Andrew O’Hagan: Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography (2011)

“In December 2010, Julian Assange signed a contract with Canongate Books to write a book – part memoir, part manifesto – for publication the following year. At the time, Julian said: ‘I hope this book will become one of the unifying documents of our generation. In this highly personal work, I explain our global struggle to force a new relationship between the people and their governments.’

In the end, the work was to prove too personal.

Despite sitting for more than fifty hours of taped interviews discussing his life and the work of WikiLeaks with the writer he had enlisted to help him, Julian became increasingly troubled by the thought of publishing an autobiography. After reading the first draft of the book at the end of March, Julian declared: ‘All memoir is prostitution.’ In June 2011, with thirty-eight publishing houses around the world committed to releasing the book, Julian told us he wanted to cancel his contract.

We disagree with Julian’s assessment of the book. We believe it explains both the man and his work, underlining his commitment to the truth. Julian always claimed the book was well written; we agree, and this also encouraged us to make the book available to readers. And the contract? By the time Julian wanted to cancel the deal he had already used the advance money to settle his legal bills. So the contract still stands. We have decided to honour it – and to publish.

This book is the unauthorised first draft. It is passionate, provocative and opinionated – like its author. It fulfils the promise of the original proposal and we are proud to publish it.” (publisher)

Ghostwritten by Andrew O’Hagan
Publisher Canongate Books, September 2011
ISBN 085786386X, 9780857863867
352 pages

review (David Leigh, Guardian)
review (James Ball, New Statesman)
review (Economist)

publisher
google books

PDF (MOBI; updated on 2012-8-5)

McKenzie Wark: The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International (2011)

“Over fifty years after the Situationist International appeared, its legacy continues to inspire activists, artists and theorists around the world. Such a legend has accrued to this movement that the story of the SI now demands to be told in a contemporary voice capable of putting it into the context of twenty-first-century struggles.

McKenzie Wark delves into the Situationists’ unacknowledged diversity, revealing a world as rich in practice as it is in theory. Tracing the group’s development from the bohemian Paris of the ’50s to the explosive days of May ’68, Wark’s take on the Situationists is biographically and historically rich, presenting the group as an ensemble creation, rather than the brainchild and dominion of its most famous member, Guy Debord. Roaming through Europe and the lives of those who made up the movement—including Constant, Asger Jorn, Michèle Bernstein, Alex Trocchi and Jacqueline De Jong—Wark uncovers an international movement riven with conflicting passions.

Accessible to those who have only just discovered the Situationists and filled with new insights, The Beach Beneath the Street rereads the group’s history in the light of our contemporary experience of communications, architecture, and everyday life. The Situationists tried to escape the world of twentieth-century spectacle and failed in the attempt. Wark argues that they may still help us to escape the twenty-first century, while we still can …”

Publisher Verso, London, 2011
ISBN 1844677206, 9781844677207
224 pages

Reviews: Christopher Collier (Mute), Anthony Hayes (Marx&Philosophy), Ian Birchall (Review31), Brettany Shannon (Society&Space), Ben Brucato (Humanity&Society), Karl Whitney (3AM), Vince Carducci (PopMatters), Andrew McCann (Sydney Review of Books), Gary Pearce (Steep Stairs), Jonathan Derbyshire (The Guardian), Andrew Blake (The Independent), Edwin Heathcote (Financial Times).

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2019-2-9)

Éric Alliez, Andrew Goffey (eds.): Guattari Effect (2011)

“The Guattari Effect brings together internationally renowned experts on the work of the French psychoanalyst, philosopher and political activist Félix Guattari with philosophers, psychoanalysts, sociologists, anthropologists and artists who have been influenced by Guattari’s thought.

Best known for his collaborative work with Gilles Deleuze, Guattari’s own writings are still a relatively unmined resource in continental philosophy. Many of his books have not yet been translated into English. Yet his influence has been considerable and far-reaching. This book explores the full spectrum of Guattari’s work, reassessing its contemporary significance and giving due weight to his highly innovative contributions to a variety of fields, including linguistics, economics, pragmatics, ecology, aesthetics and media theory. Readers grappling with the ideas of contemporary continental philosophers such as Badiou, Žižek and Rancière will at last be able to see Guattari as the ‘extraordinary philosopher’ Deleuze claimed him to be, with his distinctive radical ideas about the epoch of global ‘deterritorialization’ we live in today, forged within the practical contexts of revolutionary politics and the materialist critique of psychoanalysis.”

Publisher Continuum, 2011
ISBN 1441121978, 9781441121974
224 pages

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2012-7-15)
Academia.edu (added on 2016-3-11)