Foucault

ESSAY: In Europe, around 500 versions of the fairy tale Cinderella have been recorded. The film Cinderella is not only about being queer, but also about how identity is controlled. And hence what 'archive' one has at their disposal.

KI: Some books take up familiar themes, but manage to put them into a context that makes the pieces fall more into place. Yuval Noah Harari's Nexus is one such book. For him, human political development rests on our ability to form and maintain networks.

BODY: Paul B. Preciado engages in a critique of the binary in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. The two-track, binary gender division is presented as a form of colonization of the bodies, which enables more clarifications about dependence, exploitation and reproductive demands.

PHILOSOPHY:Here follows an assessment of three new books about the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. From a debate in a castle via a critique of modern Western society to a call for more dynamic and 'wild' thinking. Tensions in the past, present and future.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: In this book, Robert Leib worries that our trust in artificial intelligence could backfire on us. 'Sophie' is a collective consciousness, one 'among many'.

ESSAY: The Golden Age of French philosophy (1945–1989) created something great. An atmosphere, a new way of thinking, a new way of being. A freedom-hungry life experiment. So what then went wrong?

ANTI-OEDPUS: It is approx. 50 years since the French book Anti-Oedipus – capitalism and schizophrenia was published. We are therefore printing here a new essay by Professor Knut Stene-Johansens about, among other things, this book he translated from French to Norwegian in 2002. According to him, the book is colourful, a red cloth in the fray of self-congratulatory philosophy and other analytical greats. Anti-Oedipus is an exemplary 'desire machine' – understood as a system of violations. The work displays a strong and constructive opposition to Freudian psychoanalysis as well as traditional philosophy's claims to truth. Their positive concept of desire contrasts with the concept of Freud and Lacan, which is seen negatively as a lack. At the same time: All of Deleuze's texts represent a form of resistance.

AFRICA: Disruption opens up for the capitalists a new display of power and new income: People, society and nature are reduced to raw material. The author Achille Mbembe's horizon is always the widest possible – the cosmic, earth-historical and planetary. Africa, despite all harrowing problems, is being called forth as a vibrant world center that still has powers in reserve, a teeming wildlife and a wealth of cultures.

WOKE: The crime community is pushing people over to the right, which is growing because people feel alienated by woke and identity politics. Moreover, the left has become more interested in monitoring each other than forming a common front against the right. Is solidarity and compassion for the suffering of others a limited resource?

SUBJECTS: How should art stand out in a time when artistic work has come to resemble modern working life with its constant demands for communication, networking and visibility? Appearance and staging have become more important than content. Can we today actually rediscover our relationship with time, the experience of duration, practice doing less? Not being a means to an end?

Normality: Mark GE Kelly examines how norms affect important parts of life and our understanding of normality – with regard to sexuality, orientation, body image, identity, illness, death, individualism, hedonism, racism and white privilege.

WOMEN: On the occasion of Women's Day on March 8, MODERN TIMES prints here, in reflection on the changing times, an excerpt from Eivind Tjønneland's new book «Abnormal» women – Henrik Ibsen and the decadence. Ibsen's dramas were described in 1893 as written for hysterical women, male masochists and the mentally retarded.

PHILOSOPHY: Perhaps the example is better for innovation than the question. Like Michel Foucault, Slavoj Žižek likes to bypass more traditional academic sources.

PHILOSOPHY: Shortly after Agora's magnificent publication on populism, the magazine follows up with an even thicker publication. This time it is about Michel Foucault and his groundbreaking series of lectures on neoliberalism.

KNOWLEDGE: Where is it that, according to author Alexander Hooke, "does not fit into a familiar cultural epic pattern, opera, tragedy, romance, ballet, comedy, vaudeville, sitcom, or farce"?

Is it possible that traits from anarchism still have great validity for some of us today?