Which as You Know Means Violence

On Self-Injury as Art and Entertainment

A blending of art and pop cultural criticism about people who injure themselves for our entertainment or enlightenment.

A few weeks before he died, Hunter S. Thompson left a message for Jackass' Johnny Knoxville: "I might be coming to Baton Rouge... and if I do I will call you, because I will be looking to have some fun, which as you know usually means violence." Fun does not, of course, mean violence for most people. Those who choose to make a hobby, a career, or an art practice out of injury are wired differently, subject to unusual motivations, and quite often powered by an ardent death-drive.

In Which as You Know Means Violence, writer and art critic Philippa Snow analyses the subject of pain, injury, and sadomasochism in performance, from the more rarefied context of contemporary art, to the more lowbrow realm of pranksters, stuntmen, and stuntwomen, as well as uncategorizable, danger-loving YouTube freaks.

In a world where violence—of the market, of climate change, of capitalism—is part of our everyday lives, Which as You Know Means Violence focuses on those who enact violence on themselves, or for art and entertainment, and analyzes the role that violence plays in 21st century culture.

©2022 Philippa Snow (P)2022 Repeater Books