The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What To Do About It

by Mike Watson

The Frankfurt School meets Fisher in this critique of capitalism incorporating memes, mental illness and psychedelia into a proposed counterculture. Spring 2020 to 2021 was the year that did not take place. We witnessed a depression, not economically speaking, but in the psychological A clinical depression of and by society itself. This depression was brought about not just by Covid isolation, but by the digital economy, fueled by social media and the meme. In the aftermath, this book revisits the main Frankfurt School theorists, Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin and Marcuse, who worked in the shadow of World War Two, during the rise of the culture industry. In examining their thoughts and drawing parallels with Fisher's Capitalist Realism, The Memeing of Mark Fisher aims to render the Frankfurt School as an incisive theoretical toolbox for the post-Covid digital age. Taking in the phenomena of QAnon, twitch streaming, and memes it argues that the dichotomy between culture and political praxis is a false one. Finally, as more people have access to the means for theoretical and cultural broadcasting, it is urged that the online left uses that access to build a real life cultural and political movement.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics, Theory, Society, Essays, History

128 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2021

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 1 out of 5]

a stupid persons idea of a smart book

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mike Watson é o autor do livro "The Left can learn how to meme", que vai em direção do meme "a esquerda não sabe fazer memes" que corre pela internet e pode ser achado no site KnowYourMeme. Neste livro, que de certa forma continua aquele, Watson vai fazer uma comparação entre a teoria do "Capitalismo Realista" de Mark Fisher com os postulados desenvolvidos pela Escola de Frankfurt, cujos expoentes foram Theodore Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin e Herbert Marcuse, todos eles acadêmicos de esquerdas e crítcos ferrenhos daquilo que batizaram de "indústria cultural". As aproximações entre nossa atual condição sob as garras do digital e do plataformizado, dentro do realismo capitalista de Fisher, com as ideias de indistria cultural da Escola de Frankfurt são bastante pertinentes. Mas fui até esse livro atrás da memealização prometida no título. Encontrei muito pouco sobre memes. Assim, se você, como eu, pesquisa memética, recomendo não ler o livro. Se sua pesquisa é sobre a dialética do esclarecimento ou de outras ideias dos frankfurtianos e também de uma crítica do capitalismo recomendo a leitura.

