scholarly journals (CYBER) PUNK'S NOT DEAD – RICHARD MORGAN'S ALTERED CARBON

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1603-1607
Author(s):  
Ana Kečan
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
Data Networks ◽  
Original Text ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Blade Runner ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Visual Potential

The term cyberpunk refers to an offspring or subgenre of science fiction which rose to popularity in the 1980s. It was first coined by Bruce Bethke in his story of the same name, published in 1983. Even though there are critics today who claim that cyberpunk is long dead, numerous examples from the 21st century show that it is still very well and alive, and this revival is particularly aided by television, as cyberpunk has a massive visual potential. Hence, the 21st century saw the sequel to the cult Blade Runner (originally released in 1982), titled Blade Runner 2049 (released in 2017), another (fourth) sequel of The Matrix (set to be released in 2020), TV adaptations of Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams (2017) and, the main interest of this essay, Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon (season 1 in 2018 and season 2 set to be released in 2020). In this essay we are going to, first, outline the main narrative and stylistic conventions of cyberpunk, which include: a time and place in the future dominated by advanced achievements in information technology, science and computers (hence the term ‘cyber’) at the expense of a loss or breakdown of social order (hence the term ‘punk’) to the point of a dystopia (or post-utopia, as has been argued); virtual reality, data networks, illusion, bodily metamorphosis, media overload, intensity of visual components, bordering on what Norman Spinrad said was a fusion of the romantic impulse with science and technology. All of these encapsulate a core theme of the loss of distinction between real and artificial. In addition to this, the term cyberpunk requires clarification against several other terms which often appear alongside it and are related in one way or another, including science fiction, neo-noir, hard-boiled, post-cyberpunk, transhumanism, post-anthropocentrism, etc. Second, we are going to look at how those elements come together in the context of the first novel of Richard Morgan’s trilogy about Takeshi Kovacs, titled Altered Carbon, published in 2002 (the sequels, Broken Angels - 2003 and Woken Furies – 2005, have not yet been adapted for television and will, therefore, not be included in our analysis). We are going to, then, compare those elements with the Netflix version of the novel, a 10-episode TV series, released in 2018. The comparison of the visual versus the verbal narrative will show the differences in the presentation of cyberpunk elements and how (or whether) these differences are dictated by the medium or not. It will also show whether what started out as a dystopia in the original text has grown into a post-utopia in the television series, simply reflecting the current trend of nostalgia and nostalgic recycling.

A Compact Embodiment of Pluralities and Denial of Origins: Atwood’s The Year of The Flood

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Rana Sağıroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Why Questions ◽  
Near Future

Margaret Atwood, one of the most spectacular authors of postmodern movement, achieved to unite debatable and in demand critical points of 21st century such as science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism in the novel The Year of The Flood written in 2009. The novel could be regarded as an ecocritical manifesto and a dystopic mirror against today’s degenerated world, tending to a superficial base to keep the already order in use, by moving away from the fundamental solution of all humanity: nature. Although Atwood does not want her works to be called science fiction, it is obvious that science fiction plays an introductory role and gives the novel a ground explaining all ‘why’ questions of the novel. However, Atwood is not unjust while claiming that her works are not science fiction because of the inevitable rapid change of 21st century world becoming addicted to technology, especially Internet. It is easily observed by the reader that what she fictionalises throughout the novel is quite close to possibility, and the world may witness in the near future what she creates in the novel as science fiction. Additionally, postmodernism serves to the novel as the answerer of ‘how’ questions: How the world embraces pluralities, how heterogeneous social order is needed, and how impossible to run the world by dichotomies of patriarchal social order anymore. And lastly, ecocriticism gives the answers of ‘why’ questions of the novel: Why humanity is in chaos, why humanity has organized the world according to its own needs as if there were no living creatures apart from humanity. Therefore, The Year of The Flood meets the reader as a compact embodiment of science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism not only with its theme, but also with its narrative techniques.

scholarly journals The Yugoslav imaginary of Marko Vidojkovic in the novel "E baš vam hvala"

Panoptikum ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 275-285
Author(s):  
Ewelina Chacia
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Alternative Scenario

