mstyslavity/zer0-books huggingface dataset:
Flatline Constructs
by Mark Fisher

Mark Fisher's doctoral thesis - a metaphysics of cybernetic realism's anti-representation - more than a blur between between fiction and reality.

Completed in 1999 during his time with the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit, Mark Fisher’s PhD thesis, Flatline Constructs, invents a fusion of culture, critique, and radical philosophy that would define his signature style from Capitalist Realism to Acid Communism. Drawing on sources from David Cronenberg to Gilles Deleuze and William Gibson, Fisher presents a Gothic vision of cyberpunk reality, in which Man and media are drawn ever closer together, and life and death are never truly far apart.

Reviews:
Flatline Constructs is Mark Fisher’s piercing précis of the metaphysics of cybernetics, whose herald is Spinoza. Fisher’s ‘gothic flatline’ annuls the difference between fiction and reality, obliterating representation with circuitry, the mirror with the screen, and law with code. If Flatline Constructs’ principal tropes — machinic animism and agency without subjectivity — have become theoretical commonplaces in the 25 years since its composition, its publication now retrospectively illuminates the political debility of a cybernetic realism that snuffs out every alternative to the present. Flatline Constructs diagnoses the paralyzing predicament which Fisher’s subsequent work would struggle to overcome. ~ Ray Brassier, British philosopher and author of Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction

Among many other things, Mark Fisher was one of the most gifted prose writers of his generation. His early death deprived us of an unknowable number of unsettling new ideas. Flatline Constructs, originally Fisher's doctoral thesis at Warwick University, is a precious gift from the other world, where he now resides. ~ Graham Harman, American philosopher and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles
Furnace of this World
by Ed Simon

A fragmentary, digressive, impressionistic account of what the radical implications of goodness could possibly be in late capitalism.

In the tradition of Roland Barthes' Mythologies and Walter Benjamin's aphoristic Theses on the Philosophy of History, Ed Simon's Furnace of this World is a fragmentary, digressive, impressionistic account of what the radical implications of goodness could possibly be in late capitalism. Furnace of this World interrogates the concept of goodness, while arguing that it's always more interesting and radical than its opposite. With neither hubris nor reductionism, Furnace of this World speaks of what it means to pursue justice in a fallen world.

Reviews:
Imagine you stop to listen to a street corner preacher calling out to no one and everyone. Imagine that, like a subway musician who hits a lick that catches your year, he piques your interest with a vision that is like an impossible mashup of William James and George Carlin. Reading Ed Simon's ruthless Furnace of this World is like pausing for hour, ninety minutes tops, to listen to a wise stranger who is equal parts poet, prophet, and philosopher. You will be quiet, you will be rapt, and you will never be the same. ~ J.C. Hallman, author of B & Me: A True Story of Literary Arousal

Against the assumption that to look for and find goodness in today's world is either dangerous, or naive, or both, comes Ed Simon's Ruthless Furnace of This World. This exuberant and erudite collection insists on the paradoxical power of good to exist where we least expect it. The book is the rare one that demonstrates what it describes - that we can amplify goodness with our own compassion, humility, and heart. Like William Blake writing The Lives of the Saints or Nietzsche drawing a map to Utopia, Simon succeeds on his own impossible terms. Embracing both Broadway and Bonhoeffer, AA and Augustine in its expansive geography of goodness, Simon's work is profound, often heartbreaking, yet surprisingly cheering. ~ Brook Wilensky-Lanford, author of Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden

Between the struggle for religious certitude and stick-in-the-mud atheism is Ed Simon's honest and authentic exploration of the language of morality. Opting for story over the tired debate of "does God exist," Simon presents narratives of faith and doubt from across literature to instruct the reader that literalism in any form will never bring us as close to a well-lived life as the simple and quiet search for the good. ~ Peter Bebergal, author of Strange Frequencies

Ed Simon's writing is perfectly suited to his theme, and reflects his preoccupations as a deep, wide-ranging and generous reader and thinker who applies his skills to address the fundamental question of human goodness. ~ Lydia Kiesling, editor at The Millions, and author of The Golden State
Gathering of Promises, A
by Ben Graham

The neglected story of how Texan musicians pioneered and explored psychedelic rock, and the too-high price they often paid.

A Gathering of Promises is a history of acid rock and psychedelic music in and from the state of Texas, focusing largely on its mid-1960s origins with the 13th Floor Elevators and contemporaries such as the Golden Dawn, the Red Crayola and Bubble Puppy, and following its development to the present day and the popularity of the annual Austin Psych Fest.

Grounded in a strong social, cultural and historical context, the book asks how Texas produced some of the most extreme and influential psych of any era despite a prevailing social ethos of Christian conservatism and the strictest drug laws of any American state. It looks at how this environment shaped and affected the music, alongside the Texan frontier spirit and its championing of expansion, freedom and individualism.

