Audiobook9 hours
Training for Catastrophe: Fictions of National Security after 9/11
Written by Lindsay Thomas
Narrated by Karen Peakes
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
About this audiobook
Why would the normally buttoned-down national security state imagine lurid future scenarios like a zombie apocalypse? In Training for Catastrophe, author Lindsay Thomas shows how our security regime reimagines plausibility to focus on unlikely and even unreal events rather than probable ones. With an in-depth focus on preparedness (a pivotal, emergent national security paradigm since 9/11) she explores how fiction shapes national security.
Thomas finds fiction at work in unexpected settings, from policy documents and workplace training manuals to comics and video games. Through these texts-as well as plenty of science fiction-she examines the philosophy of preparedness, interrogating the roots of why it asks us to treat explicitly fictional events as real. Thomas connects this philosophical underpinning to how preparedness plays out in contemporary politics, emphasizing how it uses aesthetic elements like realism, genre, character, and plot to train people both to regard some disasters as normal and to ignore others.
Training for Catastrophe makes an important case for how these documents elicit consent and compliance. Thomas draws from a huge archive of texts to ask difficult questions about the uses and values of fiction.
Thomas finds fiction at work in unexpected settings, from policy documents and workplace training manuals to comics and video games. Through these texts-as well as plenty of science fiction-she examines the philosophy of preparedness, interrogating the roots of why it asks us to treat explicitly fictional events as real. Thomas connects this philosophical underpinning to how preparedness plays out in contemporary politics, emphasizing how it uses aesthetic elements like realism, genre, character, and plot to train people both to regard some disasters as normal and to ignore others.
Training for Catastrophe makes an important case for how these documents elicit consent and compliance. Thomas draws from a huge archive of texts to ask difficult questions about the uses and values of fiction.
Related to Training for Catastrophe
Related audiobooks
The Zombie Combat Manual: A Guide to Fighting the Living Dead Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lobo Connection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Going Mutant: The Bat Boy Exposed Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Brainwashed Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInmate DNA Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Final Warning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDirt: A Social History as Seen Through the Uses and Abuses of Dirt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Caves of Fear Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMillion Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnited States Censuous Bureau: The Adventures of a 2020 Census Enumerator Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond All Weapons: Golden Age Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cop Under Cover: My life in the shadows with drug lords, robbers and smugglers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSUMMARY - The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong By Dr. Laurence J Peter And Raymond Hull Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCountdown To Terror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pranked Straight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Eagles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Cat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsApocalypse Any Day Now: Deep Underground with America's Doomsday Preppers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Allure of Premeditated Murder: Why Some People Plan to Kill Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBad Henry: The Murderous Rampage of ‘The Taco Bell Strangler' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlood Feud: The Man Who Blew the Whistle on One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and The Broken Promises of Police Reform Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDenying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Science That Will Save Us Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Entertaining Iron Man Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jailed For Freedom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath to the Dictator!: A Young Man Casts a Vote in Iran's 2009 Election and Pays a Devastating Price Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Social Science For You
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You're Cute When You're Mad: Simple Steps for Confronting Sexism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lonely Dad Conversations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Say Babylon: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radiolab: Mixtape: How The Cassette Changed The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myths of Meritocracy: A Revisionist History Anthology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Own It All: How to Stop Waiting for Change and Start Creating It. Because Your Life Belongs to You. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Training for Catastrophe
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
1 rating0 reviews