[Biggus Dickkus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fisher ရဲ့ capitalist realism က ခေတ်ပြိုင်လက်ဝဲတို့ရဲ့ သမ္မာကျမ်းစာ လို့ကို ညွှန်းဆိုရလောက်အောင် စာအုပ်ထုတ်ဝေပြီး ဆယ်စုနှစ်ကျော်လာတဲ့ အထိ relevent ဖြစ်နေတုန်းပါဘဲ။ဒီစာအုပ်ကတော့ CR ရဲ့ legacy အပေါ်မှာ အခြေခံထားတဲ့ sequel လို့တောင်ပြောရတယ်။ Angela Negle ရဲ့ kill all normies ထဲမှာ alt-right တွေက 4chan လိုမျိုး online groupတွေကတဆင့် right winged ideology transgressing memes ဖြန့်ဝေခြင်းအားဖြင့် အားကောင်းလာတာကို ရှင်းပြထားတယ်။Tumblr မှာ liberal left တွေက identity နဲ့ တိုင်ပတ်နေချိန်မှာ alt-right figure ဖြစ်တဲ့ Milo လိုလူက college campus တွေမှာ လူစုလူဝေးနဲ့ ideology ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ hegemony လုပ်နိုင်နေပြီဖြစ်တယ်။ ဒီလိုအချိန်မှာ လက်ဝဲတွေဖက်ကနေ ideology ပိုင်းဆိုင်ရာ counterbalance လုပ်မယ့် အင်အားကို မြေပြင်မှာ မစုစည်းနိုင်ဘူး ဖြစ်နေတယ်။Watson အခုစာအုပ်မှာ ထောက်ပြသွားတဲ့ အထဲမှာ online leftist အင်အားစုတွေ အတွင်း အစိတ်စိတ်ကွဲနေတဲ့ အကြောင်းလည်းပါတယ်။ data coporate ကြီးတွေက alt-right တွေကို ကာဗာယူပြီး သူတို့အကျိုးစီးပွါးထိန်းသိမ်းဖို့ ဆောင်ရွက်နေရုံမက လက်ဝဲတွေကို scapegoat အဖြစ် ပြစ်တင်နေတယ်။ ဒါကြောင့်မို့ လက်ရှိအသုံးပြုနေတဲ့ online platform တွေက alt-right တွေကို မျက်နှာသာပေးနေ သလို အဆိုပါ platformတွေမှာ leftist တွေအရေးနိမ့်နေတဲ့အတွက် အခြားသော platform အသစ်တွေအသုံးပြုဖို့နဲ့ ပြင်ပမှာ စုဖွဲ့မှုရှိဖို့ တိုက်တွန်းထားတယ်။ alt-right တွေထဲမှာ conspiracy theorist လိုလူတွေက narrative တွေသုံးပြီး hegemony လုပ်နေတာဖြစ်လို့ leftist တွေအနေနဲ့လည်း လိုအပ်လာလျှင် narrative လမ်းကြောင်းကို ပြန်သွားသင့်သလား ဆိုပြီးလည်း မေးခွန်းထုတ်ထားတယ်။
ဖရန့်ဖုဒ် ဂိုဏ်းရဲ့ critical theory နဲ့ ပတ်သက်လို့ပြောရရင် အဒေါ်နိုနဲ့ ဘန်ဂျမင်အကြား ကွဲလွဲ မှု မာကူးဆာနဲ့ အဒေါ်နို အကြားကွဲလွဲမှုတွေကို တွေ့ရတယ်။ ဒါပေမယ့် အားလုံးသဘောတူ လက်ခံထားကြတာကတော့ art ကဘဲ capitalism ကို အာခံ နိုင်လိမ့်မယ်(rational negation) ဆိုတဲ့အချက်ပါဘဲ။ digital platform/ digital flaneurism မှာ ကြုံတွေ့နေရတဲ့ fragmented ဖြစ်နေသော ဖြစ်စဉ်များကို သုံးသပ်ရှုမြင်ခြင်းအားဖြင့် လက်ရှိ leftist အပေါင်းကြုံတွေ့နေရသော impasse ကို praxis ကျကျ လွန်မြောက်နိုင်ဖို့ရန် လမ်းပြထားသော စာအုပ်ကောင်း တစ်အုပ် ဖြစ်တယ် လို့ ပြောပါရစေ။

[Steev Hise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is excellent. Makes me want to read more Frankfurt school stuff and especially reread Marcuse’s One Dimensional Man. It’s great to see how Fisher fits in with them. One suprising thing Is that Watson seems to be unaware, at least at the time of writing, that 90% of the Capitalist Realism memes were created by one person, Joshua Citarella. He seems to also think that the “memeing of Mark Fisher” is a bad thing or a sign of capital coopting and diluting Fisher’s work, when it was really a concerted effort by Citarella to boost the spread of Fisher’s ideas to young people with the hope of influencing their political consciousness more toward the left. And it was a success, as far as I’ve observed.

[pianogothent · Rating 1 out of 5]

if you see this in a book store pick it up and throw it in the trash

[Sam Cotton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book which unfortunately will likely only accelerate in relevance. It speaks to a disconnect and a dysfunction in a generation that cannot truly leave behind what comes before us and subsequently cannot truly invent what should come after. It is this dead future that haunts us and myself in a depression that is epidemic under capitalism. Evaluating not only the state of the left on the internet but also whether the internet will always inherently slide towards an unproductive culture war is vital.

Concise and direct evaluation of the left's inability to circumvent an inherently capitalist structure of consumerism and the internet. I think modern day existence is rather damning and makes a compelling argument that empowerment coexists with subjugation. Where does the opposition go from here? Perhaps this could have received more attention in the book but the reaffirmation of mark fisher's epidemic of depression as well as Marcuse's suggestion of a more untethered desire is a new direction that is intriguing to read. Even as someone who bore very little knowledge of the frankfurt school, the references to their writing in tandem to Fisher can be cumbersome (likely my own fault) but ultimately open a new reader's eye to wider theory.

[Lorenzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARE YA WINNING, SON?

