{"product_id":"the-demon-of-writing-powers-and-failures-of-paperwork-mit-press","title":"The Demon of Writing: Powers and Failures of Paperwork (Mit Press)","description":"\u003cp\u003eSince the middle of the eighteenth century  political thinkers of all kinds  radical and reactionary  professional and amateur  have been complaining about bureaucracy. But what  exactly  is all this complaining about?  The Demon of Writing is a critical history and theory of one of the most ubiquitous  least understood forms of media: paperwork. States rely on records to tax and spend  protect and serve  discipline and punish. But time and again this paperwork proves to be unreliable. Examining episodes from the story of a clerk who lost his job and then his mind in the French Revolution to Roland Barthess brief stint as a university administrator  the book reveals the powers  failures  and even pleasures of paperwork. Many of its complexities  the book argues  have been obscured by the comic-paranoid style that characterizes so many of our criticisms of bureaucracy. At the same time  the book outlines a new theory of what Marx called the bureaucratic medium. Returning first to Marx  then to Freud  The Demon of Writing argues that this theory of paperwork must be attentive to both praxis and parapraxis.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44946748735541,"sku":"ByrdShop_1935408267","price":49.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781935408260_78173b28-0a03-4f4b-a4ca-b65b37427088.jpg?v=1770147411","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-demon-of-writing-powers-and-failures-of-paperwork-mit-press","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}