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In this book, the author draws on Karl Marx's writings on alienation and Erich Fromm's conception of necrophilia in order to understand these aspects of contemporary culture as expressions of the domination of the living by the dead under capitalism. Necroculture is the ideological reflection and material manifestation of this basic feature of capitalism: the rule of dead capital over living labor. The author argues that necroculture represents the subsumption of the world by vampire capital.
List of contents
Chapter 1: The Necroculture of Capitalism.- Chapter 2: Artificial Life on a Dead Planet.- Chapter 3: Speed and Stasis.- Chapter 4: The Pornography of Information.- Chapter 5: The Tyranny of Negative Freedom.
About the author
Charles Thorpe is Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Science Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego, USA. He is the author of
Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect (2006) and has been featured in
The British Journal of Sociology, Science as Culture, Science Fiction Studies,and
Theory, Culture and Society.
Summary
In this book, the author draws on Karl Marx’s writings on alienation and Erich Fromm’s conception of necrophilia in order to understand these aspects of contemporary culture as expressions of the domination of the living by the dead under capitalism. Necroculture is the ideological reflection and material manifestation of this basic feature of capitalism: the rule of dead capital over living labor. The author argues that necroculture represents the subsumption of the world by vampire capital.
Additional text
“‘Necroculture’, the productivist ideology which denies climate change and promotes techno-salvationism is expressed as a complete capitulation to the perceived power of capital, not to preserve life but to reproduce it as something which transcends death.” (Debra Benita Shaw, New Formations, Issue 91, 2017)
“In Necroculture, Charles Thorpe challenges this received wisdom by gathering an ambitious array of macrosocial ills into cohesive categories and then drawing theoretical purchase from Karl Marx and Erich Fromm to explain them. … Necroculture is a must-read for anyone interested in studying such camouflaged macrosocial addictions.” (Shawn Van Valkenburgh, Critical Sociology, August, 2017)
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"'Necroculture', the productivist ideology which denies climate change and promotes techno-salvationism is expressed as a complete capitulation to the perceived power of capital, not to preserve life but to reproduce it as something which transcends death." (Debra Benita Shaw, New Formations, Issue 91, 2017)
"In Necroculture, Charles Thorpe challenges this received wisdom by gathering an ambitious array of macrosocial ills into cohesive categories and then drawing theoretical purchase from Karl Marx and Erich Fromm to explain them. ... Necroculture is a must-read for anyone interested in studying such camouflaged macrosocial addictions." (Shawn Van Valkenburgh, Critical Sociology, August, 2017)
