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This is a varied collection of thought-provoking essays, bringing
together a number of viewpoints from around the globe and from
internationally reknowned academics.
In the middle of the eigtheenth century, a new fad found its way
into the gardens of England's well-to-do: building fake Gothic
ruins. Newly constructed castle towers and walls looked like they
were already falling apart, even on the first day of their
creation. Made of stone, plaster, or even canvas, these "sham
ruins" are often considered an embarrassing blip in English
architectural history. However, Sham Ruins: A User's Guide expands
the specific example of the sham ruin into a general principle to
examine the way purposely broken objects can be used to both
uncover old truths and invent new ones. Along with architecture,
work by Ivan Vladislavić, Tom Stoppard, Alain Mabanckou, Aleksei
Fedorchenko, Michael Haneke, and Sturtevant is used to develop this
thesis, as well as artifacts such as pre-torn jeans, fake
histories, and broken screen apps. Using these examples, one of the
key questions the book raises is: what is it that sham ruins ruin?
In other words, if real ruins are ruins of what they actually are,
then sham ruins should be considered ruins of what they are not.
Thus sham ruins are about imposing new meaning where such meaning
does not and should not exist. They also can show how things we
think are functioning well are actually already broken. Sham ruins
do this, and much more, by being lies, ruses, and embarrassments.
This is what gives them the power with which we can think about
objects in new, unintended ways.
In the middle of the eigtheenth century, a new fad found its way
into the gardens of England's well-to-do: building fake Gothic
ruins. Newly constructed castle towers and walls looked like they
were already falling apart, even on the first day of their
creation. Made of stone, plaster, or even canvas, these "sham
ruins" are often considered an embarrassing blip in English
architectural history. However, Sham Ruins: A User's Guide expands
the specific example of the sham ruin into a general principle to
examine the way purposely broken objects can be used to both
uncover old truths and invent new ones. Along with architecture,
work by Ivan Vladislavic, Tom Stoppard, Alain Mabanckou, Aleksei
Fedorchenko, Michael Haneke, and Sturtevant is used to develop this
thesis, as well as artifacts such as pre-torn jeans, fake
histories, and broken screen apps. Using these examples, one of the
key questions the book raises is: what is it that sham ruins ruin?
In other words, if real ruins are ruins of what they actually are,
then sham ruins should be considered ruins of what they are not.
Thus sham ruins are about imposing new meaning where such meaning
does not and should not exist. They also can show how things we
think are functioning well are actually already broken. Sham ruins
do this, and much more, by being lies, ruses, and embarrassments.
This is what gives them the power with which we can think about
objects in new, unintended ways.
Brian Willems draws on the science fiction of Cormac McCarthy,
Paolo Bacigalupi, Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, Doris Lessing and
Kim Stanley Robinson alongside speculative materialists including
Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux and Jane Bennett. By questioning
it, these writers and philosophers both develop and challenge
anthropomorphism. Willems looks at how nonsense and sense exist
together in science fiction, the way that language is not a
guarantee of personhood, the role of vision in relation to identity
formation, the difference between metamorphosis and modulation,
representations of non-human deaths and the function of plasticity
within the Anthropocene.
Henry, Henry is a brilliantly conceived experimental novel
comprising two alternating stories: a factually inaccurate
pseudo-biography of 17th-century composer Henry Purcell and the
mid-20th-century story of the people writing the biography. In the
17th-century narrative, the young Henry is repeatedly imprisoned,
has an affair with the choirmaster's wife, and is afflicted with an
unusual fondness for nice clothes. Falsely accused of stealing all
of the cornets from the royal stock of instruments, Henry is
banished to a town infested with the plague. There he starts an
affair with another woman, Cathleen. Upon his return to London,
Henry is confronted with the complexities of his love life. The
20th-century narrative tells of faux-scholar Mr Austen who has
taken up residence in a small coastal town to get on with his work.
There he befriends the Purcell family: mother and young son Henry.
At once wild, philosophical and thought-provoking, Henry, Henry is
a novella that will stay with you.
Brian Willems draws on the science fiction of Cormac McCarthy,
Paolo Bacigalupi, Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, Doris Lessing and
Kim Stanley Robinson alongside speculative materialists including
Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux and Jane Bennett. By questioning
it, these writers and philosophers both develop and challenge
anthropomorphism. Willems looks at how nonsense and sense exist
together in science fiction, the way that language is not a
guarantee of personhood, the role of vision in relation to identity
formation, the difference between metamorphosis and modulation,
representations of non-human deaths and the function of plasticity
within the Anthropocene.
Films about the moon show that even after the lunar landing of 1969
our celestial neighbor has lost none of its aptitude for being made
of green cheese. In fact, as soon as you put the moon on screen it
is lost. This is equally true for a wide range of moon films,
including the theatricality of Melies, the incredulity of camp, the
illegibility of footage shot by Apollo astronauts and the
revisionary history of Transformers 3. Yet, as paradoxical as it
might seem at first, it is only when we "lose sight" of the moon
that lunar truths begin to come forth. This is because fantastic
elements of the moon-by their mere absurdity-can indicate
non-fantastic elements. However, what is of interest here is not
realistic or fantastic lunar truths but rather that the moon is an
object which invites, or even demands, more than one truth at once.
Hopkins and Heidegger is a new exploration of Gerard Manley
Hopkins' poetics through the work of Martin Heidegger. More
radically, Brian Willems argues that the work of Hopkins does no
less than propose solutions to a number of hitherto unresolved
questions regarding Heidegger's later writings, vitalizing the
concepts of both writers beyond their local contexts. Willems
examines a number of cross-sections between the poetry and thought
of Hopkins and the philosophy of Heidegger. While neither writer
ever directly addressed the other's work - Hopkins died the year
Heidegger was born, 1899, and Heidegger never turns his thoughts on
poetry to the Victorians - a number of similarities between the two
have been noted but never fleshed out. Willems' readings of these
cross-sections are centred on Hopkins' concepts of 'inscape' and
'instress' and around Heidegger's reading of both appropriation (
Ereignis) and the fourfold ( das Geviert). This study will be of
interest to scholars and postgraduates in both Victorian literature
and Continental philosophy.
This is a monograph offering new analysis of the philosophical
connection between Hopkins and Heidegger which has been repeatedly
mentioned but not fleshed out in the literature of either literary
criticism or philosophy. "Hopkins & Heidegger" is a new
exploration of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poetics through the work of
Martin Heidegger. More radically, Brian Willems argues that the
work of Hopkins does no less than propose solutions to a number of
hitherto unresolved questions regarding Heidegger's later writings,
vitalizing the concepts of both writers beyond their local
contexts. Willems examines a number of cross-sections between the
poetry and thought of Hopkins and the philosophy of Heidegger.
While neither writer ever directly addressed the other's work -
Hopkins died the year Heidegger was born, 1899, and Heidegger never
turns his thoughts on poetry to the Victorians - a number of
similarities between the two have been noted but never fleshed out.
Willems' readings of these cross-sections are centred on Hopkins'
concepts of 'inscape' and 'instress' and around Heidegger's reading
of both appropriation (Ereignis) and the fourfold (das Geviert).
This study will be of interest to scholars and postgraduates in
both Victorian literature and Continental philosophy.
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