Where Does a Body Begin? Biology’s Function in Contemporary Capitalism - Meltdown Your Books
3rd Edition
Becoming Press/111 pgs
Excellent condition (New)
_________________________________________________________
In this book, we don’t do biology, or fund it, or research it, or practice it; in this book, we are biology.
In anticipation of MYB's upcoming second book with Becoming Press, we have reverted the design of this book back to its original, first edition cover, and the typography inside the book has been updated to our 2025 style. Entering its 3rd edition, this book has been re-edited, with a new foreword which reframes the book in accordance with the author's reflections over the 2 years this book has been out.
While presented as a contiguous work, the book is formed of different essays that have been dissected, recomposed with artificial connective tissue. The result lies somewhere between the rhizomatic continuity of a Body-without-Organs, and the disjointed assemblage of roadkill; either way, the question of where to even begin remains the same.
These essays each grow out of a particular resentment that developed through years of experience as a working-student of biology, but the task of the book was to transform this into something productive, something that sticks granular propositions into Biology like acupuncture needles. Inherent sexism within Biological research is, after all, not entirely disconnected to Pharmaceutical giants flooding the streets with opiates—and it is simply a writer’s hope that some well positioned words can remind enough people of how its all connected.
In what could be perceived as a philosophical turn, the importance of talking about science, as much as doing it, is re-entering the popular scientific consciousness, and it is high time, too. What was already getting bad under Biden, became catastrophic under Trump, and the infiltration into public research by private institutions and capitalist enterprises, which this book highlights, is proving dire. The capitalisation of all things bio, whether -yoghurt, -metric data or -logical institutions, is necrotic—MeltdownYourBooks didn’t flinch, they just grabbed the scalpel, dowsed the flesh in ethanol, and asked the question we all forget needs answering: where first, Doc?
3rd Edition
Becoming Press/111 pgs
Excellent condition (New)
_________________________________________________________
In this book, we don’t do biology, or fund it, or research it, or practice it; in this book, we are biology.
In anticipation of MYB's upcoming second book with Becoming Press, we have reverted the design of this book back to its original, first edition cover, and the typography inside the book has been updated to our 2025 style. Entering its 3rd edition, this book has been re-edited, with a new foreword which reframes the book in accordance with the author's reflections over the 2 years this book has been out.
While presented as a contiguous work, the book is formed of different essays that have been dissected, recomposed with artificial connective tissue. The result lies somewhere between the rhizomatic continuity of a Body-without-Organs, and the disjointed assemblage of roadkill; either way, the question of where to even begin remains the same.
These essays each grow out of a particular resentment that developed through years of experience as a working-student of biology, but the task of the book was to transform this into something productive, something that sticks granular propositions into Biology like acupuncture needles. Inherent sexism within Biological research is, after all, not entirely disconnected to Pharmaceutical giants flooding the streets with opiates—and it is simply a writer’s hope that some well positioned words can remind enough people of how its all connected.
In what could be perceived as a philosophical turn, the importance of talking about science, as much as doing it, is re-entering the popular scientific consciousness, and it is high time, too. What was already getting bad under Biden, became catastrophic under Trump, and the infiltration into public research by private institutions and capitalist enterprises, which this book highlights, is proving dire. The capitalisation of all things bio, whether -yoghurt, -metric data or -logical institutions, is necrotic—MeltdownYourBooks didn’t flinch, they just grabbed the scalpel, dowsed the flesh in ethanol, and asked the question we all forget needs answering: where first, Doc?