{"product_id":"send-in-the-clowns-kennedy-mcnaughton-1682195147","title":"Send In the Clowns! by Seán Kennedy \u0026 James McNaughton","description":"\u003ch2\u003eSend In the Clowns!: Popular Politics after Neoliberalism by Seán Kennedy \u0026amp; James McNaughton\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eKennedy and McNaughton read Todd Phillips' record-breaking Hollywood blockbuster Joker as an economic and political allegory of our times. It is a book full of dazzling insights into the malaise of contemporary capitalism.\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat could be more surprising than the cinematic presentation of the Joker as a key to solving our present economic and political predicament? \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSend In the Clowns! \u003c\/em\u003eleads us precisely there. \u003c\/strong\u003eGrip this movie's visual language, its authors insist, and we can also grasp a political grammar, available to all, that articulates a new, world-changing solidarity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe predicament \u003cem\u003eSend In the Clowns!\u003c\/em\u003e diagnoses is urgent: the way late capitalism ensures astonishing inequality, unleashing a backlash in conspiracy, violence, and authoritarianism. These pages map this unraveling onto the narrative of Joker. When the movie begins in 1981, neoliberal tides are shifting the sands: the rise of insecure work; the destabilizing of welfare; the explosion of racialized incarceration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA close reading of the film allows Kennedy and McNaughton to isolate and confront these phenomena.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eSend In the Clowns! \u003c\/em\u003eshows how melodrama has become late capitalism's preferred genre.\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt appears in neoliberal economic theory; in a media seduced by caricatured villainy; in state justifications for war. Melodrama allows demagogues to depict themselves as saviors and decry political opponents as criminals, threatening the foundations of democracy itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe myth of the lone superhero has brought us to the brink of disaster. \u003cstrong\u003eIf we don't want jokers for president, we must empower the clowns!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bust-Down Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50335580619067,"sku":"1682195147","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0855\/2077\/7531\/files\/1682195147.jpg?v=1749659289","url":"https:\/\/bustdownbooks.com\/products\/send-in-the-clowns-kennedy-mcnaughton-1682195147","provider":"Bust-Down Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}