Pyropolitics: When the World is Ablaze

From the books and heretics burnt on the pyres of the Inquisition to self-immolations at protest rallies, from the massive burning of oil on the global scale to inflammatory speech, from the imagery of revolutionary sparks ready to ignite the spirits of the oppressed to car bombings in the Middle East, fire proves to be an indispensable element of the political. To account for this elemental source of heat and light, Pyropolitics delineates a semantico-discursive field, replete with the literal and metaphorical mentions and uses of fires, flames, sparks, immolations, incinerations, and burning in political theory and practices. Relying on classical political theory, literature, theology, contemporary philosophy, and an analysis of current events, Michael Marder argues that geo-politics, or the politics of the Earth, has always had an unstable, at once shadowy and blinding, underside—pyropolitics, or the politics of fire. If this obscure double of geopolitics is, increasingly, dictating the rules of the game today, then it is crucial to learn to speak its language, to discern its manifestations, and to project where our world ablaze is heading.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments / Kindling: The World on Fire / 1. The ABC of Pyropolitics, or the 'Elemental Regimes' of Carl Schmitt / 2. Light Without Heat, Heat Without Light, and the Problem of Evil / 3. Pyropolitical Theology I: The Fires of Revolution / 4. Pyropolitical Theology II: The Politics of Sacrifice / 5. The End of Heliotropic Utopias: When the Sun sets on the City upon the Hill / 6. Around the Hearth: Politics in the Kitchen / Extinguishing: The Politics of Ashes / Index / About the Author

About the Author :
Michael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country , Spain. He is an editorial associate of the journal Telos and has written numerous books and articles on phenomenology, political philosophy and environmental thought. His recent book publications include Plant-Thinking, 2013, The Philosopher’s Plant, 2014and Phenomena-Critique-Logos, 2014.

Review :
With this subtle, smart, and well-documented book, Michael Marder authoritatively weighs in on an old discussion about the role that fundamental elements (water, air, earth, fire) play in the construction and destruction of societies. This is a brilliant contribution to political metaphorology, useful for understanding the logic behind the combustible world in which we live. Scintillating! This is a staggeringly original and provocative piece of writing. Many other adjectives could be applied – scintillating, dazzling, brilliant, illuminating, scorching, explosive, absolutely burning in its urgency-- but it’s hard to use any of these terms innocently any longer after reading this fascinating, lucid, rigorous meditation, which strikes to the heart of the contemporary epoch. Recommended: “Marder's profound reading of Carl Schmitt's political theology informs his deep political ontology for this era of "the great blaze of global energy production and consumption.” In Pyropolitics: When the World is Ablaze, Michael Marder breaks the silence that envelops the atavistic and igneous element by proposing an original and compelling reinterpretation of the centrality of fire in our political and philosophical life … Through the ingenious pyropolitical lenses offered by this book, global politics becomes what one might call theoretical pointillism, the most appropriate graphic metaphor to describe the distinctive types of violence that characterize our age, from the recent attacks in Paris to the targeted killings carried out by the Obama administration.