The introduction had me believe that I was getting something a lot more personal than a series of loosely connected essays. It's a nice enough companion to Capitalist Realism, covering more or less the same intellectual ground. But I would've enjoyed this immensely more if it was a laying bare of what Fisher really feels rather than him hiding behind other people's work. ( )

The introduction had me believe that I was getting something a lot more personal than a series of loosely connected essays. It's a nice enough companion to Capitalist Realism, covering more or less the same intellectual ground. But I would've enjoyed this immensely more if it was a laying bare of what Fisher really feels rather than him hiding behind other people's work. ( )

Such a pretty book! Such a promising start! Written by an academic, it is a collection of philosophical musings on society. Mostly focussed on music or film, and how these modes of communication represent various aspects of politics in society. Then it dawned on me that this book is mostly collected blog posts, and they are very specific musings. And when specifically focussing on musicians and musical genres I don't relate to, it became a bit boring for me.

But. The introductory chapters gave a broader picture, and were enlightening and sparked off several ideas for further study. The chapters dealing with bands I knew of (for example, the section devoted to Joy Division) were much more interesting, and the chapter which compared and contrasted three films dealing with issues of time and memory (Memento, Inception, and The Prestige) was fantastic, seeing as I had seen all films and could relate to the issues raised.

This book makes me want to read his earlier one, Capitalist Realism, but I may even scan a chapter or two from here to save for future reference. ( )