critique

Ep. 60 – Eugene Thacker, In the Dust of This Planet: Horror of Philosophy

In what could be their first trio podcast, co-hosts James, Emily, and B tarry with the Preface and a Chapter titled “Occult Philosophy” from Eugene Thacker’s In the Dust of this Planet: Horror of Philosophy, vol. 1. Before launching in, James shares some good news, and B befriends a finger monster. The team was at first hesitant about the text. But why? Perhaps they were a bit bewildered by Thacker’s arguments concerning the history of the philosophical “in-itself”? Or the world-for-us? Or their overall relationship to the horror genre? Was this Thacker’s critique of the Western canon? Or is Thacker’s archive unknowingly neo-colonial?  Does the archive show us the limits of knowledge (as the promise of horror as the fear of the unknown forebodes) or does it reproduce “the ruse of [Western] reason” by another name and through another’s pen? But why the Hell is post-colonial and anti-racist critique the “easy” critique anyway? Join and listen as all three of our co-hosts discuss one of the many purposes and pitfalls of academic publishing, the perils of public anti-intellectualism, and the dynamism of genres.

Support us on Patreon to help us upgrade our recording equipment, potentially provide episode transcripts, and more – plus, you may have the chance to jump your request to the top of the request queue. Thanks to Bağlan for requesting Thacker. Requests for texts for us to discuss? Dreams for us to interpret? Advice questions for us to answer? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Twitter. Like our Facebook page. RSS feed here. Thanks to Bad Infinity for the intro music, “Post Digital,” from their new album FutureCommons; always already thanks to B for the outro music. For the mp3 of the episode click here.

 

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Ep. 15 – Jean-François Lyotard, Libidinal Economy

In this episode of Always Already, our brilliant guest co-host, Sid Issar, joins B and John to engage with Lyotard’s affective reading of Marx in his Libidinal Economy. Sid breaks down Lyotard’s complex ontological reading of Marx. John points us toward how Lyotard elaborates a practices a unique mode of reading. And B, well, B thinks Lyotard is intellectually dishonest! How shall we proceed? Do we stroke Marx’s beard, as Lyotard requests? Do we avoid critique and rather take from Marx all of Marx’s affects? Or do we listen to ‘little girl Marx’, whose desire for holism and ideality beg us to interpret, critique, and undermine the desires that permeate Capital? The conversation ranges across the meaning of interpretation, the concept libido, the question of what capitalism is, subjectivity, what Lyotard would say about shopping at H&M, and more. Listen in and join our fantastic discussion.

In My Tumblr Friend from Canada, the group advises on proper Grindr/Tinder etiquette for academics and on the all important question of sacrilege.

Thanks to Deniz for the Lyotard request! Requests for texts for us to discuss? Advice questions for the show? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Like our Facebook page. Get the mp3 of the episode here. RSS feed here. This episode’s music by B.

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Libidinal_Economy_(French_edition)

Ep.3 B-Sides: Latour, continued

The rest of our discussion of Reassembling the Social by Bruno Latour. This part of the conversation features some critiques we have of Latour, the style of the text, the ethics and politics of his project and knowledge production more generally, and the relation between Latour and other theorists.

Requests for texts for us to discuss? Advice questions to submit? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Like our Facebook page. Get the mp3 here. Listen to the first part of the Latour talk here.

Thanks to Jordan Cass for the music in the episode.

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Ep.3 – Bruno Latour’s Reassembling the Social; Interview with Amy Schiller on Philanthropy, Neoliberalism, and Government

In this ‘action’ filled episode, listen to B, John, and guest-host Lindsey Whitmore discuss Latour’s sociologically controversial book Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Covering topics from the infamy of agency to the ethics of documenting individual lives and experience(s), the team attempts to reassemble Latour for the purposes of critique. What is agency, and how do non-human entities act as agents? Can Actor-Network Theory be used to critique capitalism itself, or only the explanations used by critical theory that posit capitalism as an all-invasive force? What’s the deal with social construction and science?

This episode also includes part one of John’s interview with PhD student and freelance writer (and meme-maker extraordinaire) Amy Schiller, discussing her recent pieces on philanthropy and the way that marketized, consumer-driven “philanthro-capitalism” subsumes public, collective programs under ultra-wealthy private money and neoliberal market logics. We conclude by giving advice on attending a conference for the first time and academics dating non-academics without being pretentious elitists.

Requests for texts for us to discuss? Advice questions to submit? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Like our Facebook page. Download the mp3 here.

Thanks to Jordan Cass for the music in the episode.

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Ep.2 B-Sides: Ahmed, continued

The B-Side to episode 2 brings you more of our discussion of The Cultural Politics of Emotion by Sara Ahmed. In this mini-episode we think about emotion and cognition, critique, movement, affective economies, and historicity in the text. B also uses Star Trek and The X-Files to illustrate some key concepts.

Requests for texts for us to discuss? Advice questions to submit? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Like our Facebook page. Get the mp3 here.

Thanks to Ricky Perry of Go-getter for the music in the episode.