Flatline Constructs: Gothic Materialism and Cybernetic Theory-Fiction

Mark Fisher, Exmilitary Collective

Book cover for Flatline Constructs: Gothic Materialism and Cybernetic Theory-Fiction
Book cover for Flatline Constructs: Gothic Materialism and Cybernetic Theory-Fiction

Flatline Constructs: Gothic Materialism and Cybernetic Theory-Fiction

Flatline Constructs: Gothic Materialism and Cybernetic Theory-Fiction

Mark Fisher, Exmilitary Collective

Member Benefits

  • 30% Off All Books - Savings that support storytellers, not stock prices.
  • Fight Book Bans - Every membership sends a book to LGBTQ+ youth in affected states.
Member Book Price
$15.00 $10.50
Non-Member Book Price $15.00

An annual membership will be billed at $48/year.

Discount applies to first-time members only. Already a member? Log in here.

View full details

Description

Donna Haraway's celebrated observation that "our machines are disturbingly lively, while we ourselves are frighteningly inert" has given this issue a certain currency in contemporary cyber-theory. But what is in- teresting about Haraway's remark - its challenge to the oppositional think- ing that sets up free will against determinism, vitalism against mechanism - has seldom been processed by a mode of theorizing which has tended to reproduce exactly the same oppositions. These theoretical failings, it will be argued here, arise from a resistance to pursuing cybernetics to its limits (a failure evinced as much by cyberneticists as by cultural theorists, it must be added). Unraveling the implications of cybernetics, it will be claimed, takes us out to the Gothic flatline. The Gothic flatline designates a zone of radical immanence. And to theorize this flatline demands a new approach, one committed to the theorization of immanence. This thesis calls that approach Gothic Materialism.

Publishing Information

Publisher: Exmilitary
Pub date: 2018-02-01
Length: 212 pages

The Allstora Membership

Membership Perks:

  • Save 30% on all online store purchases
  • Exclusive access to author's content
  • You pay less, but authors still earn double

Membership Terms:

First Month: $0.00
Monthly price: $5.00
  • To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
  • One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.