In the time of ends, the most dangerous technology of nuclear weapons confronts us with a new philosophy of the future.
In the time of ends, the most dangerous technology of nuclear weapons confronts us with a new philosophy of the future.
Aesthetics, Art
Starting from the end of history, the end of art and the failure of the future set out by such ends, Nuclear Futurism reinvigorates art, literature and philosophy through the unlikely alliance of hauntology and the Italian futurists. Tracing the paradoxes of the possibilities of total nuclear destruction reveals the terminal condition of culture in the time of ends, where the logic of the apocalyptic without apocalypse holds sway. These paradoxes also open the path for a new vision of the future in the form of experimental art and literature. By re-examining the thought of both Derrida and Heidegger with regards to the history of art, the art of history and their responses to the most dangerous technology of nuclear weapons the future is exposed as a progressive event, rather than the atrophied and apocalyptic to-come of the present world. It is happening now, opening up through the force of art and literature and charting a new path for a futural philosophy.
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Un libro come Nuclear Futurism di Liam Sprod (Zer0 books 2012), in cui Derrida viene confrontato con Marinetti, è il segno di una apertura del mondo di lingua inglese in altri tempi inconcepibile [A book like Nuclear Futurism by Liam Sprod (Zer0 books 2012), in which Derrida is compared with Marinetti, is the sign of an opening of the English-speaking world that was inconceivable in the past] ~ MAURIZIO FERRARIS, La Repubblica : http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2013/12/19/web-platonico-cosi-il-dibattito-filosofico-si.html?ref=search
The central thesis of the book, that this hauntological futurity is applicable to a study of Italian Futurism, remains an interesting topic, and my only criticism would be that I would have preferred a longer study which pays greater attention to Futurist works of art themselves, as well as the famous manifestos. The care and attention paid to the construction and qualification of the arguments in Nuclear Futurism is both admirable but also the reason why you wouldn’t exactly pick this book up unless you had a specific interest in doing so. It is most definitely ‘difficult theory’, not because it is particularly difficult per se, or lacking in clarity, rather, the arguments are so dense and well qualified that any clumsy turns of thought are banished, and what remains is 120 pages of taut and challenging philosophical investigation. The book doesn’t let up until the endnotes, so anyone spying its slim spine and considering a quick theory fix should be warned off - this is hardcore. ~ Callam Green, Review31: http://review31.co.uk/article/view/118/apocalypse-tomorrow
