The presentation of technology as a response to human want or need is a defining aspect of Black Mirror, a series that centers the transhumanist conviction that ontological deficiency is a solvable problem. 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. The contributors contend that Black Mirror reveals both the cracks of the posthuman self and the formation of anxiety within fantasy's empty, yet necessary, economy of desire. The strength of the series lies in its ability to disrupt the visibility of technology, no longer portraying it as a naturalized, unseen background, affecting our very being at the ontological level without many of us realizing it. This volume of essays argues that this negative lesson is Black Mirror's most successful approach. It examines how Black Mirror demonstrates the Janus-like structure of fantasy, as well as how it teaches, unteaches, and reteaches us about desire in a technological world.
Les mer
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.
Les mer
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
Les mer
“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
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781476683829
Publisert
2023-01-03
Utgiver
Vendor
McFarland & Co Inc
Vekt
286 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Dybde
11 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet