David Chandler

Jonathan Pugh

This book is about a distinctive ‘abyssal’ approach to the crisis of modernity. In this framing, influenced by contemporary critical Black studies, another understanding of the world of modernity is foregrounded – a world violently forged through the projects of Indigenous dispossession, chattel slavery and colonial world-making. Modern and colonial world-making violently forged the ‘human’ by dividing those with ontological security from those without, and by carving out the ‘world’ in a fixed grid of space and time, delineating a linear temporality of ‘progress’ and ‘development’. The distinctiveness of abyssal thought is that it inverts the stakes of critique and brings indeterminacy into the heart of ontological assumptions of a world of entities, essences, and universal determination. This is an approach that does not focus upon tropes of rescue and salvation but upon the generative power of negation. In doing so, it highlights how Caribbean experiences and writings have been drawn upon to provide an important and distinct perspective for critical thought. "How is it that ontology has come to be seen as the antidote for modernity? While Foucault denigrated ontology as a mistaken and parochial exercise, contemporary social theory holds out the promise that new modes of planetary knowledge will save us from our own excesses. Drawing together long traditions in Caribbean scholarship with Afro-pessimist thought, Pugh and Chandler illustrate how the search for more emancipatory ontologies - relational ontologies, indigenous ontologies, non-human ontologies, etc. – not only misunderstands the problem of modernity but (more importantly) works to veil the negative force that marks both the limit and cause of all such knowledge practices: what they term the abyss. To engage in abyssal thought – as they lay out – is to inhabit a site of refusal: a determination not to be drawn into the lure of ontological ‘correction’ and to recognise that the practice of world making cannot not bear the imprint of colonial violence. Articulated in passionate declarative prose, these authors powerfully illuminate the trap of the emancipatory instinct and the promise of a deconstructive ethic." — Mitch Rose, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, Aberystwyth University, UK “A much-needed intellectual effort in the non-reductionist and non-essentialising style of Pugh and Chandler's previous book. The World as Abyss gives Caribbean thought and culture the place they deserve within critical theory and materialist studies.” — Mónica Fernández Jiménez, Valladolid University, Spain “For some time now scholars have questioned the overly general assumptions about the ‘anthropos’ of the Anthropocene, but much work needs to be done to flesh out what a decolonized Anthropocene might be. Pugh and Chandler’s The World as Abyss provides an original, intriguing and compelling counterpoint to bland Anthropocene humanism (and posthumanism). This timely work explores the poetics of the Caribbean and provides a way to think about the Anthropocene and the future beyond the managerialism of the present. This book is essential reading for those working in the environmental humanities or Anthropocene studies.” — Claire Colebrook, Professor, Penn State University, USA “This book names an apocalypse that began long ago. Pugh and Chandler patiently follow the journey of thought as it travels from the Middle Passage to the Caribbean. This brings them face-to-face with the horror of anti-Black violence, not as just another resource to strip-mine, but as an unavoidable abyss that confines all thought. Its reminder: that we have still not yet begun to think a truly Black world.” — Andrew Culp, Professor, California Institute of the Arts, USA "With the force of a manifesto, the intensity of a polemic, and the nuance of a treatise, this book sets out to disavow the disavowal of Colonial violence in the making of the contemporary world and thought. Learning from Caribbean thinkers, writers, and poets, it sets to work unworking, desedimenting and deconstructing, the violent ontological foundations by which anti-Black worlds maintain and reproduce their innocence and ignorance. Replaying and reiterating, extending and multiplying, gestures of refusal – refusals of subjection, of History, of Geography, of meaning, of Being – there is the refusal of the World as it is and of the World as it could be. The World as Abyss artfully combines a critique of the historical forces which make and unmake the contemporary moment with the suspension of horizons, of ends, of grounds. What emerges in the wake is an intensification of the generative capacity of this refusal; voids, arrhythmia, counter-times, displacements, dislocations, the abyssal. First as threat and then as promise" — Paul Harrison, Associate Professor of Human Geography, Durham University, UK

