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Gls Welcome!!!1

Speculatie Realsm, Object OrentedOntology and Queer Teory

Michael ORouke

Independen Colleges, Dublin

Word o ne inellecual developmens ends o ravel indirecy, like gossip.Soon, more and more people eel he need o kno ha he real sory is:hey an maniesos, bibliographies, explanaions. When a journal does aspecial issue or commissions an ediorial commen, i is oen respondingo his need. We have been invied o pin he queer heory ail on he don-key. Bu here e canno bu say and make a pause, and sand hal amazeda his poor donkeys presen condiion. Queer Theory has already incieda vas labor o meacommenary, a virual indusry: special issues, secionso journals, omnibus revies, anhologies, and dicionary enries. Ye he

erm isel is less han five years old. Why do people eel he need o inro-duce, anaomize, and heorize somehing ha can barely be said ye o exis.

Lauren Berlan and Michael Warner,Wha does Queer Theory Teach us abou X?2

Ecological criicism and queer heory seem incompaible, bu i hey me,here ould be a anasic explosion. Ho shall e accomplish his perverse,Frankenseinian meme splice? Ill propose some mehods and rameoksor a field ha doesn quie exisqueer ecology

Timohy Moron, Queer Ecology3

1 The ediors ish o noe ha Chrisoper Viale has promised o rie aresponse o his posiion paper in he near uure on his blog hich can beound a htp://neorkologies.ordpress.com/.2 Lauren Berlan and Michael Warner, Wha Does Queer Theory Teach usabou X?, PMLA110.1/3 (1995): 343-349, a 343.3 Timohy Moron, Queer Ecology, PMLA125.2 (March 2010): 273-282. Iyou are persuaded by my argumen ha SR and OOO heoriss have alwaysbeen ineresed in queer heories and commited o aniheeronormaive


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Frankenstenan Meme Splce(or how hot are queer theory and speculatve realsm?)

I , o hich ere Gues Columns ri-en or, commissioned especially

by, he PMLA. Alhough hey are separaed by fifeen years heyboh make some srikingly similar poins hich are relevanor someone atemping o char he poenial connecions orinimacies beeen queer heory and speculaive realism (andin his posiion piece Im placing quie a srong emphasis onobjec oriened onology hich is jus one offshoo o specula-

ive realis hinking). The firs hing e migh emphasize ishe need o pin hings don, o say ha exacly queer heoryisand doesand o be enirely clear abou ha speculaiverealism isand ha precisely i is ha speculaive realiss do.Ye, perhaps he poer and virue o boh queer heory andspeculaive realism, ha makes hem so compaible, is haneiher is a delimiable field. Par o he atracion o bohis heir very undefinabiliy, heir provisionaliy, and, mosimporanly, heir openness.

Les spend a litle ime ih he gues column riten byBerlan and Warner, a very rich essay hich sadly isn oenread or cied noadays. In 1995 Queer Theory as arguably ais peak (a leas in he Unied Saes) and people ere callingor definiions, even hough, as Berlan and Warner poin ou,i as barely five years old as a erm and a field o inquiry. Queer

projecs hen one could look o Morons ealiepiece Thinking Ecology: TheMesh, he Srange Sranger and he Beauiul Soul in Collapse VI(Falmouh,

U.K.: Urbanomic, 2010), 195-223, here he says ha Desire is inescapablein ecological exisence. Ye environmenalism as currenly ormulaed rieso ranscend he coningency o desire, claiming ha is desires i any arenaural. Organicism parakes o environmenalis chasiy. Naure lovingis supposedly chase and is hus slave o masculine heeronormaiviy, aperormance ha erases he race o perormance, ibid., 214. I is imporano noe ha boh o hese aricles appeared beoeMorons no amous con-version o Objec Oriened Onology. See All you need is love on his Eologywihou Naueblog: htp://ecologyihounaure.blogspo.com/2010/08/all-you-need-is-love.hml


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hen as, as hey say, ho.4Righ no speculaive realism isho and he sheer pace (largely hanks o he blogosphere) ihhich i has evolved, developed, and exended is pincers inoand across disciplines, is nohing shor o asonishing. I hebirh o queer heory can be daed o 1990 a a conerence ahe Universiy o Caliornia, Sana Cruz here he erm asfirs inroduced by Teresa de Laureis,5hen e can locae heorigin o he erm speculaive realism o a orkshop hichook place a Goldsmihs College, he universiy o London inApril 2007.6 The percepion ha queer as ho or Berlanand Warner arises rom he disorions o he sar sysem,hich allos a small number o names o sand in or an

evolving culure.7

This has also happened ih speculaiverealism and is spliner acion objec oriened onologyhere, in boh cases, our sar names sand in or a rapidlyevolving field. The our horsemen o he philosophicus8ho are associaed ih he ounding o speculaive realism(despie heir many differences and divergen ineress) areQuenin Meillassoux, Graham Harman, Ray Brassier andIain Hamilon Gran. And he quare o objec oriened on-ologiss are Harman, Ian Bogos, Timohy Moron, and Levi

Bryan. Bu, as ih early queer heory, mos praciioners ohe ne queer commenary [speculaive commenary] areno aculy members bu graduae sudens.9The acceleraedpace ih hich speculaive hinking has gron and impaced

4 Berlan and Warner, Queer Theory, 343.5 Teresa de Laureis, Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualiies. An Inro-ducion, diffeences: A Jounal o Feminis Culual Sudies3.2 (1991): iii-xviii.6 The proceedings o ha even can be ound in CollapseIII(Falmouh, U.K.:Urbanomic, 2007) hich includes he exs rom Ray Brassier, Iain HamilonGran, Graham Harman, Quenin Meillassoux and quesions and ansersrom he audience. Albero Toscano spoke a he second even (in place oMeillassoux) bu is no generally associaed ih SR.7 Berlan and Warner, Queer Theory, 343.8 Archive Fire, Diversiying Speculaive Realisms, htp://w.archivefire.ne/2010/06/speculaive-realisms-and.hml9 Berlan and Warner, Queer Theory, 343.


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upon oher fields (boh inside and ouside he academy andinsiuionalized disciplines) has largely been because o heblogosphere and he ork o graduae sudens such as BenWoodard (ho blogs a Naugh Tough), Paul Ennis (hoblogs aAnohe Heidegge Blog), Taylor Adkins (ho blogs aSpeulaive Heesy), Nick Srnicek (ho blogs a Te AusedShae), and ohers. Again, as ih queer heory, his associa-ion ih he sar sysem and ih graduae sudens makeshis ork he objec o envy, resenmen and suspicion. Asoen happens, ha makes some people queasy ohers callsexy.10As e shall see, i is largely he associaion o specu-laive realism (and objec oriened onology) ih our male

philosophers hich has made hose calling or a queeringo speculaive hough and a diversificaion o is ineresso become queasy. In a recen Facebook hread on he lacko omen in speculaive realism, one commener reerredo SR and OOO as a sausage es. One could argue, in para-noid ashion, someha queasily, ha speculaive realism isunriendly o hose orking in gender sudies, criical sexu-aliy sudies, neovialis and neomaerialis eminisms, andqueer heory. Bu, in his paper, in a more reparaive rame o

mind, I an o sugges ha speculaive realism and riple Oheory (as Timohy Moron has recenly dubbed objec ori-ened onology) have alays already been ineresed in andatuned o issues peraining o gender, sexualiy, eminism,and queerness. One could go even urher and say ha he

perverse, Frankenseinian meme splice Timohy Morondreams o has already been accomplished (bu ha doesnmean ha he ork is done, ar rom i).

Undefinng Speculatve Realsm

Berlan and Warner rie ha, in heir vie, i is no useulo consider queer heory a hing, especially one dignified bycapial leters. We onder heher quee commenarmighno more accuraely describe he hings linked by he rubric,

10 Berlan and Warner, Queer Theory, 343.


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mos o hich are no heory.11Even hough SR and OOOare almos alays dignified by capial leters (I preer no ocapialize hem in his essay), hey oo canno be assimilaedo a single discourse, le alone a proposiional program12and I share Berlan and Warners desire no o define, puriy,puncure, saniize, or oherise enail he emerging queer[speculaive realis] commenary13or o fix a seal o ap-proval or disapproval14on anyones claims o queerness oro speculaive realism. Furhermore, I agree ih hem hae ough o preven he reducion o speculaive realism orobjec oriened onology o a specialiy or a meaheoryand ha e ough o figh vigorously o rusrae he already

audible asserions ha queer heory [speculaive realism]has only academichich is o say, deadpoliics.15Forme, much o speculaive hinkings allure is is openness,is promissory naure, and ha much o ha goes underis name has been radically anicipaory, rying o bring a[non-correlaionis, non-anhropocenric, even queer] orldino being.16Because o his very provisionaliy, and an a-endan elcomeness o is on revisabiliy, any atemp o

summarize i no ill be violenly parial.17Bu e migh

see some value in he violenly parial accouns, he memesplicings, he shorlived promiscuous encouners, Ill be ry-ing o sage here in his posiion paper.

So, ha ollos is a kind o ani-encyclopedia enry.18I,or Berlan and Warner, Queer Theory is no he heory oanyhing in paricular, and has no precise bibliographic shape19

11 Ibid., 343.12 Ibid., 343.13 Ibid., 344.14 Ibid., 344.15 Ibid., 344.16 Ibid., 344.17 Ibid., 343.18 Ibid., 344.19 Ibid., 344.


