Refusing the world created by digital capitalism
Jonathan Crary is Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University and is a founding editor of Zone Books. His publications include Techniques of the Observer, Suspensions of Perception and 24/7.
At last a book about the urgency to find a way out from a system
that has crossed a threshold of irreparability and toxicity. A book
that is simultaneously desperate and refreshing.
*Franco "Bifo" Berardi*
Following on 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, Jonathan
Crary here confirms his position as our most ruthless critic of all
that exists. With a hammer of critical theory, he smashes the
golden calf around which our lives revolve: the very internet
itself. His sentences come packed with urgent truths long felt but
only now articulated with the force they deserve. His
clear-sightedness is the gift of prophets.
*Andreas Malm*
A passionate denunciation of the destructive character of
capitalist technology, built on evidence drawn from every corner of
the world, Scorched Earth is a major contribution to the reclaiming
of our radical imagination and the creation of a new
internationalism.
*Silvia Federici*
In an era in which there is an overarching prohibition on wishes
other than those linked to individual acquisition, accumulation,
and power, Crary's book resonates for his refusal to accept the
idea that this is how we must live our lives.
*Political Quarterly*
Scorched Earth presents a piercing critique of Western
techno-consumer culture and the innumerable digital landscapes now
created by the internet...Crary's essay comes at a critical
juncture in understanding the effects and consequences in
continuing to entertain the fantasies of 24/7 capitalism.
*Theory, Culture, and Society*
Crary wants to jar people out of the widespread faith that because
we've grown accustomed to the internet, and because we've allowed
it to infiltrate nearly every hour of our lives, and because it may
be hard to imagine a future without the internet, therefore the
internet should and will endure...thought-provoking and
sobering.
*Resilience*
And as easily as man uses the advances of technology for the good
of humanity, he has at the same time created a technological
arsenal in the service of a toxic capitalist grid that breeds wars,
as Jonathan Crary states in his book Scorched Earth.
*The Art Newspaper*
Scorched Earth by Jonathan Crary, has a multiple-entendre title -
he's describing what the internet is doing to society, he's
describing what capitalism's long trajectory is doing to the Earth,
and he's writing in a style that can only be characterized as a
scorched-earth approach to the platitudes that dominate our
contemporary lives...Rarely do authors address our common
predicament with the fine-tuned anger and precise rhetorical
scalpel of a skilled surgeon working on the body politic.
*The Fabulist*
One could say that Crary's latest book is 'punk theory' because of
the radically refreshing and absolutely necessary challenges that
he brings to the table. More than ever in these days of compounding
eco-social crises, we need the punkiest of critical attitudes, and
Crary's essays are an excellent place to find that energy.
*Oxonian Review*
Brilliant
*Times Literary Supplement*
Explosive...a polemic crackling with anger and
commitment...inspired
*Art Monthly*
Excellent.
*Expressen, Books of the Year*
[Scorched Earth] will do nothing to cessate any Black Mirror-style
creeping anxieties you have that everything is going horribly
wrong.
*Euronews, Best of Literature 2022*
Crary convincingly outlines that the globalization of scorched
earth capitalism has defaced the world and its inhabitants on a
massive scale...Given the intensifying strain that global
capitalism in its material and digital forms is putting on our
selves, our communities, and our world, the just, compassionate,
and direct vision of the future that Crary presents in Scorched
Earth is one that demands our consideration.
*Canadian Dimension*
Notable book, 2022
*Seminary Co-op*
With Scorched Earth, the distinguished cultural critic continues
his vivisection of capitalism; the result is a brilliant, searing
critique of the growing dominance of the internet, and especially
social media, over all aspects of private and civic life.
*Places Journal*
Scorched Earth is perhaps the first successful attempt at a vision
of what a post-internet society might be like - a position [Crary]
arrives at through a merciless critique of our hyperconnected
world, and an analysis of how the internet complex has reshaped our
perception of time, space, and individual agency.
*Real Review*
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