enthuse

The enthuse issue of MC Journal is finally up. It wasn’t easy juggling a fulltime (plus!) job and getting the issue sorted. In the future I shall leave myself much more time to organise what needs to be organised. I thank all the contributors for their patience and excellent work. I also thank Axel Bruns for coming in at the end to basically save my skin and tie up all the loose ends. At just under a month overdue, it really is better late than never.

‘enthuse‘

EDITORIAL: The Challenges of Enthusiasm – Glen Fuller
FEATURE: Enthusiasm as Affective Labour: On the Productivity of Enthusiasm in the Media Industry – Goetz Bachmann, Andreas Wittel
“If you can walk down the street and recognise the difference between cast iron and wrought iron, the world is altogether a better place”: Being Enthusiastic about Industrial Archaeology – Hilary Geoghegan
Never Coming to a Theatre near You: Recut Film Trailers – Kathleen Williams
Enthusiasm, the Creative Industry and the ‘Creative Tropical City: Mapping Darwin’s Creative Industries’ Project – Clementine Ruth Hill
Promises of Peace and Passion: Enthusing the Readers of Self-Help – Rebecca Hazleden
“Gently Caress Me, I Love Chris Jericho”: Pro Wrestling Fans “Marking Out” – Wilson Koh
The Blonde Goddess – Meera Atkinson

My writing has changed considerably since I have become a cog in the cultural industry. I was speaking with an old friend over the weekend. It is the first time we have really spoken in a long time. He asked me if I miss all the theory stuff. At first I was going to say, Yes. But then it occurred to me that I don’t miss it, because it hasn’t gone anywhere. Almost every article I write nowadays, and I write many, is in some way written in relation to what I worked so hard to express in my dissertation. There is something to be said for testing one’s ideas in a radically different cultural and social milieu. It is far from the case that I need to ‘dumb’ my ideas down, rather I am challenged to express the force of the ideas in ways that are actually forceful. The alleged elegance of a well argued scholarly piece leaves much to be desired if it isn’t actually read by anyone. Where is the efficacy then? To write in another discourse and yet address and grapple with the same intellectual problems that drove me to finish my dissertation in different ways is the current challenge I face. To participate in the practices of subcultural valorisation that belong to this scene I am part of, so my words actually mean something is my task.