Ghosts of My Life
by Mark Fisher

Collected essays on popular culture by a major critic.

This collection of writings by Mark Fisher, author of acclaimed Capitalist Realism, argues that we are haunted by futures that failed to happen. Fisher searches for the traces of these lost futures in the work of David Peace, John Le Carré, Christopher Nolan, Joy Division, Burial and many others.

THIS BRAND NEW EDITION FEATURES A NEW INTRODUCTION BY MATT COLQUHOUN AND NEW AFTERWORD BY SIMON REYNOLDS.

Reviews:
What is excellent are the two new essays; Matt Colquhoun’s Introduction contextualises Fisher’s work and makes a strong case for Ghosts of My Life being a foundational book for the author, and Reynolds is not scared to criticise Fisher’s work as he attempts to understand the despair and social and political decline and despair that drove Fisher to suicide, declaring that readers must ‘find new ways to balance pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will, the need for realism and the imperative to dream a new reality’. ~ Rupert Loydell, International Times

[Mark Fisher's] prose is the kind that has you compulsively underlining passages wherein ideas are inseparable from the sensual charisma of the language through which they are expressed.

If you missed it the first time round, of even if you didn't, this book will light up your brain like few others. Ironically, it's hopeful too: a UK that can produce the likes of Fisher is not beaten yet. ~ Rob Doyle, The Observer

the translation into Italian of Ch. 1 from Mark Fisher's Ghosts of My Life ttp://www.quadernidaltritempi.eu/rivista/numero51/mappe/q51_m03.html

The translation is accompanied by an interview to the author, here: http://www.quadernidaltritempi.eu/rivista/numero51/mappe/q51_m02.html

~ Dr. Beatrice Ferrara, Quaderni d'Altri Tempi

Mark Fisher liefert mit »Ghosts of My Life« einmal mehr eine so scharfsinnige wie einleuchtende Analyse unserer Gegenwart.

Mit eindrucksvollem Spürsinn verfolgt er die Fährte, die die Geister der Vergangenheit – und einer möglichen Zukunft – in

unserem Alltag hinterlassen.

In "Ghosts of My Life" Mark Fisher delivers once more a clear analysis of our culture today. With great sensibility he unravels ideas from the past, from a possible future and today. ~ Hardy Funk, Skug Magazine, Germany

Mark Fisher , "Ghosts of my Life. Writings on depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures ". Zero Books, Winchester 2014, 232 pages, 16,99 €

In writing 'Ghosts of My Life' Mark Fisher has overcome depression but it is not a self - help book it deals with the scepticism that is widely used in the British left.

Ghosts of my Life also examines the ugly and repressed side of 'pop' His portrait of the BBC DJ and children's TV presenter Jimmy Savile describes how with the connivance of politicians, authorities and the media Savile was able to pursue his inclinations and countless children were abused.

What first begins as a review of the science fiction TV series "Sapphire and Steel" on the occasion of their DVD edition, Fisher takes in the text "The Slow Cancellation of Future" as an opportunity to reflect on the transformation of the world of work in the digital age . The individuals are caught in a stand-by existentialism

"There's no time here, not any more": The final scene of the series Fisher appears almost as the memorial of a "traumatic" change. Culture would make an effort, he concludes, otherwise they do not manage to produce present and express themselves adequately. ~ Taz.de, Julian Weber

The late writer Mark Fisher has become a hero of leftwing cultural criticism, and this reissued essay collection provides ample demonstration why ~ Rob Doyle, Author of Threshold and Here Are The Young Men

Mark Fisher reads the contemporary world like no other analyst of its miseries and madness and mores. He is driven by anger but, miraculously, he never forgets to celebrate, when that reaction is apposite. I find his work exhilarating, fascinating, deeply engaging and, not least, utterly vital; this world we have made for ourselves would be a lesser place without it. ~ Niall Griffiths , award winning novelist and Guardian book reviewer

After the brilliance of Capitalist Realism, Ghosts Of My Life confirms Mark Fisher's role as our greatest and most trusted navigator of these times out of joint, through all their frissons and ruptures, among all their apparitions and spectres, past, present and future. ~ David Peace, author of the Red Riding Quartet and Red or Dead

No one writes as achingly well about our slow death by capitalism as Mark Fisher. Like the best of popular culture, he makes depression seductive--we find ourselves lost in a liberating hopelessness. Yet he turns this very liberation into a grimace of possibility, of a desire that exceeds the melancholia of left acquiescence to capitalist realism. ~ Jodi Dean, author of The Communist Horizon

A must read for modernists, and for anyone who misses the future. This is the first book to really make sense of the fog of ideas that have been tagged as 'hauntology'. Ghosts Of My Life is enjoyable, progressive and exciting. ~ Bob Stanley

Ghosts of My Life confirms that Mark Fisher is our most penetrating explorer of the connections between pop culture, politics, and personal life under the affective regime of digital capitalism. The most admirable qualities of Fisher’s work are its lucidity, reflecting the urgency of his commitment to communicating ideas; his high expectations of popular art’s power to challenge, enlighten, and heal; and his adamant refusal to settle for less. ~ Simon Reynolds, author of Retromania