Book Review: Figures of Time: Affect and the Television of Preemption

Abstract

reflection and analysis triggered by the narratives animating them. The ability to interpret the contemporary world through the mirror of fiction is seen as a necessity regarding the opportunities that the future may unfold. Behind this practice, Lynch shows us a path of thinking taking shape and arising from an in-depth study of serials, accompanied by the voices of the many philosophers that are mentioned in the various chapters of the book; it is a path that moves under the surface of the texts and much of the sense of a story is produced through the many layers of meaning that are summoned through the ongoing exercise of thinking itself. Only in this way is it possible to produce unprecedented connections between features of the stories and the scenarios of reality. Although Between Habit and Thought undoubtedly presents elements of interest and originality, at times the philosophical speculation runs the risk of prevailing over the ability to bring out the specificities and intrinsic qualities of the serial as a television phenomenon. This is, nevertheless, a book which will be of much interest to those already engaged with philosophical approaches to television analysis.