Twins and Recursion in Digital, Literary and Visual Cultures

Twins and Recursion in Digital, Literary and Visual Cultures PDF Author: Edward King
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350169161
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The tale of twins being reunited after a long separation is a trope that has been endlessly repeated and reworked across different cultures and throughout history, with each moment adapting the twin plot to address its current cultural tensions. In this study, Edward King demonstrates how twins are a means of exploring the social implications of hyper-connectivity and the compromising relationship between humans and digital information, their environment and their genetics. As King demonstrates, twins tell us about the changing forms of connectivity and power in contemporary culture and what new conceptions of the human they present us with. Taking account of a broad range of literary, cultural and scientific practices, Entwined Being probes discussions surrounding twins such as: - The way in which they appear in behavioral genetics as a way of identifying inherited predispositions to social media - How their faces interrupt biometric interfaces such as facial recognition software and undermine advances in neo-liberal surveillance systems - How they represent the uncanny and the weird in the horror genre and how this questions ideologies of communications media and the connectivity it enables - Their association with telepathy and cybernetics in science fiction - Their construction as models for entangled being in ecological thought Drawing upon the literary and filmic works of Ken Follet, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Bruce Chatwin, Shelley Jackson, Brian de Palma, Peter Greenway and David Cronenberg, as well as science fiction literature and the television series Orphan Black, King illuminates how twins are employed across a range of disciplines to envision a critical re-conception of the human in times of digital integration and ecological crisis.

Twins and Recursion in Digital, Literary and Visual Cultures

Twins and Recursion in Digital, Literary and Visual Cultures PDF Author: Edward King
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350169161
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book

Book Description
The tale of twins being reunited after a long separation is a trope that has been endlessly repeated and reworked across different cultures and throughout history, with each moment adapting the twin plot to address its current cultural tensions. In this study, Edward King demonstrates how twins are a means of exploring the social implications of hyper-connectivity and the compromising relationship between humans and digital information, their environment and their genetics. As King demonstrates, twins tell us about the changing forms of connectivity and power in contemporary culture and what new conceptions of the human they present us with. Taking account of a broad range of literary, cultural and scientific practices, Entwined Being probes discussions surrounding twins such as: - The way in which they appear in behavioral genetics as a way of identifying inherited predispositions to social media - How their faces interrupt biometric interfaces such as facial recognition software and undermine advances in neo-liberal surveillance systems - How they represent the uncanny and the weird in the horror genre and how this questions ideologies of communications media and the connectivity it enables - Their association with telepathy and cybernetics in science fiction - Their construction as models for entangled being in ecological thought Drawing upon the literary and filmic works of Ken Follet, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Bruce Chatwin, Shelley Jackson, Brian de Palma, Peter Greenway and David Cronenberg, as well as science fiction literature and the television series Orphan Black, King illuminates how twins are employed across a range of disciplines to envision a critical re-conception of the human in times of digital integration and ecological crisis.

Heavy Metal Presents Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human

Heavy Metal Presents Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human PDF Author: Theodore Sturgeon
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9780930368272
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 111

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Book Description


More Than Human

More Than Human PDF Author: Theodore Sturgeon
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1453295410
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Six misfits, one powerful entity. An award-winning novel about belonging by “one of the greatest writers of science fiction and fantasy who ever lived” (Stephen King). Individually, they are a seemingly simpleminded young man living in the woods who can read the thoughts of others, a runaway girl with telekinetic powers, twin girls who can barely speak but can teleport across great distances, and an infant with a mind like a supercomputer. Together, they are the Gestalt—a single extraordinary being comprised of remarkable parts—although an essential piece may be missing . . . But are they the next stage in human development or harbingers of the end of civilization? The answer may come when they are joined by Gerry. Powerfully telepathic, he lacks a moral compass—and his hatred of the world that has rejected him could prove catastrophic. Winner of the International Fantasy Award and considered Theodore Sturgeon’s masterpiece, More Than Human is a genre-bending wonder that explores themes of responsibility and morality, individuality, and belonging. Moving and suspenseful, lyrical and provocative, the novel was one of the first to elevate science fiction into the realm of literature, and inspired musicians and artists, including the Grateful Dead and Crosby, Stills and Nash. From the Nebula Award–winning author of Godbody, The Dreaming Jewels, and other great works of science fiction, this is an unforgettable reading experience and a must for anyone who enjoys Ramsey Campbell, Robert Silverberg, or Philip José Farmer. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Theodore Sturgeon including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the University of Kansas’s Kenneth Spencer Research Library and the author’s estate, among other sources.

