From Red Wedge: Mark Fisher, an author and scholar known for analyzing mental health under neoliberal capitalism, took his own life this past January. His posthumously published collection of essays, The Weird and the Eerie, explores distinct modes of strangeness and outside perspectives.
“Markâs celebrated essay ‘Good For Nothing’ sets out this thesis: ‘Collective depression is the result of the ruling class project of resubordination. For some time now, we have increasingly accepted the idea that we are not the kind of people who can act.’ The only remedy is a reinvention of working class consciousness â ‘a formidable task indeed, one that cannot be achieved by calling upon ready-made solutions’, but crucially one that is possible, necessary, urgent.
These concerns pervade The Weird and the Eerie, as witnessed by its sombre, almost gothic tone. Yet in many ways the book harks back to an earlier period of Markâs life, as a guerilla pop culture theorist writing on his K-Punk blog, devouring music, art, films, TV, and pouring out a deluge of concepts and interventions at a dizzying rate.”
