{"product_id":"clown-for-president","title":"Clown For President","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished to coincide with the release of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoker: Folie à Deux\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cb\u003e, the sequel to Todd Phillips’ iconic blockbuster, this imaginative reading sees \u003ci\u003eJoker \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eas an economic and political allegory, presenting unexpected and dazzling insights into contemporary capitalism.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat could be more surprising than the cinematic presentation of the Joker as a key to solving our present economic and political predicament? \u003cem\u003eSend In the Clowns!\u003c\/em\u003e leads us precisely there. Grip this movie’s visual language, its authors insist, and we can also grasp a political grammar, available to all, that articulates a new, world-changing solidarity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe predicament \u003cem\u003eSend In the Clowns!\u003c\/em\u003e diagnoses is urgent: the way late capitalism ensures astonishing inequality, unleashing a backlash in conspiracy, violence, and authoritarianism. These pages map this unraveling onto the narrative of \u003ci\u003eJoker\u003c\/i\u003e. When the movie begins in 1981, neoliberal tides are shifting the sands: the rise of insecure work; the destabilizing of welfare; the explosion of racialized incarceration. A close reading of the film allows Kennedy and McNaughton to isolate and confront these phenomena.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSend In the Clowns!\u003c\/em\u003e shows how melodrama has become late capitalism’s preferred genre. It appears in neoliberal economic theory; in a media seduced by caricatured villainy; in state justifications for war. Melodrama allows demagogues to depict themselves as saviors and decry political opponents as criminals, threatening the foundations of democracy itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe myth of the lone superhero has brought us to the brink of disaster. If we don’t want jokers for president, we must empower the clowns!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57195071537534,"sku":"NW9781682195147","price":12.15,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781682195147.jpg?v=1778538708","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/clown-for-president","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}