Biofictions

Biofictions PDF Author: Lejla Kucukalic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000441571
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Biofictions introduces three novel concepts: ‘biofiction,’ ‘bioimagination,’ and ‘biodiscourse’ to talk about intersections of literary and visual texts and biotechnology. The book proposes a new interdisciplinary area of research that correlates processes of genetics and literature, based on two critical approaches. One, drawing parallels between the genetic codes, human language, formal (binary) language, and posthuman communication and the role of meaning and imagination in these forms of communication. Two, by defining ‘biofictions’ as a critical scientific-artistic concept and as a corpus of texts that engage ideas and developments in molecular biology. Syncretic connection between biotechnology and literature is especially evident in an open science movement and the literary artistic genre of biopunk, discussed across chapters. The study includes well-known contemporary texts, such as David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, that are recontextualized as biofiction; it offers a rereading of important but neglected novels such as Thomas Disch’s Camp Concentration (1967); and it analyzes new visual texts such as the TV series Altered Carbon and Ghost in the Shell films. Based on these wide-ranging examples and new critical concepts, the book argues that coming up with possible alterations for the genetic code or intended traits for the organism is a discursive practice that brings into being bionarratives that are both organic and literary. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Biofictions

Biofictions PDF Author: Lejla Kucukalic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000441571
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 138

Get Book Here

Book Description
Biofictions introduces three novel concepts: ‘biofiction,’ ‘bioimagination,’ and ‘biodiscourse’ to talk about intersections of literary and visual texts and biotechnology. The book proposes a new interdisciplinary area of research that correlates processes of genetics and literature, based on two critical approaches. One, drawing parallels between the genetic codes, human language, formal (binary) language, and posthuman communication and the role of meaning and imagination in these forms of communication. Two, by defining ‘biofictions’ as a critical scientific-artistic concept and as a corpus of texts that engage ideas and developments in molecular biology. Syncretic connection between biotechnology and literature is especially evident in an open science movement and the literary artistic genre of biopunk, discussed across chapters. The study includes well-known contemporary texts, such as David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, that are recontextualized as biofiction; it offers a rereading of important but neglected novels such as Thomas Disch’s Camp Concentration (1967); and it analyzes new visual texts such as the TV series Altered Carbon and Ghost in the Shell films. Based on these wide-ranging examples and new critical concepts, the book argues that coming up with possible alterations for the genetic code or intended traits for the organism is a discursive practice that brings into being bionarratives that are both organic and literary. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction, 2 Volumes

The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction, 2 Volumes PDF Author: Patrick O'Donnell
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119431719
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1607

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Book Description
Fresh perspectives and eye-opening discussions of contemporary American fiction In The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020, a team of distinguished scholars delivers a focused and in-depth collection of essays on some of the most significant and influential authors and literary subjects of the last four decades. Cutting-edge entries from established and new voices discuss subjects as varied as multiculturalism, contemporary regionalisms, realism after poststructuralism, indigenous narratives, globalism, and big data in the context of American fiction from the last 40 years. The Encyclopedia provides an overview of American fiction at the turn of the millennium as well as a vision of what may come. It perfectly balances analysis, summary, and critique for an illuminating treatment of the subject matter. This collection also includes: An exciting mix of established and emerging contributors from around the world discussing central and cutting-edge topics in American fiction studies Focused, critical explorations of authors and subjects of critical importance to American fiction Topics that reflect the energies and tendencies of contemporary American fiction from the forty years between 1980 and 2020 The Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction: 1980-2020 is a must-have resource for undergraduate and graduate students of American literature, English, creative writing, and fiction studies. It will also earn a place in the libraries of scholars seeking an authoritative array of contributions on both established and newer authors of contemporary fiction.

Contemporary American Fiction in the Embrace of the Digital Age

Contemporary American Fiction in the Embrace of the Digital Age PDF Author: Beatrice Pire
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 178284712X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
This collection aims to examine the relationship between American fiction and innovations that marked the first decades of the 21st century: the Internet, social media, smart objects and environments, artificial intelligence, nanotechnologies, genetic engineering and other biotechnologies, transhumanism. These technological innovations redefine the way we live in and imagine our world, interact with each other and understand the human being in his or her ever closer relationship to the machine a human being no longer, as in the past, cared for or repaired, but now enhanced or replaced. What about our artistic and cultural practices? Are these recent advances changing language and literature? How is fiction transformed by technological progress and what representations of progress can it oppose? Can fiction offer a critique of the new media and the upheavals they precipitate? How does the temporality of literature respond to a technical time subjected to the imperative of efficiency, where the present is a slave to the future? Do virtual worlds challenge the primacy of literary fiction as a privileged mode of escape from daily life? In a context where software can generate literary works, can the force of poetical advent still oppose algorithmic logics? What becomes of the body in a world in which its technical extensions increase the externalization of its cognitive functions in media artifacts and digital networks? In order to explore these questions, scholars here investigate the American fiction of Russell Banks, Don DeLillo, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Lethem, Tao Lin, Richard Powers, Kenneth Goldsmith, Jennifer Egan or Jonathan Franzen as well as the Cyberpunk genre and the Neuronovel.

