Foreverism

by Grafton Tanner

Overview

What do cinematic “universes,” cloud archiving, and voice cloning have in common? They’re in the business of foreverizing – the process of revitalizing things that have degraded, failed, or disappeared so that they can remain active in the present. To foreverize something is to reanimate it, to enclose and protect it from time and the elements, and to eradicate the feeling of nostalgia that accompanies loss. Foreverizing is a bulwark against instability, but it isn’t an infallible enterprise. That which is promised to last forever often does not, and that which is disposed of can sometimes last, disturbingly, forever.

In this groundbreaking book, American philosopher Grafton Tanner develops his theory of foreverism: an anti-nostalgic discourse that promises growth without change and life without loss. Engaging with pressing issues from the ecological impact of data storage to the rise of reboot culture, Tanner tracks the implications of a society averse to nostalgia and reveals the new weapons we have for eliminating it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509558063
Publisher:	Polity Press
Publication date:	01/16/2024
Series:	Theory Redux
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Grafton Tanner is a professor at the University of Georgia and the author of The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia.

Table of Contents

1. When Nothing Ever Ends

2. Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost

3. Trapped In The Present

4. Now And Forever

Editorial Reviews

An enlightening and inspiring contribution. A most welcome text to sharpen our vigilance in a world that has become amnesiac.”
François J. Bonnet, author of After Death

“Nostalgia, like authenticity, is an affliction that has been reconceived as aspiration. Tanner's Foreverism suggests that longing for past experiences and has become an alibi for a disappointment which has become structural, and which consigns us to endless consumption as a form of alienated work.”
Rob Horning, former editor of Real Life

“Tanner’s book is compelling, short enough to be read in one sitting but chock full of ideas that will keep spinning on long after the last page is turned.”
Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

From the Publisher