Techno Redemption (WAS Re: M&D c50 The Golem)

[bandwraith at aol.com]

"Slow and Low Progress," or Why American Studies Should Do Technology
Author: de la Peña, Carolyn
Publication info: American Quarterly 58. 3 (Sep 2006): 915-941,981.

This essay suggests that scholars in American studies have something to learn from Mary Shelley. We in the United States frequently tell stories of technological redemption and technological damnation. We do not, however, spend much time considering stories of technological stewardship. A legacy of positivism has embedded our political, social, and cultural systems with a disturbing patina of technological "neutrality." And, in many ways, we as scholars have contributed to this legacy of positivism by failing to critique technology as both substance and ideology in American cultural life. The field of American studies has largely left questions of technology to others, in spite of our early leadership in innovative methods of technological analysis and cultural critique. And while discipline-based inquiries into technology have been immensely useful at revealing particular histories and consequences of American technology, they have not been primarily focused on issues of diversity, equity, and justice that are fundamental to our field. Nor have they been written with a particular focus on interdisciplinary connections that embed everyday actions within their larger political and cultural systems



-----Original Message-----
From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
To: bandwraith <bandwraith at aol.com>
Cc: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, Apr 3, 2013 10:47 pm
Subject: Re: M&D c50 The Golem


 
 “The function of science fiction is not only to predict the future, but to prevent it."   Ray Bradbury 

On Wednesday, April 3, 2013, wrote:

A' and it's worth pointing out that if Doc Frankenstein would've just cut the monster a little slack and exercised a little responsibility for his creation, things might have turned out better. Is it too late? I'd like to know.



-----Original Message-----
From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
To: bandwraith <bandwraith at aol.com>
Cc: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, Apr 3, 2013 10:09 pm
Subject: Re: M&D c50 The Golem


Mary Shelly resurrected the Golem most nobly. And it still has legs. 


Frankenstein is about hubris, as is the Golem.
Technology is Modern Hubris.











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