| Title | : | Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated Culture |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0802086829 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780802086822 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 168 |
| Publication | : | First published March 26, 2004 |
The first authoritative study of the life and work of Virilio, Steve Redhead's Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated Culture explains and analyses Virilio's work, correcting many mistaken interpretations that have surfaced in the literature over the years. Although now retired from his position at the �cole Sp�ciale d'Architecture in Paris, Virilio remains an active political and cultural thinker and commentator with a significant catalogue of work stretching back to the 1950s. Redhead reviews Virilio's intellectual career, from his days hanging out in an architect's office in the 1960s to his recent creation of a major art foundation exhibition on 'the accident' in the wake of 11 September 2001. Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated Culture is a rigorous and accessible introduction to Virilio that places him in the pantheon of critical thinkers in today's accelerated culture.
Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated Culture Reviews
-
I always remember being in City Lights bookstore in San Francisco and hovering around their remarkable theory shelves. Two fringed and fabulous San Fran women were adjacent to me and my browsing. One pulled Steve Redhead's "Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated Culture," from the shelf and proclaimed to her friend, "You need to read this. It saved my life."
I'd come a long way from Australia to visit the famous bookshop. But it was worth it to hear this comment. _Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated Culture_ holds the title for a number of firsts. It is the first singly-authored monograph on Paul Virilio. It is the first monograph to include all Virilio's research and writings, in both the English and the French. It is the first monograph to work through the radical interdisciplinary potential of Virilio for Law, Architecture, Art, Youth Culture, Leisure Studies, War Studies, Terrorism Studies and Popular Cultural Studies.
It was also the first book Steve wrote in Australia. Indeed, he wrote it in Perth. The prose has a big, bold and expansive quality to it. He walked in the sunshine, rather than the Manchester gloom. The illumination and space within this book carries something of the place in which it was written.
Simply, scholars cannot engage with the full career of Virilio - the strengths, the weirdness, the pithiness, the confusion and the problems - without this monograph.
It holds the claim to many first. It also maintains its status as the best book to introduce readers to Virilio. If you are interested in speed and its consequences, then this book may actually save your life. -
Death isn't sad, it's Being itself.
A healthy dose of 'Virilian' wisdom sprinkled with his Conservative idiosyncrasies and bizarre hatred of modern art. A fun introduction that made me ever so glad Deleuze wasn't a Christian. -
Whole passages are like reading a bibliography interspersed with insights (which were worthwhile). Too much information and not enough interpretation.
-
It was a fairly superficial history of Paul Virilio. It spends more time saying what Virilio isn't and frequently makes claims that are abandoned a sentence or two later without being seen to their conclusion. Over all it lacks creativity and feels forced. I've enjoyed some of Steve Redhead's work, but this one left me very underwhelmed.
