No.164, aired March 28, 2012.
This episode had readings of the “Time and History” chapter of Guy Debord’s Society of The Spectacle alongside passages from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine audiobook.
The key to interpreting Wells was found in Debord’s 125th thesis: “Man’s appropriation of his own nature is at the same time the apprehension of the unfolding of the universe.”
In The Time Machine, the universe unfolds humanity into two different species, one permanently childish, naive, indolent & sensual, and the second nocturnal, calculating, pragmatic & predatory. No doubt this text was an admirable nod to Darwinism when first published in the 1890s, but with the help of Debord’s Thesis no.125, the real meaning of Wells’ two-species humanity becomes plain. Wells has apprehended a two-fold nature in his own humanity, a passive consumer on the one hand and a joyless labourer on the other. He unfolds his futuristic world according to this bipolar vision – the light of enlightenment apart from the darkness of industry.
And in case it needs to be said, the class system in The Time Machine has little or no relation to existing class relations in late capitalist society, it more resembles the twilight of the aristocracy, when the kings & queens & dukes & knights became increasingly like helpless, caged animals. In the modern world, division of labour is the determinate factor in class relations. Labour, productivity is the most basic human quality, therefore Wells’ passive pastoral species is not human at all but a breed of post-human cattle. And the meaning of the Sex Pistols' “God save the Queen / She ain’t no human being” was thus revealed.
Featured album was Ornette Coleman’s The Shape Of Jazz To Come
Part 1
1. Organic Space – Guerilla Funk Monster
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Fuera de Control – Cerebros Exprimidos
4. Eventually – Ornette Coleman
5. puddle pants / Savages – Guerilla Funk Monster
6. Lonely Woman – Ornette Coleman
7. interligeridoo / How Long ‘Til We Get There – Guerilla Funk Monster
Part 2
1. No Sabes Que Existo – Cerebros Exprimidos
2. Bent Time – Burro
3. Wake Today – Guerilla Funk Monster
4. Chronology – Ornette Coleman
5. Introduce The Metric System In Time – The Hives
6. March Of The Crabs – Anvil
This episode had readings of the “Time and History” chapter of Guy Debord’s Society of The Spectacle alongside passages from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine audiobook.
The key to interpreting Wells was found in Debord’s 125th thesis: “Man’s appropriation of his own nature is at the same time the apprehension of the unfolding of the universe.”
In The Time Machine, the universe unfolds humanity into two different species, one permanently childish, naive, indolent & sensual, and the second nocturnal, calculating, pragmatic & predatory. No doubt this text was an admirable nod to Darwinism when first published in the 1890s, but with the help of Debord’s Thesis no.125, the real meaning of Wells’ two-species humanity becomes plain. Wells has apprehended a two-fold nature in his own humanity, a passive consumer on the one hand and a joyless labourer on the other. He unfolds his futuristic world according to this bipolar vision – the light of enlightenment apart from the darkness of industry.
And in case it needs to be said, the class system in The Time Machine has little or no relation to existing class relations in late capitalist society, it more resembles the twilight of the aristocracy, when the kings & queens & dukes & knights became increasingly like helpless, caged animals. In the modern world, division of labour is the determinate factor in class relations. Labour, productivity is the most basic human quality, therefore Wells’ passive pastoral species is not human at all but a breed of post-human cattle. And the meaning of the Sex Pistols' “God save the Queen / She ain’t no human being” was thus revealed.
Featured album was Ornette Coleman’s The Shape Of Jazz To Come
Part 1
1. Organic Space – Guerilla Funk Monster
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Fuera de Control – Cerebros Exprimidos
4. Eventually – Ornette Coleman
5. puddle pants / Savages – Guerilla Funk Monster
6. Lonely Woman – Ornette Coleman
7. interligeridoo / How Long ‘Til We Get There – Guerilla Funk Monster
Part 2
1. No Sabes Que Existo – Cerebros Exprimidos
2. Bent Time – Burro
3. Wake Today – Guerilla Funk Monster
4. Chronology – Ornette Coleman
5. Introduce The Metric System In Time – The Hives
6. March Of The Crabs – Anvil
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