Category: Theory-Fiction

The Subterranean Imaginary: A Dictionary of the Descent (SPLM 2021)

thewastedworld1 Comment

splm scan

Find a PDF copy here.

My contribution for SPLM: Society for the Propagation of Libidinal Materialism, edited by Vincent Le and Audrey Schmidt, and published in 2021 (details here). “Subterranean Imaginary” maps the motifs and symbols that describe the process of descent and the spaces of the underworld. The journey into the depths entails all manner of transformations: the unearthing of secrets in time as well as in space, the loss of distinctions between fictive, theoretical, and ecstatic writing, and the charting of limits across which neither our senses nor faculties may venture.

A Theory-Fiction Reading List

thewastedworld15 Comments

What even is theory-fiction? In short, it is the intersection of theory and fiction, and also the “dissolution of the opposition itself” (Fisher 1999, p 156). In this hybrid style, theory is torn down from its pedestal, the real power of fiction is affirmed, and both are released from the high forms of the academy.

Whatever theory-fiction may be, the works listed here emerged from disparate locations for manifold reasons: some are motivated by frustration with toothless academic theory, others by the prophetic powers of fiction, and still others by an aggressive disregard for any established form. Recently, Simon Sellars spelled out the issue quite nicely: “I don’t think theory-fiction is a genre, [it] is more like an attitude […] The world is so chaotic that no overarching theory can ever hope to explain it. So, the form itself leaks and cracks.”

Continue reading “A Theory-Fiction Reading List” →