Exiting the Vampire Castle

Exiting the Vampire Castle is an essay written in 2013 by social theorist Mark Fisher arguing for increased Leftist solidarity by reducing online callout culture and returning to organization of efforts around economic class, rather than around identity.

Synopsis

Fisher argues that a largely-online style of identity-based leftist discourse grounded in "witch-hunting moralism" halts productive leftist discourse and undermines class politics.[1] In particular, the combination of a primary focus on identity and the policing of others' speech is deleterious.[2] Fisher saw the turn from class and materialism towards identity as a move from objective outward-facing goals to subjective inward goals that result in fragmentation of the left's efforts and community.[3]

Reception

Jacobin magazine described "Exiting the Vampire Castle" as Fisher's "most loved and hated essay".[3]

Influence

Angela Nagle grounds her critique of the left in her book Kill All Normies on Fisher's essay. She uses the essay to diagnose the political situation of the 2016 United States presidential election in particular and leftist use of social media platforms in general.[2]

Michael Brooks' book Against the Web pulls heavily on concepts from "Exiting the Vampire Castle" to highlight the limits he observes in the tactics of the left. As an alternative to the condemnation and alienation common among leftists of the Castle, Brooks proposes a "cosmopolitan socialism" building on the works of Cornel West, Amartya Sen, and C. L. R. James.[4]

References
  1. Frost, Amber A’Lee (5 June 2017). "All Worked Up and Nowhere to Go | Amber A'Lee Frost". The Baffler.
  2. Weatherby, Leif (29 June 2017). "Posting Left and Right". Jacobin Magazine.
  3. Day, Meagan (13 November 2018). "The Gospel According to Mark Fisher". Jacobin Magazine.
  4. McManus, Matt (31 March 2020). "Critiquing the Intellectual Dark Web: Michael Brooks' 'Against the Web'". Merion West.
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