Reviews:
... masterful, thoroughly wrought, vivid and exciting to read.The writing is both deep and wide. There is... much truth and insight about our lives. You are a very fine writer indeed. ~ Clementine Hall (13th Floor Elevators)

Congratulations on putting together the most accurate, comprehensive account of those times that I have ever encountered. Great job. I want to add that you have provided a very insightful review of my lyrics. Thanks for taking time to give the songs a sincere, meaningful interpretation. ~ George Kinney (The Golden Dawn)
Give Them an Argument
by Ben Burgis

The left must learn to argue.

Many serious leftists have learned to distrust talk of logic and logical fallacies, associated with right-wing "logicbros". This is a serious mistake. Unlike the neoliberal technocrats, who can point to social problems and tell people "trust us", the serious Left must learn how to argue and persuade. In Give Them an Argument, Ben Burgis arms his reader with the essential knowledge of formal logic and informal fallacies.

Reviews:
In "Give Them an Argument: Logic for the Left", Burgis arms his reader with the essential knowledge of formal logic and informal fallacies that will be required for any political discussion in this polarized times. Critique: Informative, thoughtful, exceptionally well organized and presented, "Give Them an Argument: Logic for the Left" is an exceptionally effective tutorial. While very highly recommended for both community and academic library Contemporary Political Science collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, political activists, politicians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject. ~ James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Mid West Book Review

Ben Burgis understands that in order to persuade people to join a political movement, you have to master the techniques of rigorous argumentation. He masterfully exposes the cheap sophistry of right-wing 'philosophy' and shows why there's still a place for logic and reason in political discourse. This is a crucial handbook for those who want to 'crush' and 'destroy' the Ben Shapiros of the world. ~ Nathan Robinson, Editor, Current Affairs
Going Nowhere, Slow
by Mikkel Krause Frantzen

An unique analysis of four cultural works of depression and what they say about our society and our time.

Using examples from art and literature, Frantzen explores the social, political and economic implications of both real and imagined depression. Is feeling blue a symptom of the death of progress? Was the suicide of David Foster Wallace a proverbial canary in a coal mine?

Margaret Thatcher once declared that there is no alternative to the social order that we now reside within. Have we accepted her slogan as a fact, and is that why so many are on Prozac and other anti-depressants?

Frantzen examines the works of Michel Houellebecq, Claire Fontaine and David Foster Wallace as he seeks out an answer and a way to formulate a new future oriented left movement.

Reviews:
...............Going Nowhere, Slow is a compelling read for anyone interested in conceptualization and representations of depression, or the relation between contemporary culture and mental illness more generally. Frantzen’s writing is high-paced, erudite and at times humorous. Despite the subject matter, the author never romanticizes depression or succumbs to pessimism or fatalism. Instead, he uses the artworks discussed to establish a possible way out of the perceived dualism between escapism and maintaining the status quo. Whether it is Wallace’s insistence on empathy, Claire Fontaine’s call for collective action or Von Trier’s depiction of eschatological salvation, Frantzen’s message is that there is hope amidst hopelessness. Deeply critical and sharply written, Going Nowhere, Slow is an inspired and inspiring work. ~ Ward Huetink, Radboud University Nijmegen.

In this groundbreaking book, Mikkel Krause Frantzen takes depression as something that does not simply have connection with the subject’s past and alienation from others, but also to the idea of future and too much closeness. As a result, Frantzen finds in depression glimmers of optimism and hope. This book is essential reading for anyone who has questioned what depression is all about and why so many well-known novelists have created their best works trying to come to grips with it. ~ Renata Salecl, author of Tyranny of Choice

In this sharp and poetic book, Mikkel Krause Frantzen brilliantly illustrates the horror of depression. But he doesn’t leave us there, in despair, but opens up new hopeful ways of thinking about the spirit of our time. ~ Carl Cederström, author of The Happiness Fantasy, co-author of Dead Man Working

Why are we all so depressed? Today, depression is less an individual malady, than it is a structure of feeling that pervades Western neoliberal society. In this book, Mikkel Krause Frantzen digs deeply into this situation, reading a number of works (novels, movies, visual art) that not only give expression to our depressive condition, but offer clues as to why and how we feel this way. ~ Steven Shaviro, author of Connected, or What It Means to Live in the Network Society
Graham Harman Reader, The
by Graham Harman

The essential compendium of shorter works by one of the most influential philosophers of the twenty-first century. Written in Harman’s typical clear and witty style, the Reader is an essential resource for veteran readers of Harman and newcomers alike.

