Political Media Review

As I prepared to read Cary Wolfe’s latest book, What is Posthumanism?, I wondered how much hermeneutic effort would be required to answer the titular question. To my pleasure, Wolfe gives a clear definition of what he means by “posthumanism,” and how it contrasts with others’ usage, in the first few pages.

The Beast and the Sovereign can be located at the heart of dominant themes in Derrida’s later work including, but not limited to, a democracy to come, conditional and unconditional hospitality, calculability and incalculability, and the relation shared between state sovereignty, terrorism, and rogue states.

Bold Native is a full-length fiction feature film depicting the billion-dollar animal exploitation industry and the people who seek to liberate the animals. The film follows the character of Charlie Cranehill (played by Joaquin Pastor), a well-to-do bohemian-esque individual mildly concerned with animal welfare.

Information is important, but stories­ are essential. While scientists can tell us about the extinction of species­ and the loss of Arctic sea ice, we need stories to help us make sense of these events.

Underwater cameras capture the peaceful sway of sea plants beneath the surface in Taiji, Japan. As the scene progresses, the plants become obscured by creeping wafts of dolphin blood. Rapidly, the entire screen turns crimson, the ocean water thick with the grisly evidence of slaughtered dolphins. The Cove, a 2009 Oceanic Preservation Society film, follows a team of activists

The plot of Disgrace is driven by the personal metamorphosis of David Lurie, an arrogant, libidinous professor, brilliantly played by John Malkovich. A poetry lecturer at Cape Town University, David’s descent into disgrace is provoked by an affair he is having with a mixed-race student thirty years his junior.

What is immediately inspiring about a work such as Bob Torres’s Making a Killing is the evident amount of political terrain that has been traversed since the publication of Animals, Men and Morals, Animal Liberation and the other early examples of contemporary animal advocacy more than thirty-five years ago.