Joseph Hurtgen

The Archive Incarnate

The Embodiment and Transmission of Knowledge in Science Fiction

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

We live in an information economy, a vast archive of data ever at our fingertips. In the pages of science fiction, powerful entities--governments and corporations--attempt to use this archive to control society, enforce conformity or turn citizens into passive consumers. Opposing them are protagonists fighting to liberate the collective mind from those who would enforce top-down control. Archival technology and its depictions in science fiction have developed dramatically since the 1950s. Ray Bradbury discusses archives in terms of books and television media, and Margaret Atwood in terms of magazines and journaling. William Gibson focused on technofuturistic cyberspace and brain-to-computer prosthetics, Bruce Sterling on genetics and society as an archive of social practices. Neal Stephenson has imagined post-cyberpunk matrix space and interactive primers. As the archive is altered, so are the humans that interact with ever-advancing technology.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: McFarland
• Seitenzahl: 210
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. Oktober 2018
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 13mm
• Gewicht: 349g
• ISBN-13: 9781476672465
• ISBN-10: 1476672466
• Artikelnr.: 52906112

Autorenporträt

Joseph Hurtgen writes science fiction, Sf criticism, and screenplays. He works as an assistant copy editor for Coalition Technologies, an SEO marketing firm, and reviews and critiques science fiction on his website Rapid Transmission. He lives in Campbellsville, Kentucky.

Inhaltsangabe

Table of Contents Preface Introduction
Archive Theory and Sf Introduction
5 Theoretical Overview
10 Archival Control
27 Archival Resistance
29 Chapter Outline
31 Theory Summary
31 Conclusion
35 One
Fahrenheit 451 and the Archive Introduction
37 Archive-Anxiety
41 Archival Domination
47 Resistance to Archival Erasure
56 Conclusion
65 Two
Rejecting Archival Embodiment in The Handmaid's Tale Introduction
67 Archive-Anxiety
70 Archival Control
73 Archival Resistance
85 Conclusion
93 Three
Disembodied Embodiment of the Archive in Gibson's Neuromancer and "Johnny Mnemonic" Introduction
95 Archive-Anxiety
100 Archival Control
103 Archival Resistance
114 Conclusion
127 Four
Genetic and Technological Embodiment of the Archive in Bruce Sterling's Distraction Introduction
129 Archive-Anxiety
135 Archival Control
140 Archival Resistance
145 Conclusion
149 Five
Education Through the Digital Archive in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer Introduction
151 Archive-Anxiety
156 Archival Control
160 Archival Resistance
167 Conclusion
181 Epilogue
Archival Embodiment in Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and Ernest Cline's Ready Player One Bibliography Index