The Graham Harman Reader is the essential compendium of shorter works by one of the most influential philosophers of the twenty-first century. The writings in this volume are split into seven chapters. The first concerns Harman’s resistance to both downward and upward reductionism. The second chapter contains works that develop the specific fourfold structure of Object-Oriented Ontology. In the third, we find Harman’s novel arguments for why causal relations between two entities can only be indirect. The fourth chapter discusses why aesthetics deserves to be called first philosophy. The fifth chapter contains Harman’s underrated contributions to ethics and politics, and the sixth deals with epistemology, mind, and science. A concluding seventh chapter contains several previously unpublished writings not available anywhere else. Written in Harman’s typical clear and witty style, the /Reader/ is an essential resource for veteran readers of Harman and newcomers alike.

Reviews:
Overcoming the war of religion between analytics and continentals with a brand-new metaphysical insight, Graham Harman has restored to philosophy its greatness and value. ~ Maurizio Ferraris, Italian continental philosopher and author of the Manifesto of New Realism

I don't read a lot of metaphysics, but 'The Graham Harman Reader' is metaphysics that I read. ~ Bruce Sterling, science fiction author
Hidden Valleys: Haunted by the Future
by Justin Barton

The future is alongside us, sometimes closer, sometimes further away.

The future is alongside us, sometimes closer, sometimes further away.

Hidden Valleys starts from the perception that the human world is an eerie place, particularly in relation to its stories and dreams. It also starts from events that took place in North Yorkshire, in 1978. A work of philosophy, an account of experiences, and a biography of a year, it is simultaneously a challenging cultural analysis, drawing on novels, songs and films. It argues for lucidity over reason, becomings over conventional gender and familialism, groups over state politics, and for an escape to wider realities in place of the delusions of religion. Most centrally it breaks open a view of a futural dimension that coexists with the present, and which intrinsically involves a heightened awareness and evaluation of the planet, of women, and of the abstract. Inseparably it is also a detective investigation into the causes of the eerie human predicament. The book reaches the planetary by starting from a singular place, it reaches reality by starting from dreams, and it reaches the future by finding a doorway in the past.

Reviews:
From an article about On Vanishing Land

"At its most intense this audio-essay hollows out reality - the two artists are "a dream within a dream, the planet is a dream within a dream" - even as it viscerally conjures material presences from a land of disjunctive temporalities." ~ T.J..Demos, ART FORUM Sept 2013

Hidden Valleys is an extraordinary and unique work. Amongst many other things, it is a philosophical autobiography, a vivid account of a place and a time, and a series of stunning new readings of cultural texts. Ultimately, it amounts to nothing less than a challenge to encounter the world more lucidly, more intensely, than consensual reality customarily permits.

~ Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism and Ghosts Of My Life

Ostensibly an inquiry into the eerie arcadia of modernism Hidden Valleys takes the reader on a journey through a life and through the promises of the future. The reader will find themselves in the presence of a genuine writer, a becoming-writer, who has gifts of poetic and philosophical insight to offer, and to share into our haunted existences, with recollections of sublime moments in popular music and culture alongside meditations on North Yorkshire and New Zealand and innovative deployments of Deleuzian philosophy. This book shows that there is poetry in philosophy and philosophy in poetry...it is a rare book of tremendous power and beauty. ~ Professor Keith Ansell-Pearson, author of Germinal Life: The Difference and Repetition of Deleuze
Hothouse Utopia
by Ryan Gunderson

What is to be done when the future's already ablaze?

What is to be done when the future's already ablaze?

With the international spread of right-wing "populism," widening inequalities, precarious forms of labor becoming normative, surveillance capitalism, and a worsening ecological crisis, the future is bleak. One issue in particular, the likelihood of catastrophic climate change, coupled with the lack of a global movement with the organization and vision to effectively challenge our suicidal social order, yields the crushing awareness that future generations will be trapped in prehistory, one in which humanity continues to be dominated by its own creations instead of shaping the historical process in line with reason.

Expanding upon the ideas of Theodor W. Adorno, Ernst Bloch, Lucien Goldmann, and others, Ryan Gunderson examines the modes of action and thought through which we react to the likelihood of a catastrophic future in ways that reproduce instead of challenge the status quo, and how we can, instead, productively sustain the search for a better world against all odds.

Reviews:
“The passage from radical theory to transformative practice may seem today more strewn with obstacles and bereft of guideposts than ever before. And yet, as Ryan Gunderson urges in his unsentimental account of ‘hothouse utopianism,’ the challenges we face in pursuing it should not lead us down the opposite path to quiescence and resignation. There are still genuine possibilities for transcending the status quo worth our efforts, despite everything, to realize their promise.”

