who is, finally, attached more to a particular political analysis or ideal–even to the failure of that ideal–than to seizing possibilities for radical change in the present. As Wendy Brown describes it, '~left melancholy~ is Benjamin's unambivalent epithet for the revolutionary. On the other hand, Fisher demonstrates partial signs of succumbing to what Walter Benjamin called Left melancholia. On the one hand, it accurately locates the current feelings of impotence to effect meaningful change to the anomie engendered through capitalism and neoliberalist economics in particular, the resignation toward the undeniable intrusion of a reductive capitalist logic in every sphere of society. It is this irony, this double-stance, that makes _Capitalist Realism_ both an important work and one to be treated with a critical distance. Indeed, Fisher's dynamic style, his Zizekian attunement to the absurdities of postmodern culture delivered with the same ironic wit, and his insightful use of film and popular culture to demonstrate his points, act as palliatives to the supremely pessimistic view that he ultimately roots in the structure of capitalism.

Mark Fisher's _Capitalist Realism, Is There No Alternative?_ engages in schadenfreude of a most peculiar kind: it is deeply gratifying to read Fisher's excoriating rebuke of contemporary capitalist culture and his lucid description of the frustrations of those caught within the insipid logic of administrations and bureaucracies or the self-abasement of management to meet superficial outcomes yet, the misfortune we take pleasure in is our own.

_Capitalist Realism, Is There No Alternative?_ Winchester: Zero Books, 2009.

Capitalist realism by mark fisher