Description:
Post-Weird explores communities formed when authority and meaning collapse, drawing parallels between serpent-handling churches, conspiracy theorists, pro-anorexia forums, and pseudoscientists. Dr. Matheson critiques their rigid worldviews and advocates for rethinking rhetoric as an approach to navigating the world's ambiguity and uncertainty.
Review Quotes: "Post-Weird is an intricate account of how radically different interpretations of potent symbols like 'science' are made possible by very similar psychic structures shaping our social worlds. Matheson produces a psychoanalytic rhetorical theory that adapts Jacques Lacan masterfully to our new media environment. Using cases as diverse as Sandy Hook denialists, snake handlers, and anti-trans rhetorical agents, Post-Weird asks readers to think about anti-rhetorical reading practices; at stake is our capacity to tolerate the actual, real ambiguity and contingency of being human in community with others."--Eric King Watts "author of Postracial Fantasies and Zombies: On the Racist Apocalyptic Politics Devouring the World"