Linguistic Virus

TOWARDS TRANSMODERNISM: Transcendence, Technospirituality, and TechnocultureFelicity Van Rysbergen (B.A. Hons, University of Melbourne) Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2011 Journalism and Media Research Centre The University of New South Wales 2 ABSTRACT This thesis argues that the pervasive merging of technocultural and sacred metaphors uncovers a longstanding Western tradition of inscribing the technologically new with the language of mysticism – a transcendental excess that underlies the logic of late capitalist notions of progress and evolution. By claiming that the transcendent moment has utterly saturated our technological desires, preserving an originary sense of the sacred at the inventive heart of science and technology, it sees this ‘technocultural transcendence’ as a model for thinking about an ironic return of grand narratives like metaphysics, truth, and the absolute, used wittingly to revitalise theory just as its last gasp has (perhaps prematurely) been proclaimed. The thesis therefore also seeks to theorise an emerging ‘transmodernity,’ or the post of postmodernism, through critical cultural readings of key transcendent myths in technoculture – Italian Futurism (art), cyberpunk (science fiction), cyberfeminism (film and performance art), and Integral theory (secular transformative spirituality). Each chapter offers examples of how the twinned concepts of transcendence and technology help create the conditions for the emergence of transmodernism, and works to provide potential examples of a resulting transmodern methodology in action. Throughout this thesis, the burgeoning desire for reconstructing what was once deconstructed, fragmented, and disavowed is examined, not to simply return past foci of theoretical enquiry to the margins or the marginalised to the centre, but to reveal the primary message of transmodernism – that both deconstruction and reconstruction hold equal significance on a continuum of understanding socio-cultural change. Fuelled by a growing sense of the interconnectivity that occurs with the multiplicity and diversity of information enabled by the internet, world wide web, and social networking channels, this thesis holds that its model of transmodernity represents interconnectivity laid bare. It is persistent renewal and eternal return, but with a witting nod to the process of culture’s perpetual becoming. It balances postmodernism’s dance of meaninglessness with the return of signification and purpose, reinserting the ‘Big Questions’ back into the 3 fields of discourse – morality, ethics, truth, beauty, spirit – while remaining wary of their potential to generalise. 4 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. Signed ............................................................................................................................... Date .................................................................................................................................. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the wonderful supervision and support of Professor Gerard Goggin during this work, and the Journalism and Media Research Centre at The University of New South Wales. The following people helped ameliorate and put into perspective the frustrations and isolations of writing a thesis: Jo and Russell Anderson, Fiona Austen, Sophie Gebhardt, Dr Angus Gordon, Emma Greenwood, Ross Hamilton, Lyndall Jenkin, Simon and Kath Keevers, Liam Leonard, Dr Tania Lewis, Nikki Lindsay, Daniel McGlone, Dr Nicola Parsons, Ann Paterson, Bryn Pears, Nicolle and Russell Penney, and Christine Thomas. I am also indebted to Dr Ann Vickery and Dr Jonathan Carter for their careful reading of earlier drafts of this dissertation, their useful comments, and ongoing support. A special acknowledgement must go to my parents Deirdre and Roy Nicol, sister Trish Nicol, aunt Rosemary Daniel, and her partner Alan Dodd for their understanding, endless patience, and encouragement when it was most required. Finally, I am forever indebted to my husband, Simon Plunkett, without whose love, support, and unflagging enthusiasm the arduous task of writing this thesis may never have been completed. 6 ...................Cyberpunk’s Critical Reception iii...51 i......TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ............................................... SUCK MY CODE: ABJECT OTHERS....... or Escape Velocity iv...163 i.... Writing Technologies and Transcendence Chapter One..... God’s in Cyberspace v.... AND TECHNOSPIRITUAL FICTIONS.................. Postmodernism........... Virtually Gnostic vi... MARCHING BACKWARDS TO THE FUTURE: THE HACKER GETS RELIGION. REVOLUTIONARY AESTHETICS: TRANSCENDENCE IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY TECHNOCULTURE...... Godhead Goes Digital Chapter Three... Madness...100 i................... Mind Over Matter Chapter Two.. TECHNOLOGY.................... Echoes of Transmodernism Chapter Four...... WORSHIPPING @ THE SOURCE CODE: INTEGRAL EVOLUTION AND THE MATRIX TRILOGY... Creation Anxiety and Desiring the Virtual Feminine ii... The Transmodern Moment ii......... Holiness.... UNSPEAKABLE (M)OTHERS.... Deus Ex Machina or Deus Sive Natura? An Integral Return to the Source Code 7 ........... Jouissance................ A Short History of Cyberpunk ii.. The Eternal Futurist Moment ii.. Neuromancer... 217 i....... Vertically Transcendent or Transpersonal States vi. and the ‘Mean Green Meme’ v.................... Praying to the Divine Velocity iv...... Boomeritis.......... Integral Spiral Dynamics iv..... AND THE MULTIPLE BODIES OF CYBERSPACE................ The Future Eve: Man-Made Women in Cult Science Fiction Television iv..................... Technological Mysticism and Technospiritual Narratives iii........ Autobahn to Infobahn .... Evolutionaries on the Next Wave of Consciousness ii............ TRANSCENDENT BODIES............................. On the Road to Transcendence iii............. DEUS EX MACHINA: TRANSCENDENCE............ A Map of Everything iii...9 Introduction........10 i. & Poetry: Re-embodying Cyberspace iii. .................... AND TRANSMODERNISM.... HACKING THE ABYSS: ACROSS AND BETWEEN MODERNISM..........................................274 i........................ A Transmodern End to Postmodernism? Works Cited ............... Transcending Paradigms: Where the Vertical Meets the Horizontal ii.......................................................Conclusion....283 8 .................... POSTMODERNISM............................. ................................................................... showing transgenics recreating the 1945 raising of the US flag in Iwo Jima.... VNS Matrix......198 Figure 16............. Dynamism of a Dog on A Leash..................... Marinetti..................... levels... 1908..1890-1900........181 Figure 12.57 Figure 3............74 Figure 9....... 2 June 1911...... and types................200 Figure 17........ 1913................. states...... Max Guevara (Jessica Alba)............... Treviso............ Gigolo Joe and Gigolo Jane in Steven Spielberg’s AI: Artificial Intelligence..... AQAL Graphic........ 1912..... Caricature of the “Futurist evening....... 4Q8L map combining AQAL.................. Giacomo Balla..................................................230 Figure 18........................... Cover of Zang Tumb Tumb: Adrianopoli Ottobre 1912: Parole in Libertà by F............................................................. Dark Angel. SDi........... Street Light......... Fox publicity still for Dollhouse depicting Echo (Eliza Dushku) as deadly mannequin...........233 Figure 19....190 Figure 14... Mann and Machine NBC publicity still.. The City Rises.T..LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Étienne-Jules Marey with George Demeny.. Untitled (Sprinter)... Carlo Carra................................... 