Infinite Ontologies of the Chthulustream: Posthumanism and Racist Capital in Contemporary Streaming Media

Citation

Fleming DH & Brown W (2025) Infinite Ontologies of the Chthulustream: Posthumanism and Racist Capital in Contemporary Streaming Media. Screens, Thinking, Worlds. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-infinite-ontologies-of-the-chthulustream.html

Abstract
Infinite Ontologies of the Chthulustream provides a critical analysis of various contemporary and classic shows, as well as of streaming media in general. Brown and Fleming employ the twin discourses of critical race theory and posthumanism in order to expose how multinational platforms like Netflix play a role in both problematising and perpetuating deeply entrenched violences lurking within the intersections of racism, capitalism, and technology. The authors dive into the racialised world-building of shows like Stranger Things, Watchmen, Lovecraft Country, Sense8, The Twilight Zone, The O.A., Ad Vitam and DEVS, and through their groundbreaking media philosophy diagnose and confront the oppressive and racialising nature of streaming media at the end of the world, in the so-called Chthulucene (or ‘Chthulustream’). As Brown and Fleming demonstrate, streaming media can, at their best, liberate thought to confront overlapping infinite ontologies (∞O) that themselves offer a timely panacea and corrective to Object-Oriented-Ontology (OOO).

Keywords
Streaming Media; Posthumanism; Race; Film Philosophy; Chthulumedia