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A review by ostrowk
No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive by Lee Edelman
4.0
NO FUTURE was infuriatingly smart, compelling, and fun in its analysis—even if I disagreed with its conclusions. Like the queer readings of Scrooge and The Birds were dumb good, as were the critiques of Cornel West and Dan Savage.
But OK, one reviewer notes that "Edelman grounds a queer ethics and politics outside kinship and reproductive circuits, those spaces of assimilation that use the bribe of futurity to distract us from the ongoing work of social violence and death." OK, I appreciate this. But Edelman goes so far in his anti-sociality as to reject the call to be "good citizens" and "activists," so even if we aren't distracted and fully "notice this ongoing work of social violence and death," what would Edelman have us do about it? Just go on fucking while the world burns—which it is, of course, in every literal and figurative way.
But OK, one reviewer notes that "Edelman grounds a queer ethics and politics outside kinship and reproductive circuits, those spaces of assimilation that use the bribe of futurity to distract us from the ongoing work of social violence and death." OK, I appreciate this. But Edelman goes so far in his anti-sociality as to reject the call to be "good citizens" and "activists," so even if we aren't distracted and fully "notice this ongoing work of social violence and death," what would Edelman have us do about it? Just go on fucking while the world burns—which it is, of course, in every literal and figurative way.