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hen I ould like o suggesih a ilull disingenuousnesssince aer all SR does have a orking bibliographical shapehich one can easily consiue20ha speculaive realismand is enacled offshoos is no he heory oanyhing inparicular eiher. We migh, o paraphrase Moron, say haspeculaive realism is he heory o everhing.21 I e urnspeculaive realism ino a capial Theory e risk orgetinghe differences beeen he various figures associaed ih iand he variegaed conexs in hich hey ork. As Berlanand Warner cauion, Queer commenary [and speculaiverealis commenary] akes on varied shapes, risks, ambiions,and ambivalences in various conexs22and i e ry o pin he

ail on he donkey by imagining a conex (heory) in hichqueer or speculaive realism has a sable reerenial conenand pragmaic orce23hen e are in danger o orgetinghe muliple localiies24o speculaive realis heory andpracice. No one corpus o ork (Harmans or example) orno one paricular projec should be made o sand in or hehole movemen, or ha Paul Ennis has recenly called he

culure o speculaive realism.25I speculaive commenary ere simply reduced o being

he province o one paricular hinker hen is muliple locali-ies ould be orryingly narroed and is localiies ould

20 The Speculaive Realism pahfinder mainained by Eric Pheteplace is aonderul resource: htp://courseeb.lis.illinois.edu/~phetep1/SRPahfinder.hml. Bu i isel is permanenly under revision, a consrucion sie, as headd ne names, erms, blogs, books.21 Timohy Moron, Here Comes Everyhing: The Promise o Objec-Oriened Onology in Qui Pale(orhcoming). Tellingly, he reers here o

he effervescen philosophical movemen knon as speculaive realism

[noe he invered commas] as cool by hich e migh undersand himo mean ho in Berlan and Warners sense.22 Berlan and Warner, Queer Theory, 344.23 Ibid., 344.24 Ibid., 345.25 See Paul J. Ennis, The Speculaive Terrain here: htp://ucd-ie.academia.edu/PaulJohnEnnis/Papers/380565/The_Speculaive_Terrain. Ennis sharesmy convicion ha speculaive realism is alive and ell and exiss bu hai is irreducible o one single definiion.


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become merely parochial like litle ornamens appliqudover real poliics or real inellecual ork. They [ould]carry he odor o he luxurian.26I he ork o Harman, orBryan, or Meillassoux is made ino a meonym or specula-ive heory or speculaive culure isel, and i hey are heldo be exemplary cases (eiher or good or or bad) hen hae lose is he original impeus behind speculaive realismand queer heory in he firs place: he renching sense oreconexualizaion i gave.27And e ould leave speculaiverealism open o charges o poliical uselessness and glacializa-ion, he inecion o general culure by narro ineres.28

Bu le us, a leas provisionally, disambiguae, o use a Wiki-

ism ha J. Hillis Miller is raher ond o. Speculaive realismdescribes he ork o a very disparae group o scholars(Quenin Meillassoux, Ray Brassier, Iain Hamilon Gran,Graham Harman) reanimaing some o he mos radicalphilosophical problemaics hrough a resh reappropriaiono he philosophical radiion and hrough an openness o isouside.29The erm as coined by Ray Brassier, organizer ohe firs symposium on speculaive realism, he proceedingso hich appear in Collapse III. Hoever, Speculaive Real-

ism is generally considered a useul umbrella erm, chosenprecisely because i as vague enough o encompass a varieyo undamenally heerogeneous philosophical researchprogrammes as Brassier admis in a recen inervie.30These philosophies, hile a once radically differen romone anoher, could be said o find some coherence in heiropposiion o correlaionis philosophies. To quoe he RayBrassier inervie again,

26 Berlan and Warner, Queer Theory, 345.27 Ibid., 345.28 Ibid., 349.29 Robin Mackay ries his on he jacke or volume II o Collapsehicheaures essays rom Brassier, Meillassoux and Harman.30 Ray Brassier and Bram Ieven, Agains an Aesheics o Noise, ansizone(5Ocober 2009), htp://w.ny-eb.be/ransizone/agains-aesheics-noise.hml


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he only hing ha unies us is anipahy o ha Quenin Meillassoux

calls correlaionismhe docrine, especially prevalen among Con-

inenal philosophers, ha humans and orld canno be conceived in

isolaion rom one anohera correlaionis is any philosopher ho

insiss ha he human-orld correlae is philosophys sole legiimae

concern.

The Wikipedia enry or speculaive realism offers someurher shared ground:

While ofen in disagreemen over basic philosophical issues, hespeculaive realis hinkers have a shared resisance o philosophies

o human finiude inspired by he radiion o Immanuel Kan. Whaunies he our core members o he movemen is an atemp o over-

come boh correlaionism as ell as philosophies o access. InAfe

Finiude, Meillassoux defines correlaionism as he idea according o

hich e only ever have access o he correlaion beeen hinking

and being, and never o eiher erm considered apar rom he oher.

Philosophies o access are any o hose philosophies hich privilege

he human being over oher eniies. Boh ideas represen ormso anhropocenrism. All our o he core hinkers ihin Speculaive

Realism ork o overurn hese orms o philosophy hich privilegehe human being, avouring disinc orms o realism agains hedominan orms o idealism in much o conemporary philosophy.31

A oundaional ex or speculaive realism, hen, is Quen-in MeillassouxsAfe Finiude, a ex hich boldly insisson he necessiy o coningency32and criiques he pos-Kanian primacy o, as Robin Mackay pus i, he relaiono consciousness o he orldhoever ha may be con-sruedover any supposed objeciviy o hings hemselves.33

31 htp://en.ikipedia.org/iki/Speculaive_realism. Again e should sayha he Wikipedia enry is consanly being revised. According o heSpeculaive Realism pahfinder Michael Ausin (ho blogs a Complee Lies)requenly updaes his page.32 Quenin Meillassoux,Afe Finiude: An Essay on he Neessi o Coningencrans. Ray Brassier (London: Coninuum, 2008).33 Robin Mackay, Ediorial Inroducion, CollapseII(Falmouh, U.K.: Ur-


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Meillassoux calls his on non-correlaionis philosophy aspeculaive maerialism. One srong criic o Meillassoux, RayBrassier, in his Nihil Unbound: Enlighenmen and Exinionyolks revisionary nauralism in Anglo/American analyicphilosophy o speculaive realism in he coninenal Frenchradiion.34He erms his on approach as ranscendenalrealism or ranscendenal nihilism35(a posiion he a leas

paially shares ih criical realis Roy Bhaskar) hile heBriish philosopher Iain Hamilon Gran orks ih a pos-Schellingian maerialism o produce a speculaive naurephilosophy ha some call neo-vialism.36Graham Harman,heavily influenced by he Acor Neork Theory o Bruno

Laour has long been advancing an objec-oriened philoso-phy, emphasizing vicarious causaion hich urns oardobjecs and demands a humaniarian poliics atuned o heobjecs hemselves.37So, despie heir many differences heseour hinkers have been mos closely associaed ih he de-velopmen o ha has come o be called speculaive realism,a erm Brassier hinks is no singularly unhelpul.38 And

banomic, 2007), 4.34 Ray Brassier, Nihil Unbound: Enlighenmen and Exinion(Basingsoke:Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).35 See Bram Ievens Transcendenal Realism, Speculaive Maerialism andRadical Aesheics, paper presened a Duke Universiys Speculaive Aes-heics orking group, hich ineresingly is presided over by he eminisscholars Priscilla Wald and N. Kaherine Hayles and he queer heorisZach Blas. See he programme and exs here: htp://fi.duke.edu/projecs/inerdisciplinary-orking-groups/speculaive-aesheics36 See especially Iain Hamilon Grans Philosophies o Naue afe Schelling(London: Coninuum, 2006).37 See Graham Harman ool-Being: Heidegge and he Meaphysics o Objecs(Chicago: Open Cour, 2002), Gueilla Meaphysis: Phenomenology and heCapenr o Tings(Chicago: Open Cour, 2005), Pine o Newoks: BunoLaou and Meaphysis(Melbourne: Re. Press, 2009), owads SpeulaiveRealism: Essays and Leues(Wincheser, UK: Zer0 books, 2010) and CiusPhilosophicus(Wincheser, UK: Zer0 Books, 2010). For he bes ay ino La-ourian Acor Neork Theory see Bruno Laour,Reassembling he Soial: AnInoduion o Ao-Newok-Teor(Oxord: Oxord Universiy Press, 2005).38 Brassier and Ieven, Aesheics o Noise.


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his should remind us ha Teresa de Laureis, ho coined heerm queer heory in 1990 dismissed i our years laer as a

vacuous creaure o he publishing indusry.39Perhaps hemos cool offshoo o speculaive realism has been objecoriened philosophy (he erm is Harmans and daes quiesome ay back o 1999) and is in objec oriened onol-ogy (he erm as coined by Levi Bryan). Again he ourmain hinkers associaed ih his spliner group (Harman,Bryan, Moron and Bogos) are very differen: Bryan has auniquely Lacanian ake on he democracy o objecs, Moronorks on ecology, and Bogos ries abou video game heoryand ha he calls alien phenomenology. Ben Woodard has

ondered abou he regnan saus o OOO/OOP comparedo he many oher varians o speculaive realism. He asks:

OOO/OOP ill no doub coninue o gro and I ofen onder hy

(besides having muliple prolific inerne presences) i is he srang-

es/sronges o he SR acions. I hink he bes explanaion is ha he

approach and even name o OOP reeks (jusifiably) o novely and his

is only suppored by he ac ha Harman and ohers ake ha hey

need rom philosophers and move on. This is no an atack bu a high

orm o praise. For insance, i ould be hard o call any user o OOO/OOP Heideggerian, Whieheadian or even Laourian (hough he la-

er ould be he mos probable) hereas Gran could easily be labeled

Schellingian, Brassier Laruelleian (hough less and less so over ime)

and Meillassoux Caresian, Badiouian or, agains his ill bu accurae

I hink, Hegelian40

39 Teresa de Laureis, Habi Changes, in Elizabeh Weed and Naomi Schor(eds) Feminism Mees Quee Teor(Bloomingon and Indianopolis: Indiana

Universiy Press, 1994), 316.40 See Ben Woodard, Speculaive 2010, htp://naughthough.ordpress.com/2010/01/08/speculaive-2010/. Levi Bryan, ho blogs a Larval Subjecs,disagrees and says: I have a someha differen heory. While he sronginerne presence o OOO/OOP cerainly doesn hur, his is an efferaherhan a ause. In my vie a successul philosophy has o creae wokor ohersand or oher disciplines ouside o he philosophy. This ork is no simplyo he commenarvariey, bu o he variey ha allos ohers o engage ingenuine research projecs according o I hae he ord, bu have o use i

apaadigm. See Ne Inellecual Trends, htp://larvalsubjecs.ordpress.


