Collectivity in Quarantine

Offering a healthy critique of static models of success and failure, in The Queer Art of Failure Halberstam argues for “alternative ways of knowing and being that are not unduly optimistic, but nor are they mired in nihilistic critical dead ends” (24). Engaging with low theory and popular knowledge, Halberstam explores alternatives and looks for a way out of the usual traps and impasses of binary formulations (2). These alternatives dwell in the murky waters, in the often impossibly dark and negative realm of critique and refusal. Interrupting the narrative of “success” through discussing animated films (and other forms of art), Halberstam’s text rests on a single premise: “under certain circumstances, failing, losing, forgetting, unmaking, undoing, unbecoming, not knowing may in fact offer more creative, more cooperative, more surprising ways of being in the world” (2). The driving force behind the text, as such, is a desire to live life otherwise and to put such a vision into practice. Queering and playing with the concept of failure, Halberstam takes us on a journey to discover the notion of failure as a tool for undoing narratives of banal, unimaginative heteronormativity. Using Pixarvolt films - films that forward themes of rebellion and revolution against established ways of being and knowing -, Halberstam argues for alternative visions to heteronormative narratives of gender, sexuality, and being.

What struck me most in the text was Halberstam’s engagement with notions of individuality and collectivity. As articulated by Halberstam, the characters in Over the Hedge (Tim Johnson 2006) rely on collective action to protect the animal habitats from consumerist humans. I find the act of protecting animal habitats from modern consumer society telling, especially now in times of the corona crisis which is, as argued by many zoologists, due to the destruction of natural habitats coupled with fast-moving people in a globalizing world. In Over the Hedge, collective action proves to be more effective than individual genius. In pixarvolt films, individualism is not connected to a neoliberal “be yourself” mentality but to selfishness and untrammeled consumption (47). I wonder, how can we engage in forms of collectivity (e.g. collective care) in quarantine times? How can we practice collectivity in times of social distancing? And who is ‘worthy’ of care in this neoliberal society? What can we learn about the notions of care, community, and collectivity from pixarvolt films? Isn't this the 'right' time to create an otherwise, to undo, to umbecome, as Halberstam proposes? If so, how do we create such an otherwise?