ISIS and the Pornography of Violence

Download or read book ISIS and the Pornography of Violence written by Simon Cottee and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'ISIS and the Pornography of Violence' is a collection of iconoclastic essays on ISIS, spanning the four-year period from its ascendancy in late 2014 to its demise in early 2018. From a trenchant critique of the infantilization of jihadists to a probing examination of the parallels between gonzo porn and ISIS beheading videos, the pieces collected in this volume challenge conventional ways of thinking about ISIS and the roots of its appeal. Simon Cottee’s core argument is that Western ISIS recruits, far from being brainwashed or “vulnerable” dupes, actively responded to the group’s promise of redemptive violence and self-sacrifice to a total cause.