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Through the Black Mirror
Deconstructing the Side Effects
of the Digital Age
Edited by
Terence McSweeney
Stuart Joy
Through the Black Mirror
 Terence McSweeney • Stuart Joy
Editors

Through the Black

Mirror
Deconstructing the Side Effects of the Digital Age
Editors
Terence McSweeney Stuart Joy
Southampton Solent University Southampton Solent University
Southampton, UK Southampton, UK

ISBN 978-3-030-19457-4    ISBN 978-3-030-19458-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19458-1

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,
whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprint-
ing, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other
physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, com-
puter software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in
this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor
the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with
regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Stocksolutions / Alamy Stock Photo

Cover Design: eStudio Calamar

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To Joan, Tom, Barry, Den and Kay, gone but never forgotten.
 Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the staff at Palgrave Macmillan for their help and sup-
port putting this large and ambitious project together. Of course, none of this
would have been possible without the contributors themselves. We thank you
for your work, your creativity and your contributions to the field, one and all.
We would also like to thank the staff and students at our home institution,
Solent University, Southampton.
Terence: Special mention should also be reserved for the IAS (Institute of
Advanced Studies) at UCL, where much of my contribution to this volume was
written and edited during my tenure as Visiting Research Fellow during the
academic year 2018–2019. Thank you to my family, to Olga, Harrison and
Wyatt, who continue to inspire me every second of the day, especially when life
feels more and more like an episode of the show at the centre of this collection
with every day that passes.
Stuart: I want to express my deep thanks to Terence McSweeney, my co-­
editor, without whom this book would not have been possible. Your motiva-
tion and work ethic are a continuous source of inspiration. Thanks also to my
close friend Kierren Darke for being an eager soundboard for my ideas and for
providing excellent advice. Lastly, special thanks to my wife Sophie for her
patience, encouragement and emotional support—you are a constant reminder
of everything that is beautiful in this world.

vii
 Contents

Introduction: Read that Back to Yourself and Ask If You Live in a

Sane Society  1
Terence McSweeney and Stuart Joy

Part I   17

“The National Anthem”, Terrorism and Digital Media 19

Fran Pheasant-Kelly

“Fifteen Million Merits”: Gamification, Spectacle, and Neoliberal

Aspiration 33
Mark R. Johnson

Enhanced Memory: “The Entire History of You” 43

Henry Jenkins

Part II   55

Making Room for Our Personal Posthuman Prisons: Black Mirror’s

“Be Right Back” 57
Andrew Schopp

Ideological State Apparatuses, Perversions of Courtly Love, and

Curatorial Violence in “White Bear” 69
Paul Petrovic

ix
x Contents

Political Apathy, the ex post facto Allegory and Waldo’s Trumpian

Moment 83
Terence McSweeney

We Have Only Ourselves to Fear: Reflections on AI Through the

Black Mirror of “White Christmas” 95
Christine Muller

Part III  109

The Planned Obsolescence of “Nosedive”111

Sean Redmond

Augmented Reality Bites: “Playtest” and the Unstable Now125

Soraya Murray

Shame, Stigma and Identification in “Shut Up and Dance”137

Stuart Joy

Unreal City: Nostalgia, Authenticity, and Posthumanity in “San

Junipero”151
Isra Daraiseh and M. Keith Booker

Deviating the Other: Inspecting the Boundaries of Progress in

“Men Against Fire”165
Ana Došen

On Killer Bees and GCHQ: “Hated in the Nation”179

James Smith

Part IV  191

Dethroning the King of Space: Toxic White Masculinity and the

Revised Adventure Narrative in “USS Callister”193
Steffen Hantke
 Contents  xi

“Arkangel”: Postscript on Families of Control205

George F. McHendry

The Sovereignty of Truth: Memory and Morality in “Crocodile”217

Jossalyn G. Larson

Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before:

Relationships and Late Capitalism in “Hang the DJ”’231
Aidan Power

Killing the Creator in “Metalhead”245

Barbara Gurr

Hope, with Teeth: On “Black Museum”257

Gerry Canavan

Change Your Past, Your Present, Your Future? Interactive

Narratives and Trauma in Bandersnatch (2018)271
Terence McSweeney and Stuart Joy

Notes on Contributors285

Index291
 Introduction: Read that Back to Yourself
and Ask If You Live in a Sane Society

Terence McSweeney and Stuart Joy

Gazing into the Black Mirror

Has there ever a been a television show more intrinsically connected to the
fears and anxieties of the decade in which it was produced than Charlie
Brooker’s Black Mirror (2011–)? Across the diverse tapestry of its episodes it
has both dramatised and deconstructed the shifting cultural and technological
coordinates of the era like no other programme and in years to come when
people want to know what we talked about and what we were afraid of in the
new millennial decades, they could do a lot worse, and not much better, than
begin with Black Mirror.
Through the Black Mirror: Deconstructing the Side Effects of the Digital Age
charts the first four seasons of Black Mirror and beyond from its opening epi-
sode “The National Anthem” (01.01) broadcast on Channel Four on 4
December 2011, a provocative and wildly caustic statement of intent in the
form of a forty-four-minute self-contained drama which memorably featured
the prime minister of Great Britain having sexual intercourse with a sus scrofa
domesticus live on television and the internet for the whole world to see. As a
body of work these nineteen episodes and the “interactive movie” that is
Bandersnatch (2018) are, without exception, vivid, visceral and disorienting
texts, frequently challenging at the level of both form and content. This disori-
entation might be considered to even begin with the title of the show, after all,
what exactly is a “black mirror”? Charlie Brooker, the show’s creator, producer
and writer, has suggested “The ‘black mirror’ of the title is the one you’ll find
on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen

T. McSweeney (*) • S. Joy

Southampton Solent University, Southampton, UK
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

© The Author(s) 2019 1

T. McSweeney, S. Joy (eds.), Through the Black Mirror,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19458-1_1
2 T. MCSWEENEY AND S. JOY

of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone” (2011). The mirror that Brooker refers to

certainly is a screen, but it also refers to a surface that reflects, and not just the
faces of those that peer into it, but also the culture and times in which it was
made. As Elise Morrison wrote in her Discipline and Desire: Surveillance
Technologies in Performance (2016) the title also refers to “dark surfaces that
reflect our faces, expectations, desires, hopes, and anxieties” (2016, p. 183)
and in The Age of Perversion: Desire and Technology in Psychoanalysis and
Culture (2017) Danielle Knafo and Rocco Lo Bosco observed that “These
cultural changes take place alongside the growing omnipresence of the black
mirror—the dark screen of our televisions, computers, tablets, and smart-
phones—technological devices that we rely on to search for answers to ques-
tions both banal and profound” (p. 237). These writers, and many of those
who contribute to this volume, articulate the parameters of the show, and it is
a series which continues to interrogate our contemporary “expectations,
desires, hopes, and anxieties” at the same time as participating in a “search for
answers to questions both banal and profound”. Yet perhaps what is most
important about Black Mirror is the fact that it never provides answers to the
contemporary conundrums and ethical quandaries it raises. Instead, the series
encourages audiences to contemplate the moral issues raised by each episode.
In “The Entire History of You” (01.03), for example, audiences are invited to
consider the ethical implications of a technology that allows characters to
record, store, replay and share their most intimate memories. “Shut Up and
Dance” (03.03) and “Crocodile” (04.03) take this notion further in asking us
what steps we might take to stop our darkest secrets from becoming public.
Along similar lines, “Arkangel” (04.02) asks us how far we might go to protect
our children, while “White Bear” (02.02) challenges viewers to empathise with
a character whose moral compass is revealed to be deeply flawed. In “Be Right
Back” (02.01) viewers are encouraged to speculate whether they would
­subscribe to a service that enables a character to recreate a lost loved one in
digital form, whereas “San Junipero” (03.04) probes viewers to consider if,
given the choice, they would upload their consciousness to a computer so
that they might live forever. Similarly, “White Christmas” (02.04), “USS
Callister” (04.01), “Hang the DJ” (04.04) and “Black Museum” (04.06) all,
in various ways, ask the viewer to draw a line between what constitutes a living
organism and a digital recreation. These episodes ultimately blur the line
between our physical and virtual identities in ways that allow the viewer to
contemplate perhaps the most fundamental question of all, what does it mean
to be human?

