Acknowledgements
This might be a good place to tell you that I’m not a specialist on Lyotard. The only time I studied his work in a formal setting was in Margret Grebowicz’s undergraduate seminar on his work. After that course, I didn’t read Lyotard consistently or vociferously, but I never put him down. I found myself going back to his work again and again, both in and out of school. Much of my study—and the thinking in this book—is due to the fortunate connections I’ve made with those who study his work, especially Kiff Bamford, who generously read an early draft and provided really helpful comments and queries and, of course, Margret. It was also the other students in Margret’s seminar—especially Kate Levitt and Andrew Burt—who helped me orient and disorient myself in that time and thus helped me feel the force of his thought.
Reading and studying Lyotard with my students over the years has significantly shaped my thinking and writing in unforeseen and inhuman ways. I’m indebted to my students in “Pedagogy in the ‘post-truth’ era” seminars over the past few years for this, especially Summer Pappachen, Jonah Jones-Stevens, Yutaka Phyo, Masaya Sasaki, and Brayden White. My friend Tyson Lewis over the years has given me an aesthetic education without which I couldn’t have accessed many of the writings I engage here. And if it wasn’t for Sarah Pfohl sharing her expansive knowledge and relentless thinking about art, aesthetics, and education with me, my thinking about and with Lyotard would be much more limited. I’m also grateful to Joris Vlieghe for writing the book’s afterword and opening up a new space of initiation.
Evelien van der Veer, my editor at Brill | Sense, was uniquely helpful in guiding the manuscript through the submission, revision, and publication process. The anonymous reviewers each provided not only corrective but, more importantly, interesting comments and critiques. Thanks also to David Backer for reading the first draft of the manuscript and to Bethany Cintron for help making final edits. As always, I appreciate series editors Brad Porfilio and Bill Reynolds for encouraging me to write the book and providing an outlet for it.
In order to assemble and finalize this book, I had to excuse myself from some of my normal obligations, including those related to organizing. This book wouldn’t have been possible with the support of my comrades in the Indianapolis branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I want to thank Timi Aderinwale, Connie Thompson, and Sam James in particular for giving me this opportunity and for stepping up during this time in the summer of 2020.