Hello! We’re back, reading the fourth and final chapter of Jodi Dean’s Blog Theory. Really enjoyed this book, for all its twists and turns, and particularly how prescient it is. Though some parts have aged, the “affective networks” discussed in this final chapter remain depressingly familiar. We primarily talked about that this week, and how affect and participation create a weird catch-22 between active and passive engagement in contemporary politics. Lockdown, in general, has made me more interested in engaging with grassroots organising once it is safer to gather together in person. I think this book has only strengthened that feeling for others.
As Dean says: “It’s easier to set up a new blog than it is to undertake the ground-level organisational work of building alternatives.” That’s certainly true, but there’s no reason why we can’t do both!
Next time we’ll be reading Deleuze’s essay “Bartleby, or, the Formula” from Essays Critical and Clinical.