Between Light and Shadow, Between Science

and Superstition

As a frame of reference for what the episodes of Black Mirror offer audiences,
one might suggest the likes of The Twilight Zone (originally CBS, 1959–1964),
Tales of the Unexpected (ITV, 1978–1988) and the short-lived Hammer House
 INTRODUCTION: READ THAT BACK TO YOURSELF AND ASK IF YOU LIVE… 3

of Horror (Hammer films/ITC, 1980), all of which Charlie Brooker has gone
on record as stating influenced his approach to the creation of the show (see
Brooker, 2011). Undoubtedly these series provide something of a model for
what Brooker embarked on in Season One of Black Mirror and the most often
remembered episodes of The Twilight Zone are as intimately connected to the
Cold War as Black Mirror is to the first decades of the twenty-first century,
exploring the fears and anxieties of their own tumultuous era in fondly remem-
bered episodes like “Time Enough at Last” (1959) in which Henry Bemis
(Burgess Meredith) finds himself the sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust; “The
Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (1960) where aliens arrive in small town
America, exploring what happens when the thin veneer of civilisation is frac-
tured, revealing a Hobbesian world underneath, an episode which Steven
Rubin in his The Twilight Zone Encyclopedia (2017) argued that “perfectly
encapsulates how fear of the unknown can sink into a typical American neigh-
bourhood” (p. 91); “The Invaders” (1961), where what initially appears to be
another extra-terrestrial invasion ultimately challenges our notions and precon-
ceptions of both self and the Other.1 These episodes are intrinsically connected
to the defining fears of the Cold War also dramatised within the frames of films
like The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
and The Thing from Another World (1951) (see Lipschutz, 2001; Seed, 1999).
The original series of The Twilight Zone ran from 1959 to 1964 and was com-
posed of 156 episodes, 92 of which were written or co-written by the show’s
creator Rod Serling, who Steven Rubin argued “often exploited his show’s
fantasy milieu and allegorical approach to storytelling to evade the censorship
that constrained more realistic programmes” (p. 169). Ultimately though The
Twilight Zone provided audiences with what Don Presnell and Marty McGee
described as “lessons on what it means to be human” (1998, p. 7) and one
might say the very same thing of Charlie Brooker’s show, but its frame of refer-
ence is a very different one to that of the initial run of The Twilight Zone.
Brooker is, without a doubt, the Rod Serling-esque figure behind Black Mirror,
of the twenty entrants to the Black Mirror world produced at the time of writ-
ing, Brooker has either written, co-written or received a “story by” credit on
every single one with the exception of “The Entire History of You” and
“Nosedive” (03.01).

The Fears and Fantasies of Black Mirror: From “The

National Anthem” to Bandersnatch
Black Mirror charts and deconstructs the fears of the modern world, like those
explored in Douglas Rushkoff’s insightful Present Shock: When Everything
Happens Now (2014). Rushkoff asserts that our obsessive reliance on new
media technologies has led to the new millennial collapse of traditional

1
These three episodes were all considered to be the top ten best of the series in an article by
Gilbert Cruz (2009) in Time called “Top 10 Twilight Zone Episodes”.
4 T. MCSWEENEY AND S. JOY

­ nderstandings of the world which has resulted in the emergence of very real
u
phenomena like “digiphrenia” (a dislocation caused by the attempt to live in
the real and digital simultaneously), “fractalnoia” (an attempt to understand
everything only in the present tense) and “overwinding” (an attempt to reduce
what should be longer experiences into brief more instantaneous shorter ones).
He writes, “Instead of finding a stable foothold in the here and now, we end
up reacting to the ever-present assault of simultaneous impulses and com-
mands” (p. 4). These fears then can be located in episodes like “Fifteen Million
Merits” (01.02), a scathing satire of modern consumer commodified culture
and unchecked corporate capitalism in the digital age, which has fundamentally
impacted on the way we view and interact with the world around us both figu-
ratively and literally, or the dystopian (not too distant) future of “Nosedive” in
which almost every aspect of society is based on peer ratings that can dictate
the job we have, the amount of friends and even the property we are allowed
to buy, emblematic of our obsession with interacting with modern technology
and what has been referred to as the gamification of modern society by a variety
of authors (see Bishop, 2014; Burke, 2014).
As with these two episodes mentioned above, the vast majority of Black
Mirror explores and examines the various ways that new media technologies
can shape and transform our understanding of the world while, at the same
time, often raising philosophical questions about the complexities of identity
and social relationships in the digital age. “Be Right Back”, for example,
depicts a vision of a posthuman reality in which it is possible to reanimate lost
loved ones using an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) designed to mimic
their exact likeness. Similarly, “White Christmas”, “Black Museum” and the
award-winning “San Junipero” each present a transhuman future where
devices can enable human consciousness to be uploaded to a computer.2 In
these episodes, technology ultimately challenges what constitutes the essence
of identity when the mind can exist independently from the body. Several
other episodes also explore concepts relating to identity albeit through the
prism of gaming: “USS Callister”, “Nosedive” and “Hated in the Nation”
(03.06), for instance, consider the divisions between online and offline identi-
ties and their impacts on real-world social interactions, whereas “Playtest”
(03.02), “Men Against Fire” (03.05) and “Hang the DJ” examine the poten-
tial moral and ethical implications of virtual, augmented and simulated reali-
ties, respectively. While several of these episodes raise questions that are
primarily philosophical in nature, others are more closely related to questions
that are connected to broader social and cultural issues. Episodes such as “The
National Anthem” and “The Waldo Moment” (02.03) foreground the impact
of new media technologies on politics. “Fifteen Million Merits” draws atten-
tion to the exploitation of the working class for mass media entertainment and

2
“San Junipero” earned Black Mirror its first Primetime Emmy Awards in the categories of
Outstanding Television Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic
Special.
 INTRODUCTION: READ THAT BACK TO YOURSELF AND ASK IF YOU LIVE… 5

“White Bear” offers a commentary on the sensationalism of tragedy. “The

Entire History of You”, “Shut Up and Dance”, “Arkangel”, “Crocodile” and
“Metalhead” (04.05) are united by their shared focus on issues relating to
surveillance and privacy. In these episodes, a range of technological devices
enable users to track and monitor each other in ways that suggest even our
most intimate moments can be used against us. Nevertheless, even though
technology is an intrinsic element throughout the series, Brooker insists that
the show doesn’t view technological progress as a threat. Speaking at a
Television Critics Association press tour, Brooker noted that “Technology is
never the villain in the show, it’s about human failings and human messes”
(N’Duka, 2016). Black Mirror, then, reminds the audience that perhaps the
greatest thing they should fear is not technology but rather themselves. As a
result of this the fears that the show mines, as topical as they are, are also
deeply rooted in universal themes. So, while episodes like “Arkangel” and
“Hang the DJ” deal with very contemporary developments in modern tech-
nology, as do “Hated in the Nation” and “Playtest”, they each explore timeless
issues relevant across cultures and decades: like the ethical responsibilities of
good parenting, fears of death and dying, of what constitutes good relation-
ships, notions of shame and the consequences of one’s actions.
These themes can be seen as early as the very first episode, “The National
Anthem”, which Brooker revealed that he had been inspired to write after the
brief but heated controversy of Labour prime minister Gordon Brown being
recorded calling a sixty-five-year-old pensioner, Gillian Duffy, a “bigoted
woman” on a Sky News microphone after he was heckled while conducting a
television interview in Rochdale, England, in April 2010 in the lead up to the
general election. Brooker wrote:

Set slap-bang in the present, The National Anthem, starring Rory Kinnear and
Lindsay Duncan, recounts what happens when fictional royal Princess Susannah
is kidnapped and prime minister Michael Callow is presented with an unusual—
and obscene—ransom request. The traditional media finds itself unable to even
discuss what the demand is, while the Twittersphere foams with speculation and
cruel jokes. As the ransom deadline nears, events start to gain a surreal momen-
tum of their own. This was inspired partly by the kerfuffle over superinjunctions,
and partly by the strange out-of-control sensation that takes grip on certain news
days—such as the day Gordon Brown was virtually commanded to apologise to
Gillian Duffy in front of the rolling news networks. Who was in charge that day?
No one and everyone. (2011)

On the decision to use a pig rather than any other animal in the episode he
stated “You needed something that straddles the line between comic and hor-
rifying” (qtd. in Benedictus, 2015), and this rather throwaway line might be
applicable to the Black Mirror experience as a whole. “The National Anthem”,
as many episodes of the show have been, was later regarded as being prescient
a few years after when prime minister David Cameron became embroiled in
what was widely referred to as the “Piggate” scandal when allegations arose
6 T. MCSWEENEY AND S. JOY

concerning initiation ceremonies for the men-only dining club known as the
Piers Gavetson Society, which was detailed in Michael Ashcroft and Isabel
Oakeshott in their Call Me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David
Cameron (2015).3 Brooker added:

