness of wage slavery. taken together, we arrive at a wide-ranging corrective to what is meant by "accelerationism," its vision for our future, and how we begin that work.
while this is not an entry level text (the lecturers were indeed intended for Fisher's graduate students) it seems like one of the few written pieces of political salvation for a contemporary left caught between (to be only slightly reductive) rainbow BIPOC reformist capitalism and the romantic "folk politics" of direct action we-showed-up-ism. the book is both a memorial to Fisher as a true fountain of hope and a toolkit for the world we know we deserve. the prerequisites: a few tabs, some friends, Michael Jackson, farming equipment, and AI.
while this is not an entry level text (the lecturers were indeed intended for Fisher's graduate students) it seems like one of the few written pieces of political salvation for a contemporary left caught between (to be only slightly reductive) rainbow BIPOC reformist capitalism and the romantic "folk politics" of direct action we-showed-up-ism. the book is both a memorial to Fisher as a true fountain of hope and a toolkit for the world we know we deserve. the prerequisites: a few tabs, some friends, Michael Jackson, farming equipment, and AI.
February 25, 2025
en tus palabras, mark: no more miserable monday mornings! allá donde estés, gracias
April 10, 2025
يناقش الراحل مارك فيشر أعمالًا رئيسية لماركوز وليوتار وغيرهما، مُناقشًا أسباب فشل مُستقبل الاشتراكية في الماضي، وكيف يُمكننا بناء مستقبل اشتراكي جديد انطلاقًا من هذه الأفكار. يستحق هذا الكتاب القراءة سواءً كنتَ اشتراكيًا أو شيوعيًا، أو مُحبًا للواقعية الرأسمالية، أو أي شخص مهتم بالفلسفة في القرنين العشرين والحادي والعشرين.
May 16, 2022
I think the world would be a (slightly) better place if Fisher had lived to complete this seminar and write Acid communism. Anyone who wants to do a reading group through the whole syllabus of this project hmu
November 1, 2022
Door de behoorlijk ongeredacteerde transcriptie van de lessenreeks te volgen, wordt je helemaal meegezogen in de Mark Fisher Zone™
Het voortijdig einde triggert nog meer om zelf verder te denken
Het voortijdig einde triggert nog meer om zelf verder te denken
August 28, 2025
no sé perquè no l'havia llegit abans !
Read
August 22, 2022Bijzondere laatste lessenreeks van Fisher in transcripties. Een eerste confrontatie met zijn teksten.
Geeft een verfrissend beeld van waar Fisher mee bezig was. De vraag naar mogelijkheden van een potentieel systeem na kapitalisme, mogelijkheden van links-accelerationisme, en de opvallende verknopingen met verlangen en kapitaal.
Het zijn lezingen in transcriptie, duidelijk met geëngageerde studenten wiens inbreng ertoe doen. Steeds worden teksten gelezen en besproken zoals Libidinale Economie van Lyotard en Eros en Beschaving van Marcuse. Freudiaanse ideeën van verlangen worden daar steeds gekoppeld met (neo-)marxistische opvattingen over kapitaal. Deze thema's zijn ook zaak in het hypothetische post-kapitalisme.
Ben verwonderd hoe Fisher en collega's verder het gedachtengoed van postmodernistische filosofen transformeren naar een invulling in de 21ste eeuw, en ook hoe dit verder zal evolueren binnen cultuurkritiek.
Geeft een verfrissend beeld van waar Fisher mee bezig was. De vraag naar mogelijkheden van een potentieel systeem na kapitalisme, mogelijkheden van links-accelerationisme, en de opvallende verknopingen met verlangen en kapitaal.
Het zijn lezingen in transcriptie, duidelijk met geëngageerde studenten wiens inbreng ertoe doen. Steeds worden teksten gelezen en besproken zoals Libidinale Economie van Lyotard en Eros en Beschaving van Marcuse. Freudiaanse ideeën van verlangen worden daar steeds gekoppeld met (neo-)marxistische opvattingen over kapitaal. Deze thema's zijn ook zaak in het hypothetische post-kapitalisme.
Ben verwonderd hoe Fisher en collega's verder het gedachtengoed van postmodernistische filosofen transformeren naar een invulling in de 21ste eeuw, en ook hoe dit verder zal evolueren binnen cultuurkritiek.
