The Philosophy of Evil Genius: a reading list

The Philosophy of Evil Genius: A Reading List.

The following reading list is a syllabus on the philosophy of evil genius. Books of literature, philosophy, and films by authors, thinkers and directors that look into the problem of evil in very interesting ways. The creators of these texts are either considered evil, in one way or another, and/or they are thinking evil, in one way or another. In any case, they are gathered here as an entryway into thinking evil from the perspective of ‘genius’ and ‘philosophy’. What is evil? What is genius? What is philosophy? Taken either as friends or enemies, the function of this syllabi is to give one access to thought that thinks with, against and through evil in philosophically intricate and intellectually provocative ways.

Week 0. Introduction to Evil Genius

John Milton, Paradise Lost 

Niccoli Machiavelli, The Prince 

Goethe, Faust 

Film: Alexander Sokurov, Faust

Week 1. Friedrich Nietzsche & The Antichrist

Friedrich Nieztsche, Beyond Good and Evil 

Friedrich Nieztsche, Antichrist 

Film: Lars Von Trier, The Antichrist 

Week 2. Georges Bataille & The Accursed Share of Passion

Georges Bataille, On Literature and Evil 

Georges Bataille, The Accursed Share 

Film: Mel Gibson, The Passion of Christ 

Week 3. Carl Schmitt’s & The Political Theology of Violence

Carl Schmitt, Political Theology

Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political

Film: Steven Spielberg, Schlinder’s List

Week 4. Martin Heidegger & The Evil Demiurge

Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

Emil Cioran, The Evil Demiurge 

Film: Louis Leterrier, Clash of the Titans

Week 5. Jean Francois-Lyotard & The Matrix of Libidinal Economy

Jean Francois-Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition

Jean Francois-Lyotard, The Libidinal Economy

CHAPTER 1 – A GREAT EPHEMERAL SKIN 

CHAPTER  3 – A DESIRE NAMED MARX

CHAPTER 6 –  ECONOMY OF THIS WRITING 

Film: The Wachowskis, The Matrix 

Week 6. Jean Baudrillard & The Transparency of Evil

Jean Baudrillard, The Transparency of Evil

Jean Baudrillard, Symbolic Value and Death

CHAPTER 4 – THE BODY, OR THE MASS GRAVE OF SIGNS

CHAPTER 5 – POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEATH

CHAPTER 6 – THE EXTERMINATION OF THE NAME OF GOD

Film: James Wan, Saw

Week 7. Michel Foucault & Madness

Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus 

PREFACE BY FOUCAULT 

CHAPTER 1 – DESIRING MACHINES

CHAPTER 4 – INTRODUCTION TO SCHIZOANALYSIS

Film: James Mangold, Girl, Interrupted 

Week 8. Agamben, Ronell and Outbreak

Gorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer

Avital Ronell, The Test Drive

CHAPTER 1- PROVING GROUNDS

CHAPTER 4 – THE TEST DRIVE 

Film: Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange

Week 9. The Thirst for Annihilation and An Understanding of Evil

Nick Land, The Thirst for Annihilation

Alain Badiou, Ethics: An Essay on an Understanding of Evil 

CHAPTER 3 – ETHICS AS A FIGURE OF NIHILISM

CHAPTER 4 – THE ETHICS OF TRUTHS

CHAPTER 5 – THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 

Film: Todd Phillips, Joker 

Week 10. Sorry To Bother You, Lacan Noir

David Marriott, Lacan Noir

Jacques Lacan, “Kant with Sade,”

Film: Boots Collins, Sorry To Bother You

Week 11.  Get Out: The Ontological Terror of Science and Truth

Calvin Warren, Ontological Terror

Jacques Lacan, “Science and Truth,” 

Film: Jordan Peele, Get Out