Episode 506: The creative duo of Jakob Ganslmeier & Ana Zibelnik and I sat down to discuss their enigmatic and disturbing new book, If a Flower Bloomed in the Dark Room, Would You Trust It?/Repeat After Me, published by Spector Books. The book is a two-fold work that actually doubles as two consequential titles wrapped in one, which can be read in tandem.
If a Flower Bloomed in a Dark Room, Would You Trust It? follows the online rabbit holes developing from two mainstream social media trends related to self-improvement: fitness and spirituality. The converging narratives—Repeat After Me and Bereitschaft explore radicalization from the perspectives of the body and the spirit as they are amplified by platforms like TikTok: on the one hand, the militaristic pursuit of physical perfection, as reflected in the popularization among young boys of Arno Breker’s 1939 statue Bereitschaft; on the other, the quest for spiritual awakening and the attempt to rise above societal structures, combined with the belief in being the “chosen one.” The book builds on extensive visual research into the image rhetoric used by far-right political groups online, especially those employing positive visual language to convey hate messages.-publisher’s website.
The work is a harrowing discussion of the Internet, but also a historical loop through the use of Brekker’s statue and the implicit rabbit holes that have indoctrinated young people, particularly men across the world, who search for and yearn for answers to the many existential problems of contemporary society. Our discussion was lively, and it is clear that Jakob and Ana have treated their research more as anthropology than as observational subject matter. Please tune in, despite my preference for Cargo shorts and New Balance shoes, it was a fascinating discussion.
