The Virtual Worlds of Japanese Cyberpunk
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Cyberpunking a Library
Cyberpunking a Library Collection assessment and collection Leanna Jantzi, Neil MacDonald, Samantha Sinanan LIBR 580 Instructor: Simon Neame April 8, 2010 “A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he’d taken and the corners he’d cut in Night City, and he’d still see the matrix in his sleep, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colorless void.” – Neuromancer, William Gibson 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................................ 2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Description of Subject ....................................................................................................................................... 3 History of Cyberpunk .................................................................................................................................................... 3 Themes and Common Motifs....................................................................................................................................... 3 Key subject headings and Call number range ....................................................................................................... 4 Description of Library and Community ..................................................................................................... -
A Very Short History of Cyberpunk
A Very Short History of Cyberpunk Marcus Janni Pivato Many people seem to think that William Gibson invented The cyberpunk genre in 1984, but in fact the cyberpunk aesthetic was alive well before Neuromancer (1984). For example, in my opinion, Ridley Scott's 1982 movie, Blade Runner, captures the quintessence of the cyberpunk aesthetic: a juxtaposition of high technology with social decay as a troubling allegory of the relationship between humanity and machines ---in particular, artificially intelligent machines. I believe the aesthetic of the movie originates from Scott's own vision, because I didn't really find it in the Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), upon which the movie is (very loosely) based. Neuromancer made a big splash not because it was the "first" cyberpunk novel, but rather, because it perfectly captured the Zeitgeist of anxiety and wonder that prevailed at the dawning of the present era of globalized economics, digital telecommunications, and exponential technological progress --things which we now take for granted but which, in the early 1980s were still new and frightening. For example, Gibson's novels exhibit a fascination with the "Japanification" of Western culture --then a major concern, but now a forgotten and laughable anxiety. This is also visible in the futuristic Los Angeles of Scott’s Blade Runner. Another early cyberpunk author is K.W. Jeter, whose imaginative and disturbing novels Dr. Adder (1984) and The Glass Hammer (1985) exemplify the dark underside of the genre. Some people also identify Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling as progenitors of cyberpunk. -
Top Hugo Nominees
Top 2003 Hugo Award Nominations for Each Category There were 738 total valid nominating forms submitted Nominees not on the final ballot were not validated or checked for errors Nominations for Best Novel 621 nominating forms, 219 nominees 97 Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor) 91 The Scar by China Mieville (Macmillan; Del Rey) 88 The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson (Bantam) 72 Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick (Eos) 69 Kiln People by David Brin (Tor) — final ballot complete — 56 Dance for the Ivory Madonna by Don Sakers (Speed of C) 55 Ruled Britannia by Harry Turtledove NAL 43 Night Watch by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; HarperCollins) 40 Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen) 36 Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Ace) 35 The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (Viking) 35 Permanence by Karl Schroeder (Tor) 34 Coyote by Allen Steele (Ace) 32 Chindi by Jack McDevitt (Ace) 32 Light by M. John Harrison (Gollancz) 32 Probability Space by Nancy Kress (Tor) Nominations for Best Novella 374 nominating forms, 65 nominees 85 Coraline by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins) 48 “In Spirit” by Pat Forde (Analog 9/02) 47 “Bronte’s Egg” by Richard Chwedyk (F&SF 08/02) 45 “Breathmoss” by Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov’s 5/02) 41 A Year in the Linear City by Paul Di Filippo (PS Publishing) 41 “The Political Officer” by Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF 04/02) — final ballot complete — 40 “The Potter of Bones” by Eleanor Arnason (Asimov’s 9/02) 34 “Veritas” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s 7/02) 32 “Router” by Charles Stross (Asimov’s 9/02) 31 The Human Front by Ken MacLeod (PS Publishing) 30 “Stories for Men” by John Kessel (Asimov’s 10-11/02) 30 “Unseen Demons” by Adam-Troy Castro (Analog 8/02) 29 Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds (Golden Gryphon) 22 “A Democracy of Trolls” by Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF 10-11/02) 22 “Jury Service” by Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow (Sci Fiction 12/03/02) 22 “Paradises Lost” by Ursula K. -
