Acknowledgments

This volume could never have been assembled without the generous help, support, and suggestions of many different people. Let me trace through some of the main points along the winding path that has led to this book's publication: My thanks, first of all, to Samuel R. Delany, who suggested over lunch one day in 1986 that I take a look at 's . Thanks, too, goes to Gibson, who agreed to do an interview with me. Frederick Barthelme, the editor of The Missis­ sippi Review, accepted my Gibson interview for his journal, and then asked me if I could assemble an entire issue devoted to . Mega-thanks, next, to all the cyberpunk authors and critics who generously allowed me to publish their work in the Mississippi Review issue that resulted from Barthelme's invitation. In gathering the mate­ rials for that MR issue-which was the starting point for this current Storming the Reality Studio casebook-I was given advice at every step of the way by nearly all the members of the cyberpunk movement (who turned out to be much warmer, funnier, and friendlier than their black leather-jacketed press clippings might lead one to believe). This was especially true of and , both of whom pro­ vided invaluable assistance in suggesting names, works, addresses, and phone numbers for that volume. Once I decided to expand the boundaries of the MR issue into something resembling the current volume, Joanne Ferguson of Duke University Press provided invaluable editorial insights, suggestions, and encouragement at every stage of the process of this book's formula­ tion. Once again, the cyberpunk authors themselves-as well as the noncyberpunk authors and critics included in Storming the Reality Studio-were generous with their suggestions and with their willing­ ness to allow me to reprint their work. Neil Barron, science fiction's bibliographer extraordinaire, was always available to help me track down references, titles, and addresses at a moment's notice. Jim McMenamin helped hold things together during the year I spent in Beijing by handling most of my correspondence, and generally keep­ ing things cool until I returned. My thanks to my son, Mark Urton, whose encouragement and advice I relied upon at various stages of this volume's evolution. Finally, my deepest debt ("of course") goes to my wife and collaborator, Sinda 1. Gregory, who has been with me every step of the way for twenty years on our journeys across these wounded galaxies-and who has, in fact, been the point-person on our own personal efforts to storm the reality studio of postmodern culture. Thanks for being willing to take the white light and white heat when the going got tough, Sinda-and for being there when the reality studio emptied out and it was just us. My thanks, too, to all the authors and their publishers for granting permission to reprint the following materials: "Beyond the Extinction of Human Life," from Empire of the Senseless (31-39), by Kathy Acker. Copyright 1988 by Kathy Acker. Reprinted by permission of the author. Excerpt from Crash (15-17), by 1. G. Ballard. Copyright 1973 by J. G. Ballard. Reprinted by permission of the author. "The Automation of the Robot," from Simulations (92-96), by Jean Baudrillard. Copyright 1983 by Semiotext(e} and Jean Baudril­ lard. Reprinted by permission of Semiotext(e}. "Mother and I Would Like to Know," from The Wild Boys (502-5), by William S. Burroughs. Copyright 1969, 1970, 1971 by William S. Burroughs. Reprinted by permission of Grove Press, Inc. "Rock On," by Pat Cadigan, originally appeared in Light Years and Dark (Berkeley, 1984 [32-42]). Copyright 1984 by Pat Cadigan. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Cyberpunk and Neuromanticism," by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., originally appeared in Mississippi Review 47/48 (1988): 266-78. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Among the Blobs," by Samuel R. Delany, originally appeared in Mississippi Review 47/48 (1988): 86-92. Reprinted by permission of the author.

