History of a Communist
ANTONIO NEGRI
The philosopher Antonio Negri is one of the preeminent thinkers of our time: his writings on class, socialism, and empire have had an enormous influence on contemporary political theory. He has also been at the centre of some of the most dramatic developments in recent Italian history. History of a Communist—the first volume of Negri’s three-part autobiography—tells the fascinating story of his personal and intellectual development, beginning with a childhood overshadowed by Fascism, tracing his involvement with Left-wing politics in the post-war period, and ending with his arrest in 1979 for alleged involvement in terrorist activities. This is a crucial record of a remarkable life, and of the historical forces that have shaped it.
ANTONIO NEGRI
The philosopher Antonio Negri is one of the preeminent thinkers of our time: his writings on class, socialism, and empire have had an enormous influence on contemporary political theory. He has also been at the centre of some of the most dramatic developments in recent Italian history. History of a Communist—the first volume of Negri’s three-part autobiography—tells the fascinating story of his personal and intellectual development, beginning with a childhood overshadowed by Fascism, tracing his involvement with Left-wing politics in the post-war period, and ending with his arrest in 1979 for alleged involvement in terrorist activities. This is a crucial record of a remarkable life, and of the historical forces that have shaped it.
Desire and Fate
DAVID RIEFF
At a time when political writing and cultural criticism have come to be dominated by an insipid and unthinking moralism, David Rieff’s essays offer a bracing antidote. The writings collected in Desire and Fate cover topics as diverse as censorship in contemporary publishing, the cultural ubiquity of the notion of trauma, and the future of democracy on a global level. They are all characterised, however, by an incisive intelligence and a refreshing lack of wishful thinking; together they confirm Rieff’s status as an indispensable writer and thinker.
DAVID RIEFF
At a time when political writing and cultural criticism have come to be dominated by an insipid and unthinking moralism, David Rieff’s essays offer a bracing antidote. The writings collected in Desire and Fate cover topics as diverse as censorship in contemporary publishing, the cultural ubiquity of the notion of trauma, and the future of democracy on a global level. They are all characterised, however, by an incisive intelligence and a refreshing lack of wishful thinking; together they confirm Rieff’s status as an indispensable writer and thinker.
Secrets of Beauty
JEAN COCTEAU
A towering figure in the worlds of literature, cinema, and visual art, Jean Cocteau was one of the most influential creative artists of the twentieth century. In this collection of brief—often aphoristic—meditations, he reflects on the nature of beauty itself. Ranging over painters, poets, and musicians, Cocteau offers brilliant insights into the essential loneliness of the artistic vocation. As well as throwing new light on the author’s own artistic achievement, Secrets of Beauty is a vital contribution to aesthetic theory in its own right.
JEAN COCTEAU
A towering figure in the worlds of literature, cinema, and visual art, Jean Cocteau was one of the most influential creative artists of the twentieth century. In this collection of brief—often aphoristic—meditations, he reflects on the nature of beauty itself. Ranging over painters, poets, and musicians, Cocteau offers brilliant insights into the essential loneliness of the artistic vocation. As well as throwing new light on the author’s own artistic achievement, Secrets of Beauty is a vital contribution to aesthetic theory in its own right.
Glossary of Cognitive Activism
WARREN NEIDICH
Warren Neidich’s Glossary of Cognitive Activism, published by ERIS in a revised and expanded new edition, updates the epistemological foundations of resistance to this state of affairs. Cognitive capitalism assumes that wealth production is the product of a brain highly attuned to hyper-branded, designed sensibilities. Neidich’s project considers as antidote the role of diverse aesthetic production in the creation of neural maps and network configurations. Ranging in its concerns from deep fakes and Chat GPT to poetry and conceptual art, Glossary of Cognitive Activism is a crucial guide to the world we live in, and to the ways in which we might remake it.
WARREN NEIDICH
Warren Neidich’s Glossary of Cognitive Activism, published by ERIS in a revised and expanded new edition, updates the epistemological foundations of resistance to this state of affairs. Cognitive capitalism assumes that wealth production is the product of a brain highly attuned to hyper-branded, designed sensibilities. Neidich’s project considers as antidote the role of diverse aesthetic production in the creation of neural maps and network configurations. Ranging in its concerns from deep fakes and Chat GPT to poetry and conceptual art, Glossary of Cognitive Activism is a crucial guide to the world we live in, and to the ways in which we might remake it.
Our Distance Became Water
ANDREAS PHILIPPOPOULOS-MIHALOPOULOS
“We knew very little with any certainty. One thing, though, was confirmed by everyone: that we were not the only ones flooded. For all we knew, every city across the globe had suffered a comparable fate.”
As an unnamed city finds itself partially submerged below water, a small community of friends and lovers is forced to adapt to a world that has been radically transformed. An arresting vision of the wages of ecological disaster, Our Distance Became Water is at once lyrical, moving, and psychologically acute. Endlessly inventive in both style and substance, this is a singularly powerful literary response to environmental change.
