Superstructure

Scott Ferguson joins Maxximilian Seijo to discuss method and the dangers of overly positive or negative orientations to the historical world. First, they critique Liam Kofi Bright’s problematic revival of logical positivism, which submits left praxis to reductive and exclusionary market models. Next, they affirm the negative approaches to aesthetic criticism found in the works of Siegfried Kracauer, the Frankfurt School, and Fredric Jameson. Finally, they celebrate the often-overlooked “double movement” of positive & negative impulses that animate Karl Marx’s writings, only on analogical rather than dialectical terms.

Link to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.

http://flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com

Twitter:

@actualflirting

This Money on the Left/Superstructure teaser previews our third premium release, a one-off lecture from Scott Ferguson on Abbas Kiarostami's Close Up (1990) for Patreon subscribers.

The full video lecture can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/modern-movie-in-46862120

For access to the full video lecture, subscribe to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

If you are interested in premium offerings but presently unable to afford a subscription, please send a direct message to @moneyontheleft or @Superstruc on Twitter & we will happily provide you with membership access.

Course Description:

In this lecture, professor Scott Ferguson explores a reparative cinematic approach to social alienation and unemployment in the film Close Up (1990) by the late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.

In this episode, cohosts Natalie Smith, Will Beaman & Maxximilian Seijo reflect on some ill-fated responses to the right-wing insurrection at the Capitol, utilize feminist psychoanalysis to articulate a film theory of the state, and meditate on the mental health side of an MMT-informed left-wing praxis.

Link to our Patreon: https://patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.

http://flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com

Twitter:

@actualflirting

In this short episode, Maxximilian Seijo reads from Theodor W. Adorno's Negative Dialectics, complicating the philosopher's discussion of nihilism to critique contemporary left pessimism.

Link to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

This Money on the Left/Superstructure teaser previews our second premium release from Scott Ferguson's "Neoliberal Blockbuster" course for Patreon subscribers.

For access to the full video lecture, subscribe to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure. If you are interested in premium offerings but presently unable to afford a subscription, please send a direct message to @moneyontheleft or @Superstruc on Twitter & we will happily provide you with membership access.

Course Description

This course examines the neoliberal Blockbuster from the 1970s to the present. It focuses, in particular, on the social significance of the blockbuster's constitutive technologies: both those made visible in narratives and the off-screen tools that drive production and reception. Linking aesthetic shifts in American moving images to broader transformations in political economy, the course traces the historical transformation of screen action from the ethereal “dream factory” of pre-1960s cinema to the impact-driven “thrill ride” of the post-1970s blockbuster. In doing so, we attend to the blockbuster’s technological forms and study how they have variously contributed to social, economic, and political transformations over the past 40 years. We critically engage blockbusters as "reflexive allegories" of their own technosocial processes and pleasures. Above all, we think through the blockbuster's shifting relationship to monetary abstraction and the myriad additional abstractions monetary mediation entails.

Blockbusters:

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)

Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)

RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)

Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)

Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)

The Matrix (Wachowskis, 1999)

Avengers: Infinity War (Joe & Anthony Russo, 2018)

In this episode, Natalie Smith & Maxximilian Seijo host Daniel Bessner (@dbessner) to debate the pertinence of contemporary leftist efforts to analogize Trumpian neoliberalism to 1930s fascism. The conversation also takes up matters of left strategy & media, including the role of theoretical provocation and the politics of online culture.

Link to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.

flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com/

Twitter: @actualflirting

This Money on the Left/Superstructure teaser previews our first premium release from Scott Ferguson's "Neoliberal Blockbuster" course for Patreon subscribers.

For access to the full video lecture, subscribe to our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure

If you are interested in premium offerings but presently unable to afford a subscription, please send a direct message to @moneyontheleft or @Superstruc on Twitter & we will happily provide you with membership access.

Course Description:

This course examines the neoliberal Blockbuster from the 1970s to the present. It focuses, in particular, on the social significance of the blockbuster's constitutive technologies: both those made visible in narratives and the off-screen tools that drive production and reception. Linking aesthetic shifts in American moving images to broader transformations in political economy, the course traces the historical transformation of screen action from the ethereal “dream factory” of pre-1960s cinema to the impact-driven “thrill ride” of the post-1970s blockbuster. In doing so, we attend to the blockbuster’s technological forms and study how they have variously contributed to social, economic, and political transformations over the past 40 years. We critically engage blockbusters as "reflexive allegories" of their own technosocial processes and pleasures. Above all, we think through the blockbuster's shifting relationship to monetary abstraction and the myriad additional abstractions monetary mediation entails.

Blockbusters:

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)

Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)

RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)

Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995)

Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)

The Matrix (Wachowskis, 1999)

Avengers: Infinity War (Joe & Anthony Russo, 2018)

Cohosts Will Beaman and Natalie Smith are joined by Scott Ferguson and Andrés Bernal to reflect on a recent "close encounter" with the Dirtbag Left. They diagnose the perverse comfort that the Dirtbag Left takes in contracting political economy around fixed points of "leverage" over political elites. Touching on the Jimmy Dore controversy and a recent Chapo episode on Avatar, the team compares the austere physics metaphors that structure the Left's hopelessness to neoliberal action cinema's preoccupation with what Ferguson has called its "Hyper-Newtonian Aesthetics".

Link to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure/posts

Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.

flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com/

Twitter: @actualflirting

Kicking off a Money on the Left / Superstructure Patreon fund drive, Scott Ferguson joins Maxximilian Seijo to discuss MMT, eco-fascism and Avengers: Infinity War. This premium episode offers listeners a sneak peek at Ferguson’s Hollywood Blockbuster course, which will be rolled out for subscribers in the coming months.

While we appreciate support for our premium content on Patreon from those who can afford it, this is not a hard paywall! If you are unable to pay, reach out to the Money on the Left/Superstructure team for free access to our premium content.

Link to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure/posts

Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.

flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com/

Twitter: @actualflirting

In this episode, Maxximilian Seijo (@maxseijo), Will Beaman (@agoingaccount) & Natalie Smith (@orangeasm) are joined by Matt Christman (@cushbomb) from Chapo Trap House to discuss their critique of his zero-sum methodology.

Music: “Yum” from “This Would Be Funny If It Were Happening To Anyone But Me” EP by flirting.

flirtingfullstop.bandcamp.com/

Twitter: @actualflirting

Link to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructure