The Re/Shaping of the Posthuman, Cyberspace, and Histories

William Gibson s Bridge trilogy is concerned with
information technologies and the media s ambiguous
impact on current society. The last two episodes of
the Bridge series tell a story of a near-future
where human, posthuman, and transhuman beings
interact in a realm between physical space and
cyberspace and through feedback loops of network
relations. The posthuman and cyberspace ontology
generate subversive discourses that shatter
capitalist totality, phantasmagoria, and the Logos.
The global circulation of media and information
renders various ways to understand the world fast and
wide, but also distorts the realities and how we see
the world as it is. If we treat the Bridge trilogy as
fragments of stories or myths (since Science
Fiction is based on its unrealistic portraying of the
near future) that are told and emerge constantly in
the industry of literature, then the Bridge trilogy
can be seen as a part of the project of writing myth
into history. By retelling myths that are projected
in utopian space, we are writing a fiction into
history in the process of unpacking a metaphor in
science fiction. This is the messianic power of
fiction in shaping future history.

Autorentext
Li Hui Chun obtained her M.A. degree from National Sun-yat Sen University, Taiwan. Her main academic interests are the posthuman ontology, cyberspace, and utopian imaginations.

Klappentext
William Gibson's Bridge trilogy is concerned with information technologies and the media's ambiguous impact on current society. The last two episodes of the Bridge series tell a story of a near-future where human, posthuman, and transhuman beings interact in a realm between physical space and cyberspace and through feedback loops of network relations. The posthuman and cyberspace ontology generate subversive discourses that shatter capitalist totality, phantasmagoria, and the Logos. The global circulation of media and information renders various ways to understand the world fast and wide, but also distorts the realities and how we see the world as it is. If we treat the Bridge trilogy as fragments of stories or "myths" (since Science Fiction is based on its unrealistic portraying of the near future) that are told and emerge constantly in the industry of literature, then the Bridge trilogy can be seen as a part of the project of writing myth into history. By retelling myths that are projected in utopian space, we are writing a fiction into history in the process of unpacking a metaphor in science fiction. This is the messianic power of fiction in shaping future history.