The first question people were asking me was, Did I know anything about it? And
the answer is no, absolutely not. I probably wouldn’t have bothered writing an
episode of a fictional comedy-drama if I’d known. I’d have been running around
screaming it into traffic. It’s a complete coincidence, albeit a quite bizarre one.
(qtd. in Benedictus, 2015)

From Channel Four to Netflix: Black Mirror

in the Global Age

Since its launch in 1982 as a publicly owned not for profit broadcaster,
Channel 4 has garnered a widespread reputation for the production and
distribution of distinctive British content across both film and television.
It is unsurprising, then, that some of the earliest episodes of Black
Mirror—which premiered on Channel 4—have a noticeably British cul-
tural emphasis. “The National Anthem”, for example, focuses on the rela-
tionship between the British public and a fictional British prime minister.
“Fifteen Million Merits” offers a critique of reality-style talent shows such
as Pop Idol (ITV, 2001–2003), The X Factor (ITV, 2004–) and Britain’s
Got Talent (ITV, 2007–) that became particularly prominent features of
the television landscape in Britain during the mid-2000s. In Season Two,
the episode titled “White Bear” draws a significant parallel between the
sustained media coverage and public outcry associated with numerous
high-profile child murder cases in Britain such as those involving Ian
Brady and Myra Hindley and Fred and Rosemary West. Season Two cul-
minates in an episode that has since been interpreted as a prescient explo-
ration of the rise of populism across the political spectrum—especially in
relation to Donald Trump’s ascendancy to power in the United States (see
Cillizza, 2015; Doran, 2016). However, in “The Waldo Moment”, the
profane cartoon bear that attempts to run for political office in a local by-
election was in fact modelled on the British politician Boris Johnson
(Singal, 2016).
The emphasis in Seasons One and Two on various aspects that are nationally
specific and recognisably British is further enhanced by the casting of both
well-known and emerging British actors such as Rupert Everett, Daniel
Kaluuya, Jessica Brown Findlay, Toby Kebbell, Hayley Atwell and Lenora

3
The idea of Black Mirror being prescient or able to predict the future has been applied to sev-
eral episodes including “The Waldo Moment”, “Hated in The Nation” and “Nosedive” among
others from both technological and cultural perspectives (see Weller, 2018).
 INTRODUCTION: READ THAT BACK TO YOURSELF AND ASK IF YOU LIVE… 7

Crichlow. By comparison the casting of an award-winning4 American actor, Jon

Hamm, alongside Rafe Spall in the one-off Christmas special, was perhaps an
acknowledgement of the programme’s increasing popularity in the United
States of America which was belatedly broadcast there during the latter part of
2013 via DirecTV’s Audience Network. Nevertheless, despite the presence of
an established American star, the episode’s thematic emphasis on separation,
loss, loneliness and isolation is largely consistent with an underlying melan-
choly evident—notably in soaps—across numerous staple British television
programmes shown throughout the festive period (Moore, 2014, pp. 115–116).
Following the release of “White Christmas”, the announcement that Netflix
had successfully outbid Channel 4 for the worldwide exclusive distribution
rights to the series not only signposted an ostensible shift away from the dis-
tinctly British emphasis of Seasons One and Two, but also marked a significant
historical turning point in the global expansion of online streaming platforms.
The deal, worth a reported $40 million (Plunkett, 2016), was the first time
that a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) provider had outspent a public
service broadcaster in the pursuit of an original production. Channel 4 had
commissioned and developed the first two seasons of Black Mirror in 2011 and
2013 as well as the one-off Christmas special in 2014 but was unable to retain
the show in the face of competition from Netflix. In a statement, Channel 4’s
chief creative officer Jay Hunt said:

Black Mirror couldn’t be a more Channel 4 show. We grew it from a dangerous

idea to a brand that resonated globally. It’s disappointing that the first broadcast
window in the UK is then sold to the highest bidder, ignoring the risk a publicly
owned channel like 4 took backing it. (Plunkett, 2016)

Regardless, the show’s creator Charlie Brooker has described Netflix as “the
most fitting platform imaginable” (Plunkett, 2015), emphasising the streaming
service’s ability to reach a global audience as well as remarking elsewhere on
the suitability of the series’ anthology format to Netflix’s content distribution
model (Landau, 2017, p. 286).
Unlike the multi-episode series and serial dramas of conventional broadcast
television that evolved from the more traditional plotted narrative of radio, the
earliest anthology series were predominantly influenced by the traditions of
theatre (Barnouw, 1970, p. 26). Programmes such as The United States Steel
Hour (ABC, 1953–1955; CBS, 1955–1963) and Playhouse 90 (CBS,
1956–1960) differed from their long-form counterparts by offering a unique
standalone drama each week featuring varied casts, writers and directors. They
frequently pushed the boundaries of television drama either in style, length,
production values or content—with the latter often addressing pressing social
and political issues of the time. However, this focus was eventually perceived to

4
In 2008, Jon Hamm won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in A Television
Series—Drama.
8 T. MCSWEENEY AND S. JOY

be incompatible with the demands of network sponsors. As the broadcasting

historian Erik Barnouw points out, the writers behind some of the earliest
iterations of the anthology series populated their dramas with problems that
made the commercials “seem fraudulent” (1970, p. 33). Sponsors, therefore,
became increasingly uneasy about the messages conveyed within these pro-
grammes and responded by demanding extensive script revisions, a factor that
inadvertently necessitated a shift away from the apparent confines of realistic
dramas to the more flexible opportunities offered by science fiction and fantasy.
These genres afforded the writers of programmes such as The Twilight Zone and
The Outer Limits (ABC, 1963–1965) with allegorical, metaphorical and sym-
bolic frameworks to examine a variety of social issues while avoiding the oppres-
siveness of network censorship (Angelini & Booy, 2010, pp. 19–20).
Returning to The Twilight Zone, as Brooker himself has periodically done
since Season One of Black Mirror, its creator Rod Serling famously observed
that “a Martian can say things that a Republican or Democrat can’t” (qtd. in
Javna, 1987, p. 16). Clearly, early anthology series were compromised by the
commercial conditions under which they were conceived and produced. Black
Mirror, of course, has not experienced the economic system encountered by
these early anthology series. Channel 4’s public service remit, for example, to
be “innovative and distinctive” (Channel 4, n.d.), means that it is responsible
for commissioning content that would otherwise struggle to secure a broadcast
platform. Likewise, Netflix’s revenue stream is currently derived solely from
monthly subscription fees meaning that writers, directors and producers are
offered a significant degree of creative control. In both instances, Black Mirror
has been fortuitously positioned to benefit from the industrial context of its
conception and production. It might be argued that that the science fiction
emphasis and context of the show allows it more freedom to be critical of the
culture in which it is made, something that is returned to by more than one
author in this collection. Although one might point out that it is problematic
to call many of the episodes allegories given they are so close to reality the term
does not seem quite enough. As Knafo and Bosco wrote, “The plight of char-
acters is easy to relate to because some of what they experience is happening in
our own world” (2017, p. 237). Thus Brooker’s comments about Rod Serling
then are relevant for his own creation “If he [Serling] wrote about racism in a
southern town, he had to fight the network over every line. But if he wrote
about racism in a metaphorical, quasi-fictional world—suddenly he could say
everything he wanted” (2011). This freedom gives Brooker leave to confront
and explore media hypocrisy, the rise of celebrity and superficiality in “The
Waldo Moment”, the reliance on technology which is distorting both ourselves
and how we relate to one another in “Arkangel”.
While Brooker’s dark, often dystopian, and frequently disturbing parables
for modern society initially suited the innovative and experimental brand iden-
tity associated with Channel 4, it is Netflix’s rejection of traditional broadcast
patterns in favour of one dictated by audiences increasing demands for original
 INTRODUCTION: READ THAT BACK TO YOURSELF AND ASK IF YOU LIVE… 9

content that means Black Mirror’s anthology format is particularly well-suited

to the streaming platform. Discussing the challenges of working on an anthol-
ogy series for a traditional broadcaster, Brooker foregrounds one of the main
problems of audience retention when he asks “how do you bring the audience
back? There’s no impetus to return, because you’re in a completely different
world with a new set of characters next week” (qtd. in Landau, 2017, p. 286).
Elsewhere, as part of a panel discussion organised by the London Film Festival
in 2016, Brooker addressed the shift from Channel 4 to Netflix noting that
“shows that reinvent themselves every week have struggled in the ratings. And
ratings were king for years” (BFI, 2016).5 By comparison, he remarks, “the
advent of streaming platforms has brought [anthology series’] back into fash-
ion. You no longer have to worry about an audience coming back week on
week; it’s all just there in the magic streaming cupboard” (qtd. in Lampert,
2017). Nonetheless, for Brooker, the show’s departure from Channel 4 led to
the criticism that the series had become too Americanised. For the show’s pro-
ducer Annabel Jones, however, the notion that Netflix’s involvement has
resulted in a dilution of the “Britishness” perceived to be at the heart of the
series stemmed from their own assumptions that it would function as a poten-
tial source of national identity in the global age. She says, “We thought it was
a very British show, but actually everyone around the world was experiencing
technology at the same speed we were” (qtd. Temperton, 2016). Likewise,
Brooker has also commented upon the surprising global appeal of the show:
“It has travelled a lot more than I thought it would. It’s big in China, it’s big
in Spain…It’s obviously not as colloquial as I thought it was” (qtd. in Mellor,
2014). He goes on to say, “It’s because technology is a global thing and wher-
ever you go, people are prodding the same devices and worrying in the same
way and have had their lives slightly altered in the same way”. The perceived
“Britishness” of Black Mirror, then, is secondary to the more relatable fears
and anxieties associated with the impacts of globalisation, most notably the
increased use of new media technologies in everyday life.

