Cold Me. The City & The City: Amazon.co.uk: China Mieville. Welcome to the Desert of the Real: Amazon.co.uk: Slavoj Zizek: B. Doom Patrols: Theoretical Fiction About Postmodernism Serpent's. The main virtue of Steven Shaviro's book is that it exemplifies what it discusses. Rather than sit back and presume to parse the postmodern world from the standpoint of a sort of objective, third-person narrator (in the mold of a Mailer, Bellow, or Kirkus) who remains ultimately "disinterested" in his subject matter, Shaviro dives in and swims with the strange fish populating his _Patrols_. How could one write about postmodernism without referring to postmodernists? Shaviro does so with perfect synthesis, and discusses relevant issues with poetic prose that becomes its own complex, ambiguous, challenging artifact. Look no further than _Doom Patrols_ for incisive chapters on race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, class, money--and all the other topics the high modernists would have us forget in the name of Kultur.
Militant Modernism (Zero Books): Amazon.co.uk: Owen Hatherley: B. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?: Amazon.co.uk: Mark. Let's get the negatives out of the way first. To start with, the author refers to several books and writers but gives no references at all, except an occasional mention in the text. Neither is there either a bibliography or an index. The lack of a bibliography is particularly annoying. Secondly, the text itself is, at times, intimidatingly impenetrable in ways reminiscent of those lampooned in 'The demolition merchants of reality' chapter in Francis Wheen's book 'How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World'.
Still, once you've got over those points, there are some really interesting analyses and ideas in this slim volume. Perhaps much of what is covered is not entirely new but may be found in, for example, Thomas Frank's books 'The Wrecking Crew' and 'The Conquest of Cool' plus David Harvey's books, including the excellent 'A Brief History of Neoliberalism'. The proposition is that we are living in post-Fordist Capitalism. And thirdly, we have history - or at least 'events'. A Thousand Plateaus Continuum Impacts : Capitaliism and Schizoph. Violence of Financial Capitalism Semiotext e / Intervention: Ama. Micro-Bionic: Amazon.co.uk: Thomas Bey. Microbionic is a truly fascinating book. The insights and wealth of information provided on the one hand make it read like a text book charting the history of electronic music and sound art, but on the other hand it seems to be written mostly from personal first hand knowledge. Although critical at times, it shares multiple perspectives and view points and appears to have no agenda other than to inform the reader about the subjects and artists on hand.
It gives profound insights into the artists covered, as well as their works, intentions and progression of ideas over the course of their careers. I would say Microbionic is and will remain the quintessential authority on the subject. A must have for any musician, sound artist, or professor. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity: A.