Indirectness - by Jela Kreč & ič & & Jure Simoniti (Hardcover)

About the Book

The collection is built around the original concept of indirectness, introduced by Jela Krečič to illuminate a neglected dimension of truth. The project brings together some of today's most renowned thinkers and challenges them to rethink truth under 21st-century conditions.

Book Synopsis

We are said to live in a 'post-truth' era, yet our time is equally marked by an obsession with reality. From new realism in philosophy to the cult of authenticity in culture and the hyper-technological tracking of bodies and minds, countless efforts seek ever more direct access to what is supposedly 'most real'. This volume challenges the crisis-ridden formula of truth striving to grasp reality directly--forever approaching it, yet always falling short. Instead, it rethinks truth through the lens of indirectness and allows it to unfold in the here and now. Drawing on philosophical, political, and aesthetic perspectives, the essays examine how erring is inherent to genuine insight, how fictions reveal facts, how illusions can enable emancipatory struggles, and how strategies of indirectness in literature, cinema, and popular culture produce the effect of truth.

Review Quotes

In these desperate times, perhaps the greatest threat comes to our belief in the idea of truth. In Indirectness, Jela Krečič and Jure Simoniti come to the rescue. They have assembled a collection of essays that show exactly how the commitment to truth can be rediscovered and even strengthened--not by clinging to the old conceptions but by recognizing the centrality in indirection for arriving at truth. It's a game-changing work not to be missed if we are to escape the horrors of the post-truth world.--Todd McGowan, The University of Vermont