59 Figure 6............................... Eve Edison and Bobby Mann.... 1914........... A Futurist Soiree............. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's wrecked car in a ditch.. 174 Figure 10............ Dynamism of a Cyclist...... 1910-1911........... Umberto Boccioni..................... Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and automobile circa 1909...........58 Figure 5. A Cyber Feminist Manifesto for the 21st Century............. 13 Introspections.....68 Figure 8.........58 Figure 4...........194 Figure 15.................” at the Theatre Politeama Garibaldi...............................60 Figure 7........ Neo enters the Machine City in Matrix Revolutions.... Umberto Boccioni.........................................266 9 .........................................54 Figure 2.... 180 Figure 11...................................... 1992......... Umberto Boccioni.. Giacomo Balla. 1910.........182 Figure 13..... Final scene of Dark Angel (Season 2)................................ Technology.INTRODUCTION DEUS EX MACHINA: Transcendence. and Technospiritual Fictions 10 . But now men create God. the transcendent moment thus provides a model for thinking about an ironic return of grand narratives like metaphysics. cyberfeminism (film and performance art). We used to believe in an invisible God. and the absolute. through critical readings of four key transcendent myths in technoculture – Italian Futurism (art). It argues that. both signifiers of events which happen in worlds which are just out of sight. to place it within the context of a history that ironically continues to move forward despite postmodernism’s erstwhile assertions to the contrary. – Michael Marshall Smith2 [For in the beginning] God created man. cyberpunk (science fiction). and Integral Theory (secular transformative spirituality). even if its discursive strategies and its ideological critique continue to live on – as do those of modernism – in 11 . truth. Since the fin de millennium there has been a growing body of critical work concerning the general waning of the postmodern project. This is why rapid tech change spawns religions. the transcendent moment has utterly saturated our technological desires. used wittingly to revitalise theory just as its last gasp has been proclaimed. Occupying the space where science and religion coincide. For instance. through these technocultural myths. now we put our faith in streams of electronic fizzing through spaces which are too small to see. in The Politics of Postmodernity Linda Hutcheon writes: The postmodern moment has passed.Constant change is part of a dichotomy – where there is constant change the opposite must be true. Calls were made for the temporalisation of postmodernism. preserving an originary sense of the sacred at the inventive heart of science and technology.’ or the post of postmodernism. There must also be absolute changelessness. – Gospel of Philip3 This dissertation seeks to theorise ‘transmodernity. – William Gibson1 We used to have religion but now we had code. That is the way it is in the world – men make gods and worship their creation. and particularly in late capitalist discourses on progress and evolution. This task also recognises the modern project in its entirety (modern/ modernist/ postmodern/ transmodernist).’ ‘science. some transmodernist – dedicated to seeking new ways of understanding and new approaches to being-in-the-world. only heuristic labels that we create in our attempts to chart cultural changes and continuities. debate still rages. transcendence 12 . Postpostmodernism needs a new label of its own. This thesis hopes to take a step forward in both directions. with this challenge to readers to find it – and name it for the twenty-first century. and thus begin the task of historicizing the now. however. can also be seen as subsets of transcendence or technology. must necessarily pervade our emergent understanding of the transmodern.’ ‘change. almost a decade after Hutcheon’s call for a new label for our milieu. To understand the ‘post’ of postmodernism. critical consensus on what has come after postmodernism remains elusive. and I conclude.’ or ‘transgression’ – all of which. as essentially open-ended – as Hutcheon notes above.4 While this challenge has been taken up by a number of commentators. less work has sought to turn theory into praxis and hermeneutically apply post-postmodernist ideas to cultural fields. elements of modernist ideologies continue to live on throughout the postmodern era. it will soon be noted.’ ‘revolution. and both modernisms and postmodernisms (for each is not a discrete theoretical stance. that these terms represent only two of many that could be attributed to the notion of modernity – other potential sites of exploration include notions of ‘the new. It recognises. The entire project of modernity might therefore be best read as a series of cultural moments – some modernist. For the purpose of this thesis. this thesis identifies ‘transcendence’ and ‘technology’ as connective themes that have maintained constant conceptual force throughout the modern project as a whole. building a working definition of what it calls transmodernism through sketching possible avenues of applying this new methodology to a broad range of texts. but a succession of theoretical ‘flavours’ we choose to group together under a single rubric so as to discuss them more meaningfully).’ ‘rupture. however. some postmodernist and now. however. nascent postmodernist ideologies can be located within modern and modernist texts. one must first locate the postmodern within a larger modern project that continues to evolve. To better emphasise the links between these cultural moments. Literary historical categories like modernism and postmodernism are. therefore. after all.our contemporary twenty-first-century world. and many labels have been tentatively proffered. And while. 6 Its political and material manifestations would encompass a systemisation of modernisation that would ultimately result in the Industrial Revolution. the attempt to readjust and reconnect our understanding of popular dichotomies like science and religion. science. as had the stirrings of an increasingly secular society freed from the chokehold of religious dogma. massive population growth.’ and ‘the modernist era’. However. marking a political. as imagined by the philosophes. The first denotes the processes of technological or scientific advance as unleashed by the rational worldview held by Enlightenment thinkers across all fields of knowledge – philosophy.’ ‘the project of modernity. 