- Martin Jay, Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Reason After Its Eclipse: On Late Critical Theory (2016) and Splinters in Your Eye: Frankfurt School Provocations (2020) ~

"The possibility of dialectical thought has never been more hopeless, the need for it never more pressing. Revisiting the negative utopias of the Frankfurt School in the blood-red light of global ecological catastrophe, Gunderson works critical theory against the grain in a careful, painstaking effort to save philosophy from nihilism, hope from fatuity, and pessimism from despair. Hothouse Utopia is a timely, useful, and important contribution to the impossible yet necessary project of thinking a human future in the Anthropocene."

- Roy Scranton, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, and author of Learning to Die in the Anthropocene (2015) and We’re Doomed. Now What? (2018) ~
How to Dismantle the English State Education System in 10 Easy Steps
by Terry Edwards

Carl Parsons

The story of the takeover of England’s schools by the super-efficient, modernising, academising machine.

Terry Edwards and Carl Parsons tell the story of the takeover of England’s schools by the super-efficient, modernising, academising machine, which, in collaboration with a dynamic, forward-looking government is recasting the educational landscape.

England’s school system is turbo-charged into a new era and will be the envy of the world, led by Chief Executives of Multi Academy Trusts on bankers’ salaries, imposing a slim curriculum, the soundest of discipline regimes and ensuring that highest standards will be achieved even if at the expense of teacher morale, poor service to special needs, off-rolling of students and despite an absolute lack of evidence that this privatised system works.

Reviews:
A sharp and incisive account of how state education has been dismantled into a system of competing Multi-Academy Trusts. We were told ‘choice’ would deliver higher standards. It didn’t. It made the system more chaotic, wasteful and segregated. This book explains how it was done. ~ Alasdair Smith, National Secretary, Anti Academies Alliance

This book describes with irony the extraordinary changes that have taken place over the last ten years to achieve a partly privatised, unaccountable and unfair system that benefits bureaucrats and not children. Compelling and shocking. ~ Melian Mansfield, Chair, Campaign for State Education

An energetic and passionate book, and full of useful and indignation-inducing information for those of us appalled at the direction public education is taking, and a reality check for academy ideologues. ~ David E. Ewens, author of the Frank Stirling series

The academy experiment has served to harness greed and profit, ignoring the importance of the needs of students. The satire of this book makes the case emphatically. ~ John Fahy, Councillor in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, former Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Children's Services

The deeply flawed system we are being forced to accept with its mantra of 'Make schools great again' makes me and many others who have spent their working lives in state comprehensive schools very angry. This book expertly articulates that anger with a damning evidence-based approach. ~ Des Malone, retired head teacher of The John Roan School, Greenwich

A frightening and gripping must read for all parents. Exploring and exposing the perverse system of academies and the consequences... that most aren’t aware of until the battle hits their child’s school. ~ Shaunagh Roberts, mother of sons and accidental activist, Waltham Holy Cross Primary School

This is an extraordinary and wonderful book, full of fun and insight. I heartily recommend it. ~ Ivor Goodson, Professor of Learning Theory, University of Brighton
How To Guide to Cosmopolitan Socialism, A
by Matthew McManus

A tribute to the late Michael Brooks, and a defense of his vision of cosmopolitan socialism.

Socialism has always had internationalist ambitions, but what those ambitions should be and how to rethink them in the 21st century remain open questions. Before his tragic passing in 2020, Michael Brooks talked about a new kind of cosmopolitan socialism that would be appropriate for our time. A How To Guide To Cosmopolitan Socialism builds upon Brooks' vision to argue that we need a left which knows no boundaries and recognizes the fundamental moral equality of all individuals on the planet while securing the material conditions for their flourishing. Only such a sweeping vision can successfully combat the forces of reaction and violence confronting us today.

Reviews:
Matthew McManus is swiftly becoming of the globally leading figures on liberal socialism. This book shows why. Combining his encylopaedic knowledge of the topic with easy-to-access pros, McManus convincingly argues that cosmopolitan socialism is central to a just future. You’ll walk away angry, but well-equipped to argue. ~ Dr Timothy Stacey | Utrecht University

"In the best tradition of Enlightenment critique, Matthew McManus identifies the rational kernels in liberal philosophy's arguments about the international and puts them in motion with classical Marxism. The result is a passionate and logical moral argument for cosmopolitan socialism grounded in the principles of historical materialism. Indeed, amidst the long dark night of neoliberal and neoconservative influence on the shape of the international order, Cosmopolitan Socialism is a luminous political treatise for the workers of the world to unite under the banner of freedom as reciprocal self-determination and the equal moral worth of all people." ~ Dr. Dave Zeglen | Lecturer at the University of Michigan
How To Like Everything
by Paul Shepheard

There is no absolute truth but there is absolutely everything

How To Like Everything is a utopia. 'Utopia' is a word invented five hundred years ago at the start of the modern age as a description of the ideal society. It's composed of Latin parts that taken together mean 'no place' or 'nowhere'. We now use the word utopia to mean an impossible dream of perfection. How To Like Everything recasts the actual world, the forever-changing world we live in, as utopia: to make the impossible possible. This is not a dry academic debate. Paul Shepheard takes on his subject by threading questions, evidence and logic through hilarious, moving and thought-provoking stories. The action is set in the complicated city of Amsterdam, where he gets stuck in the briars of love affairs, existential decisions and conflicts with complete strangers. And the philosophy? He is a materialist. His utopia hinges on the question of whether there can be anything other than the present moment.

