Just reading capitalist realism and listened to his talk that was linked in the current perusall reading series and I'd like to start a discussion about his ideas.

One major theme of Fisher seems to be the assessment, that culture has lost its forward momentum, that technology has progressed but culture stalled "we're basically watching 20th century entertainment on ever increasing resolution" or in regards to music that "the terms retro and nostalgia have lost their meaning, because now there is nothing else but them". And I'm not quite sure what to make out of this. One one hand I think this is somewhat plausible that a world, in which everything is instantly accessible and arbitrarily copy-able, would be overwhelmed by nostalgia for a time when there was still new and authentic stuff.

On the other hand, is this really the case? "In 15 years we went from the beatles to punk rock". Starting around 2000 somewhat staying in the genre we went from nu-metal to indie-soft-rock to ... whatever we have now. Idk if this is a good example. But to me this seems less self evident and more like a sort of vibe-ology. A mix of hipster-hopelessness and boomer "back in the day we had real ..." sentiment.

Please share your thoughts!

  • Invidiarum [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I also want to invoke the ghost of McLuhan, who said that each new media acts as a container of the old. I.e. TV was a container for film. We can read into this further and ask how does new media (like new music, movies, apps, whatever) act as containers for the old. Instagram uses filters that replicate the “film” look, and through this is deeply insincere. Its a facade of “nostalgia” for something that never existed in the first place, a simulation of a referent that doesnt exist

    This makes incredible sense to me, since the new container is specifically made for or at least while the old media is pervasive.

    Read Jameson, Lyotard, and Baudrillard

    Thanks, will add them to my list

    the thesis that the left has accepted “the end of history” as a given and refuse to use their political imagination (I.e. not be anticommunist) is correct

    I'm under the impression that he himself is very much included in that

    • solaranus
      ·
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator