Description
Book SynopsisIn this wide-ranging and intellectually lively essay, Amber Husain asks if our obsession with replacement is the very thing that is keeping the world in stasis. And, if so, with what might we replace our obsession with replacement? With references spanning the avant-garde art tec--futurism, and Effective Altruism, and taking in writers from Aristotle to Anne Boyer, Replace Me is a celebration of the possibilities for political transformation inherent in the act of embracing one's own replaceability.
Trade Review'A close cousin to Franco Berardi, Amber Husain conducts one of the most sweeping assessments to date of neoliberalism's psychic toll. Beginning with the sad fact of her own expendability in entry-level publishing work, she expands on Lauren Berlant's concept of cruel optimism, diving deep into under-investigated histories to understand the roots of systemic unhappiness and the nature of desire itself.' - Chris Kraus; 'Replace Me is a short, searing meditation of the idea of human replaceability ... which ranges from Karel Capek to Maggie Nelson, from Aleksandra Kollontai to Lauren Berlant. It packs an extraordinary range of ideas and inspirations into its brief polemic, managing to be sensitive and yet utterly provocative.' - Juliet Jacques; 'How rare it is to read a book like Amber Husain's Replace Me, a work of criticism that lays bare the horrors of our automated lives with such subtle and sustained beauty. Replace Me is at once wonderfully unsparing in its critique of capitalism's myths and wonderfully humane in its affirmative vision of love's political vitality.' - Merve Emre; 'Amber Husain's pellucid, erudite prose captures the many ways in which the workplace has been changing, further eviscerating any sense of engagement in meaningful labour. Even before automation replaces much human activity, many are forced to mimic the robots moving in to replace them. With verve and originality, Replace Me tracks through time, highlighting social discontents more broadly, before finally suggesting creative modes of coming to terms with, and hence resisting, the chief dysfunctions of the present. Essential reading for anyone in search of different futures.' - Lynne Segal
