The Lessons of Cyberpunk
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Fitting, Peter. "The Lessons of Cyberpunk." Technoculture. Constance Penley and Andrew Ross, eds. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1991: 295-315. Limited access on JSTOR.
See for the literary history of cyberpunk by a knowledgeable scholar, including the relationship of cyberpunk with the larger issue of the postmodern.
Highly useful for William Gibson's work, with an important discussion of Gibson and the figures of the cyborg and — more important — computers, AI, and the human-machine linkages "that make cyberspace possible (pp. 301-04, here, p. 303). Note also Fitting on Gibson on "The dissolution of the defining boundaries of the human" as mediated by "the electronic (re)production of the shapes and sounds, thoughts, and experiences of the human. In this futuristic society of the spectacle" in the Neuromancer series (or "Spread") novels, "people depend on technology to mediate and re-present their experiences and perceptions for them," followed by comments on "simstim" ("simulated stimulation") and
RDE, finishing 5Aug20