Jon

Couldn't agree more - also reflects a symptomatic relectance to grapple with "theory" more widely and thus the mediations between specfic cultural texts and the broader social/political totality.

The Gothic and Theory The Gothic and Theory

this, on the other hand, came out back in 2019 and is an excellent anthology well worth a look edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-got...

reviewing a book, and I'm not mad I'm just disappointed.

book promises "horror theory"

look inside

it's reheated eighteenth century aesthetic philosophy again

folks!!!!!!!!! you heard it here first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That which is for me through the medium of money - that for which I can pay (i.e., which money can buy) - that am I myself, the possessor of the money. The extent of the power of money is the extent of my power. Money's properties are my - the possessor's - properties and essential powers. Thus, what I am and am capable of is by no means determined by my individuality. I am ugly, but I can buy for myself the most beautiful of women. Therefore I am not ugly, for the effect of ugliness - its deterrent power - is nullified by money. I, according to my individual characteristics, am lame, but money furnishes me with twenty-four feet. Therefore I am not lame. I am bad, dishonest, unscrupulous, stupid; but money is honoured, and hence its possessor. Money is the supreme good, therefore its possessor is good. Money, besides, saves me the trouble of being dishonest: I am therefore presumed honest. I am brainless, but money is the real brain of all things and how then should its possessor be brainless? Besides, he can buy clever people for himself, and is he who has [In the manuscript: is. - Ed.] power over the clever not more clever than the clever? Do not I, who thanks to money am capable of all that the human heart longs for, possess all human capacities? Does not my money, therefore, transform all my incapacities into their contrary?

As a side note, it’s funny to see so many of these emails with thirsty academics repeatedly enact Marx’s bit in the 1844 Manuscripts about the power of money. “Oh Mr Epstein, your house in New York is enormous and, unrelatedly, your questions at dinner were so intelligent, so insightful, so deep.”

2026 reading a thread 🧵

The cover of the red sacrement by Sara Hinkley with a background of dried roses and other winter foliage.

7. @boneysoups.bsky.social, "The Red Sacrement" - Just magnificent, a Gothic delight of a novel that draws from Zola, Marx and Anne Rice to create something utterly thrilling. Haven't read a book so precisely crafted for me in AGES. 🧛 PRE-ORDER IT NOW 🧛

Two books we used to talk through Frankenstein are Capitalism: A Horror Story by @thelitcritguy.bsky.social (from @horrorvanguard.bsky.social) and Skin Shows by Jack Halberstam, both excellent reference books for your horror theory library!

Two books we used to talk through Frankenstein are Capitalism: A Horror Story by @thelitcritguy.bsky.social (from @horrorvanguard.bsky.social) and Skin Shows by Jack Halberstam, both excellent reference books for your horror theory library!

New post on two excellent novels that take on the representational problem of cinema: thehaunt.blog/2026/01/25/t...

"Capitalism a horror story" spotted in Mexico! (Thanks to @andrekanasiro.bsky.social for sending me this!)

hot tip: every Brecht poem hits insane right now

There is no such thing as other people’s children It is intolerable

I wrote a short essay for @lukeoneil47.bsky.social's Welcome To Hell World about Minneapolis' opposition to ICE.
www.welcometohellworld.com/there-is-no-...

A book that keeps becoming more and more relevant each day!

Minneapolis Discovered Its Own Strength Fighting ICE Tyranny - The American Prospect Trump’s goons thought they could push around a blue city. They came in for a nasty shock.

"These men are evil in a biblical sense, as in actual demons from hell." prospect.org/2026/01/23/m...

Yesterday a reporter asked me for comment about Minneapolis’ opposition to ICE. I got kind of worked up and sent way more than I should have. The piece is great—it’s in my prior post. But I wanted post my comments in full here:

The Line, a Saudi Megaproject, Is Dead It was always doomed to unravel, but the firms who lent their name to this folly should be held accountable.

wrote about the much-deserved death knell of the world's worst architecture project for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/worl...

On The Representational Horror of Film | TheLitCritGuy Get more from TheLitCritGuy on Patreon

NEW WRITING: On two excellent novels concerned with lost films, cinema as desiring production and the politics of film: www.patreon.com/posts/148611...

I stopped writing about cybernetics, surveillance, recognition, and control society after the last two books and 4 articles because at this point Labour teaming up with Palantir via Oswald Mosley's grandson to build a panopticon says enough. The only rational thing to do with such toys is break them

YouTube video by The Social Mobility Foundation Stay Down - A film about the horrors of workplace classism

Have I sent you this before? youtu.be/LEBGoxDUhKE?...

Oh cool you found the book cover lmao 🤣

Book: Work: A Horror Story The cultural nightmare of Employment Research Document

Out in the world, scheming and planning

315 on an incline bench is incredible work 💪💪💪

I've not read it, but this sounds superb - thanks for the recommendation!

always very much appreciate you taking the time to read.

Thank you! that should be fixed now :)

3. Daniel Kehlmann, "The Director" - an incredible novel, fictionalising the life of legendary film director GW Pabst. A book scathing about the compromises and evil little lies we tell ourselves to stay safe under fascist politics, showcasing a world in which art doesn't (and can't) save anyone.

1. Gretchen Felker-Martin, "Black Flame" - a novel of seething libidinal desire, curdled inward into repression so dense as to become self annihilation. Violent, gross and horny & also utterly fearless about connecting individual horrors to current politics. Typical GFM banger to start the year.