Operation Valhalla : writings on war, weapons, and media

Author(s)

• Kittler, Friedrich
• Iurascu, Ilinca
• Winthrop-Young, Geoffrey
• Wutz, Michael

Bibliographic Information

Operation Valhalla : writings on war, weapons, and media

Friedrich Kittler ; edited and translated by Ilinca Iurascu, Geoffrey Winthrop-Young, and Michael Wutz ; with an introduction by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young

（A cultural politics book）

Duke University Press, 2021

• : pbk

Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Operation Valhalla collects eighteen texts by German media theorist Friedrich Kittler on the close connections between war and media technology. In these essays, public lectures, interviews, literary analyses, and autobiographical musings, Kittler outlines how war has been a central driver of media's evolution, from Prussia's wars against Napoleon to the so-called War on Terror. Covering an eclectic array of topics, he charts the intertwined military and theatrical histories of the searchlight and the stage lamp, traces the microprocessor's genealogy back to the tank, shows how rapid-fire guns brought about new standards for optics and acoustics, and reads Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow to upset established claims about the relationship between war, technology, and history in the twentieth century. Throughout, Operation Valhalla foregrounds the outsize role of war in media history as well as Kittler's importance as a daring and original thinker.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface / Ilinca Iurascu, Geoffrey Winthrop-Young, and Michael Wutz  vii Introduction: The Wars of Friedrich Kittler / Geoffrey Winthrop-Young  1 Part I: Guns, Germans, and Steel: The Hardware(s) of War 1. Free Ways (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)   53 2. A Short History of the Searchlight (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)  62 3. Fragments of a History of Firearms (Translated by Michael Wutz)  69 4. Tanks (Translated by Michael Wutz)  73 Part II. Wires, Waves, and Wagner 5. Noises of War (Translated by Michael Wutz)  79 6. Playback: A World War History of Radio Drama (Translated by Michael Wutz)  91 7. Operation Valhalla (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)  110 8. When the Blitzkrieg Raged (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)  117 Part III. Vanishing Animals and Returning Nomads 9. Animals of War: A Historical Bestiary (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)  123 10. On Modern Warfare: A Conversation with Alexander Kluge (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)  127 11. Of States and Their Terrorists (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)  136 Part IV. Love and War 12. Manners of Death in War (Translated by Michael Wutz)  151 13. Ottilie Hauptmann (Translated by Ilinca Iurascu)  166 Part V. Pynchon's War 14. On a Novel That Would Not Only Be Fiction . . . (Translated by Michael Wutz)  193 15. De Nostalgia (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)  198 16. Media and Drugs in Pynchon's Second World War (Translated by Michael Wutz)  211 Part VI. Kittler on Kittler 17. Biogeography (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)  227 18. Theology (Translated by Geoffrey Winthrop-Young)  233 Notes  235 Bibliography  273 Index  287 Credits  295  

by "Nielsen BookData"

• NCID: BC06407789
• ISBN:
  • 9781478011842
• LCCN: 2020022635
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Original Language Code: ger
• Place of Publication: Durham
• Pages/Volumes: x, 297 p.
• Size: 23 cm
• Classification:
  • DC23 : 302.23
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Communication and technology -- Philosophy
  • LCSH : Technology -- Social aspects
  • LCSH : War (Philosophy)
  • LCSH : Weapons -- Philosophy
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BB26960189