The Caribbean and Critical Thought in the Anthropocene

The World as Abyss

Personal autonomy is often lauded as a key value in contemporary Western bioethics, and the claim that there is an important relationship between autonomy and rationality is often treated as an uncontroversial claim in this sphere. Yet, there is also considerable disagreement about how we should cash out the relationship between rationality and autonomy. In particular, it is unclear whether a rationalist view of autonomy can be compatible with legal judgments that enshrine a patient's right to refuse medical treatment, regardless of whether ". . . the reasons for making the choice are rational, irrational, unknown or even non-existent". In this book, I bring recent philosophical work on the nature of rationality to bear on the question of how we should understand autonomy in contemporary bioethics. In doing so, I develop a new framework for thinking about the concept, one that is grounded in an understanding of the different roles that rational beliefs and rational desires have to play in personal autonomy. Furthermore, the account outlined here allows for a deeper understanding of different form of controlling influence, and the relationship between our freedom to act, and our capacity to decide autonomously. I contrast my rationalist with other prominent accounts of autonomy in bioethics, and outline the revisionary implications it has for various practical questions in bioethics in which autonomy is a salient concern, including questions about the nature of informed consent and decision-making capacity.

Autonomy, Rationality, and Contemporary Bioethics

'A must read … a new analytical agenda for the Anthropocene, coherently drawing out the power of thinking with islands.' – Elena Burgos Martinez, Leiden University ‘This is an essential book. [The] analytics they propose … offer both a critical agenda for island studies and compass points through which to navigate the haunting past, troubling present, and precarious future.’ – Craig Santos Perez, University of Hawai’i, Manoa ‘All academic books should be like this: hard to put down. Informative, careful, sometimes devasting, yet absolutely necessary - if you read one book about the Anthropocene let it be this. You will never think of islands in the same way again.’ – Kimberley Peters, University of Oldenburg ‘ … a unique journey into the Anthropocene. Critical, generous and compelling’. — Nigel Clark, Lancaster University The island has become a key figure of the Anthropocene – an epoch in which human entanglements with nature come increasingly to the fore. For a long time, islands were romanticised or marginalised, seen as lacking modernity’s capacities for progress, vulnerable to the effects of catastrophic climate change and the afterlives of empire and coloniality. Today, however, the island is increasingly important for both policy-oriented and critical imaginaries that seek, more positively, to draw upon the island’s liminal and disruptive capacities, especially the relational entanglements and sensitivities its peoples and modes of life are said to exhibit. Anthropocene Islands: Entangled Worlds explores the significant and widespread shift to working with islands for the generation of new or alternative approaches to knowledge, critique and policy practices. It explains how contemporary Anthropocene thinking takes a particular interest in islands as ‘entangled worlds’, which break down the human/nature divide of modernity and enable the generation of new or alternative approaches to ways of being (ontology) and knowing (epistemology). The book draws out core analytics which have risen to prominence (Resilience, Patchworks, Correlation and Storiation) as contemporary policy makers, scholars, critical theorists, artists, poets and activists work with islands to move beyond the constraints of modern approaches. In doing so, it argues that engaging with islands has become increasingly important for the generation of some of the core frameworks of contemporary thinking and concludes with a new critical agenda for the Anthropocene.

Entangled Worlds

Anthropocene Islands

Stewart Cruttenden

The Random Book of … John features facts, figures, stats, and trivia on legions of record breakers, record losers, actors, singers, sportsmen, historical figures, the famous and infamous, felons, inventors, rulers, heartthrobs, politicians, and scientists called John. Which John jokingly suggested he might be offered the job of tea boy in a Gordon Brown government, sent 3,700 extra British troops to Afghanistan, and is chairman of Celtic? Which John led 10,000 officers, wrote a bestseller ,and appeared, with his dog, in TV ads for patio awnings? Which John was turned down for a job at Pizza Express but later earned $1 million for his role as Jonathan in The Mummy Returns (2001)? Which John landed a Gulfstream jet aircraft at Washington National Airport with complete electrical failure in icy conditions at night in 1993? Which John doesn't read newspapers or watch TV, has designed record covers for Donovan and The Beatles, and is in a famously open relationship?

The Random Book Of... John

Paul Scott Reaney

The Random Book of … Paul features facts, figures, stats, and trivia on legions of record breakers, record losers, actors, singers, sportsmen, historical figures, the famous and infamous, felons, inventors, rulers, heartthrobs, politicians, and scientists called Paul. Which Paul has battled Hodgkin's disease, was on the first private flight into suborbital space, and is worth over $22 billion? Which Paul is in the Penzance South ward, has been raided by the Spanish twice, and worships a former bus driver? Which Paul was a butterfly expert, predicted that life expectancy in the USA would be 42 by 1990, and that England would not exist by the year 2000? Which Paul was thirty-three feet tall, broke windows when he clapped, and was carried by five storks at birth? Which Paul picked up an 18-stone man with his mouth and ripped out five front teeth?

