Previously untranslated excerpts from Martin Heidegger’s “Black Notebooks”
Category Archives: Theory and Theorists
The Influence of Existentialism on Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is a figure often overshadowed in critical theory. Juxtaposed next to other civil rights figures like Malcolm X and Angela Davis, King is often conflated with neoliberal multiculturalism the failure of the civil rights movement to dismantle the ongoing systemic white supremacy of the status quo.
But what may be of interest … Continue Reading ››
Foucault Responds to Critics in Amazing 1981 Time Magazine Profile
"'M. Foucault," wrote one irritated colleague, 'races through three centuries at full speed, like a barbarian horseman. He sets fire to the steppe without caution.'"
An amazing profile of Michel Foucault that appeared in Time Magazine in November, 1981 recounts the life and work of the theorists nearly three years before his death. It was recently … Continue Reading ››
Frantz Fanon Argues No “Being Through Others” for People of Color in 1952
“Sealed into that crushing objecthood, I turned beseechingly to others. Their attention was a liberation, running over my body suddenly abraded into nonbeing, endowing me once more with an agility that I had thought lost, and by taking me out of the world, restoring me to it.”
Watch Slavoj Zizek Explain an Event with Kafka and Love
In this latest video from Big Think (released Sunday), somebody got Slavoj Zizek out of a crusty t-shirt and into a clean polo.
How a Book on Nihilism Ended Up on Jay-Z’s Back and Glenn Beck’s Show
A New School professor’s book ended up in fashion magazines and music videos before setting off conservative alarmist.
Paolo Virno on Why Hegel is More Exciting Than Raves
Virno, a post-Marxist, is subject of a new Italian documentary (with English subtitles), that will soon be showing in an upcoming Italian film festival, according to its creator.
Radio Benjamin: Like NPR for Weirdos
Benjamin’s radio plays for children, left behind after he escaped Germany in 1940, survived only by chance. The typescripts left behind in Benjamin’s apartments were seized by the Gestapo and only managed to not be destroyed by bureaucratic error. They weren’t published in German until 1985.
Cats are Bourgeois Scum, and Other Things I Learned from Zizek’s Live Chat
Today, The Guardian hosted a "live" webchat with Slavoj Zizek, cultural critic extraordinaire.
The Guardian encouraged participants to post their questions the day before, from which Zizek would respond to a handful today.
Whereas my pressing, thoughtful questions (including "boxers or briefs?" and whether or not he was a CIA agent) went woefully ignored, he … Continue Reading ››
Understanding Jean Baudrillard with Pumpkin Spice Lattes
It’s fall, and America is once again infatuated with Pumpkin Spice everything. What started as a simple fascination with Pumpkin Spice lattes has now spread – pumpkin spice is now a culinary cancer on otherwise fine food.