Book Reviews. We Can Be

‘Why did I write such a horrible book?’ (p. 199) asks Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi at the start of the concluding chapter of Heroes, the Italian autonomist thinker’s contribution to Verso’s “Futures” series. Thankfully for the reader, Berardi is not criticising the quality of Heroes, but rather the subject matter covered within. As Berardi goes on to exclaim, ‘crime, mass murders, suicide – these are not subjects for a good natured guy’ (p. 199). Berardi is here trying to explain – perhaps more to himself than to the reader – the ‘mixture of repulsion and perverse fascination’ (p. 1) which he feels in response to the spectacular acts of violence perpetrated by the likes of James Holmes, Adam Lanza and Anders Behring Breivik. The use of the word “spectacular” is not accidental for at