THEORY-FICTIONS AND HYPERSTITIONS: A ROUGH INTRODUCTION
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ABSTRACT
The article traces the genealogy of theory-fiction—a hybrid writing practice that consciously blurs the boundaries between philosophical argument and literary narrative. It begins with the early activities of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU) at the University of Warwick (1995–2003), whose key figures, Nick Land and Mark Fisher, “punctured” academic discourse in order to inject elements of cyberpunk, occultism, and electronic music. Through close readings of Land, Fisher, and Reza Negarestani—especially the novel-essay Cyclonopedia—the study shows how the concept of hyperstition turns literary fiction into an instrument of actual cultural intervention.
Part I situates James Wood’s notion of “hysterical realism” as a historical backdrop for the crystallisation of theory-fiction. Part II analyses CCRU concepts such as “Meltdown” and “spinal catastrophism,” following their passage from lecture halls into the early-2000s blogosphere (K-PUNK, Hyperstition, Xenosystems). Part III examines hyperstition itself: a mechanism by which fictional ideas—like William Burroughs’s “word-viruses” — materialise in socio-technological reality. Finally, deploying Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of “minor literature” (deterritorialized, collective, and inevitably political), the article shows how theory-fictions undermine hierarchies between “high” theory and popular culture. The conclusion defends the thesis that theory-fiction offers a model of radical writing capable of both describing and transforming reality, restoring to philosophy its status as a dangerous, “magical” practice.
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