Welcome to the Black Mirror Universe

One might persuasively argue that the feature-length Christmas special
“White Christmas”, which was produced and broadcast after two seasons
comprising three episodes each, marked a turning point for the show in a
range of ways: not only is it the final episode produced and broadcast by

5
The anthology series has become increasingly popular in recent years with shows such as High
Maintenance (HBO, 2016–) Room 104 (HBO, 2017–), The Guest Book (TBS, 2017–) and Electric
Dreams (Channel 4, 2017–) demonstrating a resurgent interest in short-form storytelling.
Elsewhere, the self-contained mini-series format of American Horror Story (FX, 2011–), Fargo
(FX, 2014–), True Detective (HBO, 2014–) and The Girlfriend Experience (Starz, 2016–) provides
further evidence of a sophisticated and demanding audience.
10 T. MCSWEENEY AND S. JOY

Channel Four before the move to Netflix for Season Three, but also because
of its acknowledgement that every episode is indeed set in the same diegetic
world, what we might call the “Black Mirror universe”. Initially these Easter
Eggs had been regarded by Brooker as “just a bit of fun” (qtd. in Strause,
2017), but by the time of “White Christmas” they had become one of the
defining elements of the show. Thus, the events that take place in the first
episode of the series “The National Anthem” are mentioned again in “Shut
Up and Dance” where the headline “PM Callow to divorce” is shown and
also in “Nosedive” where an onscreen tweet from Callow reads “Just got
thrown out of the zoo again”; the protagonist of “White Bear”, Victoria
Skillane, is mentioned in “White Christmas”, “Shut Up and Dance” and then
in “Hated in the Nation” which informs us of her appeal being thrown out
of court.6 After “White Christmas” each episode then seems to be self-con-
sciously constructed as part of this “Black Mirror universe”: like the fact that
the television show at the centre of “Fifteen Million Merits” is seen in “White
Christmas”, referenced in “Shut Up and Dance”, “Men Against Fire” and
later in “Crocodile” and “Black Museum”. These are certainly examples of
what Henry Jenkins, who himself provides the chapter on “The Entire
History of You” in this volume, termed “participatory culture” which “con-
trasts with older notions of passive media spectatorship” in his influential
volume Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006, p. 3)
as audiences are encouraged more than ever to experience media texts in ways
which are transforming with every year that passes. In an interview with The
Hollywood Reporter Brooker confirmed:

It always used to be that it’s just a bit of fun. But then sometimes we’ve done
some things where we did explicitly refer to other episodes. I think the rule is that
when a character says something that explicitly refers to something else, it’s
canonical. Also, they follow the same dream universe. That’s the other thing that
I tend to say. (qtd. in Strause, 2017)

By the time of the release of the fourth season of the show on Netflix in
December 2017 the idea of a Black Mirror universe had been completely
embraced in ways it had not been before. This took the form of background
details like the naming of characters or places like the planets Rannoch B and
Skillane IV in “USS Callister” after the two murderers from “White Bear”; or
posters in the background of “Arkangel” showing the rapper Tusk from “Hated
in the Nation” and the video game Harlech Shadow from “Playtest”, but argu-
ably reached a metatextual apogee in the concluding episode of Season Four
“Black Museum” in Rolo Haynes’ eponymous museum, which he describes as
containing “authentic criminological artefacts”, the majority of which are

6
In “Hated in the Nation” there are two other references to her: one in a Twitter hashtag
“#deathto” and another when the police office Blue (Faye Marsay) says she worked on the “Ian
Rannoch case”.
 INTRODUCTION: READ THAT BACK TO YOURSELF AND ASK IF YOU LIVE… 11

explicitly drawn from the previous eighteen episodes: the artist Carlton Bloom
responsible for the plot at the centre of “National Anthem”, a video screen
showing Victoria Skillane, the perpetrator of the crime at the centre of “White
Bear”, the fact that Rolo worked for TCKR, the company which built the
device in “San Junipero”, the exhibit even contains the dresses worn by Yorkie
and Kelly, a bee from “Hated in the Nation”, the bloody bathroom from
“Crocodile”, the smashed tablet from “Arkangel” and even Tommy’s lollipop
from “USS Callister”. The meta-textuality of these referencing is dizzying then
and perhaps is only surpassed by one moment from Season Four which would
have been missed by all the most devoted of fans: in “Crocodile” one of the
characters briefly holds up a printed out article during which one can read the
information written on it but only if one pauses the screen. Part of the text reads
“Of course the real question is ‘why would anyone pause what they’re watch-
ing just to read a sentence in a printed out newspaper article’, says a voice in
your head—before advising you to share this finding on reddit”. As one might
expect, shortly after the image was actually shared on reddit with contributors
gleefully deconstructing and commenting on it as they have done on every
addition to the Black Mirror universe.7
It seems warranted to refer to the show not just as a success but as a phe-
nomenon which is reflected not just in the ratings it has secured around the
globe, the headlines it has inspired and also the wealth of awards it has been
nominated for and in many cases won, the variety of which is symptomatic of
its own range: from BAFTAs, to Peabodys, International Emmys, Screen
Actors Guild Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Hugo and GLAAD. In years
to come audiences will turn to the episodes of Black Mirror as some sort of
cultural barometer, one which has embedded within it many of the defining
anxieties of the times which produced it. Indeed, an exploration and inter-
rogation of what these anxieties might tell us is the central aims of Through
the Black Mirror: Deconstructing the Side Effects of the Digital Age. Given his
central importance to Black Mirror, it seems fitting then to give the final
words of this introduction to the show’s creator, Brooker, who memora-
bly stated:

We routinely do things that just five years ago would scarcely have made sense to
us. We tweet along to reality shows; we share videos of strangers dropping cats in
bins; we dance in front of Xboxes that can see us, and judge us, and find us sorely
lacking. It’s hard to think of a single human function that technology hasn’t
somehow altered, apart perhaps from burping. That’s pretty much all we have
left. Just yesterday I read a news story about a new video game installed above
urinals to stop patrons getting bored: you control it by sloshing your urine stream
left and right. Read that back to yourself and ask if you live in a sane society. (2011,
emphasis added)

7
See, for example, AFellowOfLimitedJest.
12 T. MCSWEENEY AND S. JOY

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PART I
 “The National Anthem”, Terrorism and Digital
Media

Fran Pheasant-Kelly

Introduction
“The National Anthem” (01.01), the first episode of Charlie Brooker’s televi-
sion anthology series, Black Mirror (2011–), deals with a number of contem-
porary issues, namely, public reactions to, and fear of, terrorism, and the
democratising power of social media. Specifically, it explores how the potential
for psychological manipulation of both individuals and the masses has increased
with the development of digital technology. Indeed, while such technology has
the capacity for enhancing communication between physically remote individ-
uals, there is increasing recognition that it also provokes a number of side
effects, including a propensity for loneliness, persecution and exploitation of
vulnerability (see, for example, Brewer & Kerslake, 2015; O’Keefe, Pearson, &
Council on Communications and Media, 2011). As Mark Andrejevic observes
in relation to this shift in the perceived value of social media, “[t]here is a pro-
gression apparent here, from a celebratory sense of the potential of new media
(as a means of expanding social networks and experimenting with personal
identity) to a savvy wariness toward forms of deception they facilitate, and
finally to a sense of personal risk” (2007, p. 37). Moreover, and linked to the
aforementioned issues, especially the exploitation of vulnerability, Brigitte
Nacos (2016) argues that there is a symbiotic relationship between the media
and radicalisation/terrorism, with each depending on the other to reach its
audiences.
While Pierlugi Musarò (2016) analyses the episode’s portrayal of communi-
cation and power in the network society by examining issues of privacy, spec-

