Vilém Flusser (1920–1991) was born in Prague; emigrated to Brazil, where he taught philosophy and wrote a daily newspaper column; and later moved to France. Minnesota has published a dozen of Flusser’s works in translation, among them Into the Universe of Technical Images, Does Writing Have a Future?, Gestures, and VampyroteuthisInfernalis.

Anke Finger is professor of German studies and media studies at the University of Connecticut, where she also inaugurated the Digital Humanities and Media Studies Initiative at the Humanities Institute. She is cofounder of the open access journal Flusser Studies and coauthor of Vilem Flusser: An Introduction (Minnesota, 2011).

Kenneth Kronenberg has been a translator for nearly thirty years, specializing in German intellectual and cultural history and diaries and letters. His recent translations include Jorun Poettering’s Trade, Nation, and Religion and Fritz Trümpi’s Political Orchestras.

Kenneth Goldsmith is an American avant-garde poet and critic, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and founder of the UbuWeb online archive of experimental literary and visual art.

Introduction: What If? Into the Slipstream of Flusser’s “Field of Possibilities”

Anke Finger

First Scenario: What If . . .

Part I. Scenes from Family Life

Second Scenario: Grandmother

Third Scenario: Grandfather

Fourth Scenario: Great Uncle

Fifth Scenario: Brothers

Sixth Scenario: Son

Seventh Scenario: Grandchildren

Eighth Scenario: Great-Grandchildren

Part II. Scenes from Economic Life

Ninth Scenario: Economic Miracle

Tenth Scenario: Foreign Aid

Eleventh Scenario: Mechanical Engineering

Twelfth Scenario: Agriculture

Thirteenth Scenario: Chemical Industry

Fourteenth Scenario: Animal Husbandry

Part III. Scenes from Politics

Fifteenth Scenario: War

Sixteenth Scenario: Aural Obedience

Seventeenth Scenario: Perpetual Peace

Eighteenth Scenario: Revolution

Nineteenth Scenario: Parliamentary Democracy

Twentieth Scenario: Aryan Imperialism

Twenty-First Scenario: Black Is Beautiful

Part IV. Showdown

Twenty-Second Scenario: A Breather

Afterword

Kenneth Goldsmith

Acknowledgments

Notes