[D66] Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative?

[Antid Oto]

http://www.spc.org/fuller/interviews/questioning-capitalist-realism-an-interview-with-mark-fisher/

Questioning Capitalist Realism An interview with Mark Fisher

Mark Fisher is the author of ‘Capitalist Realism, is there no 
alternative’ out recently from Zer0 Books 
http://www.o-books.com/obookssite/book/detail/358/ As a blogger he 
writes K-Punk http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/
Capitalist Realism is one of the most acute diagnoses of contemporary 
politics as it is played out in one small island off the coast of 
Europe. After skewering the marketisation of everything, the 
privatisation of stress, and the triumphalism of moronic bureaucracy as 
the guiding principles of governance, the book goes on to speculate 
about new forms of politics and culture. In doing so, it takes the 
reader through a lively argument about education, film, socialism and 
the compulsory stupidity of quality control mechanisms.

This interview, originally published on Mute News & Analysis following 
some of the themes from Capitalist Realism was carried out via email in 
the second week of December 2009.

.. continued ..



On 11-10-12 14:32, Antid Oto wrote:
> "This book offers a brilliant analysis of the pervasive cynicism in
> which we seem to be mired, and even holds out the prospect of an antidote."
>
> Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative? (Zero Books)
>
> Book Description
> Publication Date: December 16, 2009 | Series: Zero Books
> After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only
> realistic political-economic system - a situation that the bank crisis
> of 2008, far from ending, actually compounded. The book analyses the
> development and principal features of this capitalist realism as a lived
> ideological framework. Using examples from politics, films, fiction,
> work and education, it argues that capitalist realism colours all areas
> of contemporary experience. But it will also show that, because of a
> number of inconsistencies and glitches internal to the capitalist
> reality program capitalism in fact is anything but realistic.
>
> Review
> Let's not beat around the bush: Fisher's compulsively readable book is
> simply the best diagnosis of our predicament that we have! Through
> examples from daily life and popular culture, but without sacrificing
> theoretical stringency, he provides a ruthless portrait of our
> ideological misery. Although the book is written from a radically Left
> perspective, Fisher offers no easy solutions. Capitalist Realism is a
> sobering call for patient theoretical and political work. It enables us
> to breathe freely in our sticky atmosphere. -- Slavoj Zizek
>
> What happened to our future? Mark Fisher is a master cultural
> diagnostician, and in Capitalist Realism he surveys the symptoms of our
> current cultural malaise. We live in a world in which we have been told,
> again and again, that There Is No Alternative. The harsh demands of the
> 'just-in-time' marketplace have drained us of all hope and all belief.
> Living in an endless Eternal Now, we no longer seem able to imagine a
> future that might be different from the present. This book offers a
> brilliant analysis of the pervasive cynicism in which we seem to be
> mired, and even holds out the prospect of an antidote. -- Steven
> Shaviro, Author of Connected and Doom Patrols
>
> About the Author
>
> Mark Fisher is a writer and lecturer who maintains a highly successful
> weblog. He lives in the UK.
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