The Individual Inventor Motif in the Age of the Patent Troll
Cotropia: THE INDIVIDUAL INVENTOR MOTIF THE INDIVIDUAL INVENTOR MOTIF IN THE AGE OF THE PATENT TROLL Christopher A. Cotropia* 12 YALE J.L. & TECH. 52 (2009) ABSTRACT The individual inventor motif has been part of American patent law since its inception. The question is whether the recent patent troll hunt has damaged the individual inventor's image and, in turn, caused Congress, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the courts to become less concerned with patent law's impact on the small inventor. This Article explores whether there has been a change in attitude by looking at various sources from legislative, administrative, and judicial actors in the patent system, such as congressional statements and testimony in discussions of the recent proposed patent reform legislation, the USPTO's two recently proposedsets ofpatent rules and responses to comments on those rules, and recent Supreme Court patent decisions. These sources indicate that the rhetoric of the motif has remained unchanged, but its substantive impact is essentially nil. The motif has done little to stave off the increasingly anti- individual-inventor changes in substantive patent law. This investigation also provides a broader insight into the various governmental institutions' roles in patent law by illustrating how different institutions have responded-or not responded-to the use of the individual inventor motif in legal andpolicy arguments. * Professor of Law, Intellectual Property Institute, University of Richmond Law School. Thanks to Kevin Collins, Jim Gibson, Jack Preis, Arti Rai, Josh Sarnoff, and the participants at the Patents and Entrepreneurship in Business and Information Technologies symposium hosted at George Washington University Law School for their comments and suggestions on an earlier draft. -
UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Sonic Retro-Futures: Musical Nostalgia as Revolution in Post-1960s American Literature, Film and Technoculture Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/65f2825x Author Young, Mark Thomas Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Sonic Retro-Futures: Musical Nostalgia as Revolution in Post-1960s American Literature, Film and Technoculture A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Mark Thomas Young June 2015 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Sherryl Vint, Chairperson Dr. Steven Gould Axelrod Dr. Tom Lutz Copyright by Mark Thomas Young 2015 The Dissertation of Mark Thomas Young is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As there are many midwives to an “individual” success, I’d like to thank the various mentors, colleagues, organizations, friends, and family members who have supported me through the stages of conception, drafting, revision, and completion of this project. Perhaps the most important influences on my early thinking about this topic came from Paweł Frelik and Larry McCaffery, with whom I shared a rousing desert hike in the foothills of Borrego Springs. After an evening of food, drink, and lively exchange, I had the long-overdue epiphany to channel my training in musical performance more directly into my academic pursuits. The early support, friendship, and collegiality of these two had a tremendously positive effect on the arc of my scholarship; knowing they believed in the project helped me pencil its first sketchy contours—and ultimately see it through to the end. -
Japanese Women's Science Fiction: Posthuman Bodies and the Representation of Gender Kazue Harada Washington University in St
Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-15-2015 Japanese Women's Science Fiction: Posthuman Bodies and the Representation of Gender Kazue Harada Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the East Asian Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Harada, Kazue, "Japanese Women's Science Fiction: Posthuman Bodies and the Representation of Gender" (2015). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 442. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/442 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures Dissertation Examination Committee: Rebecca Copeland, Chair Nancy Berg Ji-Eun Lee Diane Wei Lewis Marvin Marcus Laura Miller Jamie Newhard Japanese Women’s Science Fiction: Posthuman Bodies and the Representation of Gender by Kazue Harada A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 St. Louis, Missouri © 2015, Kazue Harada -
Complete Catalog of the Motivic Material In