Although it has not formally existed for over thirty years, Yugoslavia continues to be an attractive subject for literature. Against two dominant currents of prose orbiting the SFRY – the settlement and nostalgic one, Marko Vidojkovic’s novel E baš vam hvala stands out with its attempt to answer the question: what would Yugoslavia be like in 21st century if it had not fallen apart. In this article this alternative scenario is considered in the context of close literary genres: science fiction and alternative histories.

scholarly journals Augmented Reality and Life in the Cyberspace in William Gibson’s Neuromancer

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Md. Shafiqul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Story Line ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
The Relationship

This paper attempts a cybercritical reading of William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer (1984) to explore the genesis of cyborgs in the novel, address issues pertaining to cyberpunks and scrutinize the portrayal of a cyberculture set in the futuristic dystopian city of Chiba. The relationship between humans and machines has gone through multiple phases of changes in the recent past. That is why instead of satirizing machinized-humans, science fiction writers have embraced different dimensions of man-machine relationships during the past few decades. ‘Cyborg’ is no longer represented as the ‘mutation of human capabilities’, but as ‘machines with Artificial Intelligence’. Gibson’s Neuromancer, a landmark piece of literary work in the sphere of Sci-Fi literature, specifically predicts a new height of man-machine relationship by employing both human and cyborg characters at the center of his story line. This paper shows how Gibson accurately prophesizes the matrix of machine-human relationship in his novel. It also explores Gibson’s depiction of female characters through the lens of cyberfeminist theories. In view of that, this paper uses contemporary critical and cultural theories including Donna Haraway’s idea of cyberfeminism, Baudrillard’s simulation and simulacra, Foucauldian discourse analysis, Jeremy Bentham’s concept of tabula rasa and other relevant theoretical ideas to examine and evaluate the transformative changes.

Behaviourism and social constructionism

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-166
Author(s):  
Gavin Miller
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Social Order ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Different Sources

This chapter explores science fiction’s deployment of behaviourism and social constructionism, which insist on the malleability of human psychology. B.F. Skinner’s near-future utopia. Walden Two (1948), authorizes the behaviourist model of the self by inscribing operant conditioning into long-standing progressivist discourses. But this is subverted by the novel itself, which persistently endorses historical, philosophical, and ethical discourses that have supposedly been rendered obsolete. Behaviourism is further undermined by Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (1962), Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven (1971), and William Sleator’s House of Stairs (1974). These narratives juxtapose against behaviourism counter-discourses from different sources, including wisdom traditions such as world religions, and also antagonistic discourses such as psychoanalysis and existentialism. Social constructionism encourages science fiction to dissolve psychological and cultural givens of our time (such as heterosexuality or patriarchy) in a future or alternative social order. With enormously varying complexity and ethical sensitivity, Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975), Edmund Cooper’s 1972 Who Needs Men? and Naomi Mitchison’s Solution Three (1974), explore the utopian and dystopian reconstruction of gender relations, but are troubled by issues of natural and cultural diversity.

scholarly journals The Utopian Code: Cyberspace as a Democratization of Technology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cole Bisson
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Global Information ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Current Time ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Physical Limitations ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Artificial Intelligence Program

