Hey, everyone, I'm thelitcritguy. I co-host the horror movie podcast Horror Vanguard, have been a regular guest on Revolutionary Left Radio, and make Youtube videos on culture and aesthetics. I write on horror, capitalism, and cultural criticism (you can read my last piece here https://readpassage.com/the-horror-of-capitalism-squid-game-and-the-gothic-trap-of-debt/)
Ask Me Anything!
First off, thank you for being here today! One of the first episodes from RevLeft that I heard was your interview on Gothic Marxism and it opened up a new worldview for me.
If I may ask, what got you into gothic horror and how did you come into radical politics?
Radical politics -- a key moment was Occupy! -- it retrospect there's a lot to critique around Occupy (ready Jodi Dean lmao) but the response from the police was a big moment. There were also protests around ten years back in the UK when tuition fees were increased and watching people I know get kettled and charged by police was a radicalizing moment.
Spooky stuff: I remember talking to Andy Sharp (the writer behind the English heretic project) who said that we didn't get into horror because we wanted to do in-depth political discourse but because horror is cool. I remember watching Alien when I was a teenager, but I've been into the dark and macabre for as long as I can remember.