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For he remainder o his posiion paper, hoever, I an oocus on OOO because hose associaed ih i, paricularlyBryan, Moron and Bogos, have been a he oreron o he(oen virulen) debaes abou queer heory, objec orienedeminism and speculaive realism.41I an o urn no o habrouhaha abou queer heory and he puaive non-poliicso speculaive realism hich raged across he blogospherein 2010.

Queerng Speculatve Realsm

Everhing populaing he desolae wases o he unonsious is lesbian; diffeenespawled upon zeo, muliplii sewn aoss posiive vulvi spae. Masulini isnohing bu a shoddy bunkhole om deah. Soio-hisoially phallus and asaionmigh be seious enough, bu osmologially hey meely disa om zeo; saking

com/2010/01/12/ne-inellecual-rends/41 Anoher figure associaed ih OOO (bu rom a criical Whieheadianangle) is Seven Shaviro ho has riten a grea deal abou boh sexualiyand queer heory. He is also one o he leading lighs in he nascen field oGaga Sudies here unexpeced inervenions have been made ino OOO

debaes. To ake jus a couple o examples: Firsly, Judih Jack Halbersamhas described Lady Gagas elephone video ih is phones, headses, hear-ing, receivers and objecs ha become subjecs, glasses ha smoke, ood habies as an episode in Objec Oriened Philosophyheher he philosophyin quesion is dran rom iek on speed, Ronell on crack or Meillassouxon ecsasy, his video obviously chains a good e ideas o a e very goodbodies and pus hough ino moion. See You Canno Gaga Gaga, htp://bullybloggers.ordpress.com/2010/03/17/you-canno-gaga-gaga-by-jack-halbersam/. Secondly, Krisopher Cannon has described he bulge in Gagascroch a he AMA aards rom he poin o vie o he cloh isel: I hinkha his example is one hich could also bridge several discussionsrang-

ing rom gender (and eminism) o sex/ed behavior and objecs o ar andashion and avan-garde aesheics. The objec e ould see here is heever-so-suble (penis-shaped) bulge, appearing hen she bendsa bulgeafforded by he ay her bels, srap(-on?)s, and/or siched seams alignabulge she ges because o he clohing she ears. No only migh his be amomen (a la OOO) here he clohing becomes hard because o he ayGaga ears i, bu i is also a momen here Gaga ges a hard-on becauseo he ashions she eishizes. See Telephoning he Cloh ha Wounds,htp://mediacommons.uureofhebook.org/imr/2010/08/04/lady-gagas-phalliciy#commen-2120.


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ou a meiculously consuced povet and oganizing is logical displacemen. Ideconsucion spen less ime playing wih is willy maybe i could coss he line.

Nick Land, Te Tis o Annihilaion42

During his live-blogging a Objec-Oiened Philosophyo heMeaphysics and Things conerence held in Claremon inDecember 2010, Graham Harman recouns a quesion andanser session beeen Isabelle Sengers, Donna Haraayand he audience.43He says approvingly ha Haraay agreesih Laour ha nohing should be alloed o explain any-hing else aay. And cerain orms o correlaionism makeprecisely his error [Haraay has clearly read Meillassoux].She says ha:

Speculaive realism is a erm Im sill learning o use in a senence, as

i in a school assignmen. Speculaive realism is he ne kid on he

block ha has adoped a label or isel, hich may sound mean, bu

all kinds o ineresing hings are going on under ha label and soshe may an o live on ha block. No enough girls in speculaiverealism hich makes her mad, bu shes sill curious and seduced by

i [Noe: Girls Welcome!!!].44

Harman concludes ha overall Haraay [is] a bi more con-descending han necessary abou speculaive realism (moso us really like her suff), bu she does sound ineresed. Iis rue ha Haraay sees speculaive realism as a ne kidon he block bu she is ar rom condescending. In his on

42 Nick Land, Te Tis o Annihilaion: Geoges Baaille and Viulen Nihilism(London: Rouledge, 1990).43 Sengers is he only oman included in he landmark volume Te Speula-

ive un: Coninenal Maeialism and Realismedied by Harman, Bryan andNick Srnicek (Melbourne: Re.Press, 2010). Harman explains he reasons orhis here: The collecion also has grea naional and generaional diversiy.Unorunaely, i admitedly has horrible gender diversiy (Isabelle Sengersis he only oman in he collecion). To ha my only anser is: e ried odo beter. The inviaion lis and he conribuors lis do no enirely over-lap. Someimes people are jus oo busy, hich o course is as good a signor hem as i as unlucky or us. See Very Close o Publicaion, htp://docorzamalek2.ordpress.com/2010/12/21/very-close-o-publicaion/.44 Graham Harman, Quesion Period: Sengers and Haraay on SpeculaiveRealism, htp://docorzamalek2.ordpress.com/2010/12/03/quesion-period/.


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live blog noes or her keynoe paper a he same conerenceHarman himsel quoes her as reerring o he openness ordare o ha has been called speculaive realism. Wo, SR isreally in he lexicon no shorly beore assering ha eno have echnical-biological capabiliies o generae neorganisms ihou heero-normaiviy, in ays ha queerheory has never dreamed o.45While Haraay is righ o sayha SR is a ne kid on he block she is equally correc hais appearance on he scene is an inviaion, or a dare even,o queer heory o go beyond isel. Wha she is disappoinedby is he ac ha so e girls seem o have been invied alongor he ride.46Harman reassures her ha girls are indeed

elcome (his exclamaion gives his paper is ile) and eshall see ha quie a e girls have (alays) already accepedha inviaion.

I his all sounds raher cosy in December 2010 hen eneed o go back o a urious argumen hich ook place be-een Chris Viale (ho blogs a Newokologies), Levi Bryan,Michael (ho blogs aAade Fie) and Ian Bogos in Juneand July o 2010 abou he quesion o Queering Specula-ive Realism. While he argumens ere ofen heaed and

personal in naure hey did have he effec o puting gender,sexualiy and queer heory very firmly on he speculaiverealis agenda (as ell as oreroning he very poliicaliy ospeculaive realism oo).

The rouble sared ou ih Viales highlighing he absence

45 Graham Harman, Donna Haraay Responds o Sengers, htp://doc-orzamalek2.ordpress.com/2010/12/03/haraay-response-o-sengers/.46 Paul Reid-Boen has blogged abou Haraay and objec-oriened onologyand is pleasanly surprized by ho many parallels and resources here arebeeen her ork and OOP especially he Laourian aspecs o her riingon cyborgs. See Haraay and Objec Oriened Onology, htp://paganmea-physics.blogspo.com/2010/01/haraay-and-objec-oriened-onology.hml.Perhaps he ideal locaion or saging an encouner beeen Haraay andSR/OOP ould be o revisi her firs book (no oen read hese days) rom1976, Crsals, Fabis and Fields: Meaphos Ta Shape Embros(Berkeley:Norh Alanic Books, 2004).


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o gender and queerness in SR/OOO and ho his bluns, inhis opinion, he poliical edge o boh. He roe:

To ha exen do e sill need, or coninually need, o queer philoso-

phy? Le me be clear on ha I mean by his. To ha exen do e sill

need, or coninually need, o ork agains he normaive endency o

philosophy o be a predominanly hie, male, heerosexual, middle-

o-upper middle class discipline? Why is or has his been he case?Wha are he implicaions, and even philosophical implicaions, o his?

Les even look a he Speculaive Realis movemen, or he bloggers

associaed ih i. Am I he only one ho is gay or queer? Is here

anyone ho doesn ge hie privilege on a regular basis? Even hough

Im Sicilian-American, I ge hie privilege on a coninual basis. Arehere any omen ho regularly blog on philosophy, speculaive real-

ism (I can only hink o Nina Poer, and ye she doesn really dealih issues relaed o speculaive realism ha much...)? And le mebe clear abou his: I don hink is a sin o be born a man, or o beheero, or o have hiish skin. Bu I do hink is imporan ha iyou ge a cerain ype o social privilege, you figh agains i. And ha

means, I hink, rying o dissec he ay his produces episemological

privilege o various sors. So, I do hink ha i he speculaive realis

movemen is predominanly hie, male, heero, e need o no onlyask ourselves hy his migh be, bu ho i impacs our hough, and

ha e can do abou his.47

Bryan responds by saying ha he finds Viales orries ad-mirable bu poinedly rejoinders ha Viale knos nexo nohing abou he sexual preerences or backgrounds ohe various figures in he SR movemen (assuming i canbe called a movemen).48While I sympahize ih Vialesconcerns oo, I ould side ih Bryan here because queer isas much o a pormaneau erm as speculaive realism and

47 Chris Viale, Queering Speculaive Realism, htp://neorkologies.ordpress.com/2010/06/08/queering-speculaive-realism/.48 Levi Bryan, Viale on SR and Poliics, htp://larvalsubjecs.ordpress.com/2010/06/29/viale-on-sr-and-poliics/.


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is a non-gender specific rubric hich is piched agains nor-maiviy, ha Michael Warner calls regimes o he normal,49raher han heerosexualiy. Queerness is a posiionaliy, aposure o opposiion o ideniarian regimes, raher hana saemen abou sexualiy o he kind Viale makes.50Bry-an goes on o quesion Viales ideniy poliics and claimsha he overhelming desire o labelor subsume ourselvesunder a paricular ideniy, can be seen as a sympom o hoconemporary capial uncions. The problem is ha hissympom, like all sympoms, obuscaes or veils he socialrelaions ha generae he sympom. The poin here is hae shouldn concern ourselves ih quesions o ideniy,

bu ha e should raise quesions abou ho his paricularorm o poliics migh very ell uncion o perpeuae hevery srucure ha generaes hese crises in he firs place.Queerness, as Bryan quie cogenly assers, is abou a disinri-caion rom heeronormaive and hegemonic regimes. I einsis on beginning queering speculaive realism by labelingourselves as gay or queer (or aning o kno abou hesexual orienaions o hose ho pracice i) as Viale does,hen e are very much on he rong rack.

