Hatred of Capitalism: A Semiotext(e) Reader [Paperback]

Chris Kraus (Editor), Sylvère Lotringer (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1584350121 | ISBN-13: 978-1584350125 | Publication Date: May 1, 2001 | Edition: 1

Compiled in 2001 to commemorate the passing of an era, Hatred of Capitalism brings together highlights of Semiotext(e)'s most beloved and prescient works. Semiotext(e)'s three-decade history mirrors the history of American thought. Founded by French theorist and critic Sylvere Lotringer as a scholarly journal in 1974, Semiotext(e) quickly took on the mission of melding French theory with the American art world and punk underground. Its Foreign Agents, Native Agents, Active Agents and Double Agents imprints have brought together thinkers and writers as diverse as Gilles Deleuze, Assata Shakur, Bob Flanagan, Paul Virillio, Kate Millet, Jean Baudrillard, Michelle Tea, William S. Burroughs, Eileen Myles, Ulrike Meinhof, and Fanny Howe. In Hatred of Capitalism, editors Kraus and Lotringer bring these people together in the same volume for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... a fat document of cultural resistance, written by those who thought about it and those who lived it." Bay Guardian, San Francisco

"Hatred of Capitalism proposes a certain kind of freedom, which may involve unlearning as much as learning, dying as much as living—and which is characterized by an enlarged and even exalted sense of the possible." Robert Gluck, Bookforum

"Semiotext(e) has consistently probed the intersection points between high theory and art and life in America. Publishing both French theory and American first-person fiction, Semiotext(e) invents a new plateau of thought which is dizzyingly complex and deeply subjective. Their work is resolutely difficult, dense, exhilarating and defiant, at once responsible to the past and bravely forward looking." Avital Ronell

"Semiotext(e) has for a generation been the leading edge of the most incendiary and exciting revolution in the West. Hatred of Capitalism dips into the very fertile archives of this magazine and its book publishing arm for some of the greatest examples of the Semiotext(e) charm, menace, play and triumph. I can't think of an anthology more important or more urgently necessary for these times." Rick Moody

"Semiotext(e)'s strange tomorrow is our strange today." Joshua Clover, Village Voice

"Slyly compiled, this anthology brings together fiction, narrative, philosophy, and critical theory without imposing a hierarchy among genres." ARTFORUM

About the Author

Chris Kraus is the author of Video Green: Los Angeles Art and the Triumph of Nothingness and the novels Aliens and Anorexia, I Love Dick, and Torpor. The 2007 recipient of the Frank Mather Award in Art Criticism and a 2010 Warhol Foundation Arts Writer's grant, she has taught art writing in graduate programs at University of California, Irvine, Art Center College, San Francisco Art Institute, and European Graduate School.

Product Details

• Paperback: 430 pages
• Publisher: Semiotext(e); 1 edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584350121
• ISBN-13: 978-1584350125
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sound Anthology, October 23, 2002

By 

joshua (London, ON Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hatred of Capitalism: A Semiotext(e) Reader (Paperback)

As an avid reader of numerous books published by Semiotext[e] I found this anthology to be an excellent sampling of essays and short-stories. There are a few pieces included which are pointless--some shortstories and interviews--but there are enough gems to make this book worthwhile.

The selling point for me was the two entries by Ulrike Meinhof (of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, RAF) entitled "Armed Anti-Imperialist Struggle". I've always been interested in the Red Army Faction (which, for some reason, other authors in this anthology call the "Red Army Fraction") so I was excited to read Meinhof's apologetics. Some of the Deleuze and Guattari entries were worth the purchase as well.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars complex, funny, wide and intelligent, March 24, 2002

By 

pamela a strugar (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hatred of Capitalism: A Semiotext(e) Reader (Paperback)

Chris Kraus and Sylvere Lotringer have complied an interesting, diverse and brilliant array of writings from the
last 25 years. "To the Memory of an era (1974-2002)" is the
dedication of the book that covers every concevible idea about different views of the cutlure we happen to live in, construct and deconstruct. Hatred of Capitalism is stimulating, thought provoking and subversive in its multitude of ways artists; writers; thinkers; philsophers talk about their lives, bodies and thoughts.....This is a stimulating must read...

5.0 out of 5 stars collective brilliance, August 20, 2011

By 

jones - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hatred of Capitalism: A Semiotext(e) Reader (Paperback)

The title, "Hatred of Capitalism" could also be subtitled: "The Love of So Much that is not Capitalism": 'easy-read' essays and stories; rare thoughts and visions of contemporary life; even a poetic filmscript by Chris Marker. Chris Kraus and friends at Semiotext(e) magazine have gathered together a very fine collection of works from authors you might not run across otherwise: Lynne Tillman; Felix Guattari; Ann Rower; David Wojnarowicz; Michelle Tea; Michel Foucault; Cookie Mueller and Eileen Myles.

This book was a springboard for so much reading and literary discovery. After reading this, I had to read everything I could find by everyone inside. A real inspiration for the many young people I know who look around and feel hopeless: "there's really a lot still to do", the book seems to say - tied to love, desire and an intuition that things could be very different.
This is the very, very best from the end of last century and the beginning of ours. Bravo!!!