F. Pheasant-Kelly (*)
University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK
e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s) 2019 19

T. McSweeney, S. Joy (eds.), Through the Black Mirror,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19458-1_2
20 F. PHEASANT-KELLY

tacle and performance, to date, there has been limited consideration of the side
effects of the digital era in respect of surveillance. This essay therefore makes an
original intervention in analyses of the series by focusing on surveillance in rela-
tion to cultural humiliation and terrorism. Engaging theoretically with the
work of Thomas Mathiesen (1997) on synoptic spectatorship as well as that of
Nacos (2016) in relation to mass-mediated terrorism, it examines the tensions
between these aspects via narrative themes, cinematography and aspects of the
mise-en-scène to argue that there are several repercussions of internet and social
media usage not yet explored in this episode. These include an apparent democ-
ratisation of power, via what is termed here as “synaptic surveillance”, that
exists in tension with accepted models of surveillance described by Michel
Foucault (1991) and Thomas Mathiesen (1997); an accelerated pace of events;
the propagandist potential and capacity of digital media for “fake news”; and
the ready malleability of public opinion and resultant collective agency via
emotional response rather than rational process. Effectively, the episode, while
fictionalised, illustrates the real-world complexity of multiplatform media, with
one individual controlling the consciousness of the many and these, in forming
synaptic connections with others, ultimately mandating the actions of another
character.

Power, Society and Surveillance in “The National

Anthem”
Originally airing on 4 December 2011 on Channel 4 in the UK, “The National
Anthem” is a political drama that follows the course of events after a princess is
kidnapped, and the unusual ransom demand that the Prime Minister has sex
with a pig, an event that the ransom states must be viewed publicly. Despite
feverish attempts to locate the kidnapper, the Prime Minister, Michael Callow
(Rory Kinnear), is eventually coerced by public opinion into committing the
act. The episode, aside from its taboo content, became notorious for its connec-
tions to later unfounded allegations made against former British Prime Minister,
David Cameron, which came to light in 2015 in an unauthorised biography by
Michael Ashcroft and similarly became highly mediated (see Khomami, 2015;
Hooton, 2015). It therefore explores the influence of the public, the power of
synoptic viewing and issues of cultural humiliation. The drama’s numerous ref-
erences to terrorism also connect such degradation with the equally culturally
humiliating experiences of detainees at Abu Ghraib and other detention camps
set up following 9/11. While this parallel might not be explicit, it is hinted at
by Brooker who, in interview, compares the “pig scene” to 9/11, stating “It’s
a 9/11—you don’t want to watch it [but you do]” (Bathurst, 2012a). The allu-
sions to Islamic culture, 9/11 as media event, the narrative’s political targets,
Jihadism and terrorist execution point more distinctly towards post-9/11 alle-
gory. Furthermore, “The National Anthem” aired just following the tenth anni-
versary of 9/11, and in the same year as Bin Laden’s execution, an event from
 “THE NATIONAL ANTHEM”, TERRORISM AND DIGITAL MEDIA 21

which the episode appears to draw. Effectively, while Foucault is concerned with
the exercise of power in panoptic surveillance, and Mathiesen describes synoptic
viewing (whereby the few still exert power), the episode illustrates how the
combined effects of traditional and new media nuance power and viewing
relationships.
The notion of one/few watching and controlling the consciousness of the
many is explored by Foucault in Discipline and Punish (1991) in which he
proposes that institutions such as the prison, school and hospital are typically
organised according to a panoptic model. Such an arrangement pivots around
a central tower which facilitates specific modes of surveillance. Drawing on the
work of Jeremy Bentham, who originally put forward the design, Foucault
explains that the way in which the institution regulates bodies through its phys-
ical architecture establishes an inherent relationship between space, surveil-
lance and control. While institutions are sites implicitly concerned with the
enforced discipline of the body, Foucault suggests that the typical panoptic
structure of the institution also controls consciousness (1991, p. 201). This is
because inmates do not know exactly when they are being observed and there-
fore adjust their actions regardless. Even though Foucault’s concept is based
on physical space rather than cyberspace, and scholars such as David Lyon and
Zygmunt Bauman now refer to the “post-panoptical powers of liquid moder-
nity” (2013, p. 13), panopticism nonetheless retains contemporary currency in
the widespread use of CCTV. As will be argued, it also remains potentially
relevant to digital media, illustrated by the way that the masses are manipulated
in “The National Anthem”.
In contrast to the work of Foucault, Thomas Mathiesen (1997) describes a
synoptic model which he suggests has developed alongside panopticonism,
stating that “as a striking parallel to the panoptical process, and concurring in
detail with its historical development, we have seen the development of a
unique and extensive system enabling the many to see and contemplate the few,
so that the tendency for the few to see and supervise the many is contextualized
by a highly significant counterpart [original emphasis]” (1997, p. 219). He
contends that such mass viewing typically occurs in relation to television and
terms the outcome of this concurrent two-way panoptic/synoptic system of
observation as a “viewer society” (1997, p. 219). Less obviously than in pan-
opticonism, power and control are also features of synoptic viewing such that
“in synoptic space, particular news reporters, more or less brilliant media per-
sonalities and commentators who are continuously visible and seen are of par-
ticular importance … They actively filter and shape information … they produce
news … they place topics on the agenda and avoid placing topics on the
agenda” (Mathiesen, 1997, p. 226). As well as personalities exerting specific
power over viewers, the media in general also effect control and Mathiesen
states that “synopticism, through the modern mass media in general and televi-
sion in particular, first of all directs and controls or disciplines our consciousness
[original emphasis]” (1997, p. 230).
22 F. PHEASANT-KELLY

However, at the time he published this article, the Internet was in its infancy
and social media relatively undeveloped. Therefore, alongside the panoptic pro-
cess described by Foucault and the synoptic model outlined by Mathiesen, a third
variation has emerged, involving multiple interactions between many individuals/
groups in what might be described as “synaptic surveillance” and that is consistent
with the development of the Internet and social media. Lyon (2011, p. 13) refers
to this phenomenon as rhizomatic surveillance and notes that “[p]ost-panoptic
surveillance is deterritorialized as well as rhizomatic and as such resists exclusion-
ary control strategies” (2011, p. 13). In a related way, Mark Andrejevic describes
it as a lateral watching, and suggests that it involves “a displacement of the figure
of ‘Big Brother’ by proliferating ‘little brothers’ who engage in distributed, decen-
tralised forms of monitoring and information gathering” (2007, p. 239).
Andrejevic draws further comparisons with Foucauldian surveillance, noting that

[i]n an era of distributed surveillance, the amplification of panoptic monitoring relies

on the internalised discipline not just of the watched, but also of the watchers …
At the same time, we are becoming habituated to a culture in which we are all
expected to monitor one another—to deploy surveillance tactics facilitated at least in
part by interactive media technologies—in order to protect ourselves and our loved
ones and maximize our chances for social and economic success. (2007, p. 239)

This point is amplified by Ivan Manokha, who describes a comparable “chilling

effect” following the Edward Snowden revelations whereby one’s free speech
is curtailed in a raised awareness of possibly being watched (2018, p. 228). In
a similar vein, and highlighting issues with Mathiesen’s pre-Internet viewpoint,
Aaron Doyle states that “[m]odern, disciplinary surveillance is being overlaid.
Likewise, with the evolution of the Internet and its intertwining with other
mass media, the notion that ‘the many’ watch ‘the few’ through the mass media
has become increasingly problematized” (2011, p. 293).
It is with these three options that “The National Anthem” is concerned:
first, in relation to the Foucauldian control exercised by a single individual, an
artist, who engineers the bizarre ransom demand and effectively manipulates
the consciousness of 1.3 billion viewers; second, regarding the synoptic view-
ing by these viewers (who are influenced via a combination of the Internet and
television news coverage) of the protagonist engaging in a culturally humiliat-
ing act; and third, what is here termed “synaptic surveillance” with respect to
the collective agency/intelligence of those engaged with the Internet and
social media. Despite Doyle’s reservations about Mathiesen’s model, the
manipulation of viewers’ consciousness via the media in this episode initially
suggests that Mathiesen’s approach remains appropriate, whether the media is
traditional or otherwise. However, their decision is effectively orchestrated by
a single observer whilst a third layer of surveillance is in operation whereby the
public is swayed by lateral networks. Overall, the various processes of surveil-
lance occur simultaneously: the controlling artist, the voyeuristic watching as a
communal mass and synaptic networking (whereby each individual responds to
others) to generate a consensus and wield power.
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Title: The Theory and Practice of Brewing

Author: Michael Combrune

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THEORY

AND PRACTICE OF BREWING ***
 THE
THEORY AND PRACTICE
OF
BREWING.
BY MICHAEL COMBRUNE, Brewer.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION OF THE MASTER, WARDENS,
AND COURT OF ASSISTANTS OF THE WORSHIPFUL
COMPANY OF BREWERS.