Bryan akes paricular excepion o a response pos romMichael a he blogAhive Fieo he original Viale enry.Michael ries:

I an o briefly address his specific quesion ih regards o queering

speculaive realism.

Overall, I believe e ill begin o see a lo more diversiy creep ino

he general hrus o Speculaive Realism (SR) hen i begins o gepicked up by ariss, radicals and oher non-insiuional inellecuals.

Tha is o say, he issue o queering and engendering diversiy is morea problem ih insiuionalized inellecualiy as such han ih SR

49 Michael Warner, Inroducion o Fea o a Quee Plane: Quee Poliisand Social Teor(Minneapolis: Universiy o Minnesoa press, 1993), xxvi.50 Viale makes similar claims abou privilege and ideniy in his long pos

Queer Mediaions: Thoughs on Queer Media Theory alhough he is noaddressing SR here. See htp://neorkologies.ordpress.com/2009/12/07/queer-mediaions-houghs-on-queer-media-heory/.


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specifically. Academia in general is sill very much a hie-boys club.

The issues o privilege, access and univocaliyand even aesheic-ideological preerence and disincionsare deep class issues a he

hear o Wesern sociey and deeply embedded ihin our insiuional

educaion sysems. And I don hink e can expec SR o diversiyand become overly poliical i i remains enangled in he academic/

blogging/philosophy assemblage.

In less ords, e can expec SR o rea he sympom ihou isadherens (or lack o a beter ord) firs, or also atacking he roocauses o a much larger dis-ease a he core o heir disciplines. SRill simply perpeuae he problems exisen ihin he insiuions

ha SR hinkers and bloggers are enangled ih. Again, diversiy ill

come hen SR is conaminaed rom ouside he academy and akenup by non-philosophical modes o inellecualiy.51

Bryan is insuled mos by he insinuaion ha speculaiverealism is an ivory oer discourse praciced by hose inpoerul academic posiions and ha is ideas don ravelvery ar beyond he confines o he academy. He responds(and again I agree ih him i no caring much or his one)ha OOO is an open discipline, a dare in Haraays erms,

and ha he ardenly hopes i ill creae projecs or oherpeople:

OOO is among he mos open philosophical movemens has ever

exised. On he one hand, OOO has generaed a large iner-disciplinary

ineres rom people boh inside and ouside he academy. No only

has OOO dran ineres rom rheoricians, anhropologiss, mediaheoriss, lierary heoriss, biologiss, and even a handul o physiciss,

i has also dran he ineres o ariss, aciviss, eminiss, and so on. In

he orhcoming collecion edied by Ian Bogos and I, Obje-OienedOnology, here ill be an aricle by he perormance aris and eminis

Kaherine Behar, as ell as conribuions rom media heoriss, lierary

heoriss, echnology heoriss and ohers. On he oher hand, hrough

he medium o blogs, e have opened he doors o he paricipaion

51Ahive Fie, Diversiying Speculaive Realisms, htp://w.archivefire.ne/2010/06/speculaive-realisms-and.hml.


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o anyone ho comes along, regardless o heher hey are in academia

or no. On his blog alone here are regular ineracions beeencompuer programmers, oice orkers, poes, environmenaliss,noveliss, comedians, and a hos o ohers ouside he academy. Michael

can go uck himsel ih his suggesion ha someho ere rapped

ihin he ivory oer alls o he academy, ignoring anyone ho is

ouside he academy or rom anoher discipline. I, a leas, ineracih such people every day.52

Bryan conesses earlier in he same pos ha he finds Vi-ales quesion as o ha OOO has o say abou race, class,and gender? irriaing. Bu, as Viale poins ou in a urher

response o Bryan, he hen himsel goes on o produce a bril-lian OOO reading oAmeian Hisor Xhich is responsiveo quesions o race.53Srangely, hoever, Viale does no pickup on he very las par o Bryans pos here he uilizes Luh-mannian sysems heory o describe he ay Spivaks noiono he subalern flags blind spos in any hegemonic sysem(be ha race, class, gender, or sexualiy). Resiuaed in ermso objec-oriened onology, Bryan says, he subalern is asysem in he environmen o anoher sysem ha noneheless

belongs o he unmarked space o ha sysem ihin hichi is enangled. Wha Bryan is here calling he subalerncould jus as easily reer o he queer, and is somehing likehe poliics o he par-o-no-par described by Rancire.54

Beore coming back o Bryan le us ake a closer look aViales Queering Speculaive Realism pos. He argues hereha Speculaive Realism, or haever e hink o his name,is mosly a movemen hich orks o bring speculaionand science ino a greaer rapprochemen. Bu ha are he

52 Bryan, Viale on SR and Poliics.53 Viale, SR and Poliics: Response o Levi and Ian, htp://neorkologies.ordpress.com/2010/06/30/sr-and-poliics-response-o-levi-and-ian/.54 For more on Rancires poliics o he miscoun and queer heory seeMichael ORourke and Sam Chambers, Jacques Rancire on he Shoreso Queer Theory, bodelands8.2 (2009): htp://w.borderlands.ne.au/vol8no2_2009/chambersorourke_inro.hm.


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poliical implicaions o ha ere doing?55He goes on osae ha speculaive realism is ar oo concerned ih heonological (philosophical research) raher han he onic (hemessy suff o acually exising arrangemens in culure andpoliics), a charge ha has ofen been levelled agains JudihBuler e migh add, and ha:

Episemology and onology, he curren ocus o speculaive realism,

aren enough. We need a poliics and an ehics rom his movemen,

yes? Does SR have somehing o say abou race, gender, sexualiy, orglobal capialism? Somehing ha comes rom a paricularly SR ap-proach o he orld? Is my sense ha unless philosophy develops all

hese sides o isel, i isn complee. Mus philosophy be complee hisay? My sense is ha i should be. Im no sure i my on ork does

his, bu I hink i is a challenge o mysel ha I need o make sure I

a leas ork o ulfill.56

While he concedes ha speculaive realis hough comesin many varieies Viale is concerned ha (and he doesnexculpae himsel here) e underplay he poliico-socialsides o philosophy in he speculaive realis movemen as i

sands no. Ian Bogos replies in an equally irascible ashiono Viale andAchive Fieby saying ha

he argumen generally goes like his: philosophies need o include

poliical and ehical posiions o be complee. Privileges (like race,gender, and class) make i easy o ignore cerain assumpions, and he

hieness and maleness and heerosexism o philosophy ri large

auomaically inecs speculaive realism, or i is a produc o insiu-

ions propped up on hose privileges.

55 Harman ries, albei in a differen conex, ha heres cerainly a lomore poenial in OOF [Objec Oriened Feminism] han here is in he

All-Things-Shall-Be-Desroyed-By-Science ing o SR, hich drags is jug-gernau hrough ciies, oress, museums, and zoos, crushing all eniies andleaving in heir ake only he poder o mahemaical srucure. See Levion Reid-Boen on Feminism and OOO, htp://docorzamalek2.ordpress.com/2010/01/22/levi-on-reid-boen-on-eminism-and-ooo/.56 Viale, Queering Speculaive Realism.


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Bu or Bogos OOO is alays already poliical insoar ashis approach, his urn o objecs is isel par o he pahoards a soluion, o paying atenion o ordly hings oall sors, rom erns o floppy disks o rogs o Fia 500s. So,or Bogos, poliical and ehical posiions in philosophy andheory...are hus, I ould argue, ucked (o use a erm ha isruly populis).57

Hoever, Bryan is ar more sanguine abou he poliicaland ehical (and queer) poenialiies o SR in poss ritenbeoeand afehe Viale flare-up.

Les sar ih he blog pos riten afer he argumen (in

Augus 2010) over he masculinism o speculaive realismbeore circling back o he earlier pos (hich migh haveobviaed he hole debae in he firs place).58 Here Bryanalks abou mess as somehing e abhor in our researchpracices, a erm he akes rom he social scienis John La,ho in his bookAfe Mehod: Mess in Social Science Reseachmakes a case or quieer and more generous mehods.

Bryan ries:

Wha e abhor, o use John Las ap erm, is a mess. Everyhere ehink in erms o relaions beeen orm and conen, orm and mater,

here one key erm uncions as he ulimae orm (hich or Arisole

as he acive principle and associaed ih masculiniy) and here

all else is reaed as mater aaiing orm (hich or Arisole as he

passive erm and as associaed ih emininiy). In shor, our heo-

reical rameork ends o be one massive meaphor or ucking and

he sexual relaionship. O course, is alays a ucking here he men

are on op in he orm o an acive orm inseminaing a passive mater.

And again, ha acive orm can be he signifier, signs, economics, hesocial, orm, caegories, reason, ec. Whas imporan or masculinis

onology is ha orm alays be sraigh and one. Ill leave i o he

57 Ian Bogos, I am no a Marxis, htp://w.bogos.com/blog/i_am_no_a_marxis.shml.58 Levi Bryan, Uni Operaions, htp://larvalsubjecs.ordpress.com/2010/08/03/uni-operaions/.


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reader o make he appropriae phallic jokes here.59

Wha Bryan is arguing or is a spreading or diversificaiono approches o mehod and similarly La argues or sym-mery as opposed o a phallic onology/mehodology and hecalls or a ide ranges o meaphors or boh imagining andresponding o our orlds (he calls hese mehod assemblages).The poliical sakes o his are ha hese mehods call orhorlds, helping us o boh imagine and ake responsibiliy orhem (his seems o me o be he very poliical underpinningo he ork o allour main OOO heoriss). Among Lasmeaphors or imagining and aking responsibiliy or our

orlds are localiies, specificiies, enacmens, mulipliciies,racionaliies, goods, resonances, gaherings, orms o cra-ing, processes o eaving, spirals, vorices, indefinienesses,condensaes, dances, imaginaries, passions, inererences.60

Moving on rom his discussion o our abhorrence or messin avor o a phallic univociy, Bryan says his:

Wha he masculinis passion or ground abhors, hoever, is he idea

o a mulipliciy o heerogeneous acors acing in relaion ogeher.