Reviews:
Paul Shepheard is one of the finest thinkers and writers alive today. ~ Jem Finer, sound artist

Het is niet eenvoudig om na lezing van Paul Shepheard's boeken de wereld met eigen ogen te zien. (It's not easy to see the world with your own eyes after reading Paul Shepheard.) ~ Andre Dekker, Observatorium
How to Read a History Book
by Marshall T. Poe

How to Read a History Book explains who writes history books, how the writers are trained, and why they write them.

A deconstruction of the modern history book as artifact, How to Read a History Book explains who writes history books, how the writers are trained, and why they write them. It also discusses genre, bias (political and otherwise) and how to read history books between the lines.

Written for undergraduates, intro graduate students and anyone with an informed interest in the subject, How to Read a History Book demonstrates that, rather than being objects that fall from the sky, history books are actually socially-constructed artifacts reflecting all the contradictions of modern meritocratic capitalism.

Reviews:
This book introduces the reader in an easy and understandable way into the genre of history books. Through fictional stories and examples, it becomes clear what difficulties historians encounter when writing such books. It also details the function of key components of history books. The book is valuable in giving readers tools to look at history books in a more critical and reflective way. This book is helpful for everyone who likes to read history books as well as students who want to have a deeper, reflective insight into this genre.

~ Brigitt Amthor, NetGalley

How To Read A History Book is a clever look at how academic works, and a comment on the way we perceive documentation and history. What stood out most to me about this book is the way I was able to reflect on my own academic work through the story shared here.

And story was not what I expected at all. The narrative structure of the book proved to be a positive surprise. I would recommend this book to scholars, students, and anyone interested in reading about how "what we know" comes to be.

~ JD DeHart, NetGalley
iCommunism
by Colin Cremin

Capitalism promised us shiny things but only communism can deliver them in a different, more liberating, universal and sustainable form.

Our relationship to consumption is not an easy one. Apart from being self-centred, superficial and narcissistic, the consumer is held responsible for global warming, poverty and now, by binging on easy credit, economic crisis. A straw man has many uses, including being part of the solution by reducing carbon footprints, consuming more ethically and tightening the proverbial belt. iCommunism defends the consumer against the prevailing politics of austerity. It splits the fetish from the commodity fetish by taking the shine away from the commodity now signified in the ubiquitous i of i branded products and transfers it over to communism. With ideology once again alive on the streets of Europe, iCommunism reimagines Herbert Marcuse s 1960s artistic critique of capitalism s repressive performance principle for today s consumer society. Capitalism promised us shiny things but only communism can deliver them in a different, more liberating, universal and sustainable form.

Reviews:
The icon-shattering publishing house, Zero books, added Colin Cremin’s iCommunism to its increasingly impressive list of titles. This is a book that updates Frankfurt School style radicalism for the web 2.0 generation. Breathlessly modernist and radical at the same time, the perfect combination. Jodi Dean’s The Communist Horizon is part of the publisher Verso’s interesting project to reinvent the entire idea of Communism. The academic references are considerable and may put off some readers, yet the purpose is faultless, a wonderful polemic full of both anger and imagination. ~ Mark Perryman, www.socialistunity.com/xmas-books-roundup/

Has neo-liberalism’s bizarre “cultural revolution” finally succeeded?

Are we all now but sad facsimiles of the marketplace, the covetous

corporation and the latest stupid iWhatever? Cremin’s wonderful book

says “NO”, the game isn’t up just yet. If capitalism has become a

nasty metaphor for human life itself, then iCommunism paves the way

for a joyous rescripting of our worries and obsessions that will make

David Cameron and IKEA wish you had never read this book.

~ Peter Fleming, author of Contesting the Corporation and Dead Man Working (with Zero Books).
Ideology and the Virtual City
by Jon Bailes

An exploration of modern society and the critical value of popular culture.

Ideology and the Virtual City is an exploration of modern society and the critical value of popular culture. It combines a prescient social theory that describes how ‘neoliberal’ ideology in today’s societies dominates our economic, political and cultural ideals, with an entertaining exploration of narratives, characters and play structures in some of today’s most interesting videogames. The book takes readers into a range of simulated urban environments that symbolise the hidden antagonisms of social life and create outlandish resolutions through their power fantasies. Interactive entertainment can help us understand the ways in which people relate to a modern ‘common sense’ neoliberal background, in terms of absorbing assumptions, and questioning them.

