The Darkest Timeline by Bram E. Gieben announced by Revol Press
An announcement, an essay, and the birth of a brand-new independent UK press
I have a book coming out next year! The Darkest Timeline will explore themes I touched on in Episode 13 of the show. I’m absolutely thrilled to be working with Daniel Melo and Mike Watson, two writers I greatly admire. They just set up Revol Press as a new imprint and collective publishing model for theory and cultural criticism. Those of you who’ve followed the podcast for a while will remember Mike from Episode 11, where he discussed his seminal book The Memeing of Mark Fisher.
Revol’s aim is to “revive counter-cultural dreaming,” a phrase I absolutely love. It encapsulates what they plan to publish. Mike’s highly-anticipated next book will be Hungry Ghosts in the Machine, about how social and other digital media utilize nostalgia to heighten anxiety, depression and alienation. These are themes we’ve returned to again and again on the show, and we’ll have Mike back on soon to talk about the book, and Revol.
Coming up, Revol have announced a few more authors, with titles to be announced soon from Dan, C. Derick Varn, Adam Turl and others. It’s a massive honour to find a home for my book that fits it so well, a place where politics, aesthetics and culture can be unpacked and explored in fearless, romantic, experimental and exciting ways. Revol feels like a genuinely new approach, something that doesn’t yet exist in theory and criticism publishing in the UK. I couldn’t be more excited to read what they have coming.
Here’s the summary for The Darkest Timeline:
By turns a work of savage polemic, speculative philosophical reasoning and outsider insight, The Darkest Timeline is a dynamic ride through critical theory, pop culture and high-concept fiction. It is the document of a writer immersed in the technologically-accelerated culture war of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and its strange artefacts.
Go check out revolpress.com to find out more! You can also read a new exclusive essay from me on the politics of Joker and Midsommar exclusively on the Revol Press Patreon.
It is in many senses the antidote to the ‘grim-dark’ fantasies of films like Joker. Yes, there are primordial male urges that can explode into violence if not addressed, but they need to be ritually banished, rather than channeled. What should the method of their banishment be? This is the most dangerous question Midsommar poses.
- Read ‘Are we in the Wicker Man?’ at patreon.com/revolpress
Lots more exclusive content is coming to the Revol Press Patreon in the form of podcasts, essays and digital books, including a very special new collection from Mike Watson, Digital Moralia.
Writing and editing this book (and a few other things I have still got cooking…!) has taken up a lot of time this year, and the podcast’s been a little off its regular schedule as a result. I hope when you read the book you’ll agree it’s been worth it!
We’ll definitely have Mike and a few more Revol authors dropping by in 2024 to talk about their books, which is really exciting. There will be one more episode of Strange Exiles this year, so stay tuned. I'll be back with more news about the book, its themes, and a release date next year.
This is something I've always wanted to do. The Darkest Timeline is the best thing I've written, a culmination of years of thinking and writing about the future. I can't wait for you to read it!
Bram, Glasgow, 9 December 2023