Reading by Starlight: Postmodern Science FictionReading by Starlight explores the characteristics in the writing, marketing and reception of science fiction which distinguish it as a genre. Damien Broderick explores the postmodern self-referentiality of the sci-fi narrative, its intricate coded language and discursive `encyclopaedia'. He shows how, for perfect understanding, sci-fi readers must learn the codes of these imaginary worlds and vocabularies, all the time picking up references to texts by other writers. Reading by Starlight includes close readings of paradigmatic cyberpunk texts and writings by SF novelists and theorists including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Patrick Parrinder, Kim Stanley Robinson, John Varley, Roger Zelazny, William Gibson, Fredric Jameson and Samuel R. Delaney. |
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Page xi
... social being is founded in rapid , virtually uncontrollable cognitive change , driven principally by science and technology . The map of myth is lost to us . Notoriously , the core of twentiethcentury sensibility has been convulsed by a ...
... social being is founded in rapid , virtually uncontrollable cognitive change , driven principally by science and technology . The map of myth is lost to us . Notoriously , the core of twentiethcentury sensibility has been convulsed by a ...
Page 4
... social consequences of scientific and technological innovation , is principally a diachronic medium - that is , a medium of historical , cumulative change , in which each step is unlike the last.8 Myth , by contrast , operates typically ...
... social consequences of scientific and technological innovation , is principally a diachronic medium - that is , a medium of historical , cumulative change , in which each step is unlike the last.8 Myth , by contrast , operates typically ...
Page 9
... social classes ) with which he stocks the political unconscious . ' [ T ] he narratives of ideology - even ... daydreaming or wish - fulfilling text - are ... necessarily collective in their materials and form.'29 Authorised ideologemes ...
... social classes ) with which he stocks the political unconscious . ' [ T ] he narratives of ideology - even ... daydreaming or wish - fulfilling text - are ... necessarily collective in their materials and form.'29 Authorised ideologemes ...
Page 10
Postmodern Science Fiction Damien Broderick. of empirical being , even alternative social worlds , such as they are , must find representational expression , and the result is the Utopian or science - fiction novel . ( Jameson , 1981 , p ...
Postmodern Science Fiction Damien Broderick. of empirical being , even alternative social worlds , such as they are , must find representational expression , and the result is the Utopian or science - fiction novel . ( Jameson , 1981 , p ...
Page 18
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Contents
3 | |
GENERIC ENGINEERING | 21 |
GENRE OR MODE? | 38 |
THE USES OF OTHERNESS | 49 |
READING THE EPISTEME | 64 |
DREAMS OF REASON AND UNREASON | 75 |
THE STARS MY DISSERTATION | 89 |
MAKING UP WORLDS | 103 |
SF AS A MODULAR CALCULUS | 128 |
THE MULTIPLICITY OF WORLDS OF OTHERS | 137 |
THE AUTUMNAL CITY | 153 |
Notes | 159 |
Bibliography | 180 |
xi | 193 |
74 | 195 |
ALLOGRAPHY AND ALLEGORY | 117 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aldiss alien allegory attempts attention become called Chapter character cited close codes cognitive common constituted constructed course critical culture death definition Delany Delany's detail developed discourse discussion dream early effect episteme especially example experience fantasy figure force future genre given human ibid icons images imagination important interesting Intersection invention Jameson John kind language late later least less limits linguistic literary literature Lobey Marxism means mega-text metaphor mode move myth narrative never notes novel object offers once perhaps play position possible postmodern precisely question reader reading reality recent reference relation remains science fiction scientific seems semiotic sense sf's signifiers social space specific Stars story Strange structure tell textual theory things thinking tropes true turn universe volume writing