February 9, 2021
Accurately captures the experience of being in a lecture at Goldsmiths, for better or for worse. Digressions, abandoned lines of thought, interruptions are all preserved, but when you get a glimpse of what Fisher was striving towards in these lectures, it all clicks into place. Probably the least essential Fisher book, but still cool.
March 29, 2021
Creo que es uno de los libros más emocionales que he leído en tiempo. La cercanía que expresa Mark Fisher con sus estudiantes, las respuestas a medio responder, los argumentos por elaborar. Es otro Fisher, no es un libro de teoría, sino un proceso de construcción de la teoría. ¿Qué hubiera podido salir de este curso inacabado?
May 7, 2022
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April 23, 2024"Hay alternativas y hay un mañana. Hay un mundo que transformar"
August 8, 2024
This book presents 5 lectures all centered around the question: (how) is a societal transition beyond capitalism possible? Fisher introduces his series of lectures by showing the case of protests of the Occupy movement— a movement that essentially entails a protest against capitalism. A commenter on the affair locates a curious contradiction in the conduct of these protesters because they were both against capitalism while making use of their Iphones and standing in line for Starbucks. Any left-wing political movement that intends to formulate an alternative to capitalism must, in honesty, come to terms with this split between ethical claims and libidinal desire; between Marx and Freud. The failure to do so will just make the left collapse into a heap of impotent ethical claims that not only conceals the truth about desire but fails to address it. Indeed, capitalist production has a monopoly on our desires (even produces it) which are, as we know since Freud, fundamental to the way in which we act. This of course raises the question of agency; if capitalism is a pervasive sphere that, so to speak, covers everything it comes in contact with, leaving no “outside” from which a counter movement can mobilize, to what extent then do we hold transformative agency?
Some of the theories presented in lecture 3 following Lukács’s theory of consciousness attempts to answer this question in a positive light. In the immediate experience of subjects of bourgeois society, consciousness is, as it were, produced and maintained by the thing-ification of social structures in experience. Thing-ification (the term reification is used in the book) of social structures codifies flows of expectations, desires and actions within the subjectivity of individuals. Reducing consciousness — being of course capitalism’s way of producing docile subjects — should therefore be thought more so in line with awareness of social relations and one’s position in it, rather than phenomenological consciousness. Codified flows of social experience (“I am a worker and not a capitalist”; “I am a housewife” etc.) follow structures of hegemonic demand circumventing the possibility for counter-production and concealing ways in which social organization could legitimately be thought of differently. The way in which consciousness can be raised — and following Marx in this respect — is thought and only through the primacy of matter and practice. It is in coming together, in collectivizing, that group consciousness can develop and a standpoint in which the totality of things can be momentarily grasped. Comparing one’s situation with the other in a similar situation raises consciousness of the potentiality that oppression is not due to a lack in the individual but a product of societal structures. This consciousness raising forms a, so to speak, “outside” from which transformative agency begins. Revolution of the social domain must therefore always start from the side of the oppressed, because the oppressors are simply caught up inside the sphere that produces structures of oppression. The point about all this of course lies in extension to a different point Fisher has made in his book capitalist realism, namely, that counter-capitalist consciousness has receded over the years to the point of a widespread inability to imagine an alternative. Capitalism installs itself in communicative channels as a parasyte through technology and instantiates directives for everyday living and time expenditure. With the phone, we are more connected than ever but paradoxically enough more disconnected at the same time. Fisher claims, through his reading of Lukács, that capitalist ideology shapes the material conditions such that potentialities for consciousness are reduced to levels of unlikelihood. Technology therefore not only functions as a means to appropriate the knowledge and the labor power of the worker, confronting him as an alien power and rising above him in the workplace, but also as a means to prevent and halt counter-ideological production.
The question of desire is further taken up by lecture 5 by a reading of Lyotard and largely following Freud. The point here is that we all enjoy capitalism and, moreover, even our subjection to it (this is Freud’s death drive or the enigmatic idea that we enjoy displeasure because we can somehow possess it); there is no outside sphere because everyone is already given over to capitalism. Fisher’s own position of accelerationism seeks to push beyond our stale produced desires and capitalist realism; a project that stands within capitalism and seeks its end goal as borne from within it. This version of accelerationism marks a stance that is, I believe, inspired by Nietzsche’s attitude towards the death of god in that it is one that seeks positive affirmation of this explosive transformation that marks the new paradigm. Unfortunately, the rest of the lectures have been cut short due to Fisher’s unexpected suicide in 2017 while further lectures on his form of accelerationism where still on the syllabus.