13 . an Absolute Truth or Reason remained. The Enlightenment’s project of modernity therefore began to develop the spheres of science. the Western project of what came to be called ‘modernity’ began with the Enlightenment in the late seventeenth century. then. Writing in 1980. morality. and art from reason.”5 In its broadest definition. culture. In other words. Here we approach the symbiosis between the terms ‘process of modernisation. the expansion of markets. keeping them separate from the metaphysical and religious realm. Nevertheless. The age of ‘infallible’ progress had begun. art. to be uncovered once the requisite amount of knowledge had been carefully accumulated. The project of modernity. conceptual. ‘What is Modernity?’) noted that the term ‘modern’ had been in use since the fifth century to articulate “those periods in Europe when the consciousness of a new epoch formed itself through a renewed relationship to the ancients. advanced scientific and technological progress. Jürgen Habermas (following Henri Lefebvre’s seminal 1962 essay. celebrated change (in the form of the perpetually new) as a form of constant contradiction and conquest that would fire the revolutionary spirit underlying the aesthetics of modernity. material. education and reason (the modern) as foundations for a new kind of social model based on freedom of thought and equality. a lingering desire for a central organising principle. the philosophes also saw humanity simultaneously engaged in an effort of universal moral and intellectual self-realisation where the pursuit of Truth by way of systematic ‘information technologies’ would ultimately lead to the betterment of all citizens. it gave birth to a relentless force of escalating dynamism and innovation that characterises contemporary culture and society. technology and spirituality in order to grasp a larger. and aesthetic move in the West away from the blind faith of medieval religiosity (the ancient) towards a validation of science and technology. and capitalism.within technological culture and technospiritual metaphors will be specifically examined to demonstrate what it views as a central tenet of transmodernity – that is. significatory whole. produced the opposite in others: an almost hysterical exhilaration. influenced by the dialectical responses to technological progress embedded within bourgeois culture.8 Such aesthetic responses to the modern condition appear to be expressed via two concurrent but opposed registers that still retain some force today. and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses. Though the speed and dynamism of new machines like the automobile promised exhilaration in every day modern lives. his real conditions of life. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. the position of the worker as creator of a unique commodity was suddenly compromised. the assembly line.10 It seemed to some that. passively waiting for the future to come down the line. as assembly lines transformed labourers from productive to expectant bodies. Western culture was thus gripped by a new dilemma.It also relates to the growing impact of the machine on western society. providing the subjective antithesis to the celebration of dynamism. In this climate of suspicion. what “brought about a mix of alienation and apocalypse in some. On the one hand. all that is holy is profaned. by contrast. growth and transformation.9 The dream of a technological utopia. the shape of fabulous technologies to come. the machine began to symbolise both the possible realisation of a phantasmal futurescape (for example. had infiltrated mass hearts and minds wherein escalating machine innovations reached a kind of exquisite transcendence in the popular imagination. behind the glittering surfaces of Classic Hollywood starlets and New York skylines lay the driving feature of twentieth century industrial invention. It articulated for some a profound pessimism that subjects were increasingly imprisoned by machines in what Max Weber called the ‘iron cage’ of modernity. which by the turn of the twentieth century was creating a transformation of old in favour of new at a speed hitherto unseen in history. to be modern was to inhabit a universe in which “all that is solid melts into air. Modernism. one was forced to simultaneously encompass promises of renewed social power. and the dissolution of the subjective ground on which the formation of individual identity had previously relied.”11 However. as Marx had written years before.7 Modernity can be seen as the social and cultural condition of these objective changes – how lived experience was transformed as a result of the changes wrought by modernisation. is the act of reflecting upon this transformation – “the inchoate experience of the new” – as expressed aesthetically in art. 1926). heralded by the pervasive images of the automobile and the skyscraper. and intellectual thought. in order to embrace modernity.”12 This response to technology is 14 . and his relations with his kind. and the apotheosis of humanity’s apocalypse (The Somme). literature. among others – while convinced that the Enlightenment’s fabled central organising principle could not hold. the work of T. or Yeats’ well documented dalliances with the occult. and particularly in the incendiary manifestoes of the avant-garde movement’s leader. they claimed.”15 The mind and its idiosyncratic productions. which. also held fast to the goal of a new. unchartered. Through the resultant transformative or revelatory experiences.13 Yet.S Eliot. and unknown. Woolf’s moments of being. the transformative. And. the Italian Futurists became synonymous in popular vernacular with a transcendent celebration of humanity’s inevitable assimilation by technology. faced with the end game of the Enlightenment’s pursuit of reason through escalating scientific and technological progress – an ever-increasing rate of mechanisation in which the individual teetered at the precipice of the gaping maw that was the First World War – the modernist turned inward to minutely document the workings of the Self. where the Enlightenment project had remained suspicious of mystical claims towards a central organising principle. The modernist artist existing outside the bounds of normative society would have an enhanced ability to see beyond its systems. socially progressive world order. the modernists began the self-involved task of recording the intricacies of a disenfranchised psyche faced with the outcomes of advanced technological progress. Where the Romantics had furthered the Enlightenment project by focussing outwards on the sublime in Nature for hints towards revitalising culture. from Kandinsky’s veiled spiritual images to Marinetti’s Futurist manifestoes. the other “eternal and immutable. Filippo Tomasso Marinetti. would result in a new era of potentialised human history.” one half art. whether in the 15 .14 Such artistic expressions of transcendence focussed on the individual’s ability to create art as the highest expression of truth and social revolution. the fugitive. that the search for it had led not to enlightenment but rather a vast abyss at the heart of Western culture. and for a short time between 1909 and WWI. such as God or Nature. to peel back the façade of traditional mores and uncover the reality of modern life. Joyce’s secular epiphany. the artist’s work would act as a signpost to a more complete expression of human existence. Early twentieth-century art and literature is therefore littered with references to transcendent experiences as a transformational force.most emphatically expressed in the work of the Italian Futurists from 1909 to 1939. Joyce. and Ezra Pound. which revealed itself to be “the transitory. Under Marinetti’s guidance. As one of the twentieth century’s earliest avant-garde movements. the contingent. Other early twentieth-century aesthetic modernisms – for example. Italian Futurism articulated one unfolding of aesthetic modernity’s revolt against old traditions and set the scene for subsequent avant-garde movements – such as Dada and Surrealism – to seek out the shocking. modernist art yearned for it. form of dreams. This is not simply. hence realise ourselves. no longer subservient to the rituals of the Church. was increasingly altering the experience of embodiment. it is now possible to read any socio-cultural element that refuses to be contained by the limits of reason as invested with sacred meaning – a move that both proclaims its ineffability at the same time as it seeks to dissipate its symbolic power.”18 However. Pericles Lewis notes that in some cases this disintegration of thought and reality ultimately led to a concomitant higher integration. although this desire must necessarily perform a role in the re-mystification of technological culture. paradigm medium in which we express. the result of an innate need to rebalance the constant change/changelessness equation. This holds as true for art as it does for religious mysticism and accounts of the phenomenological experience of transcendence that seem – for their authors – to defy linguistic expression even as they are compelled to articulate it to others. in the form of Molly Bloom’s affirmative monologue at the end of Ulysses or Eliot’s all encompassing “Shantih.” 