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David's Reviews > Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures
by
by
Much of it is a form of closely observed and serious music writing that used to occupy the pages of NME and The Wire a lifetime ago. It can feel a bit inscrutable, often referencing things like a "Ballardian infrastructure of British post-Fordist capitalism". Ballard is a particular touchstone. He along with Burroughs will be name-checked over a dozen times, invoking something that I guess I should know. Fisher is interested in the post-punk, a world where the possibilities have expanded and there is the chance of something profoundly new appearing. And it extends beyond music as well, exploring British TV nostalgia with Sapphire and Steel, and more recently Life on Mars, Christopher Nolan's Inception, and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.
It feels like a collection of Substack missives from someone interested in exploring their own taste in opposition to the algo-slop we're unconsciously consuming in our current period of cultural stagnation. (In fact it is a collection of writings from his blog k-punk back when blogs were a thing)
I appreciate it introducing me to the uneasy nostalgia of Ghost Box Records and The Caretaker, as well as the melancholy crackle of Burial and Black to Comm. It was also lovely to see a chapter devoted to the synthpop Canadiana of Hamilton Ontario natives Junior Boys. (So This is Goodbye has long been a favourite)
Mark Fisher is clearly a revered figure. I'd come here after reading a chapter in Phil Christman's How to Be Normal where he talks about Mark Fisher's death by suicide on Friday, January 13 2017. The following Monday his students, both current and former, showed up for his class. They would return for subsequent Mondays to grieve and read their way through his remaining syllabus. I wanted to join in that conversation and understand where that reverence comes from.
As Christman notes about Fisher: "he cares. He cares about books, he cares about records, he cares about friends, he cares about students, he cares about ideas, he cares about the world. He cannot write indifferently."
It feels like a collection of Substack missives from someone interested in exploring their own taste in opposition to the algo-slop we're unconsciously consuming in our current period of cultural stagnation. (In fact it is a collection of writings from his blog k-punk back when blogs were a thing)
I appreciate it introducing me to the uneasy nostalgia of Ghost Box Records and The Caretaker, as well as the melancholy crackle of Burial and Black to Comm. It was also lovely to see a chapter devoted to the synthpop Canadiana of Hamilton Ontario natives Junior Boys. (So This is Goodbye has long been a favourite)
Mark Fisher is clearly a revered figure. I'd come here after reading a chapter in Phil Christman's How to Be Normal where he talks about Mark Fisher's death by suicide on Friday, January 13 2017. The following Monday his students, both current and former, showed up for his class. They would return for subsequent Mondays to grieve and read their way through his remaining syllabus. I wanted to join in that conversation and understand where that reverence comes from.
As Christman notes about Fisher: "he cares. He cares about books, he cares about records, he cares about friends, he cares about students, he cares about ideas, he cares about the world. He cannot write indifferently."
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
February 3, 2025
–
Finished Reading
February 9, 2025
– Shelved