Some of the theories presented in lecture 3 following Lukács’s theory of consciousness attempts to answer this question in a positive light. In the immediate experience of subjects of bourgeois society, consciousness is, as it were, produced and maintained by the thing-ification of social structures in experience. Thing-ification (the term reification is used in the book) of social structures codifies flows of expectations, desires and actions within the subjectivity of individuals. Reducing consciousness — being of course capitalism’s way of producing docile subjects — should therefore be thought more so in line with awareness of social relations and one’s position in it, rather than phenomenological consciousness. Codified flows of social experience (“I am a worker and not a capitalist”; “I am a housewife” etc.) follow structures of hegemonic demand circumventing the possibility for counter-production and concealing ways in which social organization could legitimately be thought of differently. The way in which consciousness can be raised — and following Marx in this respect — is thought and only through the primacy of matter and practice. It is in coming together, in collectivizing, that group consciousness can develop and a standpoint in which the totality of things can be momentarily grasped. Comparing one’s situation with the other in a similar situation raises consciousness of the potentiality that oppression is not due to a lack in the individual but a product of societal structures. This consciousness raising forms a, so to speak, “outside” from which transformative agency begins. Revolution of the social domain must therefore always start from the side of the oppressed, because the oppressors are simply caught up inside the sphere that produces structures of oppression. The point about all this of course lies in extension to a different point Fisher has made in his book capitalist realism, namely, that counter-capitalist consciousness has receded over the years to the point of a widespread inability to imagine an alternative. Capitalism installs itself in communicative channels as a parasyte through technology and instantiates directives for everyday living and time expenditure. With the phone, we are more connected than ever but paradoxically enough more disconnected at the same time. Fisher claims, through his reading of Lukács, that capitalist ideology shapes the material conditions such that potentialities for consciousness are reduced to levels of unlikelihood. Technology therefore not only functions as a means to appropriate the knowledge and the labor power of the worker, confronting him as an alien power and rising above him in the workplace, but also as a means to prevent and halt counter-ideological production.
The question of desire is further taken up by lecture 5 by a reading of Lyotard and largely following Freud. The point here is that we all enjoy capitalism and, moreover, even our subjection to it (this is Freud’s death drive or the enigmatic idea that we enjoy displeasure because we can somehow possess it); there is no outside sphere because everyone is already given over to capitalism. Fisher’s own position of accelerationism seeks to push beyond our stale produced desires and capitalist realism; a project that stands within capitalism and seeks its end goal as borne from within it. This version of accelerationism marks a stance that is, I believe, inspired by Nietzsche’s attitude towards the death of god in that it is one that seeks positive affirmation of this explosive transformation that marks the new paradigm. Unfortunately, the rest of the lectures have been cut short due to Fisher’s unexpected suicide in 2017 while further lectures on his form of accelerationism where still on the syllabus.
