Discarded Selves

Gai Farchi is Minerva Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Cultural Semiotics at the University of Potsdam.

• Introduction 11 This Moment Is Going to Be a Memory 292 Nonimages 533 Old Flames 744 Postindustrial Ragpicking 985 Childish Profanations 1226 Aged Unwell 1467 Better to Burn Out Than to Fade Away 166Envoi: Toward Intimate Otherness 189Acknowledgments 195Notes 197Works Cited 215Index 225

"Discarded Selves is one of those rare books whose swirling force makes you reconsider almost everything you encounter after reading it, not least that assemblage of fluxing elements that you call yourself. Gai Farchi writes with ease and precision, especially of the way time flows around us in competing tides of cultural flotsam and jetsam, resculpting our sense of identity, both individual and collective. Touching on everything from music videos to highbrow French literature, AI slop to street salvage, stock photos to science fiction scenarios, Discarded Selves is one of the most thought-provoking and indispensable theoretical interventions of the past decade." - Dominic Pettman, author of Ghosting: On Disappearance"With both levity and precise engagement with critical theory, Farchi shows how the temporal structure of obsolescence shapes contemporary culture. Brimming with exciting ideas and offering pointed readings of diverse expressive forms, Discarded Selves theorizes the condition of always already outmoded subjectivity." - Rebecca Falkoff, author of Possessed: A Cultural History of Hoarding