What are the dodgy parts for you John? I don’t follow much beyond his own writing and people who were aligned like Jeremy Gilbert. But I guess you mean where some of the CCRU stuff leads?
That person at the end of the thread has a point. He was partly a hype man wasn’t he? Good at pulling in non-academic plebs like me. And maybe that brings resentment from other writers - where he’s exciting, they aren’t. And then I suppose if excitement is the priority it leaves you open to dodgy interpretations too
That's a fair enough question I guess. I never liked CCRU at the time although some of the people were nice. It seemed a bit smug.
Obviously there is the link with Nick Land and that has turned out badly. A lot of Nick Land's schtick now is evident in CCRU.
Many of the philosopher bloggers around Mark have gone up their own arses and whilst that isn't entirely his fault there is definitely a line between the erudite quoting of european names and being all intense and shit which means that this pathway is laid out...
In terms of left wing activisty stuff it is more of a mixed bag. I shudder to think about young people reading his stuff about Zizek and Lenin and all that. Cold-rationalist Leninism - what could go wrong with that eh.
Things like Capitalist Realism and his involvement with groups like Plan C were OK to a point. But Plan C's dalliance with Corbynism (which I believe Mark went along with) was not good from my point of view.
Things like vampire castle and Mark's tragic early demise have played a large part in his current status as a legend. Neither of which is good. There is a dimming of critical faculties involved and a bit of Kurt Cobain syndrome going on. It would be better if he was still around although less people would be quoting him excitedly.
The trajectory reminds me of Genesis P-Orridge in some ways - Gen was always a bit of a dick but in the UK he had people in his circle that went way back that would take the piss out of him. When he moved to America that was no longer the case and he kinda needed that to become this globally recognised presence.
And people forget really that Mark's taste in music became dreadful as time went on. Hauntology, his terribly unconvincing dalliance with UK funky, the centre of gravity being increasingly the music of his youth like a BBC6 presenter.
Possibly this is all unfair. It seems a bit mean reading it back. Probably it falls to people who knew him when he was on here (and before) to at least be honest about this stuff in the face of how ever many books / tributes / inspirational quotes etc there are.