Thoughts on Mark Fisher
This was part of an earlier post explaining why we wanted to give a viewing of "We're Making a Film about Mark Fisher".
You can find that post here
By Knut-Johan
With our conversations on the artificial and on the body, Fisher is a figure that has managed to force himself into our conversations time and time again. One could easily think to his breakout-success with Capitalist Realism, that description of the sterile alternative-less fact of capitalism's self-professed realistic outlook. His description was sombre, yet it gave words to what for so many had been unspeakable before. Seeing it like that was a breath of fresh air, for what if we held a protest and everyone showed up?
And yet there is more to him than this: one need only engage with his ideas on the short horrified realisations that break through the monotonous euphoric haze of modernity with the weird and the eerie. He discussed how to utilise the revolutionary language of Deleuze and Guattari in their schizoanalytical project, and in that tradition is there a way for the left to utilise deterritorialisation?
There is something profound in the aftermath of Fisher, yet his legacy is ultimately mixed. After Ben' Noys coined the term accelerationism he was in the forefront in repurposing it for the movement of radicals he was a part of himself, and subsequently lost control of it. He was the one to fire one of the starting-shots of the infatuation with a concept of cancellation-culture with his essay "Exiting the Vampire Castle". His closeness to Nick Land in the CCRU still leaves a lasting impact to this day. He gave a language of liberation, yet his fate is one that is still talked about. He is a polarising figure, yet one we wish to give people a chance to meet.