I is no economics ha deermines all else. I is no biology ha de-ermines all else. I is no neurology ha deermines all else. I is no

signs and signifiers ha deermines all else. I is no cos and roads

ha deermine all else. I is no hisory ha deermines all else. No, he

orld is populaed by chairs, cos, neurons, signs, signifiers, narraives,

discourses, neurons, chemical reacions, eaher paterns, roads, ec.,

all muually perurbing one anoher in a mesh. In oher ords, e have

all sors o negaive and posiive eedback relaions beeen hese di-

eren spheres uncioning as resonaors or one anoher.61

We migh ake rom his ha speculaive realism and queerheory are in a dance o relaion ih eachoher, are enmeshed

59 Ibid.60 John La,Afe Mehod: Mess in Soial Siene Reseah(London: Rouledge,2004), 156.61 Levi Bryan, Uni Operaions.


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and muually perurb each oher. As Bryan goes on o rie:Wha e have here is a mesh o non-lineariies ihou ground.Wha e have here are all sors o agencies and objecs eed-ing back on one anoher, modiying one anoher, perurbingone anoher, ranslaing one anoher. And his choreographyinvolves casraing a cerain Lacanianism:

Wha Ive ried o ormulae is an onology ihou phallus in heLacanian sense o he erm; or raher an onology here phallus isrecognized properly as he masquerade ha i is (here an analysis o

projecive idenificaion in he porrayal o oman as masquerade is

an appropriae criique o psychoanalysis). The poin is no ha he

signifier and anasy do no play a role, bu raher ha e mus see herole ha hese hings play as a role among oher acors in a complex

neork o eedback relaions. An onology ihou phallus is an on-

ology here here is no undamenal inerprean, no ground o all

else, no final explanaory erm. 62

Bryan hen shifs rom discussing he phallus o a revie oIan Bogoss book Uni Opeaionsand his alien phenomenol-ogy o objecs. He explains ha

in Uni Opeaions, Ian [Bogos] conrass uni and sysem. As Ian ries,

Uni operaions are modes o meaning-making ha privilege discree,

disconneced acions over deerminisic, progressive sysemsI conend

ha uni operaions represen a shif aay rom sysem operaions,alhough neiher sraegy is permanenly deached rom he oher (3).

This asemioic undersanding o uni operaions hinges on he ac ha

he uni can alays explode he consrains o sysem, or ha sysems

are alays occasional, local sabiliies rom hich unis can escape o

creae a ne surprise.63

The las senence could jus as ell describe Bryans onundersanding o subalerniy and second order sysemsdiscussed earlier.

62 Ibid.63 Ibid.


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Bryan ans o ocus in on he operaion par o unioperaions and ho his leads o messy creaiveness andamongsness raher han phallic univociy. He explains ha

In his early ork (I suspec ell find ha hes o a differen vie onceAlien Phenomenologycomes ou), Bogos is deeply influenced by Badious

concep o he coun-as-one (hich has been a longime ascinaiono mine as ell). The coun-as-one is, in Badiou, an operaion haransorms an inconsisen mulipliciy ino a consisen mulipliciy,

lierally couning i as one, or ransorming i ino a uni. The coun-

as-one is an operaion, somehing ha akes place, no somehing ha

is already here.64

Bryan goes on shorly aer o say ha

In shor, uni operaions produce, hey generae a ne eniy, hereas

sysem operaions re-produce, hey ierae an already exising patern or

objec. This, really, is ha is o be hough in he mesh o exo-relaions

among he heerogeneous acors populaing he heeroverse o flaonology: Wha are hose exo-relaions ha reproduce exising unis

and relaions and ha are he operaions ha produce enirely ne

eniies or agens? And i e are o hink his, e mus hink a complexinerplay o a variey o differen ypes o eniies, ho hey conribue

o he producion o ne eniies, and mus avoid our phallocenric

inclinaions ha ould erec only a single ground o beinge mus

hink processes o uniizing ihou abandoning objecs.65

Wha e migh glean rom his is ha queer heorys unioperaions produce raher han reproduce, ha here is noone single ground o queer heory, OOO or SR, no one single

inerpreaion o ha hey are or ha hey do. Insead heyare caugh in a mesh, are alays in relaion o each oherand in a graviaional mobiliy oard each oher, and hahis mess or mesh o exo-relaions produces a ne kind oheoreical creaiviy here he concree conceps o OOO

64 Levi Bryan, Uni Operaions.65 Ibid.


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and SR can be pu o ork wihand amongsqueer heoriesand conceps.

No, le us reurn o an earlier pos by Bryan rom January2010 here he anicipaes many o Viales charges againsSR and OOO and rehearses some o hese laer argumens.66On his occasion he is responding o a pos rom Paul Reid-Boen, ho blogs a Pagan Meaphysics, ho as arguing ora realis onology and a eminis meaphysics in he ork oChrisine Batersby, Donna Haraay and Luce Irigaray.67Bry-an orhrighly saes ha he is unconvinced by a eminismeaphysics (since or him here isjus meaphysics) bu hedoes admi ha Reid-Boen is on o somehing here. And

ha Bryan suggess he is on o is precisely ha preempssome o Viales laer criicisms o SR/OOP. I is orh repro-ducing in ull:

In he orld o culural sudies and he humaniies, I hink here have

been a number o privileged sies ha have been direced oardsbucking he primacy o ani-realis or correlaionis hough hanoher disciplines by virue o he naure o he objecs ha consiue

heir objec o invesigaion. These heoriss have no, o course, in

mos cases baldly saed heir ork as a debae beeen realism andani-realism, bu heir ork has noneheless ineviably led hem ohinking being in such a ay ha i is no simply a discourse, language,

or a correlaion ih he human.

Paradoxically, hese privileged sies have largely been maginalizedin

he orld o academia and he humaniies; no doub because o he

hegemony o ani-realis hough or he saus o correlaionism as he

esablishmen posiion. Among hese privileged sies I ould include

environmenal philosophy and hough, science and echnology sudies,

criical animal heory, geographical sudies, riing echnology sudies,media sudies, queer theory, and, o course, eminis philosophy and

hough. I am sure ha here are many ohers ha don immediaely

66 Levi Bryan, Feminis Meaphysics as Objec-Oriened OnologyOOO/OOP Round-Up, htp://larvalsubjecs.ordpress.com/2010/01/22/eminis-meaphysics-as-objec-oriened-onology-ooooop-round-up/.67 Paul Reid-Boen, Foreshadoing Dundee, htp://paganmeaphysics.

blogspo.com/2010/01/oreshadoing-dundee.hml.


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come o mind or me. I hese have been privileged sies or he devel-

opmen o significan concepual innovaions in he field o realisonology, hen his is because all o hese sies o invesigaion orce

encouners ih real and nonhuman objecs and acors ha canno

be reduced o correlaes o human hough, language, percepion, or

use bu ha have o be approached in heir on auonomous being o

properly be hough.68

Afer perhaps someha unairly seting Judih Bulers orko one side because, or him, she places ar oo much emphasison discursiviy,69he argues ha

eminis hough (and here I am no even beginning o do jusice o herichness and sophisicaion o his hough and ha has arisen ou o

hose inquiries) orces an encouner ih he ealo he biologialbody

and he difference i inroduces ino he orld, he real o he sexedbody, ha exceeds he being o hephenomenologial lived body and he

discursive body, hile someho sill being inerined ih hese oher

o bodies he orgeting o he real is alays a masculine gesure.70

The mos crucial poin Bryan makes here, hoever, is ha

queer heory, among he oher privileged sies he menionsabove, is, alhough being a marginalized sie o realis hough,

in so many respecs,gound-zeoor objec-oriened onol-ogy. This is a remarkable asserion: no OOO ihou queerheory, no SR ihou queer heory.

OOF: Object Orented Femnsm

One o he nees kids on he OOO block is objec oriened

eminism, anoher o Bryans privileged i marginalized68 Bryan, Feminis Meaphysics as Objec-Oriened Onology, my bolding.69 There is a ascinaing momen in Undoing Gendehere Buler promiseso rie in he uure abou he place o sharp machines and he echnol-ogy o he knie in debaes abou inersexualiy and ranssexualiy alike,Undoing Gende(London: Rouledge, 2004), 64. Bu she never has, a leaso my knoledge, riten abou his.70 Bryan, Feminis Meaphysics as Objec-Oriened Onology.


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sies or realis hough here he really real is placed onneiher he side o he naural, nor he human. GrahamHarman humbly admis ha he ouldn kno ho o goabou consrucing71an Objec-Oriened Feminism bu IanBogos has blogged he proceedings o a conerence as ellas his response o all six papers on his very opic held inIndianopolis in Ocober 2010. The o panels, organized byKaherine Behar, ho Bryan menioned in his response oViale above, ook up he quesion ha ould a programor objec-oriened eminism (OOF) enail?72Draing onBill Brons Thing Theory73Wendy Hui Kyong Chun usedsofarificaion as a ay ino reconfiguring he relaionship

beeen subjecs and objecs, linking sofares hisoricalemergence as invisibly visible (or visibly invisible) objeco gendered hierarchies embedded in is vapory srucure.Paricia Ticineo Clough, hose earlier ork on Deleuze andaffec as already making hese objec-oriened moves, riedo rehink he relaionship o language and a subjec hichalso bringing o he ore quesions abou bodies, desires,phanasms. In he brillianly iled Facing Necrophilia, orBoox Ehics, Kaherine Behar picked up Caherine Mala-

bous noion o plasiciy, he ays in hich i is able o receiveor creae orm and is siuaed beeen he exreme poins

71 Graham Harman, Objec-Oriened Feminism, htp://docorzamalek2.ordpress.com/2010/10/30/objec-oriened-eminism/.72 The panels as held a he 2010 Sociey or Lieraure and he ArsConerence. The firs panel deal ih general responses o he organizersquesion and he second panel ocused in on he heme o he body. Thereere o responses rom Kaherine Hayles and Bogos. You can read all six

absracs and Bogoss response here: htp://w.bogos.com/blog/objec-oriened_eminism_1.shml.73 Bill Bron has someha apologeically developed hing heory in sucha ay ha is necessiy becomes visible and e could add i o Bryans liso privileged i marginalized sies or realis hinking hich alls ouihhe correlaionis circle: Is here somehing perverse, i no archly insisen,abou complicaing hings ih heory? Do e really need anyhing likehing heory he ay e need narraive heory or culural heory, queerheory or discourse heory? Why no le hings alone? In Bill Bron (ed)Tings(Chicago: Universiy o Chicago Press, 2004), 1.