March 14, 2024
Desde que cayeron los estados en los que imperaba el comunismo realmente existente, los más interesantes intelectuales de izquierda, los que vivieron el shock del derrumbe y los que les sucedieron, trataron de recuperar la viabilidad del marxismo como pensamiento y acción política plenamente liberadora, que fuera opuesto lo mismo al despotismo y burocratismo soviético y al triunfalismo del capitalismo occidental, en su versión neoliberal, que había ganado la guerra fría. En general, estos intentos supusieron explorar la heterodoxias marxistas más notables del siglo xx en busca de posturas que por su creatividad resultaran menos marciales que el leninismo (Gramsci o Mariátegui, por decir solo dos nombres), o emprender laboriosas mixturas del diagnóstico marxista sobre la economía capitalista y la sociedad con nuevas formas de pensamiento que, con distintos matices y nombres, reasumían el materialismo, el análisis crítico de la forma de vida económica en la sociedad globalizada del siglo 21, y descolocaban las constantes epistemológicas del realismo burgués pro capitalista, cuyo sentido común se había impuesto en el día a día y desmoralizaba la acción política revolucionaria. Esto implicó en todos los frentes una mayor implicación del marxismo post-caída del muro de Berlín con el funcionamiento de la ideología, una mayor exploración en la lógica y la historia de la cultura, y, asumiendo una tarea dejada de lado por los marxista clásicos, la explicación de la vida espiritual humana (llámese libido, egoísmo, toma de conciencia, deseo, afectos e intensidades) sobre la base de premisas materialistas que renunciaban a rechazarla por ser una suma de supersticiones burguesas, sino que las afirmaban como una arena realmente existente para la lucha de clases y donde también estaba en disputa el destino de la revolución y de su gesta emancipatoria. En este proceso, el marxismo del siglo XXI conectó a tal punto con el estudio de la vida cultural que difícilmente en la actualidad pueden entenderse el uno sin el otro. Y de sus intelectuales, pocos tan dotadas como Mark Fisher para hacer evidente el modo en que la cultura, en especial la cultura pop inglesa, abonaba, cuestionaba, inspiraba un nuevo estilo de análisis marxista del presente, mucho más eficiente para ofrecer ideas productivas sobre las formas de dominación imperialista de la globalización y de los modos emergentes en que la imaginación popular le resistía y combatir, es decir, un campo para el análisis de la acción política emancipadora mucho mas útil que el culto riguroso a la letra de los textos clásicos marxistas en los que insistían izquierdistas de vieja escuela.
Por supuesto, Fisher estuvo en una situación de excepción para pensar originalmente y analizar el efecto de la lucha de clases en la cultura pop. Como se recuerda con frecuencia, estudió el posgrado en Warwick, donde fue discípulo del mismísimo Nick Land, el padre del aceleracionismo, y controvertido campeón de la postura en favor de acelerar el capitalismo hasta sus últimas consecuencias fascistas: la conversión de los cuerpos humanos en máquinas. Pero Fisher, asimismo, vivió la vida de los sectores populares ingleses, que Land nunca quiso ni considerar: la vida de los bares de Londres, los tumultos de sus callejuelas y la escena del brit-pop de los 2000. Por lo mismo, se formó también en contacto con una bohemia popular que bullía de reclamos, elogiaba la rebelión e invitaba a resistir. Fue así que concibió paulatinamente, de forma fragmentada, maneras de deconstruir, de anular, de contrariar a los más potentes iconos del realismo capitalista de su tiempo (como Fisher llamaba a la ideología de la hegemonía neoliberal, que elogiaba a la vida individualista como la "vida real" y que entendía la lucha por el bien común un defecto intelectual). La mayoría de esta labor crítica la efectuó a través de su legendario blog K-Punk (apocope de ciberpunk), que escribía al ritmo de su indignación ante la sociedad contemporánea: a diario, cada dos días, semanalmente o mensualmente. Se publicaron luego todas las entradas en tres volúmenes con el mismo nombre del blog, que constituyeron cuidadosos y festivos misiles contra la ideología del sistema económico neoliberal que Fisher había señalado en los hechos y dichos de la producción audiovisual cotidiana en Inglaterra. Por un lado, no perdonó ningún lapsus fascista de los conductores de programas de televisión de los canales de la ultraderecha, y, por el otro, reseñó todo el rock, las series y las películas que pudo ver para reflexionar, a partir de la cultura mediática, sobre las posibilidades de una sociedad postcapitalista que veía anunciarse en muchos productos de la cultura popular.
