The recording is almost 20 years old.
Kode9 has shared a previously unheard recording of a conversation between himself and the late Mark Fisher, 6 years after his passing. The recording is from a conversation between the producer and theorist from 1998.
Fisher’s works included: Capitalist Realism, Ghosts of My Life, and The Weird and the Eerie – alongside a number of compiled works from his personal blog K-Punk and lectures Fisher had given.
According to a note shared on Kode9’s Instagram, the conversation “was the first of a series of recorded conversations whose aim was to explicate/clarify/transmit the embryonic mythos.”
He continued: “Due to the mnemonic fade and/or nonrecovery of other minidiscs, it is unclear whether subsequent recordings existed”.
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Kode9 also shared his own thoughts about the late theorist and friend, saying: “Despite the tragic circumstances of his death, and the earnestness of his reception, my overriding memory was how funny he was.”
In a conversation Crack Magazine had with Fisher in 2014, the writer and theorist shared his thoughts on perceptions of his work as negative.
“People say that my work is pessimistic, but it’s not – it’s negative. It’s more that it reveals the negativity that is already there, but there’s massive efforts of denial and disavowal. I personally can’t help but be optimistic in lots of ways,”
“… part of what I’m doing is trying to bring that underlying negativity to the surface as a means of acknowledging sadness and the causes of that sadness, I think, so that they can be exposed. And then it’s about converting depression into anger.”
Maria Minerva also shared personal experiences with Fisher, saying: “One of my fondest memories is the day we went protesting against tuition fee increases in front of the Houses of Parliament. We got kettled by the police and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but Mark’s calm and fearless demeanor put us at ease. He talked the talk, and walked the walk – with us, his students.”
You can listen to the archived conversation here, read Maria Minerva’s ‘Perspective’ on the late theorist here, and read our conversation about Fisher with Kode9, Simon Reynolds and more here.