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o aking and annihilaing orm, o queer he relaionshipbeeen living and dead objecs:74

Jus as Objec-Oriened Feminism incorporaes human and nonhuman

objecs, i mus exend beeen living objecs and dead ones. This paper

explores ho sel-objeciying praciioners o body ar and plasicsurgery incorporae inerness and deadness ihin he living sel. Firs

e discuss body ar and plasic surgery hrough Caherine Malabous

concep o brain plasiciy, he consiuion o onesel hrough passive

recepion and acive annihilaion o orm. Malabou associaes plasic-

iys desrucive aspec ih plasic explosives and is malleable aspec

ih sculpure and plasic surgery. Ye seen rom under he knie, plasic

surgery and body ar seem o make plasic objecs in Malabous ullsense o he erm. The plasic ar objec o surgery kills off is old sel osculp a ne one. This brings us o Boox, he snicker-orhy subjec a

he hear o his paper. In Boox use, opional injecions o Boulinum

oxin emporarily deaden he ace, Emmanuel Levinas primary sie

o living encouner. Wih Boox, living objecs elec o become a litle

less lively. Boox represens an imporan ehical gesure: a ace-firs

plunge or living objecs o mee dead objecs halay, o locae and

enhance ha is iner in he living, and exend oard inaccessible

deadness ih necrophiliac love and compassion. Boox ehics hinsa ho Objec-Oriened Feminism migh subly shi objec-oriened

erms. Resisance o being knon iss ino resisance o alienaion.

Concern ih qualiies o hings reconsiues as concern or quali-ies o relaions. And, speculaion on he real becomes perormance

o he real. Boox ehics experienially ransorms empahy or dead

counerpars ino comingled sympahy. Seting aside aesheic allure,

Boox ehics shoos up.75

This poerul argumen (or pars o i) ere already impliciin an early atemp (rom Ocober 2008) by Ben Woodard o

74 Malabous name is rarely invoked in speculaive realis (or indeed inqueer heoreical) circles bu her idea o plasiciy is atracive preciselybecause i is an agen o disobedience, a reusal o submi o a model. SeeWha Should We Do wih Ou Bain?,rans. Sebasian Rand (Ne York: FordhamUniversiy Press, 2008).75 htp://w.bogos.com/blog/objec-oriened_eminism_1.shml.


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hink speculaive realism in relaion o he objec and ehics.76Woodards asserion, and his should bring o mind Bryansargumen abou eminis hough and he biological body, isha he philosophical paradigm o speculaive realism canserve o elucidae an ehics o he Real objec. For Woodard,Levinas seeps he phallus under he rug o he ace and hesuggess ha he objec, as a orm o immanence mus be

brough ino psychoanalysis and opposed o he ormal objec,he objec as concep. In a ypically Schellingian accoun oslime dynamics, Woodard urns o Iain Hamilons Gransnaure philosophy o argue ha pos-Kanian philosophiespredominanly ignore he inorganic ocusing insead on

he opposiion o number and animal, epiomized in heconras beeen Deleuze and Badiou. As Woodard under-sands i, inorganiciy as he sel consrucion o mater, asan onological prooplasmhe slime o beingprovides hevery possibiliy o all philosophy. Behars ace-firs plungeor living objecs o mee dead objecs halay obliquelyreerences Karen Barads ork on agenial realism, he aybodies inra-ac, dynamically and causally.77I also calls o mind

76 Ben Woodard, The Phallicized Face: Toards an Objeciying Ehics or he(Real) Objec o Science, htp://naughthough.ordpress.com/2008/10/27/he-phallicized-ace-oards-an-objeciying-ehics-or-he-real-objec-o-science/. In his absrac on eminis meaphysics menioned above PaulReid-Boen conesses ha he irony and/or perversiy o proposing hisalliance [beeen objecs and objecificaion], given he hisory and eigho eminis analyses o sexual objecificaion, is no los on me. Hoever, Iconend ha an Objec Oriened Onology does no run aoul o ehical,poliical and social eminis criiques o objecificaion. Graham Harmancommens on his by reminding us ha he objecs o OOP have nohingo do ih objecificaion. In ac, hey are ha resis all objecificaion.To objeciy someone or somehing is o limi i, o reduce i...by conras,objec-oriened philosophy is by definiion an ani-reducionis philosophy.I holds ha all hings mus be aken on heir on erms. The reason orcomplains abou objecificaion is ha a alse spli is made beeen peopleand maybe animals ho canno be objecified, and inanimae objecs hichcan. My hesis, by conras, is ha even inanimae objecs should no andcanno be objecified. See htp://docorzamalek2.ordpress.com/2010/01/22/levi-on-reid-boen-on-eminism-and-ooo/.77 See Karen Barad, Queer Causaion and he Ehics o Matering, in Quee-ing he Non/Human, eds. Noreen Giffney and Myra Hird (Aldersho: Ashgae,


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Reza Negaresanis opening up o he momen o nuleaionwih nigedo and he mahesis o decay and pureacion.78The meeing beeen queer heory and speculaive realisminvolves a muual blackening, a necrophilic inimacy, a mee-ing o necroizing orces: i he inelligibiliy o he orldmus hus imply a ace o ace coupling o he soul ih hebody qua dead, hen inelligibiliy is he epiphenomenon oa necrophilic inimacy, a problemaic collusion ih he ro-ing double hich brings abou he possibiliy o inelligibil-iy ihin an iner cosmos.79Queer heory and speculaiverealism/objec oriened onology are no so much open o, asopened byeach oher, in ha Bogos calls carpenry, doing

2008), 311-338; and Quanum Enanglemens and Haunological Relaionso Inheriance: Dis/coninuiies, SpaceTime Enoldings, and Jusice-o-Come,Deida oday3.2 (2010): 240-268. In my preace, The Open, o Giffney andHirds Queeing he Non/Human(xix-xx), I made a airly early reerence ohe poenial enmeshmens o speculaive realism and queer heory:

I or Haraay and many o he auhors colleced here he quesion has beeni e have never been human, hen here do e begin? hen ansers havebeen orhcoming in oher fields: Bruno Laours Acor Neork Theoryhas been a he oreron o echnoscienific atenion o (i no queeringas such) he non-human, Bill Brons and Sherry Turkles probing o hings

and evocaive objecs has oregrounded our inimacy ih he objecs elive ih in generaive ays, Graham Harmans speculaive realism hasinauguraed a philosophy urned oard objecs and consisenly urged usoards a humaniarian poliics atuned o he objecs hemselves, hileQuenin Meillassouxs non-correlaionism argues ha here can be nonecessary relaions beeen hings in a vision o he orld aer finiude, aorld ihou humans.78 Reza Negaresani, The Corpse Bride: Thinking ih Nigedo, CollapseIV(Falmouh, U.K.: Urbanomic, 2008), 129-161.79 Negaresani, The Corpse Bride, 134-135. See also his Deah as a Perversion:

Openness and Germinal Deah, htp://w.cheory.ne/aricles.aspx?id=396.For more on Negaresanian necrophilia see my Cyclonoclasm: NegaresanisQueer Polyics o he Tis (orhcoming). In my preace TO (Theoryihou Organs) o David V. Ruffolos Pos-Quee Poliis(Farnham: Ashgae,2009), x, I make a connecion beeen pos-queer poliics and Negaresanispolyis: We migh, borroing rom Reza Negaresani in Cylonopedia:Complicit wih Anonymous Maeials[Melbourne: Re.Press, 2008], call his a

polyics o anomalous or unnaural paricipaion ih he ouside, a se oschizoraegies or openness and insurgency.


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philosophy by making hings.80

The res o he papers on he OOF panel urned heir aten-ion o he body. Anne Pollocks Hear Feminism asks ha

saring rom he hear migh offer or eminism,81AdamZaresky began o ormulae an Objec-Oriened Bioehics(OOB) and Frenchy Lunning, in a paper on he corse, reflecedon he anamorphic enangled fields o he eminine and heeish. Ian Bogoss exemporized response is ineresing sincei akes us back o here e began: I had he expecaionha odays speakers ould define objec-oriened eminism.Tha hey ould pin i don, ha hey ould domesicaei, i you an. Bu OOF is as undomesicaable as queer

heory or speculaive realism. I reuses o be pinned don,anaomized, given a precise shape. Insead, Bogos ells us esa a ascinaing exploraion around a heme. A our o sors,a kind o Heideggerian pasoral sroll on hich aspecs oobjec-oriened onology ere inroduced o aspecs o emi-nis heory. We migh supplemen Bogoss observaion bysaying ha aspecs o eminis heory ere also inroduced oaspecs o objec-oriened onology in a muual illuminaion.As he himsel ries in response o Pollock, going ino he

80 htp://w.bogos.com/blog/objec-oriened_eminism_1.shml. This kindo muual blackening is ha has moivaed much o he recen Black MealTheory hich shares some imporan overlaps ih speculaive realis hough.