"Deseo postcapitalista: las últimas clases" es una ventana al laboratorio de ideas en que fue concibiendo los puntos centrales de tal proyecto: sus clases universitarias. El libro, editado en español por Caja Negra, entrega la transcripción de las grabaciones de audio de las últimas cinco clases que dictara en la Universidad de Londres, antes de su deceso en enero de 2017, y que fueron solo las primera de un sílabus de diecisiete semanas que tituló de "Deseo postcapitalista". Es un libro el que no aparece el Fisher que conocemos por el blog y por algunos de sus libros unitarios: no está el estilista que fulmina con sentencias, el que construye ironías inesperadas de temática pop, y el que resuelve un punto espinoso con un párrafo informado, conciso, el que privilegia definiciones rotundas, elegidas para esclarecer sin miramientos la significación de procesos históricos y culturales. En las clases, Fisher, como buen profesor, avanza al ritmo de la conversación: revela sus lecturas preparatorias, trabaja los bastidores de sus argumentos, sus premisas, sus fuentes, y los discute todos; también interroga a sus alumnos, finge ignorancia, o la expresa con franqueza cuando aún no tiene respuesta a una interrogante que confiesa compartir. Y ello no es extraño porque se trata del semestre en que pone a prueba la verosimilitud de muchas ideas de su próximo libro, póstumo e incompleto, "Comunismo ácido" entre las nuevas generaciones y, como es natural, está más seguro de algunas conclusiones y otras aún le resultan más próximas a especulaciones. En este libro, más que en otros, Fisher parece ocupar el lugar que en otras décadas tuvieron Foucault o un Deleuze, y no porque los remede: ninguno de estos sabios sabría cómo usar el powerpoint que Fisher usa con solvencia y que marca el cambio de subtemas, y tampoco hubiera tolerado que el estudiante ponente de la lectura del día no hubiera hecho su trabajo. Pero, como esos pensadores franceses, sus clase también son investigaciones en curso, y no priva a sus estudiantes de resultar expuestos a la audacia y la novedad con que va razonando; y como sus predecesores, lleva a cabo en su oficina y en su clase, sin vacilación, el tipo de investigación cuya originalidad casi automáticamente la define como hitos de la vida intelectual de su tiempo.
Por supuesto, Fisher estuvo en una situación de excepción para pensar originalmente y analizar el efecto de la lucha de clases en la cultura pop. Como se recuerda con frecuencia, estudió el posgrado en Warwick, donde fue discípulo del mismísimo Nick Land, el padre del aceleracionismo, y controvertido campeón de la postura en favor de acelerar el capitalismo hasta sus últimas consecuencias fascistas: la conversión de los cuerpos humanos en máquinas. Pero Fisher, asimismo, vivió la vida de los sectores populares ingleses, que Land nunca quiso ni considerar: la vida de los bares de Londres, los tumultos de sus callejuelas y la escena del brit-pop de los 2000. Por lo mismo, se formó también en contacto con una bohemia popular que bullía de reclamos, elogiaba la rebelión e invitaba a resistir. Fue así que concibió paulatinamente, de forma fragmentada, maneras de deconstruir, de anular, de contrariar a los más potentes iconos del realismo capitalista de su tiempo (como Fisher llamaba a la ideología de la hegemonía neoliberal, que elogiaba a la vida individualista como la "vida real" y que entendía la lucha por el bien común un defecto intelectual). La mayoría de esta labor crítica la efectuó a través de su legendario blog K-Punk (apocope de ciberpunk), que escribía al ritmo de su indignación ante la sociedad contemporánea: a diario, cada dos días, semanalmente o mensualmente. Se publicaron luego todas las entradas en tres volúmenes con el mismo nombre del blog, que constituyeron cuidadosos y festivos misiles contra la ideología del sistema económico neoliberal que Fisher había señalado en los hechos y dichos de la producción audiovisual cotidiana en Inglaterra. Por un lado, no perdonó ningún lapsus fascista de los conductores de programas de televisión de los canales de la ultraderecha, y, por el otro, reseñó todo el rock, las series y las películas que pudo ver para reflexionar, a partir de la cultura mediática, sobre las posibilidades de una sociedad postcapitalista que veía anunciarse en muchos productos de la cultura popular.