16 As Charles Taylor wrote. shantih. if not the. as William Gibson notes in the quote at the beginning of this introduction. or madness. it was not only art that became the receptacle of the secular sacred – as technological change continued to transform the everyday environment in the cultural psyche technological artefacts also became increasingly invested with mystical power. but understood as itself a site of sacred power.”17 The artwork as hieratic object “transcends not only its status as representation and the understanding of its audience. A crisis in the content and form of representation therefore ensued. altered states. and its technological produce. postmodernism marked the abandonment of all such quests to wrest meaning from what it saw as an 16 . hence define. on the other resulting in the visual and linguistic abstractions of Cubism and Dada. while modernist writers continued to map with everincreasing intricacy the detailed workings (or failure thereof) of the mind to cope with this new state of affairs. art approaches a sacred function. streams of consciousness. as in Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake and. shantih. modernism pursued an internal search for an absent central organising principle and the consequent melancholic mourning of its loss. “Art becomes one of the. Where. but even the intentions of its creator. It also speaks to the emergence of the sacred as excess to a secular society in reaction to its disavowal by the authors of the Enlightenment. among other things. For some modernists. Transportation and communication technologies respectively replaced and excised the body’s daily interactions with its environment. came to stand in for the centralising factor of human identity in a world where science. on the one hand constructing language as no longer a true reflection of reality but rather consumed by the beauty of its own texture. Indeed. 19 Western philosophy had always been haunted by a desire for metaphysical consolation.’ As a result. photography. 22 These conflicts. Brian McHale has argued that every postmodern critic 17 . even evil (Baudrillard). The philosophes’ vision of revolutionary change had seemingly come to pass. Just as the era of modernism should be recognised as a series of connected yet disparate ‘modernisms. diversity. centralising Absolute or any attempt to link ‘signs’ with ‘things’ was utterly fraudulent (Derrida). reactionary (Foucault). a postmodern worldview (which. arguably emerges from 1945 and continues to the turn of the millennium). It emphasised surfaces. video.’ In 1989. narcissistic (Lacan). interconnectedness.21 Reality no longer existed. blurring distinctions between high and low culture and championing contradiction. “architecture. It moved philosophical aspirations from uncovering meaning and value to their production and reception. It will aim to say what postmodernism is but also at the same time it will have to say what it is not… for postmodernism is a phenomenon whose mode is resolutely contradictory as well as unavoidably political. film. painting.increasingly fragmented. she argues. the experience of contemporary late capitalist culture was a simulacrum composed of pure effect and self-referentiality. no centre to search for in the first place – just an endless play of unstable signs and shifting contexts. and ambiguity. Thoroughly exhausted by modernism’s apparently fruitless pursuit of meaning and value. but the notion of a clear. if indeed it ever had. though assuredly not as they had planned it. literature.”24 Similarly. alienating world. firmly determining that there was. dance. disregarding some late nineteenth century uses of the term. Linda Hutcheon acknowledged that: Few words are more used and abused in discussion of contemporary culture than the word ‘postmodernism. music. any attempt to define the world will necessarily and simultaneously have both positive and negative dimensions. instead cultivated a studied indifference to such projects.’ the postmodern era must also be read in terms of ‘postmodernisms. in fact. 20 One species of postmodern criticism therefore revelled in the very ‘depthlessness’ of a contemporary culture saturated by unconnected signs and signals. arise from a conflation of theoretical notions of the postmodern – or “the designation of a social and philosophical period or ‘condition’”23 – and those of postmodernity – a cultural expression of this ‘condition’ across various fields of artistic endeavour including. the literature of an inflationary economy.constructs his or her own version of postmodernism according to his or her own perspective: Thus. a general condition of knowledge in the contemporary informational regime. and so on. which he aligns with schizophrenia and a culture of (drug) addiction. which in effect constructs it right out of existence.27 Equally bleak is Jean Baudrillard’s characterisation of postmodern theory’s lack of contact with the ‘real’ that concomitantly fuels a fascination with its disappearance.”26 That apparent victory of commodification over all spheres of life marks postmodernity's reliance on the "cultural logic of late capitalism.” postmodernism “is the consumption of sheer commodification as a process." Technologies of reproduction have replaced those of production in Jameson’s late capitalist postmodern age leading to a depthlessness in postmodern culture countered by extreme claims for moments of intense emotion. As such Jameson views the postmodern scepticism towards metanarratives as a mode of experience that stems from late capitalist modes of production. Whereas “modernism was still minimally and tendentially the critique of the commodity and the effort to make it transcend itself. Jean-Francois Lyotard’s postmodernism.”28 He therefore claims the postmodern era as nihilist and melancholic systematisation. Charles Newman’s postmodernism. there is John Barth’s postmodernism.’ multiple postmodern theories were put forward. The kinds of oppositionary antics that exemplifies the modernist avant-garde’s resistance to normative socio-culture is therefore impossible in a postmodern age because of the supreme hegemony of a totalising system: “Everywhere. always. To McHale’s we should add Frederic Jameson’s more dystopian picture of postmodernism’s celebration of ahistoricity and its stylisation of the past into commodity and pastiche. the literature of replenishment.25 To construct an exhaustive anthology of the various “flavours” of postmodern theory is beyond the space available to this introduction to the emergence of transmodernism. as commentators sought to resolve the conflicts between Hutcheon’s ‘postmodern’ and ‘postmodernity. suffice to say that. There is even Kermode’s construction of postmodernism. a stage on the road to the spiritual unification of humankind. where “Melancholia is the inherent quality of the mode of the disappearance of meaning. Ihab Hassan’s postmodernism. the system is too strong: hegemonic.” 