Complete Catalog of the Motivic Material in Star Wars Leitmotif Criteria 1) Distinctiveness: Musical idea has a clear and unique melody, without being wholly derived from, subsidiary section within, or attached to, another motif. 2) Recurrence: Musical idea is intentionally repeated in more than three discrete cues (including cut or replaced cues). 3) Variation: Musical idea’s repetitions are not exact. 4) Intentionality: Musical idea’s repetitions are compositionally intentional, and do not require undue analytical detective work to notice. Principal Leitmotif Criteria (Indicated in boldface) 5) Abundance: Musical idea occurs in more than one film, and with more than ten iterations overall. 6) Meaningfulness: Musical idea attaches to an important subject or symbol, and accrues additional meaning through repetition in different contexts. 7) Development: Musical idea is not only varied, but subjected to compositionally significant development and transformation across its iterations. Incidental Motifs: Not all themes are created equal. Materials that are repeated across distinct cues but that do not meet criteria for proper leitmotifs are included within a category of Incidental Motifs. Most require additional explanation, which is provided in third column of table. Leit-harmonies, leit-timbres, and themes for self-contained/non-repeating set-pieces are not included in this category, no matter how memorable or iconic. Naming and Listing Conventions Motifs are listed in order of first clear statement in chronologically oldest film, according to latest release [Amazon.com streaming versions used]. For anthology films, abbreviations are used, R for Rogue One and S for Solo. Appearances in cut cues indicated by parentheses. Hyperlinks lead to recordings of clear or characteristic usages of a given theme. -
On Ways of Studying Tolkien: Notes Toward a Better (Epic) Fantasy Criticism
Journal of Tolkien Research Volume 9 Issue 1 Article 2 2020 On Ways of Studying Tolkien: Notes Toward a Better (Epic) Fantasy Criticism Dennis Wilson Wise University of Arizona, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, and the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Wise, Dennis Wilson (2020) "On Ways of Studying Tolkien: Notes Toward a Better (Epic) Fantasy Criticism," Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 9 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol9/iss1/2 This Peer-Reviewed Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Christopher Center Library at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Tolkien Research by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. Wise: On Ways of Studying Tolkien INTRODUCTION We are currently living a golden age for Tolkien Studies. The field is booming: two peer-reviewed journals dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien alone, at least four journals dedicated to the Inklings more generally, innumerable society newsletters and bulletins, and new books and edited collections every year. And this only encompasses the Tolkien work in English. In the last two decades, specifically since 2000, the search term “Tolkien” pulls up nearly 1,200 hits on the MLA International Bibliography. For comparison, C. S. Lewis places a distant second at fewer than 900 hits, but even this number outranks the combined hits on Ursula K. -
New Alt.Cyberpunk FAQ
New alt.cyberpunk FAQ Frank April 1998 This is version 4 of the alt.cyberpunk FAQ. Although previous FAQs have not been allocated version numbers, due the number of people now involved, I've taken the liberty to do so. Previous maintainers / editors and version numbers are given below : - Version 3: Erich Schneider - Version 2: Tim Oerting - Version 1: Andy Hawks I would also like to recognise and express my thanks to Jer and Stack for all their help and assistance in compiling this version of the FAQ. The vast number of the "answers" here should be prefixed with an "in my opinion". It would be ridiculous for me to claim to be an ultimate Cyberpunk authority. Contents 1. What is Cyberpunk, the Literary Movement ? 2. What is Cyberpunk, the Subculture ? 3. What is Cyberspace ? 4. Cyberpunk Literature 5. Magazines About Cyberpunk and Related Topics 6. Cyberpunk in Visual Media (Movies and TV) 7. Blade Runner 8. Cyberpunk Music / Dress / Aftershave 9. What is "PGP" ? 10. Agrippa : What and Where, is it ? 1. What is Cyberpunk, the Literary Movement ? Gardner Dozois, one of the editors of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine during the early '80s, is generally acknowledged as the first person to popularize the term "Cyberpunk", when describing a body of literature. Dozois doesn't claim to have coined the term; he says he picked it up "on the street somewhere". It is probably no coincidence that Bruce Bethke wrote a short story titled "Cyberpunk" in 1980 and submitted it Asimov's mag, when Dozois may have been doing first readings, and got it published in Amazing in 1983, when Dozois was editor of1983 Year's Best SF and would be expected to be reading the major SF magazines. -
The Disappearing Human: Gnostic Dreams in a Transhumanist World