[Introduction] William Gibson’s 1984 novel, Neuromancer, declared cyberpunk as a fully realized science fiction subgenre that reverberates into the current time. The text follows a hacker, Case, who was recruited by an artificial intelligence program, Wintermute. The AI plans to release itself into cyberspace or the matrix; a virtual reality separate from the cruel outside world of the novel. Case joins a veteran solider, Armitage, an assassin-like agent, Molly, and other morally ambiguous individuals in a novel that pushes the boundaries of the 1980s culture. In addition to this, Neuromancer also represents postmodern architecture in the form of the text’s urban cityscapes, but also through the virtual reality of cyberspace. Each location relays a strained relationship between humanity and technology. The development of the 1980’s information technology along with the growth of the personal computer was believed to be a harbinger of a shifting paradigm. Paweł Frelik’s article, “Silhouettes of Strange Illuminated Mannequins: Cyberpunk’s Incarnation of Light,” examines the ocularity of light pertaining to cyberspace’s visual aesthetic. Frelik defines Neuromancer’s technological equipment as a gateway to cyberspace which is where global information is made concrete in the form of neon light. I will take up this technological gateway as defining cyberspace to be an information utopia. The construction of data into concrete light establishes the freedom a tangible identity can occupy in a world where physical limitations have no relevance. I will integrate this with a postmodern architectural and literary theory. Sabine Heuser’s text, Virtual Geographies: Cyberpunk at the Intersection of the Postmodern and Science Fiction¸ examines the representation of postmodern architecture in relation to cyberpunk. She defines “double coding” as communicating not only with the public, but with a concentrated minority consisting of learned professionals working in the industry. Heuser’s text declines to apply this theory to Neuromancer as she explains double coding is too binary to be useful, but Gibson’s spatial descriptions allow for a coded interpretation into the purpose of each temporality: cyberspace and reality. By using double coding, I will utilize this architectural concept to examine Neuromancer’s representation of neon lights as concrete fixtures of data which liberate a person’s identity. Therefore, this situates the dichotomy of cyberspace as a utopia and the cityscape as a dystopia in order to capture the zeitgeist of the democratization of technology (the relinquishment of computers from the elite to the masses).

scholarly journals The Utopian Code: Cyberspace as a Democratization of Technology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cole Bisson
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Global Information ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Current Time ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Physical Limitations ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Artificial Intelligence Program

[Introduction] William Gibson’s 1984 novel, Neuromancer, declared cyberpunk as a fully realized science fiction subgenre that reverberates into the current time. The text follows a hacker, Case, who was recruited by an artificial intelligence program, Wintermute. The AI plans to release itself into cyberspace or the matrix; a virtual reality separate from the cruel outside world of the novel. Case joins a veteran solider, Armitage, an assassin-like agent, Molly, and other morally ambiguous individuals in a novel that pushes the boundaries of the 1980s culture. In addition to this, Neuromancer also represents postmodern architecture in the form of the text’s urban cityscapes, but also through the virtual reality of cyberspace. Each location relays a strained relationship between humanity and technology. The development of the 1980’s information technology along with the growth of the personal computer was believed to be a harbinger of a shifting paradigm. Paweł Frelik’s article, “Silhouettes of Strange Illuminated Mannequins: Cyberpunk’s Incarnation of Light,” examines the ocularity of light pertaining to cyberspace’s visual aesthetic. Frelik defines Neuromancer’s technological equipment as a gateway to cyberspace which is where global information is made concrete in the form of neon light. I will take up this technological gateway as defining cyberspace to be an information utopia. The construction of data into concrete light establishes the freedom a tangible identity can occupy in a world where physical limitations have no relevance. I will integrate this with a postmodern architectural and literary theory. Sabine Heuser’s text, Virtual Geographies: Cyberpunk at the Intersection of the Postmodern and Science Fiction¸ examines the representation of postmodern architecture in relation to cyberpunk. She defines “double coding” as communicating not only with the public, but with a concentrated minority consisting of learned professionals working in the industry. Heuser’s text declines to apply this theory to Neuromancer as she explains double coding is too binary to be useful, but Gibson’s spatial descriptions allow for a coded interpretation into the purpose of each temporality: cyberspace and reality. By using double coding, I will utilize this architectural concept to examine Neuromancer’s representation of neon lights as concrete fixtures of data which liberate a person’s identity. Therefore, this situates the dichotomy of cyberspace as a utopia and the cityscape as a dystopia in order to capture the zeitgeist of the democratization of technology (the relinquishment of computers from the elite to the masses).