ANDREAS PHILIPPOPOULOS-MIHALOPOULOS
“We knew very little with any certainty. One thing, though, was confirmed by everyone: that we were not the only ones flooded. For all we knew, every city across the globe had suffered a comparable fate.”
As an unnamed city finds itself partially submerged below water, a small community of friends and lovers is forced to adapt to a world that has been radically transformed. An arresting vision of the wages of ecological disaster, Our Distance Became Water is at once lyrical, moving, and psychologically acute. Endlessly inventive in both style and substance, this is a singularly powerful literary response to environmental change.
Luminous Lives
THOMAS SCHLESSER
Long neglected by art historians, Anna-Eva Bergman was a painter of major importance who invested her work with an almost mystical ambition. The story of her life, told for the first time in this meticulously researched biography, is extraordinary, long last enabling us to understand the creator of these magnificent works in all the complexity of her character and the dramatic circumstances of her life.
THOMAS SCHLESSER
Long neglected by art historians, Anna-Eva Bergman was a painter of major importance who invested her work with an almost mystical ambition. The story of her life, told for the first time in this meticulously researched biography, is extraordinary, long last enabling us to understand the creator of these magnificent works in all the complexity of her character and the dramatic circumstances of her life.
No Politics But Class Politics
WALTER BENN MICHAELS & ADOLPH REED JR.
An exhilarating journey that swaps the orthodoxies of contemporary progressive culture for a class politics rooted in universalism.—James Bloodworth
No Politics but Class Politics gathers together Reed and Michaels’s recent essays on inequality, along with a newly commissioned interview with the authors and an illuminating foreword by Daniel Zamora and Anton Jäger. Reed and Michaels make the case here for a genuinely radical politics: a politics which aspires not to the establishment of a demographically representative social elite, but instead to economic justice for everyone.
I Declare a Permanent State of Happiness
KENNETH GOLDSMITH
Written as a series of numbered propositions, Wittgenstein’s treatise is an ambitious attempt to elucidate the relationship of language to logic and to reality. Goldsmith’s response to the text is a testament to the highly distinctive artistic vision that characterizes all of his work. Inspired by the Tractatus but also boldly inventive, Goldsmith’s images reveal the breadth and depth not just of Wittgenstein’s genius, but also of the intervening artist’s creative fervor.
KENNETH GOLDSMITH
My entire poetic production is founded upon Wittgenstein’s later writings. Although it has sat on my shelf for decades, I never actually read the Tractatus. But I always loved the idea of it; I am a conceptual writer, after all.
––Kenneth Goldsmith
Written as a series of numbered propositions, Wittgenstein’s treatise is an ambitious attempt to elucidate the relationship of language to logic and to reality. Goldsmith’s response to the text is a testament to the highly distinctive artistic vision that characterizes all of his work. Inspired by the Tractatus but also boldly inventive, Goldsmith’s images reveal the breadth and depth not just of Wittgenstein’s genius, but also of the intervening artist’s creative fervor.
Do Not Resuscitate
MAURICE SAATCHI
A book like no other. Maurice Saatchi, a towering figure in the worlds of business and politics, frames his unsparing self-portrait with the conceit of a celestial trial in which his application to pass through the Gates of Heaven is heard before a jury featuring luminaries like Marilyn Monroe, Pablo Picasso, Chairman Mao, and Margaret Thatcher. In seeking admission to Heaven, Saatchi offers a defence like no other.
MAURICE SAATCHI
Extraordinary.
–The Times
Thought-provoking.
–Independent
A book like no other. Maurice Saatchi, a towering figure in the worlds of business and politics, frames his unsparing self-portrait with the conceit of a celestial trial in which his application to pass through the Gates of Heaven is heard before a jury featuring luminaries like Marilyn Monroe, Pablo Picasso, Chairman Mao, and Margaret Thatcher. In seeking admission to Heaven, Saatchi offers a defence like no other.
Book of Water
ANDREAS PHILIPPOPOULOS-MIHALOPOULOS
You don’t so much read The Book of Water, you float in it. These haunting little fictions heighten some senses while softening others, to an effect that is curiously hallucinatory. Never have words felt so liquid, or stories so cool and refreshing.
At first impression, the stories are narrated by a multiplicity of voices preoccupied with everyday psychological situations. At some point, however, the quotidian withdraws and gives way to surreal and disorienting moments of ethical, political, psychoanalytical, ecological, and personal challenges. The book is a literary response to the current geological epoch of the Anthropocene, where the effect of the human presence on the planet and its various elements seems by now irreversible.
ANDREAS PHILIPPOPOULOS-MIHALOPOULOS
You don’t so much read The Book of Water, you float in it. These haunting little fictions heighten some senses while softening others, to an effect that is curiously hallucinatory. Never have words felt so liquid, or stories so cool and refreshing.
—Robert Shearman
At first impression, the stories are narrated by a multiplicity of voices preoccupied with everyday psychological situations. At some point, however, the quotidian withdraws and gives way to surreal and disorienting moments of ethical, political, psychoanalytical, ecological, and personal challenges. The book is a literary response to the current geological epoch of the Anthropocene, where the effect of the human presence on the planet and its various elements seems by now irreversible.