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jplayjames 's review for:
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
by Mark Fisher
slow-paced
The occasional burst of insight or powerful restatement of a position which I usually already held was thoroughly mired in masturbatory academia, incessant paraphrasing or quoting of the work of Zizek & the others on whose shoulders this book stands, and most distractingly just interminable pop culture references.
Example of the opening of a chapter:
> Nothing could be a clearer illustration of what Zizek has identified as the failure of the Father function, the crisis of the paternal superego in late capitalism, than a typical edition of Supernanny. The program offers what amounts to a relentless, although of course implicit, attack on postmodernity's permissive hedonism. Supernanny is a Spinozist insofar as, like Spinoza, she takes it for granted that children are in a state of abjection.
I've really struggled with how to rate this as there are the occasional redeeming phrases and ideas, but they are thoroughly crowded out by... Well, the sort of language above.
Clearly I am in the minority from the esteem this book holds, but I really think that despite agreeing on some fundamental principles, a higher rating would not reflect the frustrations I had with the book itself.
Example of the opening of a chapter:
> Nothing could be a clearer illustration of what Zizek has identified as the failure of the Father function, the crisis of the paternal superego in late capitalism, than a typical edition of Supernanny. The program offers what amounts to a relentless, although of course implicit, attack on postmodernity's permissive hedonism. Supernanny is a Spinozist insofar as, like Spinoza, she takes it for granted that children are in a state of abjection.
I've really struggled with how to rate this as there are the occasional redeeming phrases and ideas, but they are thoroughly crowded out by... Well, the sort of language above.
Clearly I am in the minority from the esteem this book holds, but I really think that despite agreeing on some fundamental principles, a higher rating would not reflect the frustrations I had with the book itself.