81 Wih he excepion o Peer Graton (see his course syllabus here: htp://eb.me.com/gratonpeer/2010_Speculaive_Realism/Speculaive_Real-ism.hml) he philosophy o Jean-Luc Nancy has been largely absen romspeculaive realis discourse hich is srange given his atenion o he senseo allbeings-in-he-orld, rom he human o he animal o he inorganic.The bes place o sar on Nancy and hear eminism hoever ould be his

essay The Hear o Things in Te Bih o Pesene, rans. Brian Holmes andohers (Sanord: Sanord Universiy Press, 1993), 167-188. Jacques Derridahas been equally negleced (requenly ugly debaes abou Derrida haveflared up rom ime o ime in he SR blogosphere in he pas year) in bohSR and OOO hinking despie some claims ha his philosophy anicipaessome cenral OOO conceps. Again, i one simply aned o sar ih heareminism you could look o Derridas book On ouhing: Jean-Lu Nanc,rans. Chrisine Irizarry (Sanord: Caliornia Universiy Press, 2005) herehe ruminaes on Nancys hear ransplan, echniciy and sexual difference.


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body also means going ouside o i, like a Mbius srip ora klein botle. And his idea exends beyond he biologicalbody because, or Bogos, e have been shon he value olooking or Meillassouxs grea oudoors inside as ell asouside. Objec-oriened eminism is, and again his shouldremind us o Bryan and Barad, a perurbaion o humanand orld. Like Bulers ierabiliy, his agenial realism ormaerialism, hich brackes hings-in-phenomena allosor ne ariculaions, ne configuraions, or ha LucianaParisi calls affecive relaions, a communiy consiuedhrough Barads poshuman perormaiviy.82Such an ehico-

82 Luciana Parisi, The Nanoengineering o Desire in Giffney and Hird,

Queeing he Non/Human, 283-310. Parisis ork is heavily influenced by heblackened Deleuzoguatarianism o Nick Land and her book Absa Sex:Philosophy, Bio-ehnology and he Muaions o Desie maps a complex ebo inricae relaions beeen humans and non/humans. In an inervieih Mathe Fuller she explains ha:

Absa Sexaddresses human sraificaion on hree levels. The biophysi-cal, he bioculural and he biodigial amalgamaion o layers composinga consellaion o bodies ihin bodies, each grappled ihin he previousand he nex ormaiona sor o posiive eedback upon each oher cu-ing across specific ime scales. In oher ords, hese levels o sraificaion

consiue orAbsac Sexhe endosymbioic dynamics o organizaion omatera sor o anigenealogical process o becoming ha suspends heeleology o evoluion and he anhropocenrism o lie. From his sand-poin, he modaliies o human opimism, rooed in he ne subsanialdisincion beeen he good and he evil and he disinc belie in negaiveorces, ail o explain he coninual collision and coexisence o he disinclayers. Folloing he la o moraliy, human opimism ould never comeo erms ih is on paradoxes o consrucion and desrucion. And i idoes i is soon urned ino an exisenial crisis giving in o he ull orceo negaing poer and hus all becomes inolerable. Once e are orced oengage ih he ay layers collide in he human specieshe ay some

biophysical and bioculural sedimenaions rub agains each oher undercerain pressures and in heir urn he ay hey are rubbed agains by hebiodigial muaions o sensory percepion or examplehen he moralsances o opimism and pessimism make no longer sense. Indeed e needo leap oards a plane debunked o ulimae moral judgemen. A plane ullo pracice and coningen aciviies, here e find ourselves plunged in afield o relaioninerdependen ecologies o orces (atracors, pressures,hresholds), hich rigger in us modificaions ha resonae across all scaleso organizaion.

See htp://w.netime.org/Liss-Archives/netime-l-0410/msg00054.hml.


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poliics (and he queering o he normaiviies o boh queerheory and speculaive realism hemselves) depends on haAgamben calls he open, a process hich does no ollosome preconceived eleological programme. There can beno program or ha queer heory or speculaive realism orobjec oriened approaches do. They are no means o an endbu raher means ihou end.83

Naught Tought:On Ben Woodards Queer Speculatve Realsm

I or Bogos one o he promising aspecs o OOF is ha i

looks or he grea oudoors inside as ell as ouside hene migh no see Ben Woodards nihilis speculaive realismas an ally or objec oriened eminisms or queer heories.Indeed in his mos recen ork Woodard has cauioned haphilosophy can only ever reurn o he grea oudoors i i

leaves behind he dead loop o he human skull.84Tha said,Woodards essays on his Naugh Toughblog have consisenlyled he ay hen i comes o queering speculaive realismand o advancing he poliics o a queered speculaive realism.

We have already seen his discussion o he phallicizaion oehics bu e migh also consider his various riings ongender, sexualiy, psychoanalysis, anorexia, rauma as clear-ing a ground or queer speculaions.85I ill isolae jus a e

83 Giorgio Agamben, Te Open: Man and Animal,rans. Kevin Atell (Sanord:Sanord Universiy Press, 2004) andMeans Wihou End: Noes on Poliis,rans. Vincenzo Bineti and Cesare Casarino (Minneapolis: Universiy oMinnesoa Press, 2000).84

Ben Woodard, Mad Speculaion and Absolue Inhumanism: Lovecraf,Ligoti and he Weirding o Philosophy, Coninen1.1 (2011): 3-13.85 Woodard has engaged ih he queer heories o Lauren Berlan on ealciizenship, Ann Cvekovich on affec and Lee Edelman on reproduciveuurism in a number o poss. For example see Migraions o Trauma,htp://naughthough.ordpress.com/2008/01/19/migraions-o-rauma/and Traumas Transmogrificaions, htp://naughthough.ordpress.com/2007/10/27/raumas-ransmogrificaions/. Three oher names one as-sociaes ih speculaive realism, Dominic Fox (ho blogs a Poeix), MarkFisher (ho blogs a K-Punk) and Nina Poer (ho blogs a Infinie Tough),


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exemplary poss. As Bryan has reminded us i is masculinismhich orges he real o he biological body and i is eminishough hich remembers i. One figure ho has been largelyorgoten by he speculaive realiss is Kaerina Kolozova andWoodard reurns her o her proper place in his pos Meshinghe Real and he Transcendenal or Kaerina Kolozova.86Heells us ha jumping rom Judih Buler, o Rosi Braidoti, oDrucilla Cornell, o Derrida, o Lacan (ih hinkers such asBadiou, Derrida and Deleuze sprinkled hroughou) Kolozovaormulaes a breahakingly lucid and poerully polii-cal, heoreical and social sysem. One o he reasons hyKolozova has no been prominen in SR discussions is ha

speculaive realism has been more han slighly ambiguousas o is relaion o psychoanalysis. Bryan and Negaresaniare o very obvious couner-examples bu Woodard ciesBrassiers limp deploymens o he erm unconscious andis near absence in he exs o oher speculaive realiss asevidence. Bu Kolozovas psychoanalyically-infleced, Laru-ellian non-philosophical sysem, is clearly a prime, i againshuned o he margins, sie or realis and non-correlaionishinking abou he body, sexual difference and ideniy:

I, as Kolozova suggess, he body is he neares bearer o he Real o

our being, ho do e ariculae a poliics hich is differen rom he

ired atemps o ideniy poliics? I e carry he real ih us, and our

experiences can ouch upon he real, ha is o separae a poliics o he

embodied Real versus an ideniy poliics? The difference ha Kolozova

ends on is ha since ideniy is alays a ailure o grasp he Real and

sense he World, as experienial, is ha orces and aces he Real o

such maerialism, e can only remind ourselves ha such a orld is

no-All, ha he World can never grasp ideniy as such le alone anysingular human in heir auomaic soliude. The srengh here is ha

Kolozova seems bolder han Badiou in dismissing he pre-Evenal

have also criiqued Edelmans book No Fuue: Quee Teor and he Deah Dive.86 Ben Woodard, Meshing he Real and he Transcendenal or KaerinaKolozova, htp://naughthough.ordpress.com/2008/06/24/meshing-he-real-and-he-ranscendenal-or-kaerina-kolozova/.


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non-subjec and more opimisic han Transcendenal Maerialismin ha no only can he subjec hink he gap ha i is bu ha he gap

does he hinking, ha he Real isel desires o be ranscendenal o,

in a sense, be poliical.87

Shorly beore his pos on Kolozovas poliics, Woodard hadorked hough a provisional speculaive realis poliics (in

June 2008, o years exacly beore Viales pos on he lack opoliical engagemen o SR), isely rejecing Lee EdelmansNo Fuueand is misleading poliics o he Real along heay.88Woodard genly argues ha he End o Time seciono Brassiers Nihil Unboundleans oards ha migh be a

poliics, in ha, jumping rom Freuds heory o he drive asrepeiion, here is an inheren ill-o-kno in humans ha is,conrary o mos o he universe, negenropic. The quesionhe proceeds o ask is: ho does one accoun or he genesiso he muliude in a non-vialis ay, in a philosophicallyrealis ay, ha does no occlude he possibiliy o poliics?He parially ansers ha speculaive realism provides a sepin he righ direcion in ha i illusraes he radicaliy ohough by immanenizing he ranscendenal by binding

i o he objec. Bu he ull anser he moves oards is ha

he implici poliics in Speculaive Realism is ound in is reurn o

slime as he race o lie, ha he smudge o maerialiy canno beidealized aay, no even in he mos basic orm o relaion isel, in he

noion o currency and exchange. This zero poin o being is, in a sense,

a paradoxically deanhropomorphized bio-poliicsha mater ma-

ers in ha i can hink isel as such ihou recourse o he reflecive

srucures o ehics or democracy. Speculaive Realism exposes ha he

zombic hunger o Hard and Negris muliude is a orm o hinkingand no a orm o being. The psychoanalyic conribuion here is ha

87 Ibid.88 Ben Woodard, Heaps o Slime or Toards a Speculaive Realis Poliics,htp://naughthough.ordpress.com/2008/06/20/heaps-o-slime-or-oards-a-speculaive-realis-poliics/. In heir inervies ih Woodard inTe Speulaive unboh iek and Badiou argue ha speculaive realismlacks poliical purchase.


