In the second episode of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Isi and Ajay take up the latest addition to the Star Wars universe, Tony Gilroy’s television series Andor. Their talk touches on topics large and small, from animatronic garbage droids, ordinary social life in the Star Wars universe, and the petty middle managerialism of empire, to labor militancy, Wagner’s Ring Cycle, early Hollywood genre conventions, and more.

Shownotes:

• Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room, scored by Philip Glass
• Kyle McCarthy for Lux Magazine, on ballet and feminism
• Bayonetta 3 controversy
• Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
• Susan Sontag, Notes on Camp
• Mark Fisher's blog post on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
• Franz Neumann, Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-1944
• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
• Thomas Hobbes, Behemoth
• Arash Abizadeh on Hobbes' state of nature
• John Locke, Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
• Films mentioned: Brian de Palma, Carrie; Ridley Scott, Alien; John Carpenter, The Thing; Bernardo Bertolucci, The Conformist; Jennie Livingston, Paris is Burning; Robert J. Flaherty, Nanook of the North; Jacques Tati, Playtime; Terry Gilliam, Brazil; Jean-Pierre Melville, Army of Shadows; Jean-Pierre Melville, Le Samouraï