Albion's Seed

Albion's Seed PDF Author: David Hackett Fischer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199743698
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 972

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Book Description
This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide

The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide PDF Author: Frank Plowright
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
ISBN:
Category : Comic books, strips, etc
Languages : en
Pages : 828

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Book Description
Reviews and analyses of over 5000 titles from the 1930s to date. ... Every comic of note from the past fifty years is included in this comprehensive guide to American comics. From the underground to children's comics, autobiography to fantasy.

The Nameless City

The Nameless City PDF Author: Faith Erin Hicks
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1626721564
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Every time it is invaded the City gets a new name, but to the natives in is the Nameless City, and they survive by not letting themselves get involved--but now the fate of the City rests in the hands of Rat, a native, and Kaidu, one of the Dao, the latest occupiers, and the two must somehow work together if the City is to survive.

Hyperion

Hyperion PDF Author: Dan Simmons
Publisher: Spectra
ISBN: 0307781887
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Book Description
A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man. On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands. Praise for Dan Simmons and Hyperion “Dan Simmons has brilliantly conceptualized a future 700 years distant. In sheer scope and complexity it matches, and perhaps even surpasses, those of Isaac Asimov and James Blish.”—The Washington Post Book World “An unfailingly inventive narrative . . . generously conceived and stylistically sure-handed.”—The New York Times Book Review “Simmons’s own genius transforms space opera into a new kind of poetry.”—The Denver Post “An essential part of any science fiction collection.”—Booklist

Macrolife

Macrolife PDF Author: George Zebrowski
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497634172
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Subtitled “A Mobile Utopia,” this pioneering novel about the meaning of space habitats for human history, presents spacefaring as no work did in its time, and since. A utopian novel like no other, presenting a dynamic utopian civilization that transcends the failures of our history. Epic in scope, Macrolife opens in the year 2021. The Bulero family owns one of Earth’s richest corporations. As the Buleros gather for a reunion at the family mansion, an industrial accident plunges the corporation into a crisis, which eventually brings the world around them to the brink of disaster. Vilified, the Buleros flee to a space colony where young Richard Bulero gradually realizes that the only hope for humanity lies in macrolife—mobile, self-reproducing space habitats. A millennium later, these mobile communities have left our sunspace and multiplied. Conflicts with natural planets arise. John Bulero, a cloned descendant of the twenty-first century Bulero clan, falls in love with a woman from a natural world and experiences the harshness of her way of life. He rediscovers his roots when his mobile returns to the solar system, and a tense confrontation of three civilizations takes place. One hundred billion years later, macrolife, now as numerous as the stars, faces the impending death of nature. Regaining his individuality by falling away from a highly evolved macrolife, a strangely changed John Bulero struggles to see beyond a collapse of the universe into a giant black hole. Inspired by the possibilities of space settlements, projections of biology and cosmology, and basic human longings, Macrolife is a visionary speculation on the long-term future of human and natural history. Filled with haunting images and memorable characters, this is a vivid and brilliant work.

Drawn on the Way

Drawn on the Way PDF Author: Sarah Nisbett
Publisher:
ISBN: 0760370729
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Drawn on the Way features techniques, tips, and projects for creating quick, lively sketches-portraits, figures, still life, scenes, nature, and more-that capture the beauty of a fleeting moment and connect us to the world.

Adventure Time

Adventure Time PDF Author: Martin Olson
Publisher: ABRAMS
ISBN: 1613127707
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Explore the weird, hilarious world of Adventure Time™ with this beautifully illustrated 2-in-1 book based on the hit Cartoon Network series. All-new, gorgeous, hilarious, and grotesque illustrations? Ancient wizard lore, spells, curses, and jokes? Memories and mementos from a cute demon girl’s childhood? Goofball commentary by Finn, Jake, Marceline, and the Ice King? Check, check, check, check please! A treasure for any fan of the series, this magical and mysterious tome takes a deep dive into the world of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time™. Aspiring heroes and wizards will find invaluable information in The Enchiridion—the ancient book of Ooo—and true fans will learn everything they ever wanted to know about Marceline the Vampire Queen in her Super Secret Scrapbook. From the creative team behind the New York Times–bestselling Adventure Time Encyclopaedia, this in-world compendium of all things Oooian is a humor-, paradox-, and literary contrivance–filled book true to the imagination, innovation, and heart of Adventure Time™.