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Politics After Literacy

By: Sam Kriss

Postliteracy won’t replace reason with madness, but it might give us madness of a new and different type.

Illustration by Benny Douet.

In 1931, the Soviet neuropsychologist Alexander Luria traveled to the foothills of the Alay Mountains, in the barren borderlands between Uzbekistan and Kirghizia, to find out how the locals thought. He was trying to prove the theory that “mental processes are social and historical in origin” — that the way we think, not just the content of […]

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In 1931, the Soviet neuropsychologist Alexander Luria traveled to the foothills of the Alay Mountains, in the barren borderlands between Uzbekistan and Kirghizia, to find out how the locals thought. He was trying to prove the theory that “mental processes are social and historical in origin” — that the way we think, not just the content of […]

Medium

In 1931, the Soviet neuropsychologist Alexander Luria traveled to the foothills of the Alay Mountains, in the barren borderlands between Uzbekistan and Kirghizia, to find out how the locals thought. He was trying to prove the theory that “mental processes are social and historical in origin” — that the way we think, not just the content of […]

Large

In 1931, the Soviet neuropsychologist Alexander Luria traveled to the foothills of the Alay Mountains, in the barren borderlands between Uzbekistan and Kirghizia, to find out how the locals thought. He was trying to prove the theory that “mental processes are social and historical in origin” — that the way we think, not just the content of […]