The Random Book Of... Paul

Richard Shanahan

The Random Book of … Richard features facts, figures, stats and trivia on legions of record breakers, record losers, actors, singers, sportsmen, historical figures, the famous and infamous, felons, inventors, rulers, heartthrobs, politicians, and scientists called Richard. Which Richard invented one of the world's most popular children's toys by accident and then ran away to join a religious cult? Which Richard would rather have played rugby for Wales at Cardiff Arms Park than Hamlet at the Old Vic? Which Richard is a famous comedian whose 1980s college band had a huge hit in the Philippines without his knowledge? Which Richard accompanied William the Conqueror in 1066, was nicknamed “Strongbow,” and died from an infected foot wound? Which Richard “breezed” a degree in philosophy, released two singles, and was mistakenly identified as Robert de Niro by Swedish tourists?

The Random Book Of... Richard

Andrew Robinson

The Random Book of … Andrew features facts, figures, stats, and trivia on legions of record breakers, record losers, actors, singers, sportsmen, historical figures, the famous and infamous, felons, inventors, rulers, heartthrobs, politicians, and scientists called Andrew. Which Andrew has a pair of exposed bottom teeth, grows up to about five meters in length, and is rarely seen alive? Which Andrew was obsessed with faking his own death, impersonated Elvis, and once invited his audience for milk and cookies? Which Andrew was the first to have jumped with a frameless parachute, invented the air vent, and was killed by a beam while building a hot-air balloon? Which Andrew owns seven London theatres, was knighted in 1992, and has problems with his cat deleting work from his computer? Which Andrew moved to Monaco to try motor racing, to Los Angeles to become an actor, and contracted an illness from raw sewage while surfing?

The Random Book Of... Andrew

Jason Dickinson

The Random Book of … Christopher features facts, figures, stats, and trivia on legions of record breakers, record losers, actors, singers, sportsmen, historical figures, the famous and infamous, felons, inventors, rulers, heartthrobs, politicians and scientists called Christopher. Which Christopher used baked bean tins, a hairdryer, and fireworks at the early stages of inventing a revolutionary mode of transport? Which Christopher was stupid enough to attend a drug trial with a stash of cocaine in his pocket? Which Christopher ended a night of passion with his wife by having a rather intimate part of his body sewn back on by doctors? Which Christopher was arrested after being caught on CCTV wandering around the streets of Morecambe dressed as the Grim Reaper? Which Christopher was regarded as one of the bloodiest pirates to ever sail the high seas?

The Random Book Of... Christopher

Max Leonard

The Random Book of ... Robert features facts, figures, stats, and trivia on legions of record breakers, record losers, actors, singers, sportsmen, historical figures, the famous and infamous, felons, inventors, rulers, heartthrobs, politicians, and scientists called Robert. Which Robert bought London Bridge and shipped it brick by brick to Arizona? Which Robert discovered the Titanic while on a secret nuclear mission for the U.S. Navy? Which Robert implanted boar's tusks into his assistant's mouth as a joke? Which Robert married his childhood sweetheart only after kidnapping her three times, and broke 433 bones during his lifetime? Which Robert was enjoying a hospitality lunch at Lords cricket ground when he was called out of retirement to keep wicket for England?

The Random Book Of... Robert

Paul Geraghty

The Random Book of … Matthew features facts, figures, stats, and trivia on legions of record breakers, record losers, actors, singers, sportsmen, historical figures, the famous and infamous, felons, inventors, rulers, heartthrobs, politicians, and scientists called Matthew. Which Matthew was visited by a mysterious poltergeist, could see auras, and is able to kill cancer cells? Which Matthew turned down Chelsea and AC Milan football clubs, missed only one out of 49 penalties, and scored 209 career goals from midfield? Which Matthew won gold at the Beijing Olympics sporting a spiky red Mohican? Which Matthew was a computer programmer before videoing himself dancing in Hanoi, and then in dozens of other locations, to become an internet phenomenon? Which Matthew broke the story of Bill Clinton's affair and claimed that prominent politicians were closet homosexuals?

Jonathan Pugh

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