Non-Buddhism

Our book is out and available on Amazon. The full title is Cruel Theory | Sublime Practice: Toward a Revaluation of Buddhism. The authors are Glenn Wallis, Tom Pepper, and Matthias Steingass. Readers of this blog will be familiar with the book’s main themes. From the back cover:

Cruel Theory | Sublime Practice consists of three parts. Each part addresses both theoretical and practical dimensions of Buddhism. Authored individually, each part nonetheless interacts with the concerns of the others. Those concerns include the formation of an autonomous subject in the face of Buddhism’s concealment of its ideological force; the possibility of a practice that thus serves as a theory or science of ideology; the reconstitution of practice as an organon of authoritative structures, including controlling social-conceptual representations; and the perception of Buddhism as the subject of a historical process. Perhaps the most salient theme running throughout the book concerns the crucial necessity of transfusing anemic contemporary Buddhist discourse with the lifeblood of rigorous, creative thought. Will Buddhism in the twenty-first century West help fashion a liberated subject? Or will it continue to be a deceptive mythos spawning subjects who are content to rest at ease in the thrall of predatory capitalism? The three parts of Cruel Theory | Sublime Practice share a common concern: to push Buddhism to the brink.

EyeCorner Press, the publisher, is a very interesting and unique press. Those of you who value the creative juxtapositions and unexpected insights that cross-disciplinary, or even extra-disciplinary, work fosters, will want to visit their website. I also recommend this fascinating interview with Camelia Elias, the founder of EyeCorner Press.

We hope you will buy the book and tell others about it. Write a review on Amazon, if the spirit so moves you. We would appreciate that. If you’d like to write a more substantial review for a blog, journal, or magazine, contact either EyeCorner or me about a review copy. Even better, just cough up the cash and support EyeCorner’s and our efforts. Thanks.