Kubrickon

Was there a hidden purpose behind Stanley Kubrick's films? Neither his most devoted fans nor his sharpest detractors have guessed it, and this book argues that the movies were a vehicle for something else entirely. Jasun Horsley's experimental study examines the reverence surrounding the director and probes the darker motives that may explain his enduring appeal.

The book traces a fusion of computer science and behavioural science that, over the past decade, has reshaped politics and everyday social life, with the Cambridge Analytica scandal as one example. Horsley contends that Kubrick took a covert, hands-on part in building algorithm-driven technology that has gradually crept into people's inner lives. It describes how human awareness has become bound to machines, with culture acting as the medium that holds an attention economy together.

Horsley draws on Kubrick's films, including Eyes Wide Shut and 2001: Space Odyssey, to survey the cultural fixation on the director. The book also offers broader criticism of how society consumes art and media.

Readers who dislike Kubrick's films may find the book clears away their doubt and guilt about that dislike. Those who love the films will be challenged at a deep level and may come away liberated. Readers who are indifferent to Kubrick will find a book that encourages them to care about, and cultivate, that indifference.