Violence - Humans in Dark Times

Through a series of penetrating conversations originally published in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Review of Books, Brad Evans and Natasha Lennard talk with a wide range of cutting edge thinkers--including Oliver Stone, Simon Critchley, and Elaine Scarry--to explore the problem of violence in everyday life, politics, culture, media, language, memory, and the environment. "To bring out the best of us," writes Evans, "we have to confront the worst of what humans are capable of doing to one another. In short, there is a need to confront the intolerable realities of violence in this world."
These lively, in-depth exchanges among historians, theorists, and artists offer a timely and bracing look at how the increasing expression and acceptance of violence--in all strata of society--has become a defining feature of our times.
"Many of us live today with a pervasive sense of unease, worried that our own safety is at risk, or that of our loved ones, or that of people whose bad circumstances appear to us through networked media. Violence feels ever-present. Natasha Lennard and Brad Evans help us to analyze those feelings, talking with a wide range of thinkers in order to gain insight into the worst of what humans do, and challenging us to imagine a world in which violence is no longer a given. Their book is full of surprising insights and intelligent compassion."--Sarah Leonard, co-editor of The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century
"In Violence, Brad Evans and Natasha Lennard have created, alongside their interview subjects, a kaleidoscopic exploration of the concept of violence, in terrains expected and not, in prose taut and unexpectedly gorgeous. Their philosophical rigor provides the reader with an intellectual arsenal against the violence of the current moment."--Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood
"We would be wise to read this collection with a similar eye toward service, and in so doing, open ourselves up to the rare mercy of no longer having to stand on our own."--Alana Massey, author of All The Lives I Want
"The range of interviews with leading academics, to filmmakers and artists, is impressive, at once immediate and relevant, but also profoundly philosophical. More essentially, though, the conversations underline the need and suggest ways to resist and organize in a visionary way, in the extraordinary times we live in."--Razia Iqbal, BBC News
"Notable contemporary thinkers and creators give their individual perspectives in this compelling look at violence. . . . A provocative volume that challenges humanity to correct its runaway course toward an increasingly violent future by learning from its violent past."--Kirkus Reviews
"The purpose of the work is to challenge humanity to create more meaningful solutions when it comes to these kinds of violence--or at least to name violence without inadvertently inciting even more anger. . . . passion roars through every chapter . . . This book delivers on what it promises, which is an achievement. "--Alison Gately, The Los Angeles Review of Books
"If you wish to read the intellectualization of violence, Violence is a phenomenal anthology. . . . Brad Evans and Natasha Lennard, the interviewers and the 'authors' of the anthology, have done a remarkable job in bringing together perceptive and intelligent contributors from various fields to scout the reaches of violence. Their piercing questions brought out brilliant responses from the interviewees."--L. Ali Khan, New York Journal of Books&l

List of contents

Violence: Humans in Dark Times

Chapter Synopsis

Humans in Dark Times: An Introduction by Brad Evans & Natasha Lennard

This is an introduction to the many forms of violence to be discussed in this anthology. Brad Evans and Natasha Lennard assert that it is of utmost importance to develop an engaged critique of violence. Violence is more than something abstract or theoretical, they say; it is a concrete violation of what it means to be human, "an attack upon a person's dignity, their sense of selfhood, and their future. It is nothing less than the desecration of one's position in the world...." Evans' and Lennard's goal with this anthology is to set in motion conversations between various actors and agencies of the intellectual and creative world in order to think about and develop an adequate critique of violence.

Thinking Against Violence: Natasha Lennard & Brad Evans

Natasha Lennard and Brad discuss the ubiquity of violence. Violence, says Evans, is the defining organizational principle for contemporary societies; they are structured around it. It matters less whether we are actual victims of violence, since we live in fear of it, and this rules the way we function. Evans goes on to discuss two types of violence - the subtle, in which "disposable" populations experience continued and widespread suffering and are, for the most part, forgotten; and the spectacle, in which real events and cultural productions alike receive massive amounts of attention. Spectacular violence can end up prioritizing certain forms of suffering, which Evans believes is highly unethical. Violence is not merely the physical or even the psychological; it can take multiple forms, and it extends to extreme neglect and preventable suffering. Thus, it is important for us to dig deeper than

individual events and understand the systemic and human dimensions of violence.

Theater of Violence: Brad Evans & Simon Critchley

This conversation focuses on the "direct" or physical form of violence. Critchley asserts that violence is never an isolated act that breaks a continuum of nonviolence; it is instead part of a historical cycle of violence and counter-violence. Belief in a right and a wrong legitimizes violence, turns justice into revenge. This is where theater, namely tragedy, helps. Ancient tragedy allowed Greeks to see their roles in the context of a history of violence. Shakespeare's work showed the complexity of vengeance and the sequence of events that can lead to it. Evans and Critchley refer to sport as a type of theatrical violence, violence "refined and elevated," and an example of how violence can be both "made spectacular and harnessed for nonviolent ends," that is, spectators experience the excitement of violence without its repercussions. This potential for nonviolence can also be found, Critchley says, in art, as it offers an account of violence alongside the possibility of its suspension.