Reviews:
Videogames are gradually recognized as a new cultural form which reaches far beyond mere entertainment: they enact new forms of subjectivity and temporality. However, this fascination with the new form should not render us blind for the fact that, in their content, even at its most magic, videogames are firmly rooted in our neoliberal capitalism and faithfully mirror its antinomies. This is where Bailes’s book enters. Through a detailed analysis of selected games, from Grand Theft Auto to Persona, he demonstrates how they reproduce the key dimensions of a modern megalopolis: the City as Playground, as Battleground, as Wasteland, as Prison… Ideology and the Virtual City is not only insanely readable; in its combination of vivid descriptions with theoretical stringency, it provides an unsurpassable introduction into the deadlocks of our real life. In short, an instant classic for everyone who wants to understand not just games but our reality itself. ~ Slavoj Zizek

Videogames are the battle ground on which the culture wars are fought, and the space of gaming is shaping the political present and future, whether we like it or not. In this insighful and politically vital intervention, Jon Bailes reads the contemporary city through its representation in videogames and considers how city space itself is tranformed by games. Bailes shows how the city and the virtual world can hardly be separated, making a case for a critical-theoretical engagement with games which makes their politics, importance and limitations visible. A timely and important book on a topic so easily and so often misunderstood, setting the terms for future discussions of gaming. ~ Alfie Bown, author of The Playstation Dreamworld
Imaginoscope for Organizers, An
by Monika Kostera

Human beings are storytelling creatures. The imaginoscope is an (imaginary) device that people can use to create better organizations.

An Imaginoscope for Organizers offers practical exercises to use both individual and collective imagination to activate and mobilize creative organizing impulses. It proposes intellectual, symbolic and poetic food for thought and practice. Each chapter is a step on the quest for creative ideas and practices and introduces a language that can be used to invent and communicate your own.

Reviews:
There is, in my view, an urgent need for teaching that encourages imagination rather than compliance, and when this is done well students inevitably enjoy the experience. I have found this to be particularly so for post-experience (MBA) students, but the need to engage imagination actually pervades teaching at all levels. An Imaginoscope for Organizers is an interesting read, with lots of practical advice about how to develop and use the imaginoscope with students. ~ Barbara Simpson PhD FRSA, Professor of Leadership and Organisational Dynamics , Strathclyde Business School

Every once and a while someone from organizational studies writes something that extends far beyond the boundaries and limits of the field, whereby they achieve negentropy. That is, ideas and writing that give us energy and hope. This is what Monika Kostera has achieved here; it is a book of pedagogical ideas, a response to teaching during the Covid pandemic, an exploration of ethnographic phenomenology and a political statement. Not only is the text poetically powerful; it is rich in ‘imaginiscope’ suggestions, possibilities and interactions, creating a liminal space that we the readers will be eager to enter into and engage with. ~ Professor Hugo Letiche, Professor Hugo Letiche - LITEM, Institut Mines-TBS Evry/Paris; recent book is The Magic of Organization (ed with J-L Moriceau

While imagination is one of the most important topics in organization theory and design, it is, unfortunately, one of the least studied. This book by Monika Kostera fills this gap by allowing readers to rediscover their imaginative faculties through a series of experiments, starting with language. By changing the perspective of observers and actors of organizational life, she invites them to participate in the imaginoscopic transmutation of the world of work. ~ Ghislain Deslandes, Professor, ESCP Business School

An Imaginoscope for Organizers invites readers to imagine and go beyond the limitations of our imagination to think differently and mobilize collectively against forces that threaten our ability to create alternative futures. A timely, creative, and enchanting interdisciplinary text that will linger with us until we imagine anew.

~ Professor Alison Pullen Professor of Management and Organization Studies Joint Editor-in-Chief Gender, Work and Organization
In Confidence: Talking Frankly about Fame
by Laurie Taylor

Celebrity artists, scientists, actors, film-makers and novelists on being famous.

A study of celebrity based on the seventy odd interviews featured in the Sky Arts television series, In Confidence. Informants include David Schwimmer, Stephen Fry, Harry Belafonte, Alan Ayckbourn, Kathie Burke, Michael Frayn, Christopher Hitchens, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sheila Hancock, Richard Dawkins, Miriam Margolys, Tracey Emin, and Nigel Kennedy. Here you will find everyone from politicians to artists, film-makers to novelists, talking frankly about fame and reputation.

