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Book Review: Cyberfeminism 2.0

No. 147 — May 2013 society and which, Fuller and Goffey argue, subtly shape the political and social texture of our everyday lives. Thus, if there is an evil at work, it can be found in ‘a troubling opacity and thickness’ (p. 5) of those media forms, rather than an explicit political or moral calculation. It is difficult to describe any over-arching argument that structures Evil Media, which proceeds through an exploration of broad terms, such as togetherness, structures and productivity, that function as metaphors as much as descriptions. Each engages with a particular aspect of grey media, but does so in a freewheeling manner characterised by abrupt subject shifts between sub-chapters and a cavalier attitude towards traditional argumentation. On the positive side, this allows for a broad constellation of points and examples to be drawn together. Unfortunately, it also exhibits an approach that emphasises performance over communication, often appearing to favour capricious over careful thinking. Accordingly, there are moments of fantastic insight, on a range of topics from sociobiology to machine systems to the Schmittian decision, but also long over-written passages that read like Teflon: they do not draw one in, but seem designed so that one slips off. There is a joy to this, but also a deep frustration, as a surplus of lists, declarative statements, rhetorical questions, redefinitions (for example, ‘social engineering’ comes to mean something along the lines of de Certeau’s tactics) and word play constantly threaten to overwhelm the authors’ insights regarding these important and under-studied media forms. Evil Media tackles timely and woefully over looked centra l quest ions of the contemporary mediascape, but doesn’t always seem particularly interested in explaining itself or its answers. It is a volume that holds out the promise of intellectual rewards, especially upon sustained study, but that also seems reluctant to offer a clear reason for doing so: an exasperating and occasionally infuriating volume, but also potentially important and oddly inspiring in its focus if not its form.