The Political Impact of Affective Polarization: How Partisan Animus Shapes COVID-19 Attitudes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Druckman ◽  
Samara Klar ◽  
Yanna Krupnikov ◽  
Matthew Levendusky ◽  
John B. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
American Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Citizens Attitudes

Affective polarization is a defining feature of 21st century American politics—partisans harbor considerable dislike and distrust of those from the other party. Does this animus have consequences for citizens’ opinions? Such effects would highlight not only the consequences of polarization, but also shed new light onto how citizens form preferences more generally. Normally, this question is intractable, but the outbreak of the novel coronavirus allows us to answer it. We find that affective polarization powerfully shapes citizens’ attitudes about the pandemic, as well as the actions they have taken in response to it. However, these effects are conditional on the local severity of the outbreak, as the effects decline in areas with high caseloads—threat vitiates partisan reasoning. Our results clarify that closing the divide on important issues requires not just policy discourse but also attempts to reduce inter-partisan hostility.

Governing the Sacred

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuval Jobani ◽  
Nahshon Perez
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Sacred Sites ◽  
High Profile ◽  
National Monument ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Scholarly Contribution ◽  
Difficult Challenge ◽  
Temple Mount

Contested sacred sites pose a difficult challenge in the field of toleration. Holy sites are often at the center of intense contestation between different groups regarding a wide variety of issues, including ownership, access, usage rights, permissible religious conduct, and many other aspects. As such, they are often the source of immense levels of violence, and intractable, long-standing conflicts. Governing the Sacred profiles five central contested sacred sites which exemplify the immense difficulties associated with such sites: Devils Tower National Monument (Wyoming, U.S.), Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhoomi (Uttar-Pradesh, India), the Western Wall (Jerusalem), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jerusalem), and the Temple Mount/Haram esh-Sharif (Jerusalem). The in-depth, contextual and casuistic study of these sites, which differ in spatial, cultural, and religious settings, enables the construction of a novel, critical typology of five corresponding models or ways of governing the sacred. By telling the fascinating stories of five high-profile contested sacred sites, Governing the Sacred develops and critically explores five different models of governing contested sacred sites: “non-interference,” “separation and division,” “preference,” “status quo,” and “closure.” Each model, in turn, relies on different sets of considerations, central among them trade-offs between religious liberty and social order. Beyond its scholarly contribution, the novel typology developed in Governing the Sacred aims to assist democratic governments in their attempt to secure public order and mutual toleration among opposed groups in contested sacred sites.

The Novel Theology of H. G. Wells

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-123
Author(s):  
Stuart Bell
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
The Novel ◽  
British Army ◽  
Rebecca West ◽  
The Way

