24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep

"24/7" by Jonathan Crary is a brilliant interdisciplinary analysis about capital's ongoing colonization of human consciousness. Professor Crary is a highly regarded art critic, essayist and editor whose studies about perception and power have proven widely influential. This masterful book provides uniquely compelling insights into our postmodern condition including the possibility of change.Dr. Crary frames the discussion with the tale of DARPA's quest to engineer a `sleepless soldier' who might better fit into the military's increasingly automated systems of terror, torture and surveillance. The author supposes that these kind of non-sleep technologies will inevitably be adapted by struggling civilian workers and consumers, many of whom are in fact already compelled to develop virtual identities in order to better compete in the cutthroat 24/7 marketplace. The author thoughtfully compares capital's attack on sleep with the broader assault on the earth's resources and the theft of community assets; with the infamous Bhopal disaster serving as an extreme example of the discord that exists between corporate violence and communities at sleep.Dr. Crary deftly assimilates the thoughts of leading postmodern theorists including Foucault, Agamben, Bauman, Deleuze and others to develop, enrich and articulate his ideas. For example, Dr. Crary argues that the so-called `digital age' is properly understood as capitalism's ongoing project of subsuming individuals within its regime of discipline and control. As individuals depoliticize themselves through their willing submission to screen capture defined by the perquisites of capital, the author suggests that the widespread dissemination of software tools to capture the experiences of end users has falsely substituted for the democratic ideal of human progress.Drawing from works of art, film and literature to inform his narrative, Dr. Crary discusses how the 'attention economy' has intended to make democracy safe for capitalism. The author explains how 1950s television culture had imposed a regime of habituation and normalcy in the aftermath of a horrific World War, substituting individual dream fulfillment with the desire of mass consumption. The rise of the Internet has only further atomized individuals into their screen lives; thus seeming to have all but obliterated the latent threat of 1960s communal idealism from our memory. Warning against the seductive idea that social media can induce change without a commensurate movement on the streets, Dr. Crary nonetheless still holds out hope that people can harness the power of their dream-sleep to imagine a better world that is free from the privations of billionaires, big corporations and crony politicians.I highly recommend this exceptional and deeply thought-provoking book to everyone.

My book club chose this for a read, we appreciated it’s clear point of view and use of cultural artifacts to deepen a good analysis. Good references

The author takes an interesting approach to contemporary capitalism in this book.While the analysis of work blurring the line of leisure and invading our personal life, Crary's analysis go beyond this.His argument is that contemporary technology, specially those related to the internet, have created the conditions for action at all times of the day.The idea of "the city that never sleeps" has expanded into a sedentary form. Whereas the phrase used to mean one can go out and still find something to do at all times, nowadays everything is accessible at all times from a computer or smartphone screen.Therefore, Crary is not only saying we are working more and more, but that even when we are not working, we are demanding work, in a perpetual 24/7 cycle.The consequence is the end not only of sleep, but of deep thinking, creativity, imagination, and so on. A powerful argument to be found in this book, and Crary develops it well.Definitely recommended.

Read Capitalist Realism instead. After you've read that, if you want more, I would suggest rereading Fisher's book and avoiding this book. I read all 128 pages. There's definitely a coherent 10-page essay in there somewhere. Maybe, there's even a solid 28 page essay in there somewhere. The vast majority of the book is incoherent ranting. Even after taking my dictionary to every single obscure word or neologism, what's left is poorly constructed arguments/opinions. My interpretation of the sought main subject of the book is that capitalism has interrupted our natural temporalities. The ultimate goal is the commodification of every minute. I say my interpretation because the book is not linear or entirely cohesive. It rambles with very esoteric vocabulary. It wouldn't surprise me if it was the case that this book was written by an undergraduate on a coffee and cigarettes binge of multiple all-nighters and then a grad student replaced obvious pseudo-intellectual words with obscurely intellectual ones.

Capitalism is taking our sleeping time away – for competitive productivity the best worker is a robot, which works day and night. Humans are to be substituted by machines, which don’t claim citizen rights. Now this intent is growing in the space of material, mental work, using automation algorithms and devices. Capitalism always as reduced human physical energy to commodity, but now it wants to colonize mental energy.

Crary puts forward very interesting thesis about the ends of sleep with the widespread 24/7 mode of operation. Unfortunately, the author shows his lack of inside knowledge about digital culture. His considerations about blogging and digital social networks show how little he understands what is going on in this realm today.

A relatively brief but really fine review of the current techno-pickle we're all in. Every sentence is great and sums up material from many other recent studies. Totally worth it, and it actually covers much more territory than you might think -- the whole thing with sleep is his Ariadne's thread or refrain that he follows to better guide us through the labyrinth we find ourselves in. This is a great use of your limited reading time.

Crary writes like an artist, and though he circumnavigates his ideas a fair amount, he does it articulately and in such a short book that you hardly notice. I ended up highlighting a lot of his pithy phrasings.

The author has some interesting ideas, but has hidden them in a thicket of abstract nouns. He appears to be hoping for readers to confuse polysyllabic text with erudition. It appears to be very popular with humanities academics, but unpalatable to broader humanity. I look forward to the English translation.

Good input

The future is lonely and in the control of neo liberalism ....try to get a good nights sleep....its waiting to be colonised

This book articulates what many of us will have felt. Modern life with all it's gadgets makes us complicit in filling our time with meaningless activity instead of thought. Beautifully written this is a page turner with a difference.

Thought provoking, whilst setting you on a quest to understand other issues which society is dealing with today. A great book if you are a seeker looking to understand the dynamics that has shapes civilization and still continually influence what we do today...