xii Acknowledgments Excerpt from White Noise (12-13), by Don DeLillo. Copyright 1984, 1985 by Don DeLillo. Reprinted by permission of Viking Pen­ guin, Inc. Excerpt from OJ Grammatology (9), by Jacques Derrida. English translation Copyright 1976 by Jacques Derrida and Johns Hopkins Univer­ sity Press. Reprinted by permission of Johns Hopkins University Press. Excerpt from Neuromancer (3-8, 76-79, 238-40), by William Gibson. Copyright 1984 by William Gibson. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Yin and Yang Duke It Out," by Joan Gordon, originally ap­ peared in Science Fiction Eye 2, no. 1 (February 1990): 37-40. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism," by Veronica Hollinger, originally appeared in Mosaic 23, no. 2 (Spring 1990): 29-44. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Fistic Hermaphrodites," "Microbes," and "nerve terminals," by Rob Hardin, originally appeared in Mississippi Review 47/48 (1988): 156-58. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Max Headroom," by Harold Jaffe, originally appeared in Mis­ sissippi Review 47/48 (1988): 130-:35. Copyright 1988 by Harold Jaffe. Reprinted by permission of the author. Excerpts from "Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" (53-54, 64, 65-66, 67, 72-73, 75-76, 78-80, 89-90, 92), by Fredric Jameson, originally appeared in New Left Review 146 (July-August 1984): 53-92. Reprinted by permission of the author. "The Toilet Was Full of Nietzsche," by Richard Kadrey, originally appeared in Mississippi Review 47/48 (1988): 159-69. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Television and the Triumph of Culture," from The Postmodern Scene: Excremental Culture and Hyper-Aesthetics (St. Martin's Press, 1986 [270-79]), by Arthur Kroker and David Cook. Reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Press, Inc. "Office of the Future," from Dad's Nuke (194-97), by . Copyright 1984 by Mare Laidlaw. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Bet On It: Cyber/video/punk/performance," by Brooks Landon, originally appeared in Mississippi Review 47/48 (1988): 245-51. Re­ printed by permission of the author.

Acknowledgments xiii "Cyberpunk: The Individual as Reality Pilot," by Timothy Leary, originally appeared in Mississippi Review 47/48 (1988): 252-65. Re­ printed by permission of the author. "I Was an Infinitely Hot and Dense Dot," from My Cousin" My Gastroenterologist (3-8), by Mark Leyner. Copyright 1990 by Mark Leyner. Reprinted by permission of Harmony Books, a division of Crown Publishers, Inc. "The Postmodern," from The Poslmodern Condition (79-82), by Jean-Frangois Lyotard. English translation Copyright 1984 by the University of Minnesota Press. Reprinted by permission of the Univer­ sity of Minnesota Press. "The Wars of the Coin's Two Halves: Bruce Sterling's Mechanist/ Shaper Narratives," by Tom Maddox, originally appeared in Mississippi Review 47/48 (1988): 237-44. Reprinted by permission of the author. Excerpt from Plus (9-12), by Joseph McElroy. Copyright 1976 by Joseph McElroy. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. "Wire Movement #9" and "Wire for Two Tims," from Prayers of Steel (29-32), by Misha. Copyright 1983 by Misha. Reprinted by permission of the author. Excerpts from Easy Travel to Other Planets (18, 24), by Ted Mooney. Copyright 1981 by Ted Mooney. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. Excerpt from The Crying ofLot 49 (24-25), by Thomas Pynchon. Copyright 1965, 1966 by Thomas Pynchon. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Excerpts from Software (15-19, :30-34), by . Copy­ right 1982 by Rudy Rucker. Reprinted by permission of the author. Excerpt from Life During Wartime (131-32), by Lucius Shepard. Copyright 1987 by Lucius Shepard. Reprinted by permission of Ban­ tam Books. "Wolves of the Plateau," by John Shirley, originally appeared in Mississippi Review 47/48 (1988): 136-50. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Stoked," by Lewis Shiner, originally appeared inRe: Artes Liber­ ales (Spring/Fall 1988): 198-202. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Literary MTV," by George Slusser, originally appeared in Mis­ sissippi Review 47/48 (1988): 279-88. Reprinted by permission of the author. xiv Acknowledgments Excerpt from Schismatrix (39-44), by Bruce Sterling. Copyright 1985 by Bruce Sterling. "Preface," in : The Cyberpunk Anthology. Copyright by Bruce Sterling. "20 evocations," by Bruce Sterling, originally appeared in Interzone and in Mississippi Review 47/48 (1988): 122-29. All reprinted by permission of the author. "On Gibson and Cyberpunk," by Darko Suvin, originally ap­ peared in Foundation 46 (Autumn 1989): 40-51. Reprinted by per­ mission of the author. Excerpts from "The Indigo Engineers," (443-44, 457-59), in The Rainbow Stories, by William T. Vollmann. Copyright 1979 by William T. Vollmann. Reprinted by permission of Atheneum Pub­ lishers, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Company.

Acknowledgments xv

Storm The Reality Studio. And retake the universe. -William S. Burroughs, Nova Express