Reviews:
Subtitled ‘talking frankly about fame’ this is a compilation of a series of interviews on Sky Arts that constitutes a reflection on the nature of celebrity. The introduction reminds the reader of other interview series such as Face to Face with John Freeman, In the Psychiatrist’s Chair with Anthony Clare and the series with Sir Michael Parkinson. The book is structured thematically with interviews about making music, art and stories, with about four interviews per chapter. There are then reflections on family and friends and the nature of identity relation to celebrity. Stephen Fry discusses various ways in which he copes with his own fame, sometimes with books in brief 72 Network Review Winter 2015 www.scimednet.org self-deprecation. He reflects that most communications are looking to take something from you, which is ultimately exhausting. It is very instructive to learn that Nigel Kennedy’s trademark casual clothing on stage actually began with him leaving his smart outfit in New York when he was playing in London! He explains that much of his persona is designed to break down barriers, which one senses in his performance of Bach in an Irish parish church with comfortable informality. Sir Alan Ayckbourn recounts an amusing incident with a local who is astonished that he still lives in Scarborough when he could live in Bridlington, having made a great deal of money. One intriguing line of demarcation becoming a celebrity is when journalists become interested in details of private lives, as so many famous people have found to their cost. The book gives an important insight into the varieties of contemporary fame. ~ David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer

In an age of soapy soundbites, Taylor's hour-long interview strand is a serious attempt to delve deeper into its subjects.

~ The Telegraph

In this era of presentation bells and whistles, it's hard to over-emphasise how satisfying it is to see a television show that simply involves two engaging and articulate people talking to each other… Great stuff. ~ Time Out
Instagram Archipelago, The
by Elliot C. Mason

Through a raucous tour of Instagram’s fisherwomen, The Instagram Archipelago proposes a radical new ethics of gender and race.

Set on Idan Hayosh’s peculiar Instagram page of women holding dead fish, The Instagram Archipelago is a conversation with contemporary culture’s logics of gender and race. Working through recent thinking in Black studies and Hayosh’s satirical images, Elliot C. Mason presents the aesthetics of capitalism as a sea that makes everything the same, turning the world into a single form.

The Instagram Archipelago brings radical antiracist and feminist scholarship to a general audience, applying a model of thinking beyond gender and race to the strange world of online fishing photos. This funny and fascinating book moves past the liberal celebration of gender and race, towards a tiny island of resistance in a growing archipelago.

Reviews:
By way of a personal response to Idan Hayosh’s deeply weird images, Elliot C. Mason has conjured a bracingly witty, original and lyrical meditation on architecture, fishing, bikinis and the possibility of escape from the ‘eclipsing wetness’ of our homogenizing neoliberal culture. ~ Josh Cohen

Elliot C. Mason is a force of nature. Dissolving the boundaries of genre, he provides a roadmap to the writing of the future. The Instagram Archipelago is witty, trenchant, and very very relevant. ~ Frances Wilson

Timely, insightful, moving, funny, and rigorous in its self-scrutiny. [Mason has written] a persuasive, and admirable, study of the white male gaze and the world it’s helped bring about. ~ Matt Greene, author of Jew(ish) and Ostrich.
It’s Not Over
by Pete Dolack

A comprehensive historical study to understand today's world and find a better world tomorrow.

The path to a better world can’t be found without knowledge of history. "It’s Not Over" analyzes attempts to supplant capitalism in the past in order to draw lessons for emerging and future movements that seek to overcome the political and economic crises of today. This history is presented through the words and actions of the men and women who made these revolutions, and the everyday experiences of the millions of people who put new revolutionary ideas into practice under the pressures of enormous internal and external forces. This is history that can be applied to today’s struggles to shape our world, in which new ideas are emerging to bring about the economic democracy that is indispensable to a rational and sustainable future.

Reviews:
As Cold War taboos on honest discussions of capitalism and socialism lose their force, important books like this are emerging. They ask why capitalism keeps provoking movements to go beyond it, why they have not yet achieved that goal, and what we must learn from them so the next efforts prove more effective. Dolack here contributes to the vital emerging answers. ~ Rick Wolff, author of Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism and host of the Economic Update radio program

There is a great amount of knowledge to be gained from this ambitious work that takes us from the Paris Commune to the Sandinista revolution. It’s Not Over sifts through more than a century of revolutionary history persistently seeking the lessons to be drawn from it for the construction of a non-capitalist world. The result is original and useful book that should not be missed. ~ Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, The Body and Primitive Accumulation and co-founder of the International Feminist Collective

Over two decades following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this book provides a timely and comprehensive appraisal of its internal and geopolitical contradictions and a grounded general schematic for workers’ movements which will form and build new socialist states in the near future. Dolack cogently recognizes the incredible advances of socialism in improving the quality of life among workers and peasants. The lessons of It’s Not Over point to the fundamental significance of worker control in organizing a sustainable and equitable system of social exchange. ~ Immanuel Ness, City University of New York and author of Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class
Land of Hunger
by Wayne Holloway

A collection of short stories; or one long one.

