Table

of Contents
Cover

Dedication

Title page

Copyright page

Acknowledgements

Epigraph

1 Blog Settings
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

2 The Death of Blogging

1
2
3
4
5
6
 7
8
9
10

3 Whatever Blogging
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

4 Affective Networks
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Lost horizon/loss as horizon

Index
For Sadie, with love and wonder
 Copyright © Jodi Dean 2010
The right of Jodi Dean to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted
in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2010 by Polity Press Polity Press

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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK
Polity Press

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Malden, MA 02148, USA
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of
criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
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of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4969-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-4970-2(pb) ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5956-5(Single-user
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 Acknowledgements
As with so much else at the intersection of new media, politics, and critique, this
book was instigated by Geert Lovink. Not only did he push directly for a
theoretical pamphlet on blogs and blogging (entitled Blog Theory from the
outset), but I wrote the second chapter in close email conversation with Geert
and in response to his exemplary Zero Comments. I am particularly indebted to
his insistence on the national and linguistic shapings of the blogipelago as well
as to his unparalleled talent in creating the tags and phrases that capture the
truths of the media environment.
Exchanges with James Martel helped clarify my thinking about the
possibilities for politics that the concept of drive may capture or open up.
Readers of my blog, I Cite, have long provided comments, feedback, and new
experiences of association (many friendly, some not so much) indispensable for
my thinking through of the ways that blogs and social media are coding the
kinds of subjects we are becoming. I am particularly indebted to Alain
Wittman’s thoughtful engagement and continued provocation.
I am grateful to Henk Oosterling and Jos de Mul for the opportunity to present
an early version of the discussion of drive and networked media in their seminar
in the Faculty of Philosophy at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. I also want to
thank Darin Barney from the Department of Art History and Communication
Studies at Media@McGill at McGill University for the invitation to present
some of my work on whatever blogging as a Visiting Beaverbrook Media
Scholar. Matt Kadane provided valuable suggestions on the history of self-
writing. Victoria Lehman and Leah Himmelhoch supplied much needed
guidance on reading and writing practices in ancient Rome. Thanks as well to
Justin Clemens, Anna Kornbluh, Dominic Pettman, and Ken Wark for their
generosity in reading and commenting on various chapters. John Thompson has
been supportive and patient since the project’s inception.
Sadie and Kian Kenyon-Dean guide me through the turbulence of networked
communication and entertainment media, doing their best to keep me up to date.
And finally thanks to Paul Passavant for his insight, good humor, and love.
The only conspiracy was a conspiracy of distraction. The conspirers, ourselves.
If I didn’t grasp this law of complicity I should go back to beginning and start
again.
Jonathan Lethem, Chronic City
 Index

