The title “The Ghosts of my Life” comes, of course, from the amazing single by Japan. You already knew that, but if you’d like to refresh your memory about how remarkable it was that anybody was allowed to do anything as strange as this on national television,(back when there were only four channels!), HERE is the link.
Before we leave this particular rabbit-hole, I couldn’t resist adding this image from the Propellerheads (featuring Shirley Bassey), which Fisher NEVER references, but which holds at least two key Fisherian elements; firstly, the general hauntological atmosphere of this stylized re-creation of an early 60’s TV Jazz show, complete with plummy-voiced announcer, and Secondly the moment caught here, when one of the studio technicians begins spinning on his head, a clear reference to Fisher’s definition of the “weird” (as opposed to the “eerie”) in the presence of something which should not be there. The title of the tune, ironically, is “History Repeating” , complete video HERE
To get started properly, though…
…here’s the first episode of Sapphire and Steel…and HERE is a link to the youtube premiere of the last episode, which Fisher describes at length in the beginning of the book. It’s available from the 29th of December 2023 onwards.
Ken McMullen’s 1983 film Ghost Dance is great fun…
…and I’ve set it to the exact moment when Derrida get’s asked if he believes in ghosts…
Here’s the Grant Gee documentary about Joy Division.
Tinker, Tailor got remade recently, but this is the version that Fisher means
I never saw this, but here it is
Here’s some Burial…
This is the Caretaker album that I found whilst trying to find out what Vapourwave was…
…and HERE is a link to an article that Tom wrote a while ago about V/Vm, which was one of Leyland James Kirby, (aka The Caretaker), alter egos…
…but, you know, you could just listen to this instead…
…I’m getting bored with this. Fisher talks about the Disintegration Tapes quite a lot…
…time for something to read! HERE is an article about John Foxx.
I’m really fed up with this by now, but I think that this…
…might have something important to say, but I’m not sure what. It is, however, a great example of the sort of thing that used to be on the TV when you got back from the pub in 1984. Get yourself a can out of the fridge and settle down with it…
Step Forward, Mark Fisher…
You may, like Tom, enjoy the ranting style that Russell Brand brought to his version of Fisher’s Capitalist Realism, but for all of you who have a problem with him, here’s a very soothing version…
…and here is a version of another short book from Fisher…
…which was discussed at length by Chapo Trap House.
…and for those of you with Spotify, here is the Supercontext Podcast discussing Fisher’s last book.
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Ghosts of My Life - Mark Fisher (2014)