Anna Kornbluh's 'Immediacy' Diagnoses the Style of Too Late Capitalism

In her new book 'Immediacy, or the Style of Too Late Capitalism', American academic Anna Kornbluh argues that contemporary culture is dominated by an obsession with immediacy—a 'stylised flood' that reflects late capitalism's shift from production to circulation. She contends that this drive for instant access and unmediated experience pervades literature, video streaming, and social media, replacing postmodern irony with radical personalism. Kornbluh examines autofiction by Karl Ove Knausgaard, Rachel Cusk, and Tao Lin, as well as poetry by Ocean Vuong, Claudia Rankine, and Anne Boyer, as evidence of this trend. She advocates for a return to mediation and collaborative sociality, citing labour struggles at Starbucks and Amazon as 'brave stoppers in the circulation economy'. The book is published by Verso. Reviewer Alex Niven praises Kornbluh's thesis but notes its condensed format leaves room for further exploration of visual art and pop music.