The Perils of Being a Black Philosopher: Brad Evans & George Yancy

George Yancy's race-centered argument is that discursive violence is just as powerful as physical violence, that insults and slurs are just as effective in causing injury. The violence against black people, perpetuated under white supremacy, is historical and systemic. Black people live with the understanding that they are finite; even within the everyday, their lives are threatened (example: police brutality). The black body and other bodies of color are disposable. Yancy says that a movement beyond the civil rights movement, one that will shake the country to the core, is needed. The interview ends with Yancy addressing the issue of complicity -in order to

truly overcome violence, we must also expose the types of violence that are not necessarily visible, the violence that quietly surrounds us every day.

The Refugee Crisis is Humanity's Crisis: Brad Evans & Zygmunt Bauman

Zygmunt Bauman's interview focuses on refugee crises.He says that in the middle of th

About the author

Natasha Lennard is a journalist, essayist, and columnist. She is a contributing writer for The Intercept and her work has appeared regularly in The Nation, Esquire, The New York Times, and The New Inquiry, among others. She teaches critical journalism at the New School For Social Research in New York. Her second book, Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life, will be published by Verso, May 2019.
Brad Evans is a political philosopher, critical theorist and writer, whose work specializes on the problem of violence. The author of some ten books and edited volumes, along with over fifty academic and media articles, he serves as Professor of Political Violence & Aesthetics at the University of Bath, UK. He is currently the lead editor for a dedicated section on violence and the arts/critical theory with The Los Angeles Review of Books. He also continues to direct the online resources centre www.historiesofviolence.com
 
Brad's books have been the recipient of prestigious international awards and translated in many languages, including Spanish, Turkish, Korean and German. Among his latest books include Violence: Humans in Dark Times (with Natasha Lennard, City Lights, 2018); Histories of Violence: Post-War Critical Thought (with Terrell Carver, Zed Books, 2017); Portraits of Violence: An Illustrated History of Radical Thinking"(with Sean Michael Wilson, New Internationalist, 2016); Disposable Futures: The Seduction of Violence in the Age of the Spectacle (with Henry Giroux, City Lights, 2015), Resilient Life: The Art of Living Dangerously (with Julian Reid, Polity Press, 2014), Liberal Terror (Polity Press, 2013), and Deleuze & Fascism: Security - War - Aesthetics (with Julian Reid, Routledge, 2013).
 
Brad is currently working on a number of book projects, including The Atrocity Exhibition: Life in an Age of Total Violence (The Los Angeles Review of Books Press, 2019) and Ecce Humanitas: Beholding the Pain of Humanity (Columbia University Press, 2020). He is also working on a project that explores the aesthetics of human disappearance, while writing in his spare time a work of fiction. Website: www.brad-evans.co.uk

Summary

Interviews with leading thinkers on the crisis of violence in contemporary politics, history, media, and culture.

Foreword

--Galleys available

--National print, television, and radio publicity campaign

--Social media outreach, including giveaways; editor Lennard active on Twitter (~18,000 followers). City Lights has 42,000 followers on Facebook and 127,000 Twitter followers

--Cross promotion with the author’s website: https://www.historiesofviolence.com/

Additional text

"In their introduction to this serious and highly ethical resource, editors Brad Evans and Natasha Lennard see themselves charting the legacies of war and suffering, challenging abuses of power in all their oppressive forms, and mustering sustained intellectual engagement to counter violence."-Spirituality & Practice Book Review

"A timely, eloquent series of interviews that interrogate the correlation of violence with gender discrimination, white intolerance, unilateral state power, politics, art and climate change."-Shelley Walia, Frontline

Report

"In their introduction to this serious and highly ethical resource, editors Brad Evans and Natasha Lennard see themselves charting the legacies of war and suffering, challenging abuses of power in all their oppressive forms, and mustering sustained intellectual engagement to counter violence."-Spirituality & Practice Book Review

"A timely, eloquent series of interviews that interrogate the correlation of violence with gender discrimination, white intolerance, unilateral state power, politics, art and climate change."-Shelley Walia, Frontline

Product details

• Authors: Brad Evans, Brad Lennard Evans, Natasha Lennard
• Assisted by: Brad Evans (Editor), Natasha Lennard (Editor)
• Publisher: City Light Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.08.2018
• EAN: 9780872867543
• ISBN: 978-0-87286-754-3
• No. of pages: 352
• Series: City Lights Open Media; City Lights Open Media
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Geopolitics, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Terrorism, Geopolitics, Terrorism, armed struggle, Violence & abuse in society