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the introduction to this work, Watson writes that the thought found here is "laid out here in six more-or-less standalone chapters," and yet, in his final chapter, entitled "Psychedelic Dreams: Marcuse, Fisher, and Acid Communism", one finds a coherent vision that provides direction for the late Mark Fisher's "Acid Communism", a vision that gorgeously synthesises the preceding chapters.

Building on his earlier work, also published by Zer0 Books and titled "Can the Left Learn to Meme?", Watson beautifully depicts a constellation that forces us all to take seriously online leftist movements in light of a thorough reading of the Frankfurt School's main proponents and, of course, Mark Fisher. Watson's work, however, is approachable in a way these theorists' works often aren't, and injects a flair of humour that makes this easily recommendable to those not familiar with the theorists he draws from. As Watson writes in my favourite chapter of the book, "Benjamin and the Digital Flaneur":

"Undertaking The Arcade Project was akin to trying to understand the machinations of today's data capitalism by trawling online shopping pages using a Windows 95 browser." (P.63)

Watson, while not affiliated with any third-level institution, presents a work that deserves to be read by both academics and leftists alike, a work that offers quick catching fuel to the fire that is the leftist imagination in 2021 - a much needed remedy for our present political climate, both online and offline. He is a digital heir to the Frankfurt School, the New Left and Fisher, and this work has left me waiting in anticipation for his next release.

[Adam Adkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book continues from Watson's last book "Can the Left Learn to Meme" by using contemporary media to introduce key concepts of critical theory and explore their relationship to today's concerns. Where it differs is in the scope and depth of the work, going past introduction and deeply interrogating the habits we fall into while logged in.

"The Memeing of Mark Fisher" is a thoughtful exploration of meme communities, libidinal investment, and the way that capitalism subsumes radical artistic gestures to better serve the interest of capital. Watson shows a deep understanding of Mark Fisher's work from "Capitalist Realism" to the unfinished "Acid Communism" by highlighting the often overlooked aspects of Fisher's work in the popularization and memeification of concepts such as capitalist realism and hauntology while showing historical connections to Frankfurt School thinkers through Adorno and Horkheimer's Culture Industry and Benjamin's Constellations.

The true gift of this book is that it does not merely reintroduce old marxist concepts or talk negatively (or positively) on contemporary media. Mike Watson presents many original thoughts and holds on to the possibility of art along with community action to break the spell of capitalist realism and lead to a post capitalist world.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bizarre book. Watson obviously has some interesting ideas about the Frankfurt School, especially on how they should be seen with Mark Fisher. Yet there is little emphasis on Mark Fisher, and instead it seems to look at how we can use the Frankfurt School to interpret contemporary internet culture. It leads to ridiculous moments such as an extended analysis of Belle Delphine, and explanations of memes in written form which make me cringe. I don't know how irreverent this should be treated, such as solemn discussions of the link between colonialism and the pallbearer meme. It is a shame that there are interesting ideas in here, but Watson being chronically online leads to the book feeling distracted and thrown together, particularly the inevitable 'what to do about capitalist realism'. The concluding lines are connected to the previous discussions, but do not satisfy at all. Perhaps it is my ignorance around Benjamin, but I cannot see how the flaneurist angle is useful here. Watson acknowledges the critiques of the left as humourless, and yet his suggested memes are atrocious.

[Josh Davila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Fisher has got to be one of my favorite contemporary philosophers and has had a significant impact on me as I'm sure plenty of others. Because of this is why we've started to see Mark's ideas proliferate into the mainstream of the left. While that is mostly a good thing, his ideas have spread largely through memes in online spaces which has particular effects on how people understand his ideas. This book has got to be the best analysis of this phenomenon not just in the context of Mark Fisher but how it relates to memes in general. While memes have helped the left proliferate ideas, the nature of memes mean that the finer details of the concepts espoused by Mark get lost but it doesn't have to be that way. Mike Watson does a great job at analyzing online culture on the left ironically through the lens of Mark Fisher looking at the memes about his work and life.