29 This is caused by the loss of history and the myth of 18 . has posited this golden age of postmodern theory had itself passed by the turn of the second millennium because. the marginal. how well it performs its role in limited contexts. Terry Eagleton. in very rightly celebrating heterogeneity. the fragmentary. nor does it survive it. life is not always experienced as a series 19 .”31 In his influential The Postmodern Condition. and the nature of the legitimation itself. Jean-François Lyotard argued that an era of cybernetics would ultimately change the status of knowledge profoundly. love. then the emergence of an information society legitimates knowledge by how performative it is. postmodern theorists had failed to adequately address the big questions of morality. the postmodern information society fragmented human knowledge into thousands of localised contexts in which each individual performs a particular role. leading to the breakdown of the modern knowledge project into a postmodern information society. self-reflexive elements of pop-culture.history’s increased mediatisation. rules for understanding and behaviour. It is nevertheless the map that precedes the territory—precession of simulacra —that engenders the territory. and simulacra and simulation – where the “territory no longer precedes the map. postmodern theories highlighted the very real difficulties inherent in making grand. a proliferation of kitsch “produced by industrial reproduction and the vulgarisation at the level of objects of distinctive signs… and from a disordered excess of 'ready-made' signs. generalising statements about human experience. but on how effective it is at achieving desired outcomes. Rather than giving credence to overarching metanarratives like Marxism. religion. death.”30 an increasing culture of consumption. 32 In claiming that society after the break down of modernism had lost its ability to believe in metanarratives – those legitimating functions that enabled the Enlightenment and modernism’s grand quests for meaning – Lyotard postulated the rise of “little narratives” or language games in limited contexts in which there are clear. and the anarchic. For Lyotard. He questioned the legitimisation of knowledge in such a society. in an age of terrorism. self-conscious. However. from the subject’s perspective. or central organising principles like Christianity. the “cool smile” of parodic. postmodernist and poststructuralist thought often overlooked that. however. He further posited that this performativity of information paid no heed to ethics and so required a fundamentally pluralistic form of knowledge legitimation – postmodernism – that might work in a manner akin to performativity. metaphysics. if not clearly defined. Knowledge and decision-making is for the most part no longer based on abstract principles. without recourse to metanarratives but also without the tendency toward a uniform totalisation of opinion.33 In championing the disparate. and revolution. of fragmentary moments. haphazardness. culture. suggests it might indeed be possible to hold a postmodern recognition and validation of multiple perspectives lightly together with the grand narratives it so often vociferously decried. Fictional narratives that employ metaphors of transcendence can be seen as an attempt to redress this imbalance by reintroducing metaphysics back into the popular imagination and. which “owes its emergence and preeminence to the computerisation of text… characterised in its purest instances by onwardness. where primary concepts of modernism are taken to their extreme conclusion in hyperconsumption and intense individualism. as this dissertation proposes. inspired by the “combination of technological automation and human autonomy.” or “human and machine into a single circuit of interactivity. evanescence. as we shall soon see. Just as it is endemic to the human condition to deconstruct systems (of thought. THE TRANSMODERN MOMENT A number of theorists have responded to Hutcheon’s call within their particular fields of enquiry. the postmodern also constitutes such a cohesive narrative. postmodern theory posited a coherent worldview that celebrated incoherency. Further. social and multiple authorship. That is. it is becoming clear that there may be a concomitant desire to reconstruct and reintegrate these systems into a cohesive narrative that can be easily comprehended. etc) to examine how they work. albeit one that champions a radical contradiction. the Self must at some point synthesise these moments into a sense of the whole for the organism to thrive. suggest a way to move towards a ‘restructuralism’ that is inclusive of basic metaphysical questions in a more informed manner rather than merely suspicious of them.34 ‘digimodernism’ (Alan Kirby). environment. proposing ‘hypermodernism’ (Gilles Lipovetsky). Paradoxically. and anonymous. 20 . It argues that the alleged experience of transcendence. acknowledging the relative values of each insight while yet drawing them together like a jigsaw into a holistic representation of culture that is more than the whole. (Robert Samuels). in attempting to formulate an approach to the inexplicable. Indeed. it holds that to do so is to become thoroughly transmodern.”35 and ‘automodernism.”36 What is particularly interesting for this thesis is that all three terms intimate a relationship between the post of postmodernism and new media or media technologies as the paradigmatic symbol of our times. self-sacrificing acts of the central characters and overarching authorial narratives in 1990s films such as American Beauty39 and Run.Other commentators highlight the return of a new Romanticism in art and literature. despite substantial evidence to the contrary.” 41 Eshelmen’s ‘performativism’ draws heavily on the work of Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels. who argue ‘theory’ represents an unacceptable attempt to take a position outside of interpretative practice without refining or improving it: [Theory] is the name for all the ways people have tried to stand outside practice in order to govern practice from without. much more. that theorists should stop trying. race from culture) and constructing that part into a continually receding. and that the theoretical enterprise should therefore come to an end. belief. surprising forms or through the return to an authentic origin. one that employs a voluntary pretence in identifying with or believing in a central organising principle. Raoul Eshelman revitalises the term ‘performativism’ as an antidote to postmodernism’s endless semantically loaded contexts.43 Knapp and Michaels. love. Our thesis has been that no one can reach a position outside practice. For instance. irreducible unit. unattainable other.42 Both “theory” and the ideology of cultural pluralism therefore work by disarticulating a part from a whole (the signifier from the interpretative act. simple whole acquires a potency that can almost only be defined in theological terms.” he claims this is not an “intensified search for meaning. Lola. dogma and much.38 He points to the heroic. Run40 as evidence of an almost divine reconstruction of the subject instead of a mere interplay of signs – “Godliness is everywhere where wholes are created by individual subjects. This closed. through the introduction of new. such as the sublime or god. and consequently Eshelman. but rather to preserve it: the subject is presented (or presents itself) as a holistic. For with it is created a refuge in which all those things are brought together that postmodernism and