A NEW EDITION.
CORRECTED AND GREATLY ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR VERNOR AND HOOD, LONGMAN AND REES, CUTRELL
AND MARTIN, AND J. WALKER,
By J. Wright, St. John’s Square, Clerkenwell.
1804.
 TO

DOCTOR PETER SHAW,

PHYSICIAN TO HIS MAJESTY,

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON,

AND OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

Sir,
The brewing of malt liquors has hitherto been conducted by such
vague traditional maxims, that an attempt to establish its practice on
truer and more fixed principles must, like every new essay, be
attended with difficulties.
Your works, Sir, will be lasting monuments, not only of your great
abilities, but also of your zeal for the improvement of the arts,
manufactures, and commerce of your country. You will therefore
permit me to place under your patronage this treatise, which, if it
can boast no other merit, has that of having been undertaken and
finished by your advice and counsel.
Some favor, I hope, will be shewn for this distant endeavour to
imitate the laudable example you have set, and whatever be the
success, I shall ever glory in the opportunity it has given me of
professing myself publicly,
Sir,
Your most obedient,
And most obliged humble Servant,
Michael Combrune.
Hampstead, Middlesex,
December 15, 1761.
 THE
CONTENTS.
Page

PART I.
Explanation of technical terms, 1

SECTION I.
Of Fire, 13

SECTION II.
Of Air, 19

SECTION III.
Of Water, 24

SECTION IV.
Of Earth, 33

SECTION. V.
Of Menstruums or Dissolvents, 34

SECTION VI.
Of the Thermometer, 39

SECTION VII.
Of the Vine, its fruits, and juices, 50

SECTION VIII.
Of fermentation in general, 66

SECTION IX.
Of artificial fermentation, 80

SECTION X.
Of the nature of Barley, 89

SECTION XI.
Of Malting, 94

SECTION XII.
Of the different Properties of Malt, and of the number of its fermentable Parts, 113

SECTION XIII.
Observations on defective Malts, 131

PART II.

SECTION I.
Of the heat of the Air, as it relates to the practical part of Brewing, 145

SECTION II.
Of Grinding, 157

SECTION III.
Of Extraction, 160

SECTION IV.
Of the nature and properties of Hops, 201

SECTION V.
Of the lengths necessary to form malt liquors of the several denominations, 217

SECTION VI.
Method of calculating the height in the Copper at which worts are to go out, 220

SECTION VII.
Of Boiling, 224

SECTION VIII.
Of the quantity of Water wasted; and of the application of the preceding rules
to two different processes of Brewing, 230

SECTION IX.
Of the division of the Water for the respective Worts and Mashes, and of the
heat adequate to each of these, 234

SECTION X.
An enquiry into the volume of Malt, in order to reduce the Grist to liquid
measure, 253
 SECTION XI.
Of the proportion of cold Water to be added to that which is on the point of
boiling, in order to obtain the desired heat in the extract, 271

SECTION XII.
Of Mashing, 286

SECTION XIII.
Of the incidents, which cause the heat of the extract to vary from the
calculation, the allowances they require, and the means to obviate their
effects, 289

SECTION XIV.
Of the disposition of the Worts when turned out of the Copper, the thickness
they should be laid at in the Backs to cool, and the heat they should retain
for fermentation, under the several circumstances, 304

SECTION XV.
Of Yeast, its nature and contents, and of the manner and quantities in which it
is to be added to the Worts, 311

SECTION XVI.
Of practical fermentation, and the management of the several sorts of Malt
liquors, to the period at which they are to be cleansed, or put into the
casks, 318

SECTION XVII.
Of the signs generally directing the processes of Brewing, and their
comparison with the foregoing Theory and Practice, 327

SECTION XVIII.
An enquiry, into what may be, at all times, a proper stock of Beer, and the
management of it in the cellars, 331

SECTION XIX.
Of Precipitation, and other remedies, applicable to the diseases incident to
Beers, 334

SECTION XX.
Of Taste, 342
Appendix, 349
 THE

PREFACE.

The difference that appears in the several processes of brewing,

though executed with the same materials, by the same persons, and
to the same intent, is generally acknowledged. The uneasiness this
must occasion to those who are charged with the directive part of
the business, cannot be small: and the more desirous they are of
well executing the duty incumbent on them, the greater is their
disappointment, when frustrated in their hopes. To remove this
uncertainty, no method seems preferable to that of experiments, as
it is by this means alone, any art whatever can be established upon
a solid foundation: but these require caution, perseverance, and
expence; they must be multiplied and varied both for the same and
for different purposes. The operations of nature elude superficial
enquiries, where we have few or no principles for our guides, many
experiments are made, which tend only to confound or deceive.
Effects seen, without a sufficient knowledge of their causes, often
are neglected, or viewed in an improper light, seldom faithfully
reported, and, for want of distinguishing the several circumstances
that attend them, many times become the support of old prejudices,
or the foundation of new ones.
Whoever is attentive to the practical part of brewing, will soon be
convinced that heat, or fire, is the principal agent therein, as this
element, used in a greater or less degree, or differently applied, is
the occasion of the greatest part of the variety we perceive. It is but
a few years since the thermometer has been found to be an
instrument sufficiently accurate for any purposes where the measure
of heat is required. And, as it is the only one with which we are
enabled to examine the processes of brewing, and to account for the
difference in the effects, a theory of the art, founded on practice,
must be of later date than the discovery of the instrument that
guides us to the principles.
So long since as the year 1741, I began this research, and never
neglected any opportunity to consult the artists of the trade, or to
try such experiments as I conceived might be conducive to the
purpose. It is needless, perhaps shameful, to mention their number,
or to speak of the many disappointments I met with in this pursuit.
Error admits of numberless combinations. Truth alone is simple, and
confirmed by continuity. At last, flattering myself with having
collected the true theory, assisted and encouraged by men of
abilities, I thought it fit the public should judge whether I had
succeeded in my endeavours; and in 1758 the Essay on Brewing was
submitted to them, either for their approbation, or that the errors
therein might be pointed out. I have had no reason to repent of my
temerity, though perhaps the novelty, more than the merit of this
performance, engaged the attention, I may add the favor and advice
of some good judges. They have allowed my principles to be at least
plausible, and their agreement with practice has since repeatedly
convinced me they were not far from truth.
The Essay just mentioned, revised and corrected, naturally forms the
first part or theory of the present treatise. The second part is
entirely practical. After giving a short idea of the whole process, I
resume its different branches in as many chapters, and endeavour in
such manner to guide the practitioner, that he may, in every part, at
all times, and under a variety of circumstances, know what he is to
do, and seldom, if ever, to be disappointed in his object.
From the investigation of so extensive a business, some benefit, it is
hoped, must accrue to the public; from the process of brewing being
carried on in a just and uniform manner, our malt liquors, probably,
will in time better deserve the name of wine.
Boerhaave, Shaw, Macquer, and most of the great masters in
chymistry are far from limiting that name to the liquors produced
from the juice of the grape: they extend it to all fermented
vegetable juices, which, on distillation, yield an ardent spirit, and
look on the strength and faculty wine has to cherish nature, and
preserve itself, to be in proportion to the quantity it possesses of this
liquid, generally termed spirit of wine. This, when thoroughly pure
and dephlegmated, is one and the same, whatever different
vegetable it is produced from. Barley wines possess the same
spiritous principle, which is the preservative part of the most
valuable foreign wines, with a power of being brewed superior or
inferior to them in quality, and the other constituent parts of beer,
beside this ardent spirit, will not, I believe, be esteemed less
wholesome than those which make up the whole of grape wine.
The reasons why Great Britain hath not hitherto furnished foreign
nations with this part of her product, but more especially her
seamen, are obvious. Our mariners, when at home, do not dislike
beer, either as to their palates, or its effects on their constitution;
but when abroad, spiritous liquors, or new wines, often the product
of an enemy’s country, are substituted in lieu thereof. The disuse of
beers, on these occasions, has been owing to the uncertainty of the
principles on which they were brewed; the maintaining them sound
in long voyages and in hot climates, could not sufficiently be
depended upon; and it has been supposed they could not be
procured at so easy a rate as wines, brandies, or rums, purchased
abroad. The first of these objections, the author hopes, by this work,
to remove; and, were all the duties to be allowed on what would be
brewed for this purpose, our seamen might be furnished with beer
stronger than Spanish wine, and at a less expence, the mean price
of malt and hops being taken for seven years. It is true that, in
times of peace, the seamen in his Majesty’s service are not very
numerous, but the number of those then employed by merchants is
considerable. I should not have presumed to mention this, but on
account of the encouragement given to the exportation of corn, and
to many manufactures of British growth or British labor. It is
computed that, in England and Wales, are brewed three millions five
hundred thousand quarters of malt yearly, for which purpose
upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand weight of hops are used.
The improvement of the brewery might become a means of
increasing the consumption of the growth of our country, viz. of
barley, to more than one hundred thousand quarters, and of hops to
between fourteen and fifteen thousand weight annually.
Whether this be an object deserving the attention of the legislative
power, or of the landed interest, and what might be the proper
means to put it successfully in practice, are considerations which do
not belong to this place; it being sufficient here to point out, how
universally beneficial it is to establish the art of brewing on true and
invariable principles.
This being the first attempt, that has been made, to reduce this art
to rules and principles, the Author hopes he has a just claim to the
indulgence of the public, for any errors he unwillingly may have
adopted; far from believing that there is no room left for future
improvements, he recommends it to those, who, blessed with
superior talents and more leisure than himself, may be inclined to try
their skill in the same field, to watch closely the steps of Nature;
after the strictest enquiry made, it will be found, the success of
brewing beers and ales wholly depends on a true imitation of the
wines she forms.
This second edition, it may be observed, in many respects, differs
considerably from the first. I have endeavoured to convert to use
every advice, every opinion I received, and having put these to the
test of farther practice, flatter myself it will be found improved.
 A COPY OF DOCTOR SHAW’S LETTER.
ON PERUSING THE ESSAY BEFORE MENTIONED.