Growing Dread: Biopunk Visions

Growing Dread: Biopunk Visions PDF Author: Erik Scott De Bie
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780983098744
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Let eleven visionary authors show you the dangers and wonders of nature 2.0. Harnessing the power of nature, these authors show us biological futures that could be. If the human brain is the best computer in the world, what happens when someone learns how to hack it? A submarine captain, a government employee, a vat-grown sex toy and a world without death await within...to say nothing of the unicorns and timeless beauties.Let eleven visionary authors show you the dangers and wonders of nature 2.0. Harnessing the power of nature, these authors show us biological futures that could be. If the human brain is the best computer in the world, what happens when someone learns how to hack it? A submarine captain, a government employee, a vat-grown sex toy and a world without death await within...to say nothing of the unicorns and timeless beauties.

Clade

Clade PDF Author: Mark Budz
Publisher: Spectra
ISBN: 030741793X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
IT’S A POST-ECOCAUST WORLD. WELCOME TO IT. In the San Jose of tomorrow, all of nature is gengineered—from the warm-blooded plants to the designer people. But even in a rigidly controlled biosystem, with its pheromone-induced social order, the American dream is still the American dream. Caught between these new-old worlds, Rigo is on his way up—he’s going to be part of tomorrow, even if it means he has to leave today behind. Written off as a sellout on the streets of his old ’hood, Rigo’s got his own ap in an aplex, a 9-to-5er, and a girl. He’s got opportunity. If he works hard, his job with a heavyweight politicorp could give him a chance to move up in the clades. But when he’s chosen as part of a team to construct a new colony on a nearby comet, Rigo smells a setup. And when disaster strikes, he learns that if there’s a way to bend the rules, there’s also a way to break them…

Vurt

Vurt PDF Author: Jeff Noon
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
ISBN: 1915202965
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
Hailed as the novel that reinvented cyberpunk, The 30th Anniversary edition of Jeff Noon's award winning cult classic, Vurt. Scribble and his gang, the Stash Riders, haunt the streets of an alternate Manchester, chasing the immersive highs that come from Vurt Feathers. Place a feather in your mouth and it takes you to the Vurt: another place, a trip, a shared reality of all our dreams and mythologies. Different coloured feathers provide different experiences, but Scribble is searching for his lost love and only one feather offers the hope of finding her. It’s the ultimate feather, it may not even exist at all: Curious Yellow. But as the Game Cat says, “Be careful, be very careful. This ride is not for the weak.” First published in 1993, Jeff Noon’s extraordinary, influential, award-winning novel transcended SF boundaries and resisted categorization. Alluding to noir and surrealism alike, it was defiantly its own thing and remains so thirty years later. File Under: Fantasy [ Curious Yellow | Urban Wonderland | Game Cat | Living on the Dub Side ]

Rosewater

Rosewater PDF Author: Tade Thompson
Publisher: Orbit
ISBN: 0316449032
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Rosewater is the start of an award-winning trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging voices. *Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, winner *Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel, winner Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry, and the helpless -- people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers. Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again -- but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future. Tade Thompson's innovative, genre-bending, Afrofuturist series, the Wormwood Trilogy, is perfect for fans of Jeff Vandermeer, N. K. Jemisin, and Ann Leckie. Praise for Rosewater: "Smart. Gripping. Fabulous!" —Ann Leckie, award winning-author of Ancillary Justice "Mesmerising. There are echoes of Neuromancer and Arrival in here, but this astonishing debut is beholden to no one." —M. R. Carey, bestselling author of The Girl with All the Gifts "A magnificent tour de force, skillfully written and full of original and disturbing ideas." —Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time The Wormwood Trilogy Rosewater Rosewater Insurrection Rosewater Redemption

The Age of Em

The Age of Em PDF Author: Robin Hanson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198754620
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 522

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Book Description
Robots may one day rule the world, but what is a robot-ruled Earth like? Many think that the first truly smart robots will be brain emulations or "ems." Robin Hanson draws on decades of expertise in economics, physics, and computer science to paint a detailed picture of this next great era in human (and machine) evolution - the age of em.

The Race

The Race PDF Author: Nina Allan
Publisher: Titan Books (US, CA)
ISBN: 1785650386
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
A child is kidnapped with consequences that extend across worlds… A writer reaches into the past to discover the truth about a possible murder… Far away a young woman prepares for her mysterious future… In a future scarred by fracking and ecological collapse, Jenna Hoolman’s world is dominated by illegal smartdog racing: greyhounds genetically modified with human DNA. When her young niece goes missing that world implodes... Christy’s life is dominated by fear of her brother, a man she knows capable of monstrous acts and suspects of hiding even darker ones. Desperate to learn the truth she contacts Alex, who has his own demons to fight… And Maree, a young woman undertaking a journey that will change her world forever.

Shadowbane: Eye of Justice

Shadowbane: Eye of Justice PDF Author: Erik Scott De Bie
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
ISBN: 078696135X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
When Kalen Dren and Myrin Darkdance investigate a friend's disappearance in Westgate, they find that all is not as it seems At long last Kalen “Shadowbane” Dren has given up a life of crime to join Myrin on a journey to the city of Westgate. But although Kalen is leaving his vigilante past behind, his high-stakes adventures are far from over—and there are enemies who still yearn to see him fall. Moreover, rumor has it that others have adopted his guise and now deal with violence on their own terms. The two adventurers leave Luskan for Westgate in search of Kalen's former apprentice, who they fear is dead. As the pair scours the city, seeking answers to Kalen's disappearance and to their own destinies, they find that the rumors about the vigilantes are true. But who are these wannabe "Shadowbanes" who wield the vaunted sword Vindicator? Myrin and Kalen have no idea that a game is being played in which they are only pawns.