Digital and electronic technologies that act as extensions of our bodies and minds are changing how we live, think, act, and write. Some welcome these developments as bringing humans closer to unified consciousness and eternal life. Others worry that invasive globalized technologies threaten to destroy the self and the world. Whether feared or desired, these innovations provoke emotions that have long fueled the religious imagination, suggesting the presence of a latent spirituality in an era mistakenly deemed secular and posthuman.
William Gaddis, Richard Powers, Mark Danielewski, and Don DeLillo are American authors who explore this phenomenon thoroughly in their work. Engaging the works of each in conversation, Mark C. Taylor discusses their sophisticated representations of new media, communications, information, and virtual technologies and their transformative effects on the self and society. He focuses on Gaddis's The Recognitions, Powers's Plowing the Dark, Danielewski's House of Leaves, and DeLillo's Underworld, following the interplay of technology and religion in their narratives and their imagining of the transition from human to posthuman states. Their challenging ideas and inventive styles reveal the fascinating ways religious interests affect emerging technologies and how, in turn, these technologies guide spiritual aspirations. To read these novels from this perspective is to see them and the world anew.
- CONTENTS
- ILLUSTRATIONS
- Nexus 1
- 1. Counterfeiting Conterfeit Religion: William Gaddis, The Recognitions
- Between Belief and Unbelief
- Samhain-All Saints Day
- Feast Of Solinvistus-Christmas
- Eoustur-Easter
- Countefeiting Counterfeits
- 2. Mosaics: Richard Powers, Plowing the Dark
- Misrecognitions
- Recovery
- Science Fiction
- Caves
- Killing Time
- Marking Time
- After Byzantium
- 3. Figuring Nothing: Mark Danielewski, House of Leaves
- Wired
- Blindness and Insight
- Entrances Without Exits
- Life Online
- Father's House
- 4. "Holy Shit!": Don Delillo, Underworld
- Prologue
- Waste
- Part 1
- Andy 1
- Part 2
- Part 3
- Andy 2
- Part 4
- Part 5
- Part 6
- Andy 3
- Prologue: The Triumph Of Death
- Epilogue To The Epilogue
- Das Kapital III
- After Thought
- Earth Works
- 5. Concluding Unscientific Postscript: Two Styles of the Philosophy of Religion
- Theological Foundations
- Art And Science
- Religion Within The Limits Of Style Alone
- Questions Of Style
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
Texto
Audio
Adobe DRM
Ingrese a su cuenta