Dear Sir,
I HAVE, with pleasure and improvement, read over your manuscript;
and should be glad to see some other trades as justly reduced to
rules as you have done that of brewing: which would not only be
making a right application of philosophical knowledge, but, at the
same time, accommodate human life, in many respects, wherein it is
still deficient. Perhaps your example may excite some able men, to
give us their respective trades, in the form of so many arts. For my
own part, having long wished to see some attempts of this kind, for
the good of society in general, I cannot but be particularly pleased
with the nature, design, and execution of your essay, and am,
Dear Sir,
Your obliged Friend,
And humble Servant,
PETER SHAW.
Pall-Mall, July 20,
1758.
 AN
EXPLANATION
OF THE

TECHNICAL TERMS.

The intent of every brewer, when he forms his drink, is to extract

the fermentable parts of the malt, in the most perfect manner; to
add hops, in such proportion as experience teaches him will preserve
and ameliorate the beer; and to employ just so much yeast as is
sufficient to obtain a complete fermentation.
Perhaps it may be said, these particulars are already sufficiently
understood, and that it would be a much more useful work to
publish remedies for the imperfections, or diseases, beer is naturally
or accidentally subject to, and which at present are deemed
incurable. But if the designs just now mentioned be executed
according to the rules of chymistry, such imperfections and such
diseases not existing, the remedies will not be wanted; for beer
brewed upon true principles, is, neither naturally nor accidentally,
subject to many disorders often perceived in it. Hence it is evident,
that some knowledge of chymistry is absolutely necessary to
complete the brewer, as, without the informations acquired from that
science, he must be unqualified to lay down rules for his practice,
and to secure to himself the favor of the public; for which purpose,
and to make this treatise useful to those concerned in the practical
part of brewing, it has been thought adviseable to avoid, as much as
possible, the technical terms of art, to prefix an explanation of those
that necessarily occur, and, in as short a manner as possible, to
trace the properties of fire, air, water, and earth, as far as they relate
to the subject.

Acids are all those things which taste sour, as vinegar, juice of
lemons, spirit of nitre, spirit of salt, the oil and spirit of vitriol, &c.
and are put in a violent agitation, by being mixed with certain
earths, or the ashes of vegetables. An acid enters, more or less, into
the composition of all plants, and is produced by, or rather is the last
effect of, fermentation. Mixed in a due proportion with an alkali, it
constitutes a neutral salt, that is, a salt wherein neither the acid nor
alkali prevail. Acids are frequently termed acid salts, though
generally they appear under a fluid form.
Alkalies, or alkaline salts, are of a nature directly contrary to the
acids, and generally manifest themselves by effervescing therewith:
they have an urinous taste, and are produced from the ashes of
vegetables, and by several other means. They, as well as testaceous
and calcarious substances, are frequently made use of by coopers,
to absorb the acid parts of stale beer, by them called softning.
Air is a thin elastic fluid, surrounding the globe of the earth; it is
absolutely necessary to the preservation both of animal and
vegetable life, and for the exciting and carrying on fermentation.

Alcohol is the pure spirit of wine, generally supposed to be without

the least particle of water or phlegm.

Animals are organized bodies, endued with sensation and life.

Minerals are said to grow and increase, plants to grow and live, but
animals only to have sensation.—Animal substances cannot ferment
so as to produce by themselves a vinous liquor; but there may be
cases wherein some of their parts rather help than retard the act of
fermentation.1

Atmosphere is that vast collection of air, with which the earth is

surrounded to a considerable height.
Attraction is an indefinite term, applicable to all actions whereby
bodies tend towards one another, whether by virtue of their weight,
magnetism, electricity, or any other power. It is not, therefore, the
cause determining some bodies to approach one another, that is
expressed by the word attraction, but the effect itself. The space,
through which this power extends, is called the sphere of attraction.

Blacking is a technical term used by coopers, to denote sugar that

is calcined, until it obtains the colour that occasions the name.
Brewing is the operation of preparing beers and ales from malt.
Boiling may thus be accounted for. The minute particles of fuel
being by fire detached from each other, and becoming themselves
fire, pass through the pores of the vessel, and mix with the fluid.
These, being perpetually in an active state, communicate their
motion to the water: hence arises, at first, a small intestine motion,
and from a continued action in the first cause, the effect is
increased, and the motion of the liquor continually accelerated; by
degrees, it becomes sensibly agitated, but the particles of the fire,
acting chiefly on the particles that compose the lowest surface of the
water, give them an impulse upwards, by rendering them specifically
lighter, so as to determine them to ascend, according to the laws of
equilibrium. Hence there is a constant flux of water from the bottom
to the top of the vessel, and reciprocally from the top to the bottom.
This appears to be the reason why water is hot at the top sooner
than at the bottom, and why an equal heat cannot be distributed
through the whole. The thermometer therefore can be of little
service, to determine immediately the degree of heat, especially in
large vessels, on which account it is better for brewers to heat a
certain quantity just to the act of boiling, and to temper it, by adding
a sufficient quantity of cold water. Boiling water is incapable of
receiving any increase of heat, though acted on by ever so great a
fire, unless the atmosphere becomes heavier, or the vapours of the
water be confined. It occasions the mercury to rise, according to
Farenheit’s scale, to 212 degrees.

Charr. A body is said to be charred when, by fire, its volatile or

most active parts are drove out; its coarse oils, by the same means,
placed chiefly on the external parts; and so deprived of color as to
be quite black.
Cleansing is the act of removing the beer from the ton, where it
was first fermented, into the casks.

Cloudy is an epithet joined to such beers, which, from the violent

heat given to the water that brewed them, are loaded with more oils
than can be attenuated by fermentation, and incorporated with the
water; from whence a muddy and grey oil is seen floating on the
surface of the liquor, though the body is often transparent; this oil is
frequently extracted in such quantity as to exceed the power of any
known menstruum.
Cohesion is that action by which the particles of the same body
adhere together, as if they were but one.

Cold is a relative term in opposition to heat. Its greatest degree is

not known, and it is supposed that the colder a body is, the less is
the agitation of its internal parts.

Colour; a greater or less degree of heat causes different colours in

most bodies, and from a due observation of the colour of malt, we
may determine what degree of heat it has been impressed with.
Density expresses the closeness, compactness, or near approach of
the parts of a body to one another: the more a body weighs in
proportion to its bulk, the greater is its density. Gold is the densest
body in nature, because there is none known of the same bulk,
which weighs so much.
Earth is that fossil matter or element, whereof our globe partly
consists.

