The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age

Stone, Allucquà re Rosanne

ISBN 10: 0262193620 / ISBN 13: 9780262193627

Edité par The MIT Press / Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, 1995

A propos de cet article

Cambridge, Massachusetts & London: The MIT Press / Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995. Near Fine condition in a Near Fine dust jacket. NO chips. NO tears. Bright, shiny, clean, and tight. NO owner's name or bookplate. NOT a remainder. NO underlining. NO highlighting. NO margin notes. List of chapter notes/sources. Bibliography. Bound in the original black cloth, stamped in yellow on the spine. From the Dust Jacket: "In this witty, far reaching, and utterly original work, Allucquà re Rosanne Stone examines the myriad ways modern technology is challenging traditional notions of gender identity… Not a traditional text, but rather a series of intellectual provocations: from busy cyberlabs to the electronic solitude of the Internet, from phone sex to 'virtual cross dressers,' from the Vampire Lestat to the trial of a man accused of having raped a woman by seducing one of her multiple personalities. Throughout, Stone wrestles with the question of how best to convey a complex description of a culture whose chief activity is complex description. Writing eloquently of creating a 'text that breaks rules,' serving as a 'sampler of possible choices,' she employs elements from a wide range of disciplines and genres, including cultural and critical theory, social sciences, pulp journalism, science fiction, and personal memoir. Each chapter of the book can be read as a kind of performance piece, with its own individual voice and structure. In the final chapter, stone threads the various narratives together…". First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine condition/Near Fine jacket. 8vo. xi, 212pp.

N° de réf. du vendeur 016190

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age
• Éditeur: The MIT Press / Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London
• Date de parution: 1995
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0262193620
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780262193627
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: First Edition.
• État de l'article: Near Fine condition
• État de la jaquette: Near Fine jacket
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Feminism / Women's Studies
  • Science / Technology / Computers

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

In this witty, far-reaching, and utterly original work, Allucquère Rosanne Stone examines the myriad ways modern technology is challenging traditional notions of gender identity.

Face-to-face meetings, and even telephone conversations, involuntarily reveal crucial aspects of identity such as gender, age, and race. However, these bits of identity are completely masked by computer-mediated communications; all that is revealed is what we choose to reveal—and then only if we choose to tell the truth. The rise of computer-mediated communications is giving people the means to try on alternative personae—in a sense, to reinvent themselves—which, as Stone compellingly argues, has both positive and potentially destructive implications.

Not a traditional text but rather a series of intellectual provocations, the book moves between fascinating accounts of the modern interface of technology and desire: from busy cyberlabs to the electronic solitude of the Internet, from phone sex to "virtual cross-dressers," and from the trial of a man accused of having raped a woman by seducing one of her multiple personalities to the Vampire Lestat.

Throughout, Stone wrestles with the question of how best to convey a complex description of a culture whose chief activity is complex description. Writing eloquently of creating a "text that breaks rules," serving as a "sampler of possible choices," she employs elements from a wide range of disciplines and genres, including cultural and critical theory, social sciences, pulp journalism, science fiction, and personal memoirs.

Each chapter of the book can be read as a kind of performance piece, with its own individual voice and structure. In the final chapter, Stone threads the various narratives together, holding them in productive tension rather than attempting to collapse them into a single unifying statement: a process that best reflects the confused, ambiguous, and sometimes contradictory state of gender relations at the close of the mechanical age.