Post-Weird Fragmentation, Community, and the Decline of the Mainstream
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Calum Lister Matheson is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh and faculty at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institute. He is the author of Desiring the Bomb: Communication, Psychoanalysis, and the Atomic Age.
Post-Weird Fragmentation, Community, and the Decline of the Mainstream
"<i>Post-Weird</i> is an intricate account of how radically different interpretations of potent symbols like 'science' are made possible by very similar psychic structures shaping our social worlds. Matheson produces a psychoanalytic rhetorical theory that adapts Jacques Lacan masterfully to our new media environment. Using cases as diverse as Sandy Hook denialists, snake handlers, and anti-trans rhetorical agents, <i>Post-Weird</i> asks readers to think about anti-rhetorical reading practices; at stake is our capacity to tolerate the actual, real ambiguity and contingency of being human in community with others." - Eric King Watts, author of <i>Postracial Fantasies and Zombies: On the Racist Apocalyptic Politics Devouring the World</i><br /><br />"Matheson raccoons through the recesses of internet subculture so we don't have to. But to the reader's surprise, <i>Post-Weird</i> illustrates the ubiquity of delusion by documenting how the fragmentation of consensus reality and the emergence of paranoid reading practices expose the anti-rhetorical psychotic structure that unites us in our difference." - Casey Kelly, author of <i>Caught on Tape: White Masculinity and Obscene Enjoyment</i> <br /><br />"Life is weird—and getting weirder. Matheson's <i>Post-Weird</i> should be heralded a keystone in having anticipated, through careful attention to 'fringe' rhetorical communities, how weirdness envelops our culture and eventually comes for us all. With humor, sensitivity, and a critical eye, Matheson revivifies rhetorical concepts like propriety and dignifies psychoanalytic concepts like psychosis to help us better understand our mediated 'weird' age." - Robert McDonald, author of <i>Works Like a Charm: Incentive Rhetoric and the Economization of Everyday Life</i>
An ambitious look at rhetoric and psychosis that explores how communities form when society collapses
American society seems to have fractured. Common touchpoints of authority have receded in recent decades and beliefs that were once taboo are now openly shared, from neo-Nazism to occultism to conspiracy thinking. In this book, Calum Lister Matheson goes beyond the fraying of contemporary American culture to ask how splinter communities form in our current media environment, what keeps them together, and what they build from the ruins of shared language.
In his stirring exploration of how people communicate when old forms of authority and meaning collapse, Matheson examines far-flung groups that have departed the mainstream—Sandy Hook deniers, Appalachian serpent handlers, pro-anorexia bloggers, incels, transvestigators, pseudoscientific reactionaries, and more—and finds unexpected similarities among their many differences. Key among their parallels is the insistence that the symbols shared by each community represent a hidden truth that cannot be questioned or interpreted but is revealed through signs—words, images, videos, and texts. By documenting American fringe cultures, extremism, and the social functions of language, this book rethinks concepts like irony, psychosis, propriety, and what it means to be normal in weird times.
Introduction: The Spolia of Babel 1
1 Sandy Hook: Guns and Anti-Rhetoric 21
2 Serpent Handlers: Snakebites and Sadists 47
3 Pro-Ana: Wanting Nothing 70
4 Reactionary Science: Agents and Alibis 93
Conclusion: The Ends of Rhetoric 115
Acknowledgments 127
Notes 129
Bibliography 161
Index 000
"<i>Post-Weird</i> is an intricate account of how radically different interpretations of potent symbols like 'science' are made possible by very similar psychic structures shaping our social worlds. Matheson produces a psychoanalytic rhetorical theory that adapts Jacques Lacan masterfully to our new media environment. Using cases as diverse as Sandy Hook denialists, snake handlers, and anti-trans rhetorical agents, <i>Post-Weird</i> asks readers to think about anti-rhetorical reading practices; at stake is our capacity to tolerate the actual, real ambiguity and contingency of being human in community with others." - Eric King Watts, author of <i>Postracial Fantasies and Zombies: On the Racist Apocalyptic Politics Devouring the World</i><br /><br />"Matheson raccoons through the recesses of internet subculture so we don't have to. But to the reader's surprise, <i>Post-Weird</i> illustrates the ubiquity of delusion by documenting how the fragmentation of consensus reality and the emergence of paranoid reading practices expose the anti-rhetorical psychotic structure that unites us in our difference." - Casey Kelly, author of <i>Caught on Tape: White Masculinity and Obscene Enjoyment</i> <br /><br />"Life is weird—and getting weirder. Matheson's <i>Post-Weird</i> should be heralded a keystone in having anticipated, through careful attention to 'fringe' rhetorical communities, how weirdness envelops our culture and eventually comes for us all. With humor, sensitivity, and a critical eye, Matheson revivifies rhetorical concepts like propriety and dignifies psychoanalytic concepts like psychosis to help us better understand our mediated 'weird' age." - Robert McDonald, author of <i>Works Like a Charm: Incentive Rhetoric and the Economization of Everyday Life</i>
An ambitious look at rhetoric and psychosis that explores how communities form when society collapses
American society seems to have fractured. Common touchpoints of authority have receded in recent decades and beliefs that were once taboo are now openly shared, from neo-Nazism to occultism to conspiracy thinking. In this book, Calum Lister Matheson goes beyond the fraying of contemporary American culture to ask how splinter communities form in our current media environment, what keeps them together, and what they build from the ruins of shared language.
In his stirring exploration of how people communicate when old forms of authority and meaning collapse, Matheson examines far-flung groups that have departed the mainstream—Sandy Hook deniers, Appalachian serpent handlers, pro-anorexia bloggers, incels, transvestigators, pseudoscientific reactionaries, and more—and finds unexpected similarities among their many differences. Key among their parallels is the insistence that the symbols shared by each community represent a hidden truth that cannot be questioned or interpreted but is revealed through signs—words, images, videos, and texts. By documenting American fringe cultures, extremism, and the social functions of language, this book rethinks concepts like irony, psychosis, propriety, and what it means to be normal in weird times.
Introduction: The Spolia of Babel 1
1 Sandy Hook: Guns and Anti-Rhetoric 21
2 Serpent Handlers: Snakebites and Sadists 47
3 Pro-Ana: Wanting Nothing 70
4 Reactionary Science: Agents and Alibis 93
Conclusion: The Ends of Rhetoric 115
Acknowledgments 127
Notes 129
Bibliography 161
Index 000
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Calum Lister Matheson is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh and faculty at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institute. He is the author of Desiring the Bomb: Communication, Psychoanalysis, and the Atomic Age.