"Deseo postcapitalista: las últimas clases" es una ventana al laboratorio de ideas en que fue concibiendo los puntos centrales de tal proyecto: sus clases universitarias. El libro, editado en español por Caja Negra, entrega la transcripción de las grabaciones de audio de las últimas cinco clases que dictara en la Universidad de Londres, antes de su deceso en enero de 2017, y que fueron solo las primera de un sílabus de diecisiete semanas que tituló de "Deseo postcapitalista". Es un libro el que no aparece el Fisher que conocemos por el blog y por algunos de sus libros unitarios: no está el estilista que fulmina con sentencias, el que construye ironías inesperadas de temática pop, y el que resuelve un punto espinoso con un párrafo informado, conciso, el que privilegia definiciones rotundas, elegidas para esclarecer sin miramientos la significación de procesos históricos y culturales. En las clases, Fisher, como buen profesor, avanza al ritmo de la conversación: revela sus lecturas preparatorias, trabaja los bastidores de sus argumentos, sus premisas, sus fuentes, y los discute todos; también interroga a sus alumnos, finge ignorancia, o la expresa con franqueza cuando aún no tiene respuesta a una interrogante que confiesa compartir. Y ello no es extraño porque se trata del semestre en que pone a prueba la verosimilitud de muchas ideas de su próximo libro, póstumo e incompleto, "Comunismo ácido" entre las nuevas generaciones y, como es natural, está más seguro de algunas conclusiones y otras aún le resultan más próximas a especulaciones. En este libro, más que en otros, Fisher parece ocupar el lugar que en otras décadas tuvieron Foucault o un Deleuze, y no porque los remede: ninguno de estos sabios sabría cómo usar el powerpoint que Fisher usa con solvencia y que marca el cambio de subtemas, y tampoco hubiera tolerado que el estudiante ponente de la lectura del día no hubiera hecho su trabajo. Pero, como esos pensadores franceses, sus clase también son investigaciones en curso, y no priva a sus estudiantes de resultar expuestos a la audacia y la novedad con que va razonando; y como sus predecesores, lleva a cabo en su oficina y en su clase, sin vacilación, el tipo de investigación cuya originalidad casi automáticamente la define como hitos de la vida intelectual de su tiempo.
October 22, 2025
Ce dernier livre de Mark Fisher, publié à titre posthume, consiste en une retranscription des cours qu’il a donnés à ses étudiants fin 2016, malheureusement interrompus par sa mort en janvier 2017.
Le sujet, sur le désir post-capitaliste, est passionnant et c’est probablement une grande perte que nous ne puissions pas découvrir la pensée de Mark Fisher à ce sujet au-delà des cinq premières lectures retranscrites ici.
Les textes sont parfois ardus mais Mark Fisher les explique avec pédagogie et humour, et on ressent une réelle complicité avec ses étudiants, dont les interventions ont été conservées dans l’ouvrage, ce qui est une très bonne idée à mon avis.
Il est impossible de lire la retranscription de ces cinq cours sans penser au fait qu’ils sont restés inachevés. L’ombre du suicide de Mark Fisher plane sur ce livre, et c’est tragique. Pour lui, ses proches, ses étudiants, et pour nous tous.
Le sujet, sur le désir post-capitaliste, est passionnant et c’est probablement une grande perte que nous ne puissions pas découvrir la pensée de Mark Fisher à ce sujet au-delà des cinq premières lectures retranscrites ici.
Les textes sont parfois ardus mais Mark Fisher les explique avec pédagogie et humour, et on ressent une réelle complicité avec ses étudiants, dont les interventions ont été conservées dans l’ouvrage, ce qui est une très bonne idée à mon avis.
Il est impossible de lire la retranscription de ces cinq cours sans penser au fait qu’ils sont restés inachevés. L’ombre du suicide de Mark Fisher plane sur ce livre, et c’est tragique. Pour lui, ses proches, ses étudiants, et pour nous tous.
May 28, 2025
Todo el potencial que se quedó en el camino vibra constantemente a través de este libro. La promesa de un proyecto que no pudo ser. También la puerta abierta de quien no pudo decir la última palabra y, para bien o para mal, ahora se ve asediado por deudores que lo reclaman por lo que dijo y sobre todo por lo que no dijo. La de Fisher puede haber sido una de las pérdidas más importantes de nuestra época y, a la vez, su ausencia vuelve constantemente con el fantasma de lo que era y lo que no pudo ser, muy hauntológico de su parte.
El formato de transcripción nunca me suele gustar mucho, menos si son unas clases. Es cierto que puedes encontrar aquí un Fisher totalmente nuevo. Sin embargo, para lo que andaba buscando se me quedó corto. Aún así no es culpa suya. Creo que es una buena lectura para quien siga a Fisher, pero no necesariamente para quien investigue en su línea.
El formato de transcripción nunca me suele gustar mucho, menos si son unas clases. Es cierto que puedes encontrar aquí un Fisher totalmente nuevo. Sin embargo, para lo que andaba buscando se me quedó corto. Aún así no es culpa suya. Creo que es una buena lectura para quien siga a Fisher, pero no necesariamente para quien investigue en su línea.
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