Land of Hunger is a collection of short stories, that interconnect, loop and return upon each other despite their seemingly disparate subject matter. Fragments that resonate across time and place, from the Ukraine during the Russian Civil War, to the miners' strike, to the world of animal rights protestors.

The stories are all about the collection of fictions that make up a writer. A fantasy of who the author is, where he comes from; the story of a fragile, shifting identity built on facts, yet obscuring them. In doing this, Wayne Holloway embodies our deep hunger for the stories of who and why we are.

"At long last: A short-story collection packed with meaning. LAND OF HUNGER is a socio-political odyssey that is both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving. Wayne Holloway is a much-needed breath of fresh air."

Lee Rourke, author of Vulgar Things and winner of the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize 2010

Reviews:
Wayne Holloway delivers a clenched fist rammed hard into the flabby belly of what post-modern writing has become! ~ Stewart Home, author of 69 Things to do with a dead princess, Slow Death and Tainted Love

At long last: A short-story collection packed with meaning. LAND OF HUNGER is a socio-political odyssey that is both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving. Wayne Holloway is a much-needed breath of fresh air. ~ Lee Rourke, author of Vulgar Things and winner of the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize 2010
Last Night, The
by Federico Campagna

By replacing hope and faith with adventure, The Last Night of our lives might finally become the first morning of an autonomous future.

Our secular society seems to have finally found its new God: Work. As technological progress makes human labour superfluous, and over-production destroys both the economy and the planet, Work remains stronger than ever as a mantra of universal submission. This book develops a fully-fledged theory of radical atheism, advocating a disrespectful, opportunist squandering of obedience. By replacing hope and faith with adventure, The Last Night of our lives might finally become the first morning of an autonomous future.

Reviews:
By turns lyrical, acerbic and fabular, Federico Campagna updates existentialism for the 21st century. If death is certain, surely we can't afford to sacrifice our lives to the pointless labour which capital demands of us. Why do we continue to waste our lives doing it? What are the invisible bonds that keep us in servitude? The Last Night exposes the fondly held delusions that stop us from confronting these challenges - but, beware leftists and anarchists, it is our assumptions that the book dismisses most ruthlessly. ~ Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism: is there no alternative?

Effortlessly moving between politics, philosophy and autobiography, Campagna has created an ethical code that can function as an everyday compass for the lost generation of adventurers. And we are in desperate need of new maps. ~ Simon Critchley

If God is dead then why do we worship work? Federico Campagna’s provocative and poetic manifesto suggests we will not be atheists until we stop believing in capitalism. Contesting the abstractions that rule our lives The Last Night is an ethical manual for our warfare without welfare present.

~ Benjamin Noys

"A precarious culture is emerging from the horizon of our time, and this book is a presage of the tide to come." ~ Franco 'Bifo' Berardi, from the introduction

"Like Stirner before him, Campagna has written something novel, singular and dangerous. Not a prayer book for ideologues, but something between an ethical meditation and Molotov cocktail that can be thrown against the abstractions that imprison us." ~ Saul Newman, from the afterword
Last Tape, The
by Alex Niven

In this haunting debut collection, Alex Niven explores a poetic hinterland that is also a psychological and cultural wilderness.

In this haunting debut collection, Alex Niven explores a poetic hinterland that is also a psychological and cultural wilderness. Adopting a style grounded in the radical minimalism of northern English modernism and romanticism, Niven writes poems constructed out of traditional forms cut up and reassembled to produce an abrupt lyric realism ideally suited to the political subject matter of his verse. These are poems of anger, mourning, and finally, extraordinary optimism, announcing the arrival of a historically lucid new bearing in twenty-first-century British poetry.

HIDDEN TRACK

I couldn’t work out whether

you were part of the future

or a beautiful aftershock.

Blind spots where the sun snuck.

Your skin was syncopated, weightless.

We crossed every finish line,

woke immaculately new.

Reviews:
Alex Niven always has something to say that I’m better for having heard said. And he says it with passion and eloquence. One of his loci is a North of mind and place, and these poems remind us there is a north in every southern town, a south in every north.

~ Tom Pickard

'One of these days there will be movement …' The backdrop to Alex Niven's The Last Tape is the official story of the last three decades: the defeat of socialism in the eighties, the capitalist realist desert of the noughties, the nameless confusion of our current moment. With a compassion devoid of sentimentality, Niven reminds us of the casualties of capitalist triumphalism: lost lives, suppressed yearnings, prematurely terminated projects. Yet everywhere in The Last Tape we can feel the trace and pressure of other possibilities. Niven's vignettes quietly but insistently wager on the thought that progress is about to be resumed: 'After 1979/ Our reeling hopes were all erased/ But the last tape can be wiped again/ And the dreaming past can be rephrased.' ~ Mark Fisher, author of Ghosts Of My Life and Capitalist Realism