/203/ Positive Biopolitics? ft. Benjamin Bratton
Added 2021-07-13 06:01:00 +0000 UTCOn pandemic & post-pandemic politics.
We talk to Benjamin Bratton about his new book, The Revenge of the Real, and its argument for a "positive biopolitics". What does an "epidemiological view of society" look like, and why should we let go of the idea that unmediated social relations are the most authentic kind? We touch on the work of Foucault and Agamben and why they are or aren't relevant to our conditions and critique "boomer theorists".
Come to our book launch in London.
Running order:
- (00:30) - Intro chat
- (05:40) - Interview with Bratton
- (01:01:30) - 'After Party'
Readings:
- The Revenge of the Real, Verso Books
- The 7th Function of Language, Laurent Binet, Penguin
Comments
Did this guest sincerely use the phrase 'bodily fluids'? Was this an interview with Jack D. Ripper from Dr. Strangelove? Does anyone else old enough to remember have a feeling of bad deja vu occurring at present societally with respect to the post-9/11 years in which the institutionally-entrenched intelligentsia (Thomas Friedman? David Brooks? etc. etc.) submitted to a collective hallucination/Bogeyman paranoia resulting in the invasion of Iraq, the Patriot Act, interminable and perverted TSA security lines at airports and the like? My hunch is this guest's private utopian fantasy would involve being locked inside an armored self-driving electric vehicle while cruising through San Diego, CA's pharmaceutical industry's parking lots, wearing a respirator and a VR headset, with a slow-drip IV of estrogen hooked to his arm, alone, forever. Remember when Verso used to publish cool books like 'Welcome to the Desert of the Real'? Yeah...those days are over. Hard pass. Wing Attack Plan R, plz.
Tim
2021-07-22 19:20:44 +0000 UTCI thought this was a great episode! I appreciate when you get people on that you don't necessarily agree with.
Daniel L
2021-07-21 09:20:45 +0000 UTC
