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Radu-Ioan Stochita's avatar

Sounds like a call to live at time when the turbulences caused not only by the pandemic, but by the politics of our time, make many of us feel lifeless.

I would love to see more Berlant in your future writings. She has never been someone I agreed with and I remember when someone pointed out over a couple of beers that I am an Althusserian, because for me affect is just ideology. I am quite curious by the lateral agency, since it reminds me of “The Right to Be Lazy” where one socialist was arguing in favor of just sitting idle in order to fight against the system.

Quite a fascinating idea, but it must require a great deal of us doing that, I believe, and not just sitting idle during our free time, but during our worktime. Instead of showing up to our academic jobs, we refuse and sit on our asses for two-three hours. Ohterwise, if we do it in our free time, it feels like it is just performance for the sake of performance.

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