Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture

by Annalee Newitz

In Pretend We’re Dead , Annalee Newitz argues that the slimy zombies and gore-soaked murderers who have stormed through American film and literature over the past century embody the violent contradictions of capitalism. Ravaged by overwork, alienated by corporate conformity, and mutilated by the unfettered lust for profit, fictional monsters act out the problems with an economic system that seems designed to eat people whole. Newitz looks at representations of serial killers, mad doctors, the undead, cyborgs, and unfortunates mutated by their involvement with the mass media industry. Whether considering the serial killer who turns murder into a kind of labor by mass producing dead bodies, or the hack writers and bloodthirsty actresses trapped inside Hollywood’s profit-mad storytelling machine, she reveals that each creature has its own tale to tell about how a freewheeling market economy turns human beings into monstrosities. Newitz tracks the monsters spawned by capitalism through b movies, Hollywood blockbusters, pulp fiction, and American literary classics, looking at their manifestations in works such as Norman Mailer’s “true life novel” The Executioner’s Song ; the short stories of Isaac Asimov and H. P. Lovecraft; the cyberpunk novels of William Gibson and Marge Piercy; true-crime books about the serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer; and movies including Modern Times (1936), Donovan’s Brain (1953), Night of the Living Dead (1968), RoboCop (1987), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Artificial AI (2001). Newitz shows that as literature and film tell it, the story of American capitalism since the late nineteenth century is a tale of body-mangling, soul-crushing horror.

Genres: Nonfiction, Horror, Film, Politics, Criticism, Horror Thriller, Zombies

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2006

About the author

Annalee Newitz is an American journalist who covers the cultural impact of science and technology. They received a PhD in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley, and in 1997 published the widely cited book, White Trash: Race and Class in America. From 2004–2005 they were a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They write for many periodicals from 'Popular Science' to 'Wired,' and from 1999 to 2008 wrote a syndicated weekly column called 'Techsploitation.' They co-founded 'other' magazine in 2002, which was published triannually until 2007. Since 2008, they are editor-in-chief of 'io9,' a Gawker-owned science fiction blog, which was named in 2010 by The Times as one of the top science blogs on the internet.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for any radical fan of horror, Buffy, and zombie movies. The history of the racial undertones of zombie and undead movies is on target and awesome, if incomplete. I wish the author had talked more about the recent trend in postapocalyptic urban-set zombie flicks and the imagery of the "zombie ghetto." But the history is important as it is.

[ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture by Annalee Newitz

Book 46/52

Dissertation research. Brilliant book, just not all relevant.

[Hex75 · Rating 3 out of 5]

uhmm...parecchi spunti interessanti, e fa venir voglia di (ri)vedere un bel po' di film.

ma è noiosissimo e si fa una fatica bestiale a finirlo.

[Michael Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another insightful academic book which sent me in different directions. I probably would not have read "Donovan's Brain" if I hadn't read Newitz's work.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highlight good lines in books I read and this book is full of highlights. Pretend We're Dead is a well done media study. It explores different types of horror movies and explains how they represent capitalism. Definitely worth the read!

[Zane · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was trying to put together a program for an all night horror film fest with the theme of financial crisis, I was asking around for ideas. One drunken evening, I met Carrie, who does the Try Harder blog, and she told me about Pretend We're Dead. My expectations were a little high as I was looking for a shortcut to a film program, so, of course, it couldn't be the book I wanted myself to have written in the past in order save myself time in the present (you know the kinds of books I'm talking about!).

This work is mostly a cultural analysis of capitalism and monsters in film and literature. I wanted it to be all about horror films, which it isn't. Aside from looking at the horror genre, it includes observation on capitalism and sci-fi, narrative films about people involved in media production, Lovecraft, and somehow even Fight Club. It is organized by themes, like Serial Killers and Mad Doctors and jumps back and forth between blockbuster films and cult classics, which works, but it would have been nice to see a more detailed exploration of a few films in relation to the politics of the time they were coming out. Maybe relating them to other things that were popular at the time to develop some contrast int the particulars of the setting, beyond the epoch.

I found a few films through it that I might have otherwise overlooked, like 'Society' (about a rich kid who finds out his parents are raising him to be eaten) and 'The Stepfather' (a slasher film about a real estate agent who gets married and murderous) and the analysis is insightful, so, overall, I would recommend the book as a nice addition for anyone interestd in the horror analysis genre.

[Dan Sharber · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was pretty good. i find it a solid companion piece to david mcnally's Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism. that book was much more academic and in depth and as such dealt with a smaller range of material. this book keeps to a very similar thesis yet explores a much wider array of book, tv shows and films. because of this wider breadth though a lot of the analysis is not very deep. this is not to take anything away from it as it was an enjoyable book. i just felt there were other possible readings of some of the media discussed that i would've liked her to explore more. a fun read but it is not going to be very convincing for people not already used to looking at cultural production and consumption through a more marxist lens.

[Karie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting look into horror films and the way American capitalism creeps into the subtext of many of these tales is eye-opening and begs for a second viewing (of the films). It sometimes reads like a thesis, but remains entertaining and informative. I have to say the section on race is reaching a bit, but overall its a great read!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

read for college anthropology class Consumption of Culture

[Mills College Library]

791.4367 N548 2006

[John Michael Cozzoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

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