Caliban and the Witch

Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation

By: Silvia Federici

Narrated by: J. Lee Craig

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Literary nonfiction.

Caliban and the Witch is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the rebel body and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2004 Silvia Federici (P)2022 Post Hypnotic Press Inc.

Brilliant book, but reader can't pronounce

This book's brilliant, and even more trenchant right now than it was when it was first published. But this reader--who has a lovely voice--can't pronounce a thing! I know many of the names and citations and some of the Latin expressions, and these are mangled over and over. Leroi-Ladurie comes out sounding like a brand of margarine... As bad, she adds syllables to words she either doesn't recognize or somehow elides when reading: she keeps saying "bourgeoisie" instead of "bourgeois," and there are a host of other slips. Bless her heart, as they say.

incredible thesis

the narration was mediocre, but not impossible to listen to

the book itself is dense, and full of academic language. if you can parse it, it's an incredible thesis on the connection between the subjugation of women and the rise of capitalism. really stellar work

Important research to understand what we’re living in and how we got here

Silvia Federici’s work answered so many questions about why gender roles are what they are today, how capital and the shift toward money economy changed our communities etc. I wish I’d found this book in my youth.

Amazing, Well Researched Novel, Poorly Narrated

Comprehensive history of the relationship between the persecution of women during the centuries long transition from feudalism to capitalism. I wish the reader had a modicum of inflection, and that they practiced pronunciation before tackling a book of this depth! The quality of the writing, though, outweighs the short comings of the narrator.

for christ’s sake pls give J Lee Craig a chance to re-record this

Here’s the scenario: I’m at work in the basement of a regional archive, where the everyday tasks of my job hit my heavily masked learning disorder at just the right angle to make me feel like a crumbling cheese.

I download this book to feel more human and remind myself that I have a soul, and to pretend that understanding a complicated and nuanced argument somehow negates the fact that I’m struggling.

And then the narrator’s battle with the text begins and I flash back on one of the worst moments of my life: an international academic conference where I presented a paper that I had not yet actually written, and never would write. Some bullshit on Cyborgs and the Pharmakon. She’s talking about Foucault’s biopower and Rosi Braidotti and I’m right back there in that room facing a harsh critique coming from the Gender and Women’s Studies grad student that I critiqued with equal harshness the day before—both of us are women in our early 20s. Clearly neither of us actually know anything about critical theory, yet we are clawing at each other to learn. An ugly spectacle all around.

Back to J Lee Craig- her mispronunciations psych me out because at this point I’m deep enough into my relived fight/flight response to question wether it’s her or me that’s been phrasing things wrong all along.
Thankfully, it’s not me getting caught this time.

Let her re-record this with better pronunciation help from the editors. This shit is too dense for anyone who hasn’t participated in highly specific academic hazing to tackle without support, and it is rather embarrassing and stressful.

Where did they find this narrator?

"Hey, none of us speak French so do you think we should check if she's pronouncing these words right?"

"Naah, I'm sure it's fine."

Seriously though. this narrator is just constantly mispronouncing even common, English words. I don't understand how this made it through editing. Excellent book. perplexingly shoddy reading.

I'm leaving the overall rating high so people don't think the book itself is being reviewed poorly, but know that the reading is probably gonna frustrate you a bit.

Annoying AI narrator

The content is excellent, but the narration is driving me crazy. It sounds like a pdf. AI reader, the reason I wanted to try audible was to have a human read in an normal way not like a drone.

Reading, Quite Weak

Page after page of mispronunciations. Neither the reader nor the editors took the time to see that common everyday words were pronounced correctly. It was a continual irritation and a disservice to the book, which had quite an interesting thesis which is well propounded.
A real disappointment!