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capial, hile inhabiing he drives mode o ieraion, is sill subjec o

aleraion. In hinking capial as objec e highligh he objecs around

i as possibly dissociable rom i such as democracy and he social.

Concluson: Some Sghtngs and Speculatons

In Cius Philosophius, Graham Harman asks us o imagine agian erris heel ih housands o separae cars, each ohem loaded ih various objecs.89This final secion pains apicure o several erris heels, each one conaining glimpseso encouners beeen queer heory and speculaive hough,hich readers can hen pause and fix in heir minds as hey

coninue o heel around.Feis Wheel #: NEOMATERIALISTFEMINISM

This heel ould conain exs by various hinkers associ-aed ih (a mosly Deleuzian) neomaerialis or neovialiseminism hich has been sensiive o he nonhuman, heinorganic and he vibrancy o mater. This ould includeheoriss such as Sengers,90Elizabeh Grosz,91Rosi Braidoti,92

Manuel de Landa,93Myra Hird94and Claire Colebrook.95I

89 Harman, Cicus Philosophicus, 1.90Isabelle Sengers, Cosmopoliis , rans. Rober Bononno (Minneapolis:Universiy o Minnesoa Press, 2010).91Elizabeh Grosz, Chaos, eior, A: Deleuze and he Faming o he Eah(Ne York: Columbia Universiy Press, 2008).92 Rosi Braidoti, ansposiions: On Nomadi Ehis(Cambridge: Poliy, 2006).93 Manuel DeLanda, Philosophy and Simulaion: Te Emegene o SynheiReason(London: Coninuum, 2011). For a queering o DeLandas ork see

Jeff Lords revie oA Tousand Yeas o Non-Linea Hisorhere: htp://w.siuaion.ru/app/j_ar_1036.hm94 Myra Hird, Sex, Gende and Siene(Basingsoke: Palgrave, 2004). Hirdis heavily influenced by Harmans ork. Her recen issue o Paallax(16.1,2010) on he lie o he gi conains Harmans essay Asymmerical Causa-ion: Influence ihou Recompense.95 Claire Colebrook, Ho Queer Can You Go? Theory, Normaliy and Nor-maiviy in Giffney and Hird, Queeing he Non/Human, 17-34. Colebrooks


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ould also hold Jane Bennets Viban Mate: A Poliial Eol-ogy o Tingshich rehinks he pariion o he sensible (inRancires erms) here mater is seen as iner and humanbeings are undersood as vibran. She urns he figures olie and mater around and around, orrying hem unilhey sar o seem srange [and] in he space creaed by hisesrangemen, a vial maeiali [o hunder sorms, sem cells,fish oils, meal, rash, elecriciy] can sar o ake shape.96

Feis Wheel #: THESEXAPPEALOFTHEINORGANIC

This heel akes is name rom Mario Perniolas book Sex

Appeal o he Inoganihich srangely hasn exered much oan influence on speculaive realism.97In i e ould discoverfigures and exs desiring a re-cycling o he orld, a orldre-encounered in hich each singular being is exposed o anexisence hey share ih oher beings (rom shells, o hammers,o clouds, o crysals, o sorms). The onder involved in hisencouner hich shakes all our anhropocenric cerainies,is e migh say, aer Sara Ahmed, a queer phenomenology.In Ahmeds erms, a reorienaion oard he orld and is

objecs (ables and pebbles are among her gorgeous exam-ples), such a making srange, is ha allos he amiliar odance ih lie again.98Among he oher exs housed hereould be hose hich reurn an agenial dynamism o henon-living, he inanimae and he iner: Bernard Sieglersehnis and imehich queers he disincion beeen man

emerging ork on exincion migh be useul or hose hinking aboupoliics and naure aer Brassier and Woodard.96 Jane Bennet, Viban Mate: A Poliial Eology o Tings(Durham andLondon: Duke Universiy Press, 2010), vii. Jonahan Goldbergs recen hink-ing around Lucreian physics is perinen here oo. See, or one example, TeSeeds o Tings: Teoizing Sexualit and Maeialit in Renaissance Repesena-ions (Ne York: Fordham Universiy Press, 2009).97 Mario Perniola, Sex Appeal o he Inoganic(London: Coninuum, 2004).98 Sara Ahmed, Quee Oienaions: Oienaions, Objes, Ohes(Durham andLondon: Duke Universiy Press, 2006), 164. Ahmed has been highly criicalo he masculinism o OOO.


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and animal by mining he paradox beeen he humaninvenion o he echnical and he echnical invenion ohe human;99Nikki Sullivan and Sam Murrays Somaehnishich plasicizes, inerines and en-olds man and animal,human and objec;100Jeffrey Jerome Cohens Sories oSone, a geochoreographesis in hich he explores he lieo sone, alloing i o breahe and speak as i conoundshe boundary beeen organic and inorganic, ar and naure,human and mineral.101I ould also include Shannon BellsFas Feminism, a philo-porno-poliical machine in hich sheucks Selarcs six-legged alking robo and issue-engineersa male phallus, a emale phallus and a Baaillean big oe in

a bioreacor here hey ormed ino a neo-organ.102

Alsohere e ould discover Dinesh Wadiels essay Sex and heLubricaive Ehic here in he fising scene a hole rangeo nonhuman maerial objecs are also imporan eniiesihin neorks o eroic producion. A sling, a piece olingerie, a hip or a vibraor may all play significan i noindispensable roles in enabling an eroic scene o happen.103

99 Bernard Siegler,ehnis and ime, : Te Faul o Epimeheus, rans. Richard

Beardsorh and George Collins (Sanord: Sanord Universiy Press, 2008).100 Nikki Sullivan and Sam Murray (eds), Somaehnis: Queeing he eh-nologisaion o Bodies(Farnham: Ashgae Press, 2009). In my preace o hebook, Originary Somaechniciy, (xiii) I roe ha hey disclose ha hereis no jus an originary echniciy bu also an originary somaicisaion ohe echnical objec. Their queer inervenion, he space hey open or us ina de disoriginaing move, is o begin o hink an oiginar somaechnicit.101 Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Sories o Sone,posmedieval: a jounal o me-dieval ulual sudies (2010): 56-63. Medieval Sudies has proved o be aparicularly erile sie or speculaive realis hinking. To oher essays inhe inaugural issue oposmedievalby Michael Wimore (We have Neverno Been Inhuman) and Julian Yaes (Is (or) You; or, he Tele--r/opicalPos-Human) engage ih Meillassoux and Harman. In her response essayhe eminis N. Kaherine Hayles picks up on his and also reerences bohHarman and Bogos hen she ries ha alien phenomenologiss gaherinormaion abou ools o undersand hem no as accessories o humanculure bu as subjecs ha perceive and ac in he orld, Hayles, Poshu-man Ambivalence, 266.102 Shannon Bell, Fas Feminism(Ne York: Auonomedia, 2010), 183.103 Dinesh Wadiel, Sex and he Lubricaive Ehic in Noreen Giffney


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Feis Wheel #: PERSONSANDTHINGS

This heel ges is name rom Barbara Johnsons Pesons andTingshich isn ofen remembered hen speculaive realissand objec oriened onologiss are reconfiguring relaionsbeeen subjecs and objecs.104Bracha Etingers pos-Lacanianork on he marixial belongs here oo.105I shares much onhe level o syle ih Negaresanis psychoanalyic erriopicmaerialisms;106her marixialiy may have affiniies ihIain Hamilon Grans dark chemisry o u-slime;107and shemakes i clear ho Meillassouxs hyperchaos also reers ohe absolue coningency o gender.

Feis Wheel #: OBJECTORIENTEDMATERNITY

Etinger could also ake her place in his heel alongside LisaBaraisersMaenal Enouneshere she heorizes maernalsuff, he many objecs hich encumber he mohers body.These maernal objecs are variously figured by Baraiseras Laourian acans or Harmanian ool-beings. And heseool-beings include clohes, blankes, quils, botles, eas, milk

poder, serilizers, breas pumps, eeding spoons and bols,juice botles and bibs, pacifiers, mobiles, ratles, nappies, ipes,changing mas, creams, poders, cribs, cos, baskes, babymoniors, mobiles, prams, buggies, carry cos, slings, backpacks, car seas and so ever infiniely on.108

and Michael ORourke (eds) Te Ashgae Reseach Companion o Quee Teor(Farnham: Ashgae Press, 2009), 492.104 Barbara Johnson, Pesons and Tings(Cambridge: Harvard UniversiyPress, 2008).105Bracha Lichenberg Etinger, Te Maixial Bodespae(Minneapolis:Universiy o Minnesoa Press, 2006).106 Reza Negaresani, On he Revoluionary Earh: A Dialecic in Terri-opic Maerialism, htp://ass.kingson.ac.uk/donloads/conerence-dark-maerialism-paper.pd.107 Iain Hamilon Gran, Being and Slime: The Mahemaics o Prooplasmin Lorenz Okens Physio-Philosophy, CollapseIV, 287-321.108 Lisa Baraiser,Maenal Enounes: Te Ehis o Ineupion(London:


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Speculatons II

Feis Wheel #: HERECOMESEVERYTHING!

The erris heels o speculaive realism, objec oriened on-ology and queer heory have been shon o be inerlockingor each perhaps as iny heels imagined inside each oher. IBryan hopes ha speculaive realism and OOO ill creaeprojecs or ohers hen ha e need o ensure is ha heheels keep spinning and ha e never ry o pin hingsdon. I e reuse o spell ou a programmaic conen orspeculaive hough hen i ill alays reain he poer orench rames and henever and herever queer heory(or beter queer heories) and speculaive realism (or be-

er speculaive realisms) mee ha anasic explosion109

promises an irreducible openness o everyhing.

Rouledge, 2009), 126.109 Timohy Moron, Queer Ecology, 273.

michael orourke: girls welcome v2

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