Ebullition is the boiling or bubbling of water, or any other liquor,

when the fire has forced itself a passage through it. Brewers
suppose water to be just beginning to boil, when they perceive a
small portion of it forced from the bottom upwards in a right line, so
as to disturb the surface: when the liquor is in this state, they call it
through, or upon the point of ebullition. The vulgar notion that the
water is hotter at this time than when it boils, is without any
foundation.
Effervescence is a sudden agitation, arising in certain bodies upon
mixing them together; this agitation most commonly generates heat.

Elasticity, or springiness, is that property of bodies, by which they

restore themselves to their former figure, after any pressure or
distension.

Expansion is the swelling or increase of the bulk of bodies from

heat, or any other cause.
Extract consists of the parts of a body separated from the rest, by
cold or hot water.

Fermentation is a sensible internal motion of the particles of a

mixture: by the continuance of this motion, the particles are
gradually removed from their former situation, and, after some
visible separation, joined together again in a different order and
arrangement, so as to constitute a new compound. No liquors are
capable of inebriating, except those that have been fermented.

Fixed Bodies are those, which, consisting of grosser parts,

cohering by a strong attraction, and by that means less susceptible
of agitation, can neither be separated nor raised, without a strong
heat, or perhaps not without fermentation.

Fire is only known by its properties, of which the chief are to

penetrate and dilate all solid and fluid bodies.
Freezing Point is the degree of cold, at which water begins to be
formed into ice, which, according to Farenheit’s scale, is expressed
by 32.

Foxed is a technical term, used by brewers, to indicate beers in a

putrid state.
Gums are concreted vegetable juices, which transude through the
bark of certain trees, and harden upon the surface; they easily
dissolve in water, and by that means distinguish themselves from
balsams or resins.
Hermetically Sealed is a particular method of stopping the mouth
of vessels, so close that the most subtil spirit cannot fly out, which is
done by heating the neck of the bottles, till it is just ready to melt,
and then with hot pinchers twisting it close together.
Homogeneous is an appellation given to such parts or subjects,
which are similar or of the same nature and properties.

Isinglass is a preparation from a fish called huso, somewhat bigger

than the sturgeon; a solution of which in stale beer is used, to fine
or precipitate other beers: it is imported from Russia by the Dutch,
and from them to us.
Light consists of particles of matter inconceivably small, capable of
exciting in us the sensation of colours, by being reflected from every
point of the surface of luminous bodies; but, notwithstanding they
are so exceeding small, Sir Isaac Newton found means to divide a
single ray into seven distinct parts, viz. red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo, and violet.
Malt, in general, is any sort of grain, first germinated, and then
dried, so as to prevent any future vegetation: that generally used, is
made of barley, which experience has found to be the fittest for the
purpose of brewing.
Medium is that space, through which a body in motion passes: air is
the medium through which the bodies near the earth move; water is
the medium wherein fish live; glass affords a medium or a free
passage to light.—This term is also made use of, to express the
mean of two numbers, and sometimes the middle between several
quantities.
Musts are the unfermented juices of grapes, or of any other
vegetable substances.

Menstruum is any fluid, which is capable of interposing its parts

between those of other bodies, and in this manner either dissolves
them perfectly, or extracts some part of them.
Oil is an unctuous, inflammable substance, drawn from several
animal and vegetable substances.

Precipitation. Isinglass dissolved becomes a glutinous and heavy

body; this put into malt liquors intended to be fined, carries down,
by its weight, all those swimming particles, which prevent its
transparency; and this act is called fining, or precipitation.
Repulsion; “Doctor Knight defines it to be that cause which makes
bodies mutually endeavour to recede from each other, with different
forces at different times.” In this case they are placed beyond the
sphere of each other’s attraction or cohesion, and mutually fly from
each other.
Resins, or balsams, are the oils of vegetables inspissated and
combined with a proportion of the acid salts; as well as they mix
with any spirituous liquor, as little are they soluble in water; but they
become so, either by the intervention of gums or soaps, or by the
attenuating virtue of fermentation.
Salts are substances sharp and pungent, which readily dissolve in
water, and from thence, by evaporation, crystallise and appear in a
solid form. They easily unite together, and form different
compounds. Thus salts, composed of acids and alkalies, partake of
both, and are called neutral.
Sett: a grist of malt is by brewers said to be sett, when, instead of
separating for extraction, it runs in clods, increases in heat, and
coagulates. This accident is owing to the over quantity of fire in the
water, applied to any of the extractions. The air included in the grist,
which is a principal agent in resolving the malt, being thereby
expelled, the mass remains inert, and its parts, adhering too closely
together, are with difficulty separated. Though an immediate
application of more cold water to the grist is the only remedy, yet, as
the cohesion is speedy and strong, it seldom takes effect.—New
malts, which have not yet lost the heat they received from the kiln,
are most apt to lead the brewer into this error, and generally in the
first part of the process.

Sugar, or saccharine salts, are properly those that come from the
sugar canes; many plants, fruits and grains give sweet juices
reducible to the same form; they are supposed to be acids smoothed
over with oils; all vegetable sweets are capable of fermenting
spontaneously when crude; if boiled, they require an addition of
yeast to make them perform that act. Malt, or its extracts, have all
the properties of saccharine salts.
Sulphur. Though by sulphur is commonly understood the mineral
substance called brimstone, yet in chymistry it is frequently used to
signify in general any oily substance, inflammable by fire, and,
without some saline addition, indissoluble in water.

Soap or Saponaceous Juices. Common soap is made of oil mixed

with alkaline salts: this mixture causes a froth on being agitated in
water. The oils of vegetables are, in some degree, mixed with their
salts; and according to the nature of these salts, appear either
resinous or saponaceous, that is, soluble or indissoluble in water.—
Sugar is a kind of soap, rendering oil miscible with water; and
therefore all bodies, from which saccharine salts are extracted, may
be termed saponaceous.

Vegetable is a term applied to plants, considered as capable of

growth, having vessels and parts for this purpose, but generally
supposed to be without sensation.
Vinegar is an acid penetrating liquor, prepared from wine, beer,
cyder, or a must, which has been fermented as far as it was capable.
Vitriol is, in general, a metalline substance combined with the
strongest acid salt known. This acid, being separated from the
metal, differs in nothing from that which is extracted from alum or
brimstone. It is improperly called spirit of vitriol, when diluted with
water, and, with as little propriety, oil, when free from it.

Volatile Bodies are those, which, either from their smallness or

their form, do not cohere very strongly together, and being most
susceptible of those agitations, which keep liquors in a fluid state,
are most easily separated and rarified into vapour, with a gentle
heat, and on the contrary condensed and brought down with cold.

Wine is a brisk, agreeable, spirituous, fluid cordial, formed from

fermented vegetable bodies. In this sense beers and ales may be
called, and really are, barley wines.

Worts are the unfermented extracts of malt.

Yeast is both the flowers and lees of a fermented wort, the former
of these being elastic air enveloped in a subject less strong and less
consistent than the latter.
 PRINCIPLES
OF THE

THEORY OF BREWING.
 SECTION I.

OF FIRE.

Though fire is the chief cause and principle of almost every change
in bodies, and though persons untaught in chymistry imagine they
understand its nature, yet, certain it is, few subjects are so
incomprehensible, or elude so much our nicest research. The senses
are very inadequate judges of it; the eye may be deceived, and
suppose no fire in a bar of iron, because it does not appear red,
though at the same time it may contain enough to generate pain:
the touch is equally unfaithful, for a body, containing numberless
particles of heat, will to us feel cold, if it is much more so than
ourselves.
The great and fundamental difference among philosophers, in
respect to the nature of fire, is, whether it be originally such, formed
by the Creator himself, at the beginning of things; or whether it be
mechanically producible in bodies, by inducing some alteration in the
particles thereof. It is certain that heat may be generated in a body,
by attrition; but whether it existed there before, or was caused
immediately by the motion, is a matter of no great import to the art
of brewing; for the effects, with which we are alone concerned, are
the same.
Fire expands all bodies, both solid and fluid. If an iron rod just
capable of passing through a ring of the same metal, is heated red-
hot, it will be increased in length, and so much swelled as not to be
able to pass through the ring, as before:2 if a fluid is put into a
bellied glass, with a long slender neck, and properly marked, the
fluid, by being heated, will manifestly rise to a considerable height.
The expansion of fluids, by heat, is different in different fluids; with
some exceptions, it may be said to be in proportion to their density.
Pure rain water, gradually heated to ebullition, is expanded one 26th
part of its bulk,3 so that 27 gallons of boiling water, will, when cold,
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