The term "cyberpunk" entered the literary landscape in 1984 to describe William Gibson's pathbreaking novel
Neuromancer. Cyberpunks are now among the shock troops of postmodernism, Larry McCaffery argues in
Storming the Reality Studio, marshalling the resources of a fragmentary culture to create a startling new form. Artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, multinational machinations, frenetic bursts of prose, collisions of style, celebrations of texture: although emerging largely from science fiction, these features of cyberpunk writing are, as this volume makes clear, integrally related to the aims and innovations of the literary avant-garde.
By bringing together original fiction by well-known contemporary writers (William Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Kathy Acker, J. G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany), critical commentary by some of the major theorists of postmodern art and culture (Jacques Derrida, Fredric Jameson, Timothy Leary, Jean-François Lyotard), and work by major practitioners of cyberpunk (William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Pat Cadigan, Bruce Sterling),Storming the Reality Studio reveals a fascinating ongoing dialog in contemporary culture.
What emerges most strikingly from the colloquy is a shared preoccupation with the force of technology in shaping modern life. It is precisely this concern, according to McCaffery, that has put science fiction, typically the province of technological art, at the forefront of creative explorations of our unique age.
A rich opporunity for reading across genres, this anthology offers a new perspective on the evolution of postmodern culture and ultimately shows how deeply technological developments have influenced our vision and our art.
Selected Fiction contributors: Kathy Acker, J. G. Ballard, William S. Burroughs, Pat Cadigan, Samuel R. Delany, Don DeLillo, William Gibson, Harold Jaffe, Richard Kadrey, Marc Laidlaw, Mark Leyner, Joseph McElroy, Misha, Ted Mooney, Thomas Pynchon, Rudy Rucker, Lucius Shepard, Lewis Shiner, John Shirley, Bruce Sterling, William Vollman
Selected Non-Fiction contributors: Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Fredric Jameson, Arthur Kroker and David Cook, Timothy Leary, Jean-François Lyotard, Larry McCaffery, Brian McHale, Dave Porush, Bruce Sterling, Darko Suvin, Takayuki Tatsumi
Industry Reviews
Another of those strange fiction/nonfiction hybrids that only science fiction seems to generate. As shaped by McCaffery (English/San Diego State; co-ed., Alive and Writing, 1987), the intent is to explore the phenomenon of cyberpunk sf, its relationship to postmodern fiction, and its influence on the literary mainstream. Cyberpunk's type-specimen novel is William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), which introduced many of the concepts for which cyberpunk is now famous: the imaginary computer-generated universe, cyberspace; the punk sensibility (personal appearance, clothes, music, lifestyle); the global awareness based on unrestricted corporatism and consequent lack of a global ethic; and, above all, the culture of perpetual change, embedded in and driven by technology. Many of the essays here capably and sometimes excitingly explore this universe (Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., Brian McHale, Darko Suvin), while others hide behind a smoke screen of academic jargon (Veronica Hollinger, Fredric Jameson), and still others become distracted (Joan Gordon, failing to determine why Pat Cadigan is cyberpunk's only female practitioner). For the uninitiated in particular, the fiction on display here forms an excellent introduction, ranging from acknowledged cyberpunkers like Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, Lucius Shepard, Rudy Rucker, and Marc Laidlaw to fellow travelers such as J.G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany, and poet Rob Hardin. Also excerpted here, William S. Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon are held - with some justification - to have prefigured cyberpunk. Yet other authors (Kathy Acker, Mark Leyner, Don DeLillo) demonstrate how far cyberpunk has infiltrated the literary mainstream. Clearly, cyberpunk now forms the cutting edge of sf; equally clearly, sf has not just challenged the mainstream literary avant garde but has become part of it. Like cyberpunk and sf in general: sometimes irritating, severe, puzzling, or incomprehensible, but just as often original, provocative, incisive, or challenging. Newcomers to cyberpunk will find the fiction particularly useful and enjoyable, while oldsters will revel in and argue over the essays. Splendid, stirring stuff. (Kirkus Reviews)
