24/7 Late Capitalism And The Ends Of Sleep - Johnathan Crary

While the underpinning thesis of this book is a Marcusean reappraisal of the role of capitalism in the information age, it also, perhaps inadvertently, dwells with some elegance on the role of sensation, perception and attention and our increasingly deliquescent relationship with the physical world. Crary sees the mechanisms of the market relentlessly usurping every moment of wakeful attention in which we might be prompted to consume. Of course he is right. Sleep seems, at least in the short term, merely a waste of valuable time. Crucially it is also the last frontier of inviolable mental privacy and repair.  Crary's analysis of the myriad ways in which our attention has been commodified is acute and unsettling. The probability of lasting and profound change in the functioning of our minds, indeed impairment and damage is high, yet we seemingly march, untroubled by this into a state of permanent if damaged wakefulness, poised and ready to respond to the ubiquitous caresses of a conscious tide of persuasion.