Psychedelic White: Goa Trance and the Viscosity of Race

[Trolsk]

Has anyone read this thesis / book about race and psychedelic trance?

Quote

his work shows how the rave scene in Goa harbors conflicting tendencies regarding race. The complicated intersection of cultures and phenotypes, Saldanha asserts, helps to consolidate whiteness. Race emerges not through rigid boundaries but rather through what he terms viscosity, the degree to which bodies gather together for pleasure and self-transformation. Challenging the prevailing conception of racial difference as a purely social construction and offering building on the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Psychedelic White presents nothing less than a new materialist approach to race. Arun Saldanha is assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1186918.Psychedelic_White

 

[Tsotsi]

On 7/2/2023 at 4:20 PM, Trolsk said:

Has anyone read this thesis / book about race and psychedelic trance?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1186918.Psychedelic_White

 

I've been reading the comments/reviews of the book, it sounds interested if you're interested in race observations and musings. 

Personally I find the topic boring. Race always seems to be discussed from the industrial revolution onwards. As if atleast 10,000 of human cohabitation hasn't existed with non step never ending feuds for various reasons, but mostly for the deep down desire for conflict that out species seems to have. 

Race is just one excuse of many to justify our violence and deep rooted disdain to members of our species. 

So when it comes to looking at tiny little enclaves of sub cultures upon counter-cultures of our species and the way race plays into that, sure it could be interesting. But I don't find it particularly helpful or illuminating to know about it. 

 

Sorry for the diatribe, like I said I haven't read the book, just basing this off comments and the synopsis. No hate for posting this or anything, just my opinion of these topics

 

Have you read it?

[Otto Matta]

I never saw black people at festivals, despite all the hair locks. This music seems to be more of a white thing with some Japanese mixed in. Ironically, some very cool music comes from South Africa, by white people. I'd say at first that the racial disparity is due to the music generally lacking swing, but black people basically invented this music in Chicago and Detroit in the '70s. So I don't really know why they don't get involved. Any black people here to give an opinion?