pickAlthough I've jokingly described this as dull, I did find it interesting, even if I couldn't always follow the development of Groys's argument, what with him being an academic philosopher & me not. His survey of the philosophical concept of care seemed wide ranging, & at times I had to remind myself he was recapping rather than asserting a position. I feel confirmed in my impression that Nietzsche was an arsehole, though I'm uncertain if 👇
"The internet is passive - it only reacts to our desires, our questions, our clicks. But the internet is not only a mirror but also a camera that produces an image of our desiring self. And the content of the accounts does mostly refer to the ordinary, everyday life, which as such is totally uninteresting."
"In contemporary societies the most widespread mode of work is care work."
Not the most dynamic or gripping first line, but it does at least totally encapsulate the authorial style, so you do know what you're getting. Despite the John-Major-pea-eating grey dullness of the opening (even the cover is grey!), I am rather enjoying this, which probably says something worrying about my own scintillating personality ?
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
"The main hero of this culture is a criminal, a murderer. The crime story is the only contemporary narrative that is able to capture the collective imagination...The outlaw is truly sovereign & even sacred because he or she represents not (ordinary) life but death in a society for which death is the absolute master...Of course, such killers who kill only to become sovereign & maybe even sacral are rare (mostly to be found in Dostoyevsky's novels)"
"[In] the contemporary age...the importance of ideas is measured by the number of people who share them, or at least like them."
If I understand the introduction (which I'm not yet certain of), I've let myself in for an examination of the tension between the care provided to the individual by the state in order to achieve social ends which may not necessarily be in the individual's best interest, & the self-care we may seek to provide ourselves which frequently requires that we actually give ourselves up to the external care system in any event. I don't think I fully 👇
I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this one, if the GR reviews are anything to go by. I'm a philosophy dilettante whereas the author is a serious philosopher and the book, though short, is said to be dense. Oh, well, I like a challenge!
I may just stare at the psychedelic cover ⚫⚫⚫ 😳⚫⚫⚫
Philosophy of Care | 
The end could have benefited, I think, from a summing up & stating of Groys's own view, though I suppose that as a review he felt that unnecessary. I guess somebody more knowledgeable than myself would understand his position from the selections of material he presented.
The end did, however, put me in mind of Bowie's song The Supermen, about the existential despair of immortal beings. #SpuriousBowieReference 2y