Raving

"The book’s charm is in the autofiction, where the reader gets to inhabit Wark’s sense of liberation. It’s an unusually hopeful depiction of late midlife as a phase of discovery." -- Emily Witt * The New Yorker *
"McKenzie Wark is one of today’s finest critics on the subject of bodies, sex, gender, and, as of now, the venue that brings them all together: the rave. . . . Few are better than Wark at capturing how it feels to be in a body with so much intelligence and humor. Here, she argues for raving as a vital trans aesthetic, a way to dance — literally — over the crumbling foundations of capitalism." -- Isle McElroy * Vulture *
"A well-tooled topic on which only a writer as sharp as Wark could induce me to pick up another book. . . . Wark is a master of brevity and precision, and Raving is no exception; her easy prose avoids the self-indulgent nostalgia that often afflicts writing on this subject matter." -- Sean Burns * Frieze *
"Wark’s entry into Duke University Press’s Practices series, which spotlights the activities that make us human, invites us into the underground queer and trans rave scene of New York City. A bombastic collision of sound and movement, raving is, to Wark, the ideal activity for 'this era of diminishing futures.' An avid raver herself, she blends academic analysis with her own first-hand accounts, all relayed with sensual, staccato prose." -- Sophia M. Stewart * The Millions *
"Wark paints a vivid series of vignettes attempting to build a shared language around raving as a technological and social practice—and trying to make sense of the role it plays in the late-capitalist hellscape we now find ourselves in." -- Janus Rose * Vice *
"Wark’s new book, Raving, is both a chronicle and a critique of her experience—a queer, trans, cripped, middle-aged one—articulated over the course of six essays, which put her friends and intellectual influences in conversation on the dance floor. To read it as a raver is to feel understood. To read it as anyone else is to get a glimpse of a world, enclosed and artificial, that, after the course of a loud, damp night, can leave its marks on everything outside." -- Zoë Beery and Geoffrey Mak * The Nation *
"From the way it’s structured alone, you can tell Wark poured her soul into this work. Her writing is phantasmagoric, vivid, and sharp. . . . Something I appreciate about Wark is her effort to hold herself accountable and criticize the culture she’s participating in. . . . Wark opened my eyes to a brand new world, and I’m sure she can open yours too." -- Lily Alvarado * Autostraddle *
"In some ways, Raving is Wark’s aesthetic boiled down to its essence: a short primer on nightlife and sex that’s explained in concepts and theory, and told in a slightly fictionalized series of bursts. It moves from dancefloor to dancefloor, deftly avoiding the classroom and academy. Raving is very much a book that only Wark could have written. I’m glad she did." -- Roz Milner * Live in Limbo *
"What emerges in Raving . . . is a mode of writing that is deliberate but impressionistic, systematic but dissociative, theoretical but personal. . . . Like a DJ reigning over a club, Wark maintains a sense of order throughout her book while also remaining open to chance and spontaneity, her “set” containing as many twists, turns, and patterns as that of a master selector. Though she is in many ways driven by a critical impulse, she utilizes a playful, autofictional style, one that allows her to foreground sensorial experience and act as a contemporary Virgil guiding readers through the nine beautiful circles of rave hell." -- Will Harrison * Cleveland Review of Books *
"Wark’s aptly-named Raving takes readers on a journey through New York’s thriving, underground queer rave scene—exploring how techno is an artform particularly suited for apocalyptic-feeling times." -- Claire Valentine * W Magazine *
"Wark is the professor of the rave, reimagining the philosophical framework for understanding raving as a means of temporary freedom. With her quirky encyclopedia of made-up vocabulary and cheeky anecdotes from her experiences on the dance floor, Raving is at once theoretical and personal, sweet and nihilistic." -- Alessandra Schade * Alternative Press *
"Thank god for this book, I love it so. Wark, a professor at the New School in New York City, documents her return to the rave scene after a cool couple decades away, and shows how raving, as she practices it, is love, healing, rebellion, community care, queer and trans joy, and also just a gorgeous good time." -- CJ Hauser * The Week *
"Part autofiction, part ethnography, Raving mirrors the complex and collective aspects of rave experiences. Like a practiced deejay, Wark blends genres to take us on a larger journey. Some critics who shared their thoughts with Wark when she was dancing and researching appear momentarily and nudge us gently toward something new." -- Craig Jennex * Gay and Lesbian Review *
"Raving is a short book that is exceptionally self-aware. Wark succinctly narrates what to expect, makes apparent what frameworks she is thinking with, and offers keywords to ground every chapter. Summarizing it felt like it would crush the loose and giddy writing, and parsing it out chapter by chapter (each nicely encapsulating critical social themes of temporality, relation, desire, and assemblage) would eviscerate the synergies between them. It is a vibrant model for a different kind of a critical and philosophical study of performance communities, simultaneously theoretical and fleshy." -- Kareem Khubchandani * Dance Chronicle *