R.I.P. Mark Fisher

Mark Fisher

It’s dispiriting to be writing another obituary so soon, but seems only fitting to acknowledge (slightly belatedly), the recent passing of Mark Fisher, at the age of 49.  If the thinking of the recently deceased John Berger could be said to have presided over much of the meaningful art criticism and cultural commentary of the late twentieth century, Mark Fisher’s writings and commentaries might be said to have carried on that legacy within the sphere of music and popular culture.

That Fisher’s influence may have been somewhat more niche than Berger’s, is less a reflection on the resonance of his ideas and, in part, more a signifier of how our intellectual life is far more fragmented and thinly spread in the digital age.  However, it is only realistic to accept that the Marxist-derived philosophical positions adopted by both writers now feel even more marginalised by events than in Berger’s heyday.  For all that, many of their underlying assumptions are actually taken for granted (by some of us at least) regardless of prevailing conditions - and Fisher was certainly a significant influence on my own thinking about various aspects of our society and culture in recent years.

In reality, Fisher’s own ideological position seems to have shifted more than a little over the years, and his pop-cultural enthusiasms could be equally unpredictable.  For many years, these were disseminated largely through journalism, for publications such as The Wire, New Statesman and The Guardian, and most notably, via his influential (and consistently edgy) K-Punk blog.  There, one might read insightful, in depth analyses of the work of bands like Joy Division or Roxy Music, but equally, of the cultural significance of Girls Aloud or Rihanna.  His opinions, and the fervor with which they were expressed, were consistently challenging, but there was rarely any doubt that they were considered and came from a refusal to toe any particular party line in a facile manner.

Amongst my own particular favourite posts from K-Punk were his studies of the the music of Burial – an artist whose work has never failed to affect me.  Fisher proved adept at outlining the historical post-Rave, post-digital and alienated-urbanist frameworks framing Burial’s oeuvre, but equally so in highlighting how such zeitgeists feed on subjective, emotional impulses as much as upon cultural theory or formalised aesthetics.

In fact, it seems to me that this was his most important legacy.  The reduction in Fisher’s blogging activity coincided with his establishment as an academic and as the author of the books ‘Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?’ [1.] and ‘Ghosts of My Life: Writings On Depression, Hauntology And Lost Futures’ [2.].  I can recommend both works highly not least for the way that Fisher joins the dots between politics, culture, philosophy and individual and collective psychology.

These days, I tend to the view that the theoretical and political orthodoxies into which we are all coerced, stem from varieties of mental illness or subjective impulse as much as from coherent or objective reason.  Does this not, at least in part, inform the current global rise of blinkered, quasi- fascist populism and the rise of Trump?  Equally, can many of those still adhering to more traditionally left wing world view, honestly claim that they aren’t as much inspired by an instinctive rejection of injustice surrounding us, as by the (often ossified) ideological frameworks built upon them.  The reality is, as ever, that the uncoupling of reason and emotion rarely result in genuine progress – tending rather to trigger yet more suffering (intended or otherwise).

‘Capitalist Realism’ comes from an obviously leftist place, but in those chapters where Fisher proposes possible alternatives to the current ‘reality’ we are sold, he advocates more flexible thinking, adapted to the specific challenges of a new century, over recourse to the codified ideologies of an old one.  Cultivation of critical thinking skills seem vital here, but so too does the expansion in our collective emotional intelligence.

‘Ghosts of My Life’ digs further into the relationship between the cultural and the personal.  It pays close attention to the theoretical underpinnings of the Hauntological impulse within early twenty-first century popular culture and how this reflects the loss of a perceived utopian drive within previous generations.  This sense of our being frozen in capitalist stasis, or of history having been collapsed can be interpreted as a form of societal depression, but equally, as a trigger for ever greater waves of mental illness within the individuals that constitute it, Fisher argued.

In the light of this, the confirmation that Fisher died by his own hand - as the culmination of his own prolonged struggle with depression, is even more upsetting.  This is not least  because, in a period when we appear to be sliding ever deeper into the delusions of global psychosis - we need the kind of reflective, insightful thinking of a commentator like Mark Fisher, more than ever. 

[1.]:  Mark Fisher, 'Capitalist Reaism: Is There No Alternative?', London, Zero Books, 2009

[2.]:  Mark Fisher, 'Ghosts Of My Life: Writings On Depression, Hauntology And Lost Futures', London, Zero Books, 2014