religions Article The Disappearing Human: Gnostic Dreams in a Transhumanist World Jeffrey C. Pugh Department of Religious Studies, Elon University, Elon, NC 27244-2020, USA; [email protected] Academic Editor: Noreen Herzfeld Received: 25 January 2017; Accepted: 18 April 2017; Published: 3 May 2017 Abstract: Transhumanism is dedicated to freeing humankind from the limitations of biological life, creating new bodies that will carry us into the future. In seeking freedom from the constraints of nature, it resembles ancient Gnosticism, but complicates the question of what the human being is. In contrast to the perspective that we are our brains, I argue that human consciousness and subjectivity originate from complex interactions between the body and the surrounding environment. These qualities emerge from a distinct set of structural couplings embodied within multiple organ systems and the multiplicity of connections within the brain. These connections take on different forms, including structural, chemical, and electrical manifestations within the totality of the human body. This embodiment suggests that human consciousness, and the intricate levels of experience that accompany it, cannot be replicated in non-organic forms such as computers or synaptic implants without a significant loss to human identity. The Gnostic desire to escape our embodiment found in transhumanism carries the danger of dissolving the human being. Keywords: Singularity; transhumanism; Merleau-Ponty; Kurzweil; Gnosticism; AI; emergence; technology 1. Introduction In 1993, the mathematician and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge gave a talk at the Vision 21 symposium sponsored by NASA introducing the idea of the Singularity, an evolutionary moment when we would create the capacity for superhuman intelligence that would transcend the human and take us into the posthuman world (Vinge 1993). -
The Cyborg Prophecy: Reading Between Isaac Asimov's Lines
The Cyborg Prophecy: Reading between Isaac Asimov’s Lines Rudrani Gangopadhyay Jadavpur University, Kolkata Abstract: Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto” describes the Cyborg as a conjunction of technology and discourse. It argues that a prosthesis becomes a cyborg element when it is integrated with the identity of an individual, and a cyborg is created by the almost symbiotic union of robotic and organic elements. Isaac Asimov, in his short story “The Bicentennial Man” for example, narrates the story of such a remarkable union of robotic and human parts and asserts, at the end, that the resultant system is, essentially, human. A cyborg, therefore, is ‘meta-human’, being somewhat enhanced (by the use of technology) in certain ways in comparison to a human being. There isa mass cyborgization of the global population taking place today. The kind of blurring of boundaries between exogenous and endogenous parts within the system of a human being that one had, so far, only come across in science fiction, is fast coming to life. The obvious example of prosthetics aside, gadgets like cellphone headsets, touchscreen phones and similar electronic devices have been rendered extensions of the human system, merging seamlessly with the organic identities and consequently, making cyborgs out of everyone. The relevance of literature featuring cyborgs, which have, in a way, acted as prophecies for human civilization, therefore cannot be emphasized enough. This paper explores the cyborg identity in select works of Isaac Asimov and reflect on the fast occurring cyborgization of the (meta-)human race in reality. Keywords: Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov, Cyborg, Cybernetics, Body Studies Donna Haraway, in the famous “Cyborg Manifesto,” describes a cyborg as a conjunction of technology and discourse (Haraway 149). -
LESSON 5: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
LESSON 5: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest On the forum, I gave you the following assignment: Read the first 5 pages of Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. List the Steampunk elements you find. Then list the ESSENTIAL Steampunk genre elements, and then the Character descriptions, then setting Your chart will look something like this: STEAMPUNK ...................... ESSENTIAL ...................CHARACTER ...........SETTING ELEMENTS ......................... ELEMENTS.....................ELEMENTS...............ELEMENTS black overcoat black overcoat 11 crooked stairs 11 crooked stairs and so on you can find Boneshaker here at Amazon The table part didn’t come out very well so here’s a better version. I added the word “ALL” to the column labels because I wanted you to understand that in those columns I’m not looking for any specific elements other than those labeled. For instance, under “CHARACTER ELEMENTS (ALL)” give all the character elements you find, not just elements pertaining to the Steampunk genre. STEAMPUNK ESSENTIAL CHARACTER SETTING ELEMENTS (ALL) STEAMPUNK ELEMENTS ELEMENTS (ALL) ELEMENTS (ALL) Black overcoat Black overcoat 11 crooked stairs 11 crooked stairs Goth, Gadgets & Grunge: Steampunk Stories with Style!© By Pat Hauldren LESSON 5: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest / 2 If you’ll notice on the link I provided for Boneshaker at Amazon.com, it’s listed as “ (Sci Fi Essential Books) “ and baby, that’s where *I* want to be! I couldn’t find a specific definition for exactly what that term meant at Amazon.com, but just from the term itself, you can tell it’s the list of books that, while aren’t classics yet, are becoming so for various reasons.