The presentation of technology as a response to human want or need is a defining aspect of Black Mirror. The articles in this collection continue Black Mirror‘s examination of the transhuman need for plentitude, addressing the convergence of fantasy, the posthuman, and the dramatization of fear.

Table of Contents Introduction: Traversing the Fantasy of Technology Zahi Zalloua and Jacob Blevins The Utopia of the Mirror: Angst, the Uncanny, and the Postmodern Mise en abyme Robert T. Tally, Jr. Paroxysm Politics Peter Hitchcock The Way the Cookie Doubles: Cripping the Cyber-Gothic of Black Mirror’s AI Tech Whitney S. May “Men Against Fire,” MASS, and Morality Melina Constantine Bell and Nathaniel Goldberg On the Government of Children: Visions of the Politics of Parenting from Plato to Deleuze in Black Mirror’s Arkangel Jeffrey R. Di Leo The Question(ing) Concerning (Anti-)Black-Technology: Inhabiting the Crack of Black Being Through the (Pyro-)Techno-Poethics of “Black Museum” Andrew Santana Kaplan Paranoia as Reparation in “Black Museum” Nicole Simek Trolling the Audience: Bandersnatch, Coercion, and Posthuman Capacities Paul Muhlhauser, Sera McClintock, and Gianna D’Avella Glass Walls and Unmasked Others: Anxiety and the Commodification of Desire in “Nosedive” Jacob Blevins Sexuality and the Real in “Striking Vipers” Zahi Zalloua Conclusion Jacob Blevins and Zahi Zalloua Bibliography About the Contributors Index

“The speculative quality of the television series Black Mirror begs for a sustained theoretical analysis. Jacob Blevins and Zahi Zalloua have not only provided one but have produced a work that unlocks all the mysteries of the show and makes clear to everyone why they were interested in it in the first place. For anyone who has seen even one episode of Black Mirror, their book is simply required reading. It’s as if the series were invented just so that we could have this collection of remarkable interpretations that make clear the theoretical underpinnings of what we’ve seen.”—Todd McGowan, University of Vermont