Adbulmutallab, Umar Farouk Adorno, Theodor

Agamben, Giorgio
commodification of human bodies whatever being
American Idol (television) Anderson, Chris
Andrejevic, Mark
Aquinas, Saint Thomas audiences and crowds
flash mobs
national identity
nature of
solidarity
specific and fragmented audiences/crowds
constructed
authenticity
blogging’s conceit of Barlow, John Perry
“Bartleby the Scrivener” (Melville) Baudrillard, Jean
the mass
revolutionary banality Beck, Ulrich
expectations of science uncertainty and markets Berlant, Lauren
Blogger dashboard
blogs and blogging
anxiety of enjoyment
attacks and flame wars blocking and deleting policies coexistence with other
media corporate
displaced mediators
diversity of the blogipelago earliest
failure of transmission intersections and frontier journal metaphor
killing other media
kinship with search engines language of victimization numbers of
parasitic and narcissistic political tools
the post
as reflexive
reported death of
secondary orality
specific audiences
standard formats of
US military
 visual fields
vulnerability and visibility whatever comes to mind books
boyd, danah
Brand, Stewart
New Communalism
Whole Earth Catalog (with Brilliant) Brand Republic
Brilliant, Larry
Whole Earth Catalog (with Brand)
Britain’s Got Talent (television) Buck-Morss, Susan
Dreamworld and Catastrophe Bush, George W.
communication strategy legal complexities
war spin
“whatever”
capitalism
anti-capitalist politics Eastern European transition film and consumption
financial crisis
financial interconnectivity imitative behavior of investors as individual
empowerment prices and value
society of control
uncertain financial markets Cassidy, John
celebrity
 Twitter
CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) “Challenge of Central
Banking in a Democratic Society, The” (Greenspan)
Chapaev (film) Cheney, Richard
China, blogs in
Cicero, Marcus Tullius citizen band (CB) radio citizen journalism
Clinton, Bill
Clough, Patricia
Comments on the Society of the Spectacle (Debord) communication
circular
ecstasy of
face-to-face
for its own sake
in lectures
online
others’ minds
as reflexive
turbulence of
“whatever”
communications technology neoliberalism and
communicative capitalism circuits of drive
critical attention on networks critique and resistance definition of
e-commerce of Qualls
the gaze
reflexivity
solidarity and fragmentation symbolic identities
communism
media and Soviet identity community
social networks
complex systems
dynamic networks
complexity theory
computer literacy
conspiracy thinking
consumer protection
control
 cybernetic definition of society of
Copjec, Joan
affect and movement
 on Freud
Corochan, Cayley
political flash mobs
corporate blogging
Cowell, Simon
critical media theory appropriate technologies decline of symbolic efficiency
displaced attention
 object and form
trap of its emergence turbulence of networked communication
Critique and Crisis (Koselleck) Cronkite, Walter
crowds
see audiences and crowds Cubism
cyberculture
cybernetic theory
cyberspace/the internet not virtual enough
online absorption
as profitable
reality of
reality of cyberspace death
drive
symbolic and biological Debord, Guy
Comments on the Society of the Spectacle society of the spectacle Deleuze,
Gilles
democracy
ideal of access
potential of the internet recursive publics
reflexivity
desire
compared to drive
fantasy of abundance
jouissance
digital media
critical approaches to
see also blogs and blogging; communication, online; social networks Digital
Methods Initiative Dogbook
Dreamworld and Catastrophe (Buck-Morss) drive
circuits of
compared to desire
death
enjoyment
epistemological
headless
 psychoanalytic concept of stuckness
Dyson, Esther
Eisenstein, Sergei
elitism
Elsaesser, Thomas
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
(Johnson) emergent behavior
Empire (Hardt and Negri) entrepreneurialism, experimental Epicureanism
Ethics of Psychoanalysis (Lacan) European Court of Human Rights Rössler
against the Large Hadron Collider expert judgment
Debord’s criticism of meaningless identity
Facebook
connection attempts
news feed
fascism
feedback
self-organizing behavior feminism
women in media
film
national identity from US and Soviet identity from Flowers, Gennifer
Foucault, Michel
the gaze
neoliberal competition writing the self
Free Software
recursive publics
freedom
inequality and capture by Freud, Sigmund
affect and movement
drives
effects of threats
the gaze and
friendship lite
Fuller, Buckminster
Galloway, Alexander
Gay Nigger Association of America
Gay-Niggers from Outerspace (film) gaze, the
communicative capitalism Lacan
online absorption
reflexivity
geeks
libertarian
 Germany
Global Business Network Greece, ancient
scriptura continua Greenspan, Alan
“The Challenge of Central Banking in a Democratic Society”
Guattari, Félix
Habermas, Jürgen
public sphere
The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere Habinek, Thomas N.
Hardt, Michael
Empire (with Negri) society of control
Harvey, David
technology and neoliberalism Hegel, G.W.F.
hoaxing
Houellebecq, Michel
Hourihan, Meg
House Science and Technology Committee Hutt, Jennifer Koppelmann
I Cite blog
identity
difference and
meaningless symbolic
in society of control transgression
whatever being
ideology
definition of
new media
post-Cold War shift
inequality
complex networks and
information
 informational culture politics of
internet
see cyberspace/the internet Iran
Twitter Revolution
Iraq
 war spin
Jameson, Fredric
vanishing mediator
Japan
 blogs in
Johnson, Steven
Emergence
Johnson, William A.
jouissance
anxiety about
circular communication journalism
 citizen
Kelly, Kevin
dotcom opportunities
New Rules for the New Economy Kelty, Christopher
discursive publics
