Buddies Without Organs

This week, we continue our exploration of the work of Mark Fisher with an extensive interview with his friend and collaborator Robin Mackay.

Last week, we dipped our collective toe into the blogosphere of the mid-2000s, discussing hyperstition, 70s pulp sci-fi and some of Fisher’s most enduring weird and eerie interests. Lurking in the background was Fisher’s role as a member of the Ccru, and who better to discuss this period of activity with than Robin Mackay.

Mackay is a philosopher, translator and director of the hugely influential publishing house Urbanomic. He also posts his own writings over at readthis.wtf. He has, since Fisher’s death in 2017, reignited interest in the work of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (Ccru) through the publication of their writings.

This week, we talk about the Ccru, Robin’s own work and interests, and also his more recent return to his collaborations with Fisher in the form of a newly haunted audio-work, By The North Sea.

You can listen in all of the usual places, including Spotify, iTunes and Podbean. You’ll also find the episode on YouTube here.

For Zer0 Books patrons, there is also a bonus conversation available here, in which Mackay discusses the hauntological significance of time travel in twentieth-century British sci-fi, riffing on our previous conversation about Children of the Stones, a TV series that Mackay shares our perverted love for.

The K Files logo, theme tune and accompanying video introduction were created by Sereptie.

Last year, Buddies Without Organs explored the works of Gilles Deleuze. Now, in association with Zer0 Books, we are turning towards the lesser-known works of Mark Fisher.

Fisher is a writer we all already love, and we felt he’d be great to read together. We’re starting as we intend to go on with a oft-neglected post from the Hyperstition blog about the 1970s children’s serial, Children of the Stones — a series that Fisher suggests is an example of an underrepresented British sci-fi genre: “megalithic astropunk”.

In a slight change to our hosting arrangements, the podcast will first be made available to Zer0 patreons, going live on their YouTube channel shortly afterwards, and finally appearing on our website a week after that.

From that point on, you can listen in all of the usual places, including Spotify, iTunes and Podbean. You’ll find the episode on YouTube here.

Below are a few links to things discussed in the episode, including the full series of Children of the Stones:

• Mark Fisher, “Megalithic Astropunk”, Hyperstition
• Children of the Stones
• CCRU, “Syzygy”

The K Files logo, theme tune and accompanying video introduction was created by Sereptie.

This week, the buddies step away from the CCRU (though maybe not too far) and turn their attention to a blogpost Mark Fisher wrote about Stanley Kubrick’s last film, Eyes Wide Shut.

The buddies discuss the film and its representations of sex, desire, ritual, eroticism, conspiracism, and the dreary spectacle of Power.

Below are links to some posts discussed throughout the show:

• “Have You Been Enjoying Yourself?”, Hyperstition
• Mark Fisher on Spinoza and Kubrick, adapted from alt.movies.kubrick
• “Kubrick as Cold Rationalist”, k-punk

You can listen in all of the usual places, including Spotify, iTunes and Podbean. You’ll also find the episode on YouTube here.

The K Files logo, theme tune and accompanying video introduction were created by Sereptie.

It has been a long time coming... I don’t think we fully appreciated what we getting ourselves into here. Unfolding, with intervals, over the coming months, the buddies begin their three-part reading of Gilles Deleuze’s 1988 book The Fold.

Beginning with a quick look at the life and times of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, each of the buddies tackle a chapter in the first third of this uncharacteristically dry but quintessentially difficult book on the Baroque.

Each of us felt bruised after this. We hope our listeners do not. Even if you do, bear with us as we unpack one of Deleuze’s most densely rewarding works.

(Also, please excuse the lack of a doodle for this episode. The use of Velázquez’ Las Meninas comes courtesy of Wikipedia’s treasure trove of hi-res public domain artworks because Matt has only gone and broken his drawing hand.)

Listen below or, alternatively, find us on Spotify, iTunes SoundCloud, Podbean and YouTube.

Below you can find a list of additional links and references to secondary scholarship and visual material that is discussed over the course of this episode:

• Leibniz’s Philosophical Essays
• Matthew Stewart’s The Courtier and the Heretic
• Fernando de Casas Novoa’s Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella
• Diego Velázquez’ Las Meninas
• Bernini’s The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa

The Buddies Without Organs podcast theme tune was written and recorded by George Rennie.

God is a lobster, or a double pincer, a double bind.

This week, Sean and Matt are joined by a new buddy, Corey! Together, they talk about what is likely the most notorious text in Deleuze and Guattari’s oeuvre. Topics covered include geology, North Korea, theory-fiction and the humiliation of structuralism.

Listen below or, alternatively, find us on Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud, Podbean and YouTube.

If you would like to read along with us, this discussion was primarily based on “10,000 B.C.: The Geology of Morals (Who Does the Earth Think It Is?)”, taken from Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus.

The Buddies Without Organs podcast theme tune was written and recorded by George Rennie.