Oct 30 2024 47 mins
Welcome to the first Halloween Special! In this episode, we're discussing horror movies and capitalism; specifically, The Blob ('58, '72, and '88), Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56), and Mark Fisher's "Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?" We talk a little about horror and science fiction, gods and monsters, Red (and Pink) scare(s), the Blob as metaphor for late capitalism, and how horror movies reflect the mass anxieties of the time.
Obligatory bibliography, or books (and articles) you may also want to check out:
Fisher, Mark. 2009. Capitalist Realism : Is There No Alternative? Winchester, UK: Zero Books
Bukatman, Scott. 1993. Terminal Identity : The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction. Durham: Duke University Press
Frankfurter, David. 2018. Evil Incarnate : Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Aylesworth, Gary. “Postmodernism” https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/
Loock, K. (2012). The Return of the Pod People: Remaking Cultural Anxieties in Invasion of the Body Snatchers . https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137263353_7#citeas – Citing also: Mann, Katrina. “You’re Next!: Postwar Hegemony Besieged in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Cinema Journal 44.1 (Fall 2004): 49–68