With Christmas next week and the New Year following, I wanted to send a slightly different newsletter to close out the year.
Overview of the year
This was the first year of the Stuck In The Middle newsletter. I kicked off in August and, since then, have published 16 newsletters with over 32,000 words. That is over 2 hours of content if you have read them all. I am also excited that I have reached over 140 subscribers.
As a quick guide, I started with an introduction to the newsletter and the idea of being in the middle.
Next, I looked at why people work primarily through the work of Frédéric Lordon and Jason Read. (Their works will show up in the best reads section)
In the third edition, I focused on finding meaning again using the work of Lordon and including the work of Slavoj Žižek and Byung-Chul Han.
The fourth newsletter was focused on embracing alienation based largely on the book of the same title by Todd McGowan.
Fifth was choosing hope over optimism, focused on the book Hope without Optimism by Terry Eagleton.
Next, I wrote about culture, taking a critical look at Daniel Coyle’s book The Culture Code and leaning on the work of Terry Eagleton. I focused on how, most of the time, what organizations focus on as culture is really ideology.
I then began a series of posts on Ideology, first through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu(then after a brief detour for newsletter #8, which focused on layoffs and disavowal), through the lens of Louis Althusser, and Slavoj Žižek.
Newsletter #11 examined the idea of negative solidarity, heavily influenced by Jason Read’s work.
Newsletter #12 looked at the concept of Immediacy through the work of Anna Kornbluh.
I then did a two-part series on Freedom inspired by a class I took with Frank Ruda. I examined what freedom means at work and choice’s role in freedom.
For newsletter #15, I looked at Elizabeth Anderson’s book, Private Government.
And finally, I ended the year with a post on Vision as Utopia
My Best Reads
This year, I read 77 books (although I may still squeeze one or two in during the holiday), and I wanted to highlight the best books I read in 2024.
Non-fiction
Most of my reading for the year was non-fiction, making this list hard to narrow down; as a result, I will stick to 3 books that were published in 2024 that genuinely stood out.
The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work by Jason Read
The work looks at three “Double Shifts,” or concepts that create multiple shifts, from one aspect of reality to another. The three areas that Read focuses on are economic and political, material and mental, and action and production. While Read leans heavily on the work of Spinoza and Max, he does this in an accessible way using examples from film and television such as Office Space, Fight Club, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Sorry to Bother You.
Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism by Ann Kornbluh
Kornbluh looks at a current trend in art and culture towards Immediacy or the lack of mediation. I won’t go any deeper here as I focused all of Newsletter #12 on this book.
Disavowal by Alenka Zupančič
Zupančič argues that much of our social response to issues is based on the idea of disavowal. It isn’t that we are unaware of climate change and the risk, but that we allow our knowing that it is real to excuse us from taking any action. I looked at this book and used it to explore how people handle layoffs in Newsletter #8.
Fiction
My fiction reading was pretty light this year as I only read nine fiction books, but two are worth sharing.
Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin
A young man is afraid to dream as his dreams have a way of coming true. A doctor tries to help the man but ends up trying to use his powers to make a better world. As is often the case, articulating a perfect world has dire side effects.
Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki
This book collects short stories by the eclectic Japanese author. I would roughly call these stories science fiction, although more in the style of Octavia Butler than Isaac Asimov. To provide any more details on a story would give away the quirky twists that make Suzuki so much fun to read.
Next Year Preview
We will kick off next year with a series of posts on ethics for middle managers. This is a theme that I expect to return to throughout the year, using different ethical lenses. Other potential topics include being a member of the Professional Managerial Class, AI, and possibly Race/Racism. I will also continue looking at the work of Žižek, Jameson, Read, Zupančič, and many others that influence my thinking, all with what I intend to be a more explicit focus on the plight of middle managers. If you enjoy the newsletter, please share it with your friends and on social media.
Until then, have a great holiday season and a happy new year. Stuck In the Middle will return on January 3rd.