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11%OFFKaren Pinkus - Fuel: A Speculative Dictionary - 9780816699988 - V9780816699988
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Fuel: A Speculative Dictionary

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Description for Fuel: A Speculative Dictionary Paperback. Num Pages: illustrations. BIC Classification: GBC; THF. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 141 x 215 x 11. Weight in Grams: 202.

Fuel is an idiosyncratic, speculative dictionary of fuels, real and imagined, historical and futuristic, hopeless and utopian. Drawing on literature, film, and scientific treatises—most produced long before “climate change” was in circulation—Fuel argues for a distinction between energy (a system of power) and fuel (a substance, which can be thought of as “potentiality”) as it endeavors to undo the dream that we can simply switch to renewables and all will be golden.

From “Air” to “Zyklon B,” entries in this unusual “dictionary” include Algae, Clathrates, Dilithium, Fleece, Goats, Theology, Whale Oil, and many, many more. The tone of the entries ranges ... Read more

A message from this ambitious project is that energy can be understood as a heterogeneous set of self-mystifying systems or machines that block access to thought as they fascinate us. Fuels emerge as more primal elements that the audience can grasp at various points along the way to consumption/combustion. This dictionary can help scramble our thinking about fuel—not in order to demonize energy and not in order to create a new hierarchy in which certain renewables take over from fossil fuels but instead to open up potential ways of interacting with real and imaginary substances, by wrenching them out of narrative and placing them into an idiosyncratic dictionary to be applied by readers into new narratives.  

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Product Details

Format
Paperback
Publication date
2016
Publisher
University of Minnesota Press United States
Condition
New
Number of Pages
152
Place of Publication
Minnesota, United States
ISBN
9780816699988
SKU
V9780816699988
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-48

About Karen Pinkus
Karen Pinkus is professor of Italian and comparative literature at Cornell University and chair of the Faculty Advisory Board of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. She has widely written on climate change and the humanities, as well as on literary theory, visual arts, Italian culture, and cinema. Her books include Bodily Regimes: Italian Advertising under Fascism (Minnesota, 1995) ... Read more

Reviews for Fuel: A Speculative Dictionary
"From the first we realize Fuel is not a traditional academic essay, but a fantastic dictionary, full of tall tales, craziness, real history, fake history, anticipations of the future, segues from one fuel form or fantasy to another, and sheer nonsense tied to hard truths. In this sense it's like fuel—there at the beginning and still with us, kicking and ... Read more

Goodreads reviews for Fuel: A Speculative Dictionary


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