[D66] Excommunication

[J.N.]

  Excommunication


    THREE INQUIRIES IN MEDIA AND MEDIATION

Excommunication <javascript:void(0);>
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ALEXANDER R. GALLOWAY 
<http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/G/A/au16744437.html>,EUGENE 
THACKER <http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/T/E/au9131368.html>, 
ANDMCKENZIE WARK 
<http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/W/M/au14413949.html>

216 pages | 2 tables | 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 | © 2013
TRIOS <http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/series/TRIOS.html>

Always connect---that is the imperative of today's media. But what about 
those moments when media cease to function properly, when messages go 
beyond the sender and receiver to become excluded from the world of 
communication itself---those messages that state: "There will be no more 
messages"? In this book, Alexander R. Galloway, Eugene Thacker, and 
McKenzie Wark turn our usual understanding of media and mediation on its 
head by arguing that these moments reveal the ways the impossibility of 
communication is integral to communication itself---instances they call 
excommunication.

In three linked essays,/Excommunication/ pursues this elusive topic by 
looking at mediation in the face of banishment, exclusion, and heresy, 
and by contemplating the possibilities of communication with the great 
beyond. First, Galloway proposes an original theory of mediation based 
on classical literature and philosophy, using Hermes, Iris, and the 
Furies to map out three of the most prevalent modes of mediation 
today---mediation as exchange, as illumination, and as network. Then, 
Thacker goes boldly beyond Galloway's classification scheme by examining 
the concept of excommunication through the secret link between the 
modern horror genre and medieval mysticism. Charting a trajectory of 
examples from H. P. Lovecraft to Meister Eckhart, Thacker explores those 
instances when one communicates or connects with the inaccessible, 
dubbing such modes of mediation "haunted" or "weird" to underscore their 
inaccessibility. Finally, Wark evokes the poetics of the infuriated 
swarm as a queer politics of heresy that deviates from both media theory 
and the traditional left. He posits a critical theory that celebrates 
heresy and that is distinct from those that now venerate Saint Paul.
Reexamining commonplace definitions of media, mediation, and 
communication,/Excommunication/ offers a glimpse into the realm of the 
nonhuman to find a theory of mediation adequate to our present condition.
<http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo14413838.html#>
<http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo14413838.html#>

  * REVIEW QUOTES
    <http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo14413838.html#tab-quotes>
  * CONTENTS
    <http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo14413838.html#tab-content>

*Thomas Bartscherer, Bard College*
"At a moment when media theory seems both ubiquitous and amorphous, more 
necessary than ever, yet often trapped in old paradigms or infatuated 
with new technology,/Excommunication/makes a timely and provocative 
intervention. There's so much intellectual ferment in this historically 
informed, radically contemporary volume that it might well be a founding 
document---has the New York school of media theory finally arrived?"
*Steven Shaviro, Wayne State University*
"Communicational media permeate every aspect of our lives. But do we 
really know what media are? And do we really grasp what's at stake in 
every act of communication? In this book, Alexander R. Galloway, Eugene 
Thacker, and McKenzie Wark explore the obscure but fascinating origins 
and esoteric limits of communicational media and suggest helpful ways 
that we might be able to experience and use them differently."

*Literature and Literary Criticism:*General Criticism and Critical 
Theory <http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/subject/su37/su37_7.html>

*Media Studies* <http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/subject/su39.html>

*Philosophy:*General Philosophy 
<http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/subject/su45/su45_4.html>

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