 recursive politics
Kittler, Friedrich
Gramophone, Film, Typewriter knowledge
collaborative research discourse of the analyst endless loop of
 epistemological drive everything out there
organizing information of others’ minds
Koselleck, Reinhart
Critique and Crisis labor
affective
and play
portrayal of women
US and Soviet portrayal of Lacan, Jacques
affect and movement
death drive
enunciated and enunciation epistemological drive
The Ethics of Psychoanalysis four discourses
the gaze
headless subject
Imaginary, Symbolic, and Real
jouissance
montage
objet petit a
partial drives
language
displacement
disrupted
of victimization
word-clouds and meaning Large Hadron Collider law
as a market
 neoliberalism as natural Lehman Brothers
Lévi-Strauss, Claude
decline of symbolic efficiency Lévy, Pierre
libertarianism
geeks
New Communalism and
limbo
literacy
reading as performance
see also oral culture LiveJournal
 journal metaphor
Lovink, Geert
Lynch, Liam
McCain, John
Malaysia
Marazzi, Christian
markets
as complex system
dotcom
government equated with McDonald’s Corporation media
coexistence with blogs competition with blogs dead/obsolete
multiple platform integration mediators
blogs as displaced
displaced
 vanishing
Melville, Herman
“Bartleby the Scrivener”
microblogging
see also Twitter military
collaborative ethos
 collaborative research war spin
Minsky, Hyman
MoveOn
MySpace
National Counterterrorism Center Nazism
Negri, Antonio
Empire (with Hardt) society of control
neoliberalism
excesses of
Foucault on competition of governance and
new natural law
new technologies and
power law distribution networked communication affective
cuteness
as dynamic
faith in democracy of feedback
in society of control turbulence of
users’ unique identities word-clouds and meaning New Communalists
 displaced mediators
Turner’s history of
New Rules for the New Economy (Kelly) newness
 focus on prediction
Obama, Barack
bailing out banks
Facebook friends
 Twitter and
word-clouds
Ong, Walter
secondary orality
oral culture
secondary orality
Other and otherness
the gaze
knowledge of others’ minds Master signifier
objet petit a
sex
 transgression
parts representing wholes Pets.com
Pettman, Dominic
petty bourgeoisie
 identity differences
Pew Internet and American Life Project report on Teens and Social Media play
politics
anti-capitalist
blogging as tool of
flash mobs
of information
New Communalists
spinning the war
tweeting politicians
of whatever
postfordism
power
ritualized spaces of
privacy
pseudonyms
diarists
public sphere
feminism and
Habermas
US and Soviet portrayals of Rancière, Jacques
reality
of cyberspace
of Twitter
reflexivity
affective turn
available to all
decline in symbolic efficiency freedom
function of symbolic
the gaze
new media loop
the Other
 subjectivity
Rheingold, Howard
risk
Rome, ancient
Rössler, Otto
Rundle, Guy
Russia
see also Soviet Union Saenger, Paul
Scalzi, John
science
uncertainty and expectation search engines
 kinship with blogging Second Life
self-organization
and communication networks sexuality
homophobia
 partial drives
Shannon, Claude E.
Shiller, Robert
shock sites
Shumiatskii, Boris
Skool, Susan
So You Think You Can Dance? (television) social networks
affective links
blog killing
displacement
exposure and
friendship without friendship the gaze and symbolic efficiency spectacle and
disclosure talk without discussion women’s affective labor
see also Facebook; MySpace society
 of control
media’s direct address to spectacular
Soros, George
theory of reflexivity South Korea
Soviet Union
films and solidarity
national identity from media portrayal of labor
space
mass media organizes
media organizes
spamblogs
state government
collaborative ethos
control and
disrupting language
diverted populace and equated with market
media and national identity neoliberalism and
 spaces of power
State of the Blogosphere Sterling, Bruce
dead/obsolete media
Stewart, Alexis
Stewart, Martha
Stoicism
Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, The (Habermas) subjectivity
failed subjectivization hybrid and mobile
resistance to solidarity standing by words
surveillance
symbolic efficiency
decline of
the gaze and
identity
 reflexivity and
Sysomos Inc.
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas Taylor, Mark C.
 cause and effect
techno-utopianism
new natural law
technologies
for critical media theory dotcom profit
incessant renewal
teens
Pew Report
television
competition
 message boards
Television Without Pity Terranova, Tiziana
definition of control dynamic networks
informational culture terrorism
too much information
“war on”
texting
 secondary orality
Thacker, Eugene
Thompson, Clive
time wasting
enjoyment
torture
truth
decreasing discrimination word-clouds and
Turner, Fred
history of cyberculture Twitter
number of users
reality of
year of (2009)
uncertainty
global markets and
United States
blogs in
counterculture
national identity from media portrayal of labor
 year of Twitter
“United States of Whatever”
video-sharing
Web 2.0 platforms
“whatever”
identity/being
meaning of
 politics of
Whateverlife.com
word-clouds
Whatever (film)
Whatever (Houellebecq) whatever comes to mind
whatever with Alexis and Jennifer Whateverlife.com
Whole Earth Catalog (Brand and Brilliant) Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link
(WELL)
Wired magazine women
affective labor
 work and home
word-clouds
writing
for the elite
ordinariness
word separation
YouTube
Zaitchik, Alexander
Žižek, Slavoj
decline of symbolic efficiency defines ideology
desire compared to drive discourse of the analyst drive
the gaze
jouissance
the Other
the Real
reflexivity
removing harm from culture self-propelling loop
stolen enjoyment
stuckness of drive
symbolic efficiency
vanishing mediator