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