Ghosts of My Life
Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
by Mark Fisher · first published 2014
7mentions
3recommended by
7HN commenters
2018–2023first – last mentioned
43% recommend57% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
…sincerely never thought I'd see Fisher on HN. His work is fantastic, tying together politics, pop culture, and philosophy into a cogent reading of our times. I would recommend reading Capitalist Realism over Ghosts of My Life if you're looking to get a sense of his ideas, or, at least I found the latter to be a harder read to get into. Both are good. Younger folks have more and more trouble imagining a better world. It's…
on “Mark Fisher’s “K-punk” and the futures that have never arrived (2018)” ↗if you want to indulge in this feeling more, read some Mark Fisher. Capitalist Realism, or Ghosts of My Life
on “Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?” ↗I just came across Mark Fisher this past year - his ideas are interesting. He reminds me of David Foster Wallace for some odd reason. Here's a few of my favorite excerpts from Fisher's Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures: > Producing the new depends upon certain kinds of withdrawal — from, for instance, sociality as much as from pre-existing cultural forms — but the…
on “Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away” ↗…depressive hedonia, in which people are depressed, but instead of being unable to seek pleasure, they basically can't do anything except seek pleasure (to consume more, faster, etc.) He also has another book, Ghosts of My Life, in which he talks about how we're essentially collectively "haunted" by the possible futures that failed to materialize. I've yet to read it, but I've heard it's fascinating.
on “Poor mental health at work 'widespread'” ↗…unhelpful opposition is to think of hauntology as the agency of the virtual, with the spectre understood not as anything supernatural, but as that which acts without (physically) existing." -- Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, emph. added.
on “Cyberpunk derivatives” ↗…increasing sense that culture has lost the ability to grasp and articulate the present. Or it could be that, in one very important sense, there is no present to grasp and articulate anymore.” ― Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
on “10 Reasons Why Current Music Sucks So Hard” ↗…notes. I got quite engrossed in it, even though it covers material that I don’t generally find interesting (I’m not enough of a weeb to be interested in Figuratively everything japanese). * Mark Fischer’s Ghosts of My Life hung together less than I expected it to – it’s an essay collection composed mostly of previously-published material – and I was already familiar with some of the material in it simply from being in the…
on “Ask HN: What books are you reading this month?” ↗