poststructuralism thought definitively dissolved: the telos. the author. Yet while he characterises ‘performativity’ as serving “neither to foreground or contextualize the subject. thus represent postmodernism’s disparate contexts as an exercise in the deconstruction of conceptual wholes to better understand their intricacies 21 .”37 He adds. and aesthetics that seemed to move past postmodernism's canon of critique into more intriguingly open areas of cultural inquiry and practice. innovative. culture.44 Remodernism perceived the potential of the modernist vision as yet unfulfilled – “It is futile to be ‘post’ something which has not even ‘been’ properly something in the first place” – and seeks to reclaim. and absurd in contemporary arts with a strong dose 22 . “The Remodernist's job is to bring God back into art… not as God was before. or a recontextualising of its deconstructive findings. as a term to describe emerging attitudes. which they claimed was cynical and spiritually bankrupt. Transmodernism. It is this return to meaning based on creative intention that also informs the term ‘neomodernism’ in art and architecture. a phase of modernism that celebrates the state of being in between. Billy Childish and Charles Thomson used the term ‘remodernism’ in a 1999 manifesto to suggest new moves to reintroduce spirituality into art. knowledge. appeared almost simultaneously in Europe and the US during the late 1980s and early 1990s.without a concomitant reconstruction into a larger holistic picture. He further characterises it as an attitude – first discernible in contemporary art – that champions uncertainty and openness in contrast to postmodern critique. and meaning. and redevelop the modernist vision by advocating a renewed search for truth. James Mahoney has likened defining transmodernism to the parable of six blind men and an elephant – each commentator appears to describe it according to their fields of inquiry and a sense of the whole has still to be formed. Self-proclaimed ‘Stuckists’ (the name being a response to a criticism that their work is mired in the past).45 Mahoney is one of the organisers of Baltimore’s Transmodern Festival – a celebration of the idiosyncratic. redefine. and the permeable membrane of culture: Transmodernism consists of the liminal – threshold conditions. the littoral – what washes up on the shores of culture from the other. and society and dislodge the predominance of postmodernism. US artist.” but rather as a transcendent force or ‘en theos’ (meaning to be possessed by God). radical.” stating that. and the singularity – something never seen before that is life changing. values. Childish and Thomson’s fourteen-point manifesto argues for a “…spiritual renaissance in art because there is nowhere else for art to go. You have to listen—you have to listen to what’s going on. Says Monica Mirabile. isolation. Installation.48 For example. Vitz has used the term ‘transmodernism’ as a paradigm shift that “transforms the modern and also transcends it. Paul C. and employment.of community and audience engagement. the visual and perceptual self. Sound. Featuring 22 room-stages and 55 performers interpreting themes of immigration and alienation. while both modernism and postmodernism failed to acknowledge the “objective validity of the self as rooted in the body” and the possibility of multiple kinds of Self. as well as the desire to engender a life-changing experience. A collaborative performance event at the 2011 Transmodern Festival entitled Rooms Play provides an example of Mahoney’s emergent transmodern aesthetic.47 Mirabile’s explicit connection of transmodernism with a life-changing transformation or transcendent experience is echoed in the work of a number of theologists and spiritual commentators using the notion of transmodernism to investigate the borders of spirituality and post-metaphysical culture. one of Rooms Play’s actors: It’s a journey for both parties… Last year. enacting Mahoney’s ‘threshold conditions’ as neither performers or audience can predict how the play’s narrative arc will unfold. The intent of the work of art is the singularity – both in the individual experience of the play by both audience member and actor. education. Ecstasy. to people’s reaction to the room. Small audience groups were given access to each room at six-minute intervals. The littoral is brought into play as each audience group subtly alters the performance according to relative energy and response. the performance suggests a new mode of interactivity and communal socio-political theatre. there was this really magical thing that happened with myself and the performance… My experience with each different individual that came through.50 He posits instead an emerging transmodern self that seeks to acknowledge a sense of meaning and purpose that 23 . And that was a really incredible thing to happen. And that’s going to happen every six minutes. Mayhem. Catholic scholar. having performed the same thing for three hours. and Radical Culture!” the festival attempts to revitalise the avant-garde impulse in the face of postmodernism’s commodification of culture. and through your listening the performance is going to change. including gender. So it’s this really intense social experience and experiment. Film.”49 He claims the modern self disregarded the necessity of interpersonal relationships by its emphasis on autonomy and separation. it changed every single time.46 Billed on the event’s website as “Four Days of Avant Performance. and the interpersonal self. the proprioceptive self. that is. and technological concerns (such as transhumanity).’ However. the familiar with the seemliness of the unfamiliar.’ ‘between. ontologically between (post) modernism. totality and fragmentation. moving forward “for the sake of moving.transcends the individual. Nevertheless. in the Greek. for the purpose of this dissertation. the ordinary with mystery.”52 One of the most cogent analyses of post-postmodernism to date. between hope and melancholy. Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker.”51 This self transforms modernist meaning that is.’ or ‘changing thoroughly.” Their employment of meta draws closest to this thesis’ use of the Latin trans as ‘across. Dutch scholars.” They see metamodernism emerging in the new romanticism of art and film. and the finite with the semblance of the infinite. attempts in spite of its inevitable failure. This “both-neither” dynamic also brings to mind the work of Spanish philosopher and feminist Rosa María Rodríguez Magda’s. unity and plurality. trans appears to better coalesce the various strands of post-postmodern theories from Lipovetsky to Vitz. purity and ambiguity” – in effect casting it as “at once modern and postmodern and neither of them” – they succinctly articulate the logic of the trans that this dissertation will pursue through its reading of narrative transcendence.’ ‘beyond. who does use the term ‘transmodernism’ to describe a continuation of the project of modernity that simultaneously acknowledges the lessons learned since that project began: 24 . use the term ‘metamodernism’ to describe a “structure of feeling” in aesthetics and theory characterised by “the oscillation between a typically modern commitment and a markedly postmodern detachment. where artists and writers re-signify rather than reappropriate past motifs and tropes. a search for a sense of wholeness and completeness with the full knowledge that such a thing can never exist. suggesting an interconnectivity that “rejects the twin delusions of absolute autonomy and cosmic meaninglessness that mark the present age. and historically beyond (post) modernism. re-signifying ‘‘the commonplace with significance. between naïveté and knowingness.’’ As such. of a higher. they identify the prefix meta as denoting. in part. ‘with. suggesting as it does both a reference to contemporaneous returns to theism or unity (in terms of transcendence and transformation). their vision of metamodernism oscillates perpetually between modernism and postmodernism.’ or ‘beyond:’ “… we contend that metamodernism should be situated epistemologically with (post) modernism. it seeks forever for a truth that it never expects to find. transcendent nature. Vermeulen and van den Akker argue that such works of art reinvest meaning where postmodernism has told us there is none.’ ‘through. empathy and apathy. when Vermeulen and van den Akker see metamodernism’s oscillation “between a modern enthusiasm and a postmodern irony. and this gives us the notion of pragmatism. perhaps even the most ingenuous but also the most universal… Transmodernity is the return. the museum display of reason. we were eager in the end to abandon the putrefaction of the flesh and prepared ourselves to become mere images of ourselves. non-universal but universalisable public values which find their sphere not in intuition. the Absolute. and experience. and reconstruction.’ Transmodernity is a fiction: our reality.. eclecticism both mean and angelical. subject. self.Transmodernity prolongs. reality. and transmodernity form. Where modernity and postmodernity negate theology or metaphysics. continues and transcends Modernity.53 Modernity. not forgetting history which has died to avoid ending up in barbaric cybernetic or mass media domestication. approximate entities in a virtual landscape. the copy… It is both transcendental and apparential. and synthesis in Hegelian terms. but meanwhile it remembers that art has had. truth – while at the same time accepting their history of instability: We have weakened their gnoseological vigour but not the logical and social need for them. Such regulatory ideals represent operational simulations legitimised by rational perfectibility. culture.” Transmodernism. transmodernism welcomes their ironic re-insertion into contemporary philosophical thought. an overlapping ‘dialectic triad’ that equates to a perpetually renewing process of thesis. an effect of denunciation and experimentalism. antithesis.. It is the return of some of its lines and ideas. and has. common 25 . Postmodern theory’s celebration of the mass conceptual extinction of god. and history is characterised by Magda as the “apotheosis of the carnivalesque… dances of death. is represented as an ironic reconstruction of theory. by contrast. not everything goes (italics added). for Magda. copying and selling them. one that both celebrates the return of those narratives postmodernism rejects – metaphysics. deconstruction. postmodernity. Transmodernity is postmodernity without its innocent rupturism. which criticism and consensus constantly renew. Pretending to celebrate the continuous glory of the body. Transmodernity takes up and recovers the vanguards. that is. the copy that supplants the model. She tracks the decline of modernity and postmodernity as almost organic events – an inevitable process of theoretical construction. and is voluntarily syncretic in its ‘multichrony. then. and colonizer of an alterity that was likewise constitutive of modernity. with the emergence of the dialectic of Enlightenment and the project of modernity.”54 Magda’s work relies on Enrique Dussel’s notion of transmodernity as a methodology by which one might overcome the hegemonic domination of ‘the West’ over ‘the Rest’ begun. non-identity. from the revelation of the 26 . and Heidegger’s respective interests in anti-egocentrism. rather advocating a “mode of reasoning and interacting” that refuses to “’sublate’ the self/other relation in a higher synthesis (which would incorporate and totalize the Other and thereby negate the Other’s otherness). from the Other’s word. and self-transcendence and seeks a way around the confrontation between Europe and its Other that he sees is the foundation for modernism: “by controlling. “ideological propositions do not go away simply because people cease to take them seriously.”56 He calls this mode of reasoning ‘analectical. paraphrasing Slavov Žižek. Europe defined itself as discoverer. Rather than condemn them out of hand. Adorno.”55 Of interest to this thesis is Dussel’s refusal to offer a dialectical synthesis of West and Other a la Hegel. not to replace one type of oppression for another by merely liberating the excluded. such an approach both acknowledges the continued mass appeal of metaphysical questions and concepts (despite concerted postmodern efforts to bring them into disrepute) and seeks to integrate their conceptual force into a better understanding of what subjects want.’ and is committed to maintaining a dialogue that consciously acknowledges the breach between Self and Other. As Joseph Tabbi has noted.sense or tradition but in the theoretical effort to create conceptual paradigms that will help increase social and individual wellbeing. he argues. as one beyond the system of totality. Dussel’s ‘philosophy of liberation’ itself draws upon Levinas. any such re-evaluation must necessarily take into account both the knowledge gained from modernist and postmodernist perspectives concerning metaphysical fallibility – those ‘liberatory fantasies’ metaphysics so readily promotes – and weigh them alongside its ability to offer a genuine sense of reassurance to a wider public. conquering. As Magda suggests. however. and violating the Other. Metaphysics is therefore a positive social project that is ripe for re-evaluation in our transmodern era. but also to liberate the oppressor from the desire to oppress: The dia-lectic method is the path that the totality realises within itself… What we are discussing now is a method (or the explicit domain of the conditions of possibility) which begins from the Other as free. conquistador. which begins. trusting the Other’s word. Vermeulen and van den Akker) detours around (or between) postmodernism’s celebration of surface. interconnectivity. serves. as yet. community.60 Theoretical 27 . works. It is clear a new critical impulse is emerging across multiple disciplines.nor pre. Just over two decades since the term was first suggested. while also seeking a transcendence of that project. Transmodernism seems to be the emerging term that loosely describes this impulse. neither uniform nor concrete. simulacra.’ for Dussel. theological (Vitz. a number of ‘transmodern flavours’ have emerged.Other. Sardar. political (Dussel. and sustainability. For artists seeking theoretical (Magda). Theologists and spiritual commentators from multiple faith systems are using the term ‘transmodernism’ to push the boundaries of what constitutes faith and religion in a post-millennial age that has ostensibly moved past postmodernism’s rejection of metaphysics.”58 His ‘liberation philosophy’ therefore wants to preserve the “rational emancipatory nucleus” of modernity in order to transcend modernity itself: “Our project of liberation can be neither anti. His analectical approach offers an invaluable tool to articulate the possibility of recognising and preserving the commensurate parts of the theoretical whole that constitutes the project of modernity. transmodernism appears to be a way of ‘re-enchanting’ discourse with a sense of emancipation through shared experience.”59 ‘Transmodern. resulting in lines of flight away from modernist/postmodernist debates that are. Sardar). while simultaneously affirming “the emancipative tendencies of the enlightenment and modernity within