Books © JK Fowler, roaminghills.com, and jkfowler.com 2009-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material on any page associated with JK Fowler, roaminghills.com, or jkfowler.com without express and written permission from this website’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to JK Fowler, roaminghills.com and jkfowler.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense by Ann Laura Stoler 314 pp. Princeton University Press. Paper, $22.95 Excerpt: There are no absolutes, no guaranteed categories, no definitive markers, in essence no Truth. Conjecture erupts through momentary snippets of time, the seemingly insignificant recesses and grooves of innocuous objects (i.e. colonial missives and personal correspondence) and is constantly transformative, washing in and out of itself leaving remnants, what Pierre Bordieu referred to as “sedimented knowledge”. As Wendy Brown states, convictions [i.e. Truth] “are, precisely, refusals to allow history and contingency to contour the existing dimensions and possibilities of political life”. Convictions bred, born, and fed in the colonial conscious and unconscious mind are exactly what Ann Stoler attempts to challenge within Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Slavoj Zizek - IN PROGRESS 157 pp. Verso Books. Paper. $12.95 Excerpt: Attacking liberalism for it failings as a political doctrine and an economic theory, Zizek makes a fervent cry to the Left to reinvent itself in a key moment in the messy pages of Capitalistic history. District 6 in District 9: Metaphoric Menageries Excerpt: This paper is first and foremost an interrogative paper, asking many more questions than offering solutions in the face of the complexities surrounding interpretations of metaphor. Within this article, I will attempt to accomplish three things: explore Blomkamp’s approach to Alive in Jo’Burg, District 9 (as well as the film’s vast viral marketing campaign), outline a brief history of the District 6 removal, and lastly, attempt to carve out some of the problematics that arise when treating race with metaphor within the medium of film and hopefully raise some pertinent questions for filmmakers and consumers to consider. While it is sometimes effective to use metaphor in opening a dialogue about race, does such a use of metaphor as is used in Blomkamp’s work actually do more to solidify pre-conceived notions of immigrants, non-whites and Africa? Film Please note that this piece was recently published on The Mantle and can be found here. Reviews: Books and Film By JK Fowler Home Home