CAPITALIST REALISM: IS THERE NO ALTERNATIVE - MARK FISHER

Damn this slaps. This was a library book but I’m tempted to offer to buy a copy for anyone who wants one. I’m not sure how many people read these things (zero?) but if you read this, and want a copy, DM yr boi and I’ll send it to you It’s short and manifesto-y, a quick read (80 pages, not too jargon-y). I actually intended to read the whole thing over one double shift at my work but shit got too crazy with the Narcan and whatnot so I had to polish off the last dozen pages the following morning. In a unique twist, I know about this book because of the publisher. Or more specifically, the publisher’s podcast. Zer0 books is a theory/short-fiction/lefty publishing imprint run by a guy named Doug Lain who’s podcast, Diet Soap, I used to love (I don’t think it exists anymore, or maybe it’s behind a paywall or something) and he was constantly talking up Mark Fisher and this book in particular. Now I see why. It’s all hits. This book is basically an expansion of that old Jameson quote about how it’s easier to consider the end of the world than the end of capitalism. The book is also helpful and illuminating w/r/t the connections between neoliberal capitalism (which is basically interchangeable with the term “Capitalist Realism”, there differences are minor and illuminated in the book) and the mental health crisis and widespread despair we all feel. The sense that we have that the current system is both hopeless and endless (either endless in the traditional sense, or endless in the sense that we’re going to destroy the environment in a way profound enough to “end” modernity) is, to Fisher, the defining feature of Capitalist Realism.  He keeps it short, the way he discusses pop culture is illuminating, he doesn’t just seem to be showing off how obscure a reference he can muster. I found the stuff about HEAT very helpful. The idea that we went from these old world connected, family-based almost glamorous criminals of THE GODFATHER, or GOODFELLAS to the disconnected, atomized, professional and unfeeling criminals of HEAT who don’t know one another, have no greater loyalty and are interested only in the $. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book with such clarity. I’m not sure what more I can say besides, “same”. It’s a bad sign, as far as I can tell, that Fisher killed himself. It’s that DavidFosterWallace-feeling of groking what an author is saying about modern life and how sad and alienating it can be only to find out that the author didn't seem to find a way out of the bind they were so good at articulating. 1979 Alternatives to Capitalism.