[Colin Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't want to criticize too heavily or say that this isn't a good book... BUT... it's not what I was expecting. I had high hopes due to the quality of other books from the publisher and the concept intrigued me, but it really didn't seem to deliver for me on it's promise. The connections drawn between Fisher and the Frankfurt School seemed forced, as if the author was trying to cash in on Fisher's credibility in the modern leftist zeitgeist without really unpacking the concepts, instead turning to the much more known theories by Adorno and company. Don't get me wrong, I love reading the OG works by the Frankfurt School, and I jumped at the chance to read a critique/expansion of that line of thought, but it somehow unfortunately felt to me more of a rehashing/summary and less of an analysis. Took me a long time to read, but I'm not sure I'm unhappy I read it. 3/5

[Zoey Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just got into this book and already it is AMAZING, must read. If you are a fan of Mark Fisher, you’ll love this book. It tributes his ideas in an entirely new and modern way and incorporates the use of media and memes today along with the psychological depression the world has been in since covid and its relation to capitalism. This is very insightful into the modern day of how media is being used to spread light on capitalism dangers and how it could be better. This analysis is well thought out, and really a page turner. Highly Recommend

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Watson, through his three engaging and urgently topical books, reveals the connections between aesthetic theory and contemporary online culture. This reader was rather unfamiliar with the thoughts of the Frankfurt School and the writings of Mark Fisher, but this book provides a perfect introduction to the ideas which can entertain and inform us as we we sit amongst the ruins of western culture.

[Adam Akhtar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure it offers very much intellectually, though the various meme references got some laughs out of me. Comparing Fisher's ideas to those of the Frankfurt School thinkers is a neat concept, but I feel like the analysis was a little surface-level; the book seemed like more of a commentary on leftist meme subculture and links it may/may not have to Fisher and Frankfurt Co. rather than a work trying to create a meaningful connection between all these concepts.

[Bram Gieben · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read, and without a doubt the most important response to Mark Fisher’s work in a very long time.

The first work on Capitalist Realism to offer, not just a unique contemporary analysis of its reach and myriad forms, but a treatise on its roots, and just maybe, a glimpse at the map that shows the exit.

Insightful, timely, and ultimately very inspiring.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting premise and quite insightful—nice to see discussion of online left circle in critical theory terms—but leaves something to be desired. On the other hand, I’m not particularly interested in the connection of “art” (at least not in the vague terms it’s often spoken about within critical theory) to political movements. So, I’m not sure I’m the target audience.

[Vuk Trifkovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Go read...

[Jaci]

This was interesting even tho I was definitely too dumb for it

[Corwin Richter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich muss sagen, das ich leider kein Fan des Buches geworden bin, auch wenn ich es mir gewünscht hätte. Man sollte besser einfach direkt Adorno oder Fisher lesen. Da hat man deutlich mehr von.

[theo ploeg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wrote a book review for Gonzo (circus) but unfortunately it is in Dutch.

The Memeing of Mark Fisher obviously links the ideas of the Frankfurt School - more specific: Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse and Benjamin - to Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism and explores what a new leftfield (online) movement could look like if we use the insights of these thinkers.

Although I use Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction in some of my workshops, I wasn't that familiar with his Arcades Project. Watson got me excited. The idea of the (digital) flaneur breaks with a lot of modern(ist) concepts like time (and past and future), linearity, rationality and functionality. Strolling ('flaneren', in Dutch) is deeply involved with the now. There is no purpose, no place, no sense of time. Many current subcultures that interest me (solar punk, lo-fi aesthetics, vaporwave, new aesthetics, hyperpop, bleak futures) embrace these principles. From an old-school point of view, they seem nostalgic, but nothing is further from the truth. By rearranging elements, tropes, objects and ideas from the past, now and future, a new alternative reality is created that challenges the status quo.

That brings me to the questions that Watson's book raises in my mind. The first one is: can I still identify with the left(field)? Are left and right concepts only useful in exploring a point of view within a production system? Probably, and we definitely need to get rid of that dichotomy.

The second question is: can the ideas in this book also be used to imagine a future world that is not based on production, although their purpose is to rearrange modes of production? Yes, I think so. Especially when combined with ideas from anarchy, the commons, speculative realism, object-oriented ontology and, of course, art practices.

[1Dime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid book. Short and sweet. Those who like Mark Fisher's work would most definitely enjoy this book and would benefit from the ideas of the Frankfurt school that it discusses. Online culture is often disregarded by academics and it is important to study in this day and age. Critical theory (especially that of the Frankfurt school) can tell us a lot about the bizarre time we are in now. Watson never misses with his books!

[Edwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read