{"id":2399,"date":"2021-07-21T10:07:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T10:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=2399"},"modified":"2024-02-08T08:21:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T08:21:34","slug":"book-review-capitalism-the-death-drive-han","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=2399","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REViEW: Capitalism & the Death Drive, Han"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Occasionally interesting insights, lost, adrift in seas of postmodern academic claptrap.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hmm? Pretty poor, in my opinion. I recently read and reviewed the much, much better critique of Capitalism, Post Growth<\/em>, by Tim Jackson. Both books are published by Polity, who specialise in this sort of stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all this is a collection of short essays, most (but not all) of which have been published elsewhere before. A consequence of this format is lots of repetition. Not great. These essays cover numerous topics, the chief of which is criticism of capitalism\/neoliberalism. But other areas talked about include refugees, Europe, Covid and the arts. The first two thirds are short essays, the last part interviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Han is a South Korean living\/working in Germany (so it\u2019s all translated from German), as a philosopher and lecturer in an arts university. This embedding in such an institution is crucial, as it informs his language and points of reference, both of which are mired in the tediously opaque traditions of postmodernism. These are more or less unchanged from when I studied art\/art history at Goldsmiths, with frequent use of buzz-words such as affect, and haptic, and references to Barthes, Adorno, Baudrilard, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At certain points, in essays about contemporary arts culture, he discusses pornography vs eroticism, and rhapsodises about the latter, as being far better (capitalism favouring the \u2018in your face\u2019 m.o. of porn). And in these passages you get a glimpse of the crux of the postmodern problem (or rather one of many such problems), namely that obscuring is preferred to \u2018unveiling\u2019. Put another way, florid verbiage trumps understanding!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many valid insights, scattered throughout the text. But there are just as many vapid unfounded (or rather unsubstantiated) remarks. And the dominant register is negativity. Endless critique – neoliberalist capitalism isolates us all, and makes us internalise blame, and burn-out in hyper performance (he’s also written a book called The Burn-Out Society<\/em>) – which might be true; but with no real suggestions of better ways out of such contemporary impasses, eventually it comes over as carping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the landmark \u2018sledgehammer\u2019 series Civilisation<\/em>, stuffily patrician art historian Kenneth Clarke remarked, in his inimitable and oft very prescient manner, that the German language lacked a clear workable prose, such as English has developed, much to the \u2018troubling\u2019 of Europe. If one understands what Clarke was getting at, this book is – to my mind – a prime example, albeit from the left, as opposed to the right. And, ironically, by being so windily obscure, it plays into the hands of neoliberalist capitalism, effectively neutering itself. And, to use one of the buzz-words Han overuses, is all affect, to no effect.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find books on the topics this covers of interest. But I can\u2019t say I either enjoyed or would recommend this one. It belongs, frankly speaking, to a tradition – the postmodern – that I hope will wither on the vine sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*I also find it annoying when books of this ilk bandy round buzzwords with no attempt to define them. That’s the case with \u2018affect\u2019 here, amongst others. The sense of the word in postmodern-speak strikes me as closer to the meaning of the word ‘affectation’ than the normal dictionary definition of affect, as a verb, the doing of which produces the equivalent noun, or effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occasionally interesting insights, lost, adrift in seas of postmodern academic claptrap. Hmm? Pretty poor, in my opinion. I recently read and reviewed the much, much better critique of Capitalism, Post Growth, by Tim Jackson. Both books are published by Polity, who specialise in this sort of stuff. First of all this is a collection of … <\/p>\n

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