Discarded Selves
Obsolescence in the Age of Presentism
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Amid the rise of seductive, present-tense goods, the obsolete names what the present cannot assimilate: a forgotten one-hit-wonder, a now-unacceptable remark, or a teenage memory too awkward to reclaim. Yet it is precisely through these encounters with obsolete attachments that a different experience of time becomes possible. Discarded Selves shows that obsolescence is not only a condition imposed on objects and media but a temporal and affective logic internalized within the self. In cultures driven by disposability and the imperative to remain up-to-date, we continually shed former attachments, affects, and versions of ourselves. But these discarded selves persist: they return as intimate, time-stamped remnants that unsettle the fantasy of a seamless present.
Through close readings across literature, film, digital culture, and everyday practices—from decluttering and ragpicking to the disquieting experience of unexpectedly running into an ex or confronting long-forgotten diary entries—Discarded Selves shows how narratives grapple with past material that no longer fits yet refuses to disappear. These moments expose a discontinuity at the core of contemporary selfhood, where the obsolete becomes a site for thinking temporal rupture. When the past is either neglected or recycled into the present, encounters with the obsolete bring our temporal and material others into view in that intimate moment of “no longer.”
“Discarded Selves is one of those rare books whose swirling force makes you reconsider almost everything you encounter after reading it, not least that assemblage of fluxing elements that you call yourself. Gai Farchi writes with ease and precision, especially of the way time flows around us in competing tides of cultural flotsam and jetsam, resculpting our sense of identity, both individual and collective. Touching on everything from music videos to highbrow French literature, AI slop to street salvage, stock photos to science fiction scenarios, Discarded Selves is one of the most thought-provoking and indispensable theoretical interventions of the past decade.”—Dominic Pettman, author of Ghosting: On Disappearance
“With both levity and precise engagement with critical theory, Farchi shows how the temporal structure of obsolescence shapes contemporary culture. Brimming with exciting ideas and offering pointed readings of diverse expressive forms, Discarded Selves theorizes the condition of always already outmoded subjectivity.”—Rebecca Falkoff, author of Possessed: A Cultural History of Hoarding