Abstract “Lambeth Palace is my Washpot. Over Fulham have I cast my breeches.” So declared the novelist and secularist H. G. Wells in a letter to his mistress, Rebecca West, in May 1917. His claim was that, because of him, Britain was “full of theological discussion” and theological books were “selling like hot cakes”. He was lunching with liberal churchmen and dining with bishops. Certainly, the first of the books published during Wells’s short “religious period”, the novel Mr. Britling Sees It Through, had sold very well on both sides of the Atlantic and made Wells financially secure. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (“Woodbine Willie”) wrote that, “Everyone ought to read Mr. H. G. Wells’s great novel, Mr. Britling Sees It Through. It is a gallant and illuminating attempt to state the question, and to answer it. His thought has brought him to a very real and living faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, and has also brought relief to many troubled minds among the officers of the British Army.” Yet, Wells’s God was explicitly a finite God, and his theology was far from orthodox. How can we account for his boast and for the clerical affirmation which he certainly did receive? This article examines and re-evaluates previous accounts of the responses of clergy to Wells’s writing, correcting some narratives. It discusses the way in which many clergy used Mr. Britling as a means by which to engage in a populist way with the question of theodicy, and examines the letters which Wells received from several prominent clerics, locating their responses in the context of their own theological writings. This is shown to be key to understanding the reaction of writers such as Studdert Kennedy to Mr. Britling Sees It Through. Finally, an assessment is made of the veracity of Wells’s boasting to his mistress, concluding that his claims were somewhat exaggerated. “Lambeth Palace is my Washpot, Over Fulham have I cast my breeches.” Mit diesen Worten erklärte der literarisch außergewöhnlich erfolgreiche und entschieden säkular denkende, kirchenkritische Schriftsteller und Science-Fiction-Pionier Herbert George Wells seiner Geliebten, dass seinetwegen Großbritannien “full of theological discussion” sei. Nicht ohne Eitelkeit schrieb er es seinem im September 1916 mit Blick auf den Krieg geschriebenen und stark autobiographisch gefärbten Roman Mr. Britling Sees it Through von knapp 450 Seiten zu, dass theologische Bücher reißenden Absatz fänden. Auch war er stolz darauf, liberale Kleriker zum Lunch zu treffen und von Bischöfen zum abendlichen Dinner eingeladen zu werden. In einer kurzen Phase seines Lebens war – oder inszenierte sich – Wells als ein frommer, gläubiger Mensch. Sein damals veröffentlichter Roman Mr. Britling Sees It Through verkaufte sich sowohl in Nordamerika als auch im Heimatland so gut, dass der Autor nun definitiv finanziell gesichert war. Der anglikanische Priester und Dichter Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, der im Ersten Weltkrieg Woodbine Willie genannt wurde, weil er verletzten und sterbenden Soldaten in den Phasen der Vorbereitung auf den Tod Woodbine-Zigaretten anbot, empfahl die Lektüre von Wells’ “great novel” Mr. Britling mit den Worten: “It is a gallant and illuminating attempt to state the question, and to answer it. His thought has brought him to a very real and living faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, and has also brought relief to many troubled minds among the officers of the British Army.” Allerdings war H. G. Wells’ Gott ein durchaus endlicher Gott, und seine Theologie war alles andere als orthodox. Wie lassen sich dennoch seine evidente Prahlerei und die emphatische Zustimmung zu seinem Roman in den britischen Klerikereliten erklären? Im Aufsatz werden zunächst einige ältere Deutungen der Zustimmung führender Kleriker zu Wells’ Roman untersucht und einige der dabei leitenden Deutungsmuster kritisch infrage gestellt. Deutlich wird, dass nicht wenige anglikanische Geistliche Mr. Britling dazu nutzten, um höchst populistisch das umstrittene Theodizeeproblem anzusprechen. Auch werden die Briefe prominenter Geistlicher an Wells analysiert, mit Blick auf ihre eigenen Publikationen. Diese Reaktionen haben stark Studdert Kennedys Haltung zu Mr. Britling Sees It Through beeinflusst. Besonders aufrichtig war Wells mit Blick auf sich selbst allerdings nicht. Die Selbstinszenierung gegenüber seiner Geliebten war einfach nur peinliche Übertreibung.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Lord Byron ◽  
Mary Wollstonecraft ◽  
William Godwin ◽  
Gothic Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Ghost Stories ◽  
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ◽  
Story Writing

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley conceived of the central idea for Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus—most often referred to simply as Frankenstein—during the summer of 1816 while vacationing on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. It is her first and most famous novel. Although the assertion is debatable, some scholars have argued that Frankenstein is the first work of modern science fiction. Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein in response to a “ghost story” writing contest between herself, Percy Shelley, Percy Shelley’s physician and friend John Polidori, and Lord Byron, who were trapped indoors reading German ghost stories as the result of inclement weather. Polidori’s contribution to this contest, “The Vampyre: A Tale” (1819), influenced the development of Gothic literature. According to Shelley, she drew inspiration from a nightmare she had, which she attributed to discussions she overheard between Percy and Byron regarding experiments with electricity and animation. Shelley began working on the novel when she returned home to England in September, and the book’s first edition was published anonymously in 1818. Shelley’s father William Godwin made minor revisions for a second edition in 1821; and Shelley herself made more substantial changes for the third edition in 1831. The story is told through an epistolary frame, and follows Victor Frankenstein, a university student of the “unhallowed arts” who assembles, animates, and abandons an unnamed human-like creature. The creature goes on to haunt his creator both literally and metaphorically. Over the past two hundred years, the story has been widely influential, and re-interpreted in various forms of culture and media. In literary studies, scholars have discussed which edition of the text is the “truest” to Mary Shelley’s intended vision. The novel has been analyzed for its messages about human pride and hubris, the pursuit of knowledge, the nature/nurture question, as put forth by Rousseau, ethical questions in medicine and science, and family, gender, and reproduction, among other topics.

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