ladyeremite's review
5.0
Although occasionally a bit repetitive, this book provides a brilliant interpretation of our modern, global obsession with monsters in terms of Marx's theories of commodity fetishism and the exploitation of labor. McNally's central insight is that horror reflects the capitalist process of commodification, with its emphasis on repetition, reversals in agency (objects that should have no agency being bestowed agency while those that should have it are denied agency),the insistence on homogeneity and interchangeability, and the separation of the parts from the whole. To illustrate this point, he looks at such diverse topics as body snatching in eighteenth-century England, contemporary zombie stories in Western Africa and Enron's "occult economy." Highly recommended for both those interested in the cultural world of capitalism and in understanding the prevalence of horror. If you're someone like me, who is fascinated by both, this is the book you've dreamed of.
tombomp's review
4.0
so basically vampires are capitalists, the undead are workers, stripped of their individuality etc by capitalism and becoming pure labour power. stories of monsters and magic help defetishise capitalism by exposing the unnaturalness of it. talk of monsters has been used by the working class to show how unnatural it is and by the ruling class to mark off workers. stuff about dismemberment and anatomy dissections as ruling class punishment on the poor and also symbolic of what workers became (ie capital can control the worker, hands become alienated from worker and are controlled by capital/machinery). there's a lot to it it's interesting. like the idea of the monstrous common person in the 17thish century as something "without bounds", the horror of the commons as a concept as opposed to good capitalist enclosures represented in the fear of the monstrous boundless mob. the analysis of okri's writing at the end is very good. you could maybe write a critique of orientalism type stuff in this - he talks a lot about "africa" in general although he's v good with specifics about the places and circumstances the occult ideas he's talking about come from.
the book acts also as a kind of whirlwind tour of 3 periods of capitalism - "primitive accumulation" in europe, development of industrial capitalism, neocolonialism in africa (probably most notably original colonialism is missing from this - seems the monstrous being connected with race would be a meaningful study but i dunno). i liked the history stuff a lot it was good even when the symbolic analysis was a bit tenuous (eg the connection between paintings of corpse anatomy and ruling class understandings of their own power seemed v benefit of hindsight)
the history stuff is good to read but the cultural analysis type stuff can be really tough to get through because of the language. sometimes i had trouble making it through because the actual descriptions of the horrors of capitalism felt too raw while the development of the themes of monsters sometimes felt too remote from the realities of capitalism. which is unfair on the latter because he closely ties the symbolism to the horrors but the language used can be bleh. it's a good book and if the subject sounds interesting then i recommend it
there's a LOT of analysis and interesting stuff to pore over in this book but i'm not in a good place to summarise but if the concept's interesting and you're prepared to tackle some tough language sometimes then it's good
the book acts also as a kind of whirlwind tour of 3 periods of capitalism - "primitive accumulation" in europe, development of industrial capitalism, neocolonialism in africa (probably most notably original colonialism is missing from this - seems the monstrous being connected with race would be a meaningful study but i dunno). i liked the history stuff a lot it was good even when the symbolic analysis was a bit tenuous (eg the connection between paintings of corpse anatomy and ruling class understandings of their own power seemed v benefit of hindsight)
the history stuff is good to read but the cultural analysis type stuff can be really tough to get through because of the language. sometimes i had trouble making it through because the actual descriptions of the horrors of capitalism felt too raw while the development of the themes of monsters sometimes felt too remote from the realities of capitalism. which is unfair on the latter because he closely ties the symbolism to the horrors but the language used can be bleh. it's a good book and if the subject sounds interesting then i recommend it
there's a LOT of analysis and interesting stuff to pore over in this book but i'm not in a good place to summarise but if the concept's interesting and you're prepared to tackle some tough language sometimes then it's good
stefhyena's review
5.0
This book was a great expose of the way capitalism works to alienate and appropriate us. It looked at various novels (such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) then travelled via connections to Marx to Africa to look at the colonialism, needless poverty, laboring there and the way all this has given rise to stories about zombies and witches.
It was a tough read and written in very large, dense chunks but worth the effort. One of my favourite things was the way he kept nodding to feminism, critiquing every single instance of misogyny in his sources even if otherwise agreeing with the source. For a work that was not predominantly feminist that pro-feminist commitment was impressive!
McNally has clearly done a phenomenal amount of reading, thinking and research around these issues and adds something worthwhile to the conversation about the economic and environmental future of our globe. The picture painted is bleak, but there is an acknowledgement in it of agency and possibility within the oppressed. The ending strikes a note of hope and directs us to stories and thence back into ourselves.
It was a tough read and written in very large, dense chunks but worth the effort. One of my favourite things was the way he kept nodding to feminism, critiquing every single instance of misogyny in his sources even if otherwise agreeing with the source. For a work that was not predominantly feminist that pro-feminist commitment was impressive!
McNally has clearly done a phenomenal amount of reading, thinking and research around these issues and adds something worthwhile to the conversation about the economic and environmental future of our globe. The picture painted is bleak, but there is an acknowledgement in it of agency and possibility within the oppressed. The ending strikes a note of hope and directs us to stories and thence back into ourselves.
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