•  
  •  

Home > Arts_Humanities > Text Matters > No. 10 (2020)

 

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0509-7959 Mohseni Hossein

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8883-4426 Soheil Kian

Abstract

Cyberpunk is one of the latest genres in the development of science fiction. The genre emerged during the 80s and 90s, and in it the characters are confronted by an abundance of images and interface values. As a result, these images and values have become key identifying motifs of this genre. Referring to the theoretical conceptualizations of Adam Roberts about novum, and Lieven De Cauter on capsules and capsulization, the present study argues that the reason for the abundance of images and interface values is due to their facilitation of the consumption of novelties in cyberpunk cities. Within a scientific and rational discourse, images and interface values combine familiar and unfamiliar concepts and package them both as convenient commodities to be consumed by the characters of cyberpunk fiction. One of the key outcomes of such a combination, the study argues, is that the characters of cyberpunk fiction rely on the consumption of images and interface values as a convenient means to handle the overwhelming presence of technological and cybernetic advancements in the represented cities. This outcome turns the need to see and consume the cyberpunk world through images and interface values into an ideological necessity—or what can also be called a defense mechanism—for the characters against the technological shock of cybernetic advancements; a necessity whose qualities will be discussed in the study, as well.

Keywords

cyberpunk, the City, image, interface, novum, capsule

Disciplines

American Literature | American Studies | Arts and Humanities | Digital Humanities | English Language and Literature

References

Davis, Mike. “Fortless L.A.” The City Reader. Ed. Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout. London: Routledge, 1996. 193–98. Print.

De Cauter, Lieven. “The Capsule and the Network: Notes Towards a General Theory.” The Cybercities Reader. Ed. Steve Graham. London: Routledge, 2004. 94–97. Print.

Eck, Diana. “What is Pluralism?” Pluralism.org. The Pluralism Project 2006. Web. Feb. 2019.

Featherstone, Mike. Cyberspace, Cyberbodies and Cyberpunk. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1995. Print.

Gibson, William. All Tomorrow’s Parties. New York: Viking, 1999. Print.

Gibson, William. Idoru. New York: Viking, 1996. Print.

Gibson, William. Virtual Light. New York: Viking, 1993. Print.

Hollinger, Veronica. “Retrofitting Frankenstein.” Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. Ed. Graham J. Murphy and Sherryl Vint. New York: Routledge, 2010. 191–210. Print.

Hubbard, Phil. City. London: Routledge, 2006. Print. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203392256

Jameson, Fredrick. Postmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke UP, 1991. Print. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822378419

Lyon, David. Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life. London: Open UP, 2001. Print.

Lyon, David. The Electronic Eye: The Rise of Surveillance Society. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1994. Print.

Mitchell, William J. City of Bits. Cambridge: MIT, 1995. Print.

Mitchell, William J. Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City. Cambridge: MIT, 2003. Print. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/4512.001.0001

Morgan, Richard. Altered Carbon. London: Orion, 2002. Print.

Moylan, Tom. “Global Economy, Local Text: Utopian/Dystopian Tension in William Gibson’s Cyberpunk Trilogy.” Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. Ed. Graham J. Murphy and Sherryl Vint. New York: Routledge, 2010. 81–94. Print.

Roberts, Adam. Science Fiction. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.

Sterling, Bruce. Island in the Net. Michigan: Arbor, 1988. Print.

Sterling, Bruce. Schismatrix Plus. New York: ACE, 1996.

Tatsumi, Takayuki. Full Metal Apache: Transactions Between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop America. Durham: Duke UP, 2006. Print. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388012

Vint, Sherryl. “The Mainstream Finds its Own Uses for Things: Cyberpunk and Commodification.” Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. Ed. Graham J. Murphy and Sherryl Vint. New York: Routledge, 2010. 95–115. Print.

Warren, Robert, et al. “The Future of the Future in Planning: Appropriating Cyberpunk Visions of the City.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 18 (1998): 49–60. Print. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X9801800105

Youngquist, Paul. Cyberfiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Print. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106215

First Page

236

Last Page

256

Download

Language

eng

Share

COinS