Last night I started on a journey: re-reading some of the early writings by k-punk, the blogging alias of music writer and cultural theorist Mark Fisher. Mark was possibly most famous for his short essay 'Capitalist Realism', and for those who haven't yet come across the writings or experienced the influence of his work, I think you're missing out, and I'd encourage you to dive in to *some* - the vast majority - of what you're missing out on. Mark's writing can have a raw energy that rebels against the sober tendencies of academic theory, whilst itself drawing heavily on theoretical substance/concept in an approachable and creative way, and also heightens 'everyday text' like music journalism.
The writers in the foreword and introduction to The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher[1], Simon Reynolds and Darren Ambrose, capture and frame this sense of Mark's work better than I can, but for me I've always thought that what was great about Mark's approach is how it acknowledges our 'media landscapes' as something in common; something that we can point to, identify, find, critique and navigate through (or escape), together - by acknowledging and drawing in all of the shared experience of theory, concept, television, film, music, art, etc. And in this approach, Mark would avoid the stale or rigid culture of academic text, whilst also steering clear the emptiness of anti-intellectual trends in discourse that could be found in much of the popular UK broadcast and mainstream media that had surrounded his experience in his formitive years and the time of his writing (1980s-90s).
Reading the introduction to this collection of writings, it's impossible not to draw parallels between the 'indie' early blogging scene that Mark was a part of (we're talking about the un-siloed early Web, pre-Zuckerberg) and the nature (structure? quality?) of geminispace. There are a few short sections I want to reproduce here from this early context-setting of the k-punk blog posts, these are offered context by a quote from Mark pointing out how he started blogging as k-punk following the completion of his phd, stating, that through blogging:
'It's been my only connection to the world, my only outsider line... It's reinvigorated my enthusiasm for so many things, and pricked my enthusiasm for things I'd never previously considered...' - Mark Fisher [1]
On the working-through of pop culture and theory in early blogging:
'[blogging] ... using it as a "kind of conduit for continuing trade between popular culture and theory". k-punk's belief in the importance of outsider forms of discourse never wavered. There is a consistent belief in the operative effectivenss of fugitive discourses which have been legitimated by neither the official channels of the establishment (via academia or mainstream media outlets) or traditional forms of publishing. In the early days of k-punk this was something he particularly came to associate with blogging' - Darren Ambrose (Introduction[1])
Followed by:
'All that is lacking is the will, the belief that what can happen in something that does not have authorisation/legitimation can be as important - more important - than what comes through official channels' - Mark Fisher [1]
Underpinning this sense of importance, Simon Reynolds states in the foreword: 'The urgency in Mark's prose came from his faith that words really could change things.'
I love this sense of change and importance through 'unofficial channels'. It speaks a lot to the structure and design of independent networks, not just of geminispace but of a good deal of indieNet/Web activity that seeks, in design, a way to permit individuals' voices, and establish independent connections and free associations, rather than farm the individual as data, or otherwise commodify our interactive activity.
Videos of today's mainstream broadcast footage found their way to me today via Twitter, of Mick Lynch, the general-secretary of the Rail, Maritime & Transport Union, who is leading a huge industrial dispute and widespread strike action in the UK this week in an effort to deliver improved pay and working conditions for rail workers. Absolute solidarity.
In the course of today's strike action, just about every centre-right and right-wing (see: all UK mainstream) channels have interviewed Mick, with various attempts of character-assassination towards Mick, attempts to discredit, mischaracterise and otherwise cast false allusions around him, the strikers, and their intentions. It strikes me that it's 2022 and we're continuing to drown in this leaden ocean of misinformation and spin instigated and forced upon us by the mainstream. Whether or not we directly consume it, it's force is apparant. Looping this back to Fisher, it makes me think how important it is *to* change, to escape the conscription of the twenty-first Century we're sleep-walking into - and how much our unofficial channels may be one of the useful tools that can help us carve out the necessary new from the fucked-up present.
~flow
[1] K-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher (2004-2016)
p.s. for another recent update to my Gemini capsule and change in feed URLs, please see:
Tags: #markfisher #kpunk