Terre Thaemlitz writings from between 1996 and 2015. The overall theme uniting the texts is a defense of pessimism and a critical rejection of the incessant optimism lurking at the core of virtually all media – even in the ‘critical fields’ themselves, where it reflects our conformity to those First World humanist and capitalist practices we wish to critique. Terre Thaemlitz explain why the texts sometimes still fraudulently use positive terminology, and break the linearity of the reading process – thus incorporating the theme of ‘nuisance’ throughout the book