This is Malcontent Theory. Part intellectual performance, part theory-informed experiment, always inconsistently consistent.
This SubStack is meant as a longform companion to the work that I began on Twitter. Partially performance, partially experiment; this space exists as a kind of interstice situated amongst the worlds of literary art, cultural theory, and rational inquiry.
I intend to continue to apply certain theoretical ideas, primarily a syncretic approach to concepts brought to light by individuals such as Brian Massumi, Lauren Berlant, and anthropologist Kathleen Stewart (to name a few) to our contemporary, internet-focused world of social and political engagement.
If I do my job well, this project should shed light upon the mechanics and functional-relational exchanges that make internet-communication, in particular platforms dubbed “social media”, self-propagate and self-regulate into affective-emotional genre cycles while restricting available speech into diminishing accepted ranges of utterance.
If this seems overwhelming, don’t worry. It is. It is meant to be overwhelming. How else do you keep everyone thinking—feeling—speaking all the time? But that is what we do, we are human creatures and we think, we feel, and then we speak. These things are normal like paying taxes or arguing over politics.
I call Katie for a refresher course in dedramatizing the crazy. We banter and cackle, then she says: rather than saying “I’m hurt,” say “I feel funny” and “What’s up?” Rather than saying “I want x to change,” say “What if we did x?” I’ve also heard “Feel ten in your heart, act seven in your movements.” “Smile like an animal tracking prey.” “Don’t rush to breathe: just write.”1
Lauren Berlant & Kathleen Stewart, “All the Desperate Calls Rolled into One” (The Hundreds 2019)