Louis Armand Book order

In Homo Catastrophicus Louis Armand explores the agonism of an emergent Algorithmic State Apparatus. Its genealogy traverses the constellation of aesthetic & political avant-gardes of the long 20th century & the terminal shock of posthumanism. Technology has always posed a challenge to notions of human subjectivity. Yet this challenge cannot be resolved dialectically, as a rapprochement between the human & non-human, since technology must be understood as defining in advance what it means to be human, conditioning the very possibility of "human being."The figure of Homo Catastrophicus is the historical "subject" turned on its head - a theoretical antipode to the dialectic of modernity & the "No Future" conspiracy of Capitalist Realism. If capitalist realism inscribes history as crisis - as a discourse perpetually anachronistic to itself, "out-of-joint," always before its time yet perpetually after the event - then Homo Catastrophicus evokes history's schizoid chaos agent. Homo Catastrophicus is not a descent of man for modern times, it is an ontology of catastrophic being grasped through an antagonism with every possible world-view: ideology's doppelganger. Homo Catastrophicus is the alterego of the humanist fallacy - an inhumanity that dreams the apotheosis of civilisation.

Exploring the intersection of poetry and societal norms, the narrative combines the unique styles of Jorge Amado, Manuel Puig, and Cabrera Infante. It presents a vibrant, absurdist landscape filled with characters ranging from disillusioned revolutionaries to satirical figures. The work challenges the historical materialism perspective, inviting readers to reflect on the complexities of cultural evolution and the ongoing conflict between artistic expression and social expectations.

Exploring the philosophy of rights and morality, this work critiques the dominance of Platonic reason over poetry and human freedom. Engaging with thinkers like Arendt and Derrida, the author defends the necessity of poetic truth as a commitment to writing against oppressive social orders. Drawing on the dissident voices of Darwish, Goytisolo, and Rimbaud, it confronts the rhetoric of terror and the constraints of corporate-state power, advocating for a decolonization of thought amidst contemporary apocalyptic fears.

Shortlisted for the 2016 Not the Booker Prize, this novel explores the complexities of human relationships and the impact of societal expectations. With a blend of humor and poignancy, it delves into themes of identity, loss, and redemption, following characters as they navigate personal challenges and confront their pasts. The narrative is rich with vivid imagery and emotional depth, making it a compelling read that resonates with those seeking both entertainment and introspection.

Exploring the tension between serious culture and the liberating force of passion, this work draws on the philosophies of Charles Fourier and William Blake. It champions the concept of "infantilism," where true creativity and joy emerge from a childlike spirit, resisting oppressive societal norms. The narrative critiques the somber nature of conventional literature, advocating for a poetic engagement with life that embraces tenderness and playfulness. Ultimately, it invites readers to abandon passive observation and participate in the joyful chaos of existence.

Exploring the relationship between capital and life, the book presents a unique perspective on how both face the constraints of entropy. Louis Armand introduces the concept of "entropology," critiquing capitalist realism and examining ideological tropes within modernity, avant-garde, media culture, cybernetics, and posthumanism. This work proposes a new critical theory that emphasizes the interconnectedness of technology and life, suggesting that both evolve and influence each other in complex ways.

Hashish-infused, amphetamine-driven & ranging in bold thematic cross-cuts from the seminal "garden" of the Book of Genesis to Hieronymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights & The Perfumed Garden of Shaykh Nefzawi, to Pierre Guyotat's Eden Eden Eden & Derek Jarman's film of the same name, Armand's The Garden is by turns excoriating & lyrical, political & pornographic, a blasphemous ransacking of literary & theological pieties - "a practice, an ascetic aesthetic," as McKenzie Wark wrote in one early review, "for moving toward feeling in the pure form of its impurity."

“À ces mots, il s’est tu. Assez de mots! Il c’est tué.”Set in and around Jardin des Plantes, Paris, Europe, the World, the Universe, Armand’s short novel is a whodunit with multiple twists. The setting of the tale against a backdrop of fossils and marvels of taxidermy gives Armand’s story a macroscopic dimension. As if the evolution of an entire species could be compressed into several hours of a Sunday morning. As if a tale of a murdered schoolteacher and a vengeful mob could tell of speciation and extinction throughout the evolutionary history of life on Earth. And it can. Armand’s deftly written fragmentary narrative is a point-counter-point of silent unheard voices, whose apocalyptic finale eschews euphony in favour of a cacophonous refusal of resolution. “NO END” – loose ends being preferable to final solutions…

VIDEOLOGY 2 continues Louis Armand’s broad-ranging critique of realism in film, visual arts and literature. From Nam June Paik’s experimental TV to the militant cinema of Pontecorvo, Fassbinder & Godard; from Karel Teige’s cine- poetics to Neo-Attack; from anti-American filmographies of Petit, Jarmusch & Wenders, to the “cinema at the end of the world.” Includes essays on Robert Fuest, Gene Youngblood, Vilem Flusser, Charlotte Moorman, Yves Klein, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Amos Poe, Andy Warhol, John Cassavetes, Russ Meyer, Brian De Palma, Jerry Schatzberg, Ken Russell, Nicolas Roeg, Liliana Cavani, Alex Cox, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emir Kusturica, György Pálfi… Videology 2 is the second volume of a 3-part critique of the ideology of realism across the culture industry, from literature to film, cybernetics and the plastic arts. Its broadly “syncretic” approach follows the models of Marshall McLuhan, Buckminster Fuller, Karel Teige, and others, and is in keeping with the “interdiscisplinarity” of the historical avant-gardes and the project of modernity itself. The term “videology” therefore covers a nexus of aesthetic/ideological forms – from Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon” and the widespread emergence of image technologies during the industrial revolution (photography, cinema), to “Big Bother,” “virtual reality,” and the discourse of post-humanism. Consequently, this study is broadly focused upon discourses of modernity/postmodernity and their contemporary ramifications in the work of experimental (anti-realist/avant-garde) writers, artists, architects, filmmakers, philosophers and theorists – including, for example, Stelarc’s robo-prosthetic performance art, Karel Teige’s ciné-poetics, Robert Smithson’s “future monuments,” Isidore Isou’s hypergraphy, the video art of Nam June Paik, the films of Jean-Luc Godard, & more. In this context, “realism” is considered an instrument of cultural normalisation, co-evolving with the advent of mass literacy, global communications systems and simulacral technologies – designed to synthesise (by way of genre and “identity politics”) and (as an extension of humanism) to sentimentalise the broader abstractive processes of industrial modernity into an operative cultural framework: a framework, in other words, of commodification.