a new transmodernity. pastiche. Wilber). denotes a transcendence of modernity that preserves what has been transcended to celebrate Self and Otherness as equally as it welcomes a new condition of being that goes beyond both. and which. The Transmodern Festival specifically seeks to playfully recapture a spirit of the avant-garde in new modes of socio-political performance that seeks to break down the art/life dichotomy and inspire transformation via the experience of art. and meaninglessness. and creates. as described by Lefebvre and Habermas.nor post-modern.”57 Dussel’s analectical reason therefore seeks to criticise the “irrational sacrificial myth of modernity” inherent in a Eurocentric sacrifice of the old world on the altar of the new. They argue transmodernism represents a revitalisation of meaning and purpose that transcends individual subjectivity and suggests a new interconnectivity that seeks a synthesis between a flexible “life enhancing tradition” and a new phase of modernity that respects the values and lifestyles of traditional cultures. labours. or aesthetic (Mahoney. but instead must be transmodern. Transmodernism is the realisation that this fluid shift is an integral part of being-in-the-world. but rather the process of inhabiting the space of that transformation – to live. it argues that the spectre of transmodernity is evoked in an ironic integration of past and future to allow creation of the 28 . a condition of absolute possibility.discussion of an emerging transmodernity seems to focus on its oscillation between modernism and postmodernism. but synthesises them into a new attitude towards culture and sociopolitics that herald the ironic return of those “gnoseological” narratives that “increase social and individual wellbeing. this thesis also suggests that an emerging transmodern moment does not represent the transcendence of modernity or indeed postmodernity. and recognise the dis-closure of modernity as a condition of infinite possibility that includes the eternal return of absolutes. and that concepts once relegated to the margins of culture can be wittingly brought back to the centre of discourse to be reappraised without falling prey to homogenization and generalization. to some extent. metaphysics. inhabiting the space of both/neither. transmodernism takes up some of the themes and lines of enquiry posited by what has gone before. most notably in depictions of the moment of technological transcendence. use their once subversive power to revitalize cultural discourse. ontological enquiry. changing it thoroughly in the process. Magda’s process of thesis (modernism). and synthesis (transmodernism) appears key here. Like Dussel. and online culture to demonstrate that the seeds of transmodern thought have often been already inscribed in both modernism and postmodernism. and spiritual metaphors – to critical enquiry. think. As such. This thesis further applies Dussel’s analectical mode of reasoning to provide a pragmatic outline of how the transmodern emerges organically from the postmodern. linking diverse readings from art. between. It suggests knowledge is a complex tapestry of signification. but both… and. antithesis (postmodernism). this thesis argues that the new transmodern turn provides an opportunity to ironically return modernism and postmodernism’s disavowed others – specifically a notion transcendence. and by doing so. By illustrating that these depictions of the very pinnacle of modern and postmodern cultures – the technological realm – encompass both the science of reason and the secular sacred. In her construction of the term. The transmodern contains the postmodern and is itself part of the modern – while a categorical shift seems to be occurring there is no doubt that it is fluid. not either/or. film. transmodernity works across.” Following Magda. It is to succumb to the notion that our existence is neither modern nor postmodern. Like Vermeulen and van den Akker. neither. it works rhizomatically rather than in a linear fashion. as the shift between modernisms and postmodernisms were and is fluid. literature. and through postmodernism. This dissertation proposes a term to describe such narratives – technospiritual – and seeks to establish a critical archaeology of the technospiritual in technocultural art. as it does. Technological transformation is therefore equated to a spiritual transformation of the self.”62 There can be no doubt technospiritual accounts of transcendence and technology fall into this category of liberatory fantasy. 29 . while recognising the very real political impacts of technology as a means to “perpetuate capitalist means of production and accumulation. The term ‘technoculture’ was popularised in 1991 by Constance Penley and Andrew Ross to articulate the politics and interactions between technology and culture. ‘technospirituality’ describes a particular kind of narrative interplay between the concepts of change and changelessness. T E C H N O L O G I C A L M Y S T I C I S M A N D T E C H N O S P I R I T U A L N A R R AT I V E S Where evoking a concept of transcendence has long been out of favour in both theoretical and scientific discourse – intimating. However. Despite focusing on the idea of “technology-as-social-control” and existing rather than imagined technological advances and their effects on society. it describes the interconnection between technological change and images of the eternally constant (in a spiritual sense) in technoculture. leading to the confluence of the machine with mysticism. their book of essays. half-machine cyborgs as the next step on the evolutionary ladder towards absolute perfection (aka godhood). Technoculture. a mystical return to age-old religious myths and mores – many popular fiction and film narratives return again and again to metaphors of transcendence.new. where the proliferation of technological invention forms the basis for new secular religions that either recast humans (or more specifically artists. scientists. fiction. In other words. and film. or hackers) as the godlike creators of intelligent machines or celebrates half-human.61 For the purpose of this thesis. most particularly in fictions of the future and science fiction – a genre assumed to be more usually concerned with material speculation on imagined technological futures and the unwavering triumph of the new. It has remained influential over two decades of cultural enquiry into the way we are affected by new technologies. It will show that modernity’s inability to adequately account for constant technological change has resulted in a mirroring of the linguistic urge to define the transcendent experience found in accounts of religious ecstasy and mystic fervour. acknowledged that “the kinds of liberatory fantasies that surround new technologies are a powerful and persuasive means of social agency and that their source to some extent lies in real popular needs and desires. it will claim.”64 If cyberpunk author. So what is transcendence? Firstly. social fragmentation. That is. centuries of religious narratives pursuing a similar quest. questions about transhumanity are becoming increasingly urgent. the technospiritual imaginary in science fiction narratives also draws attention to “dissatisfactions with social reality and desires for a better society. To do so. the international division of labour. transhumanity. transgender.” and projects them “onto technologies as capable of delivering a potential realm of completeness. and the rationalisation of nature. colonising.65 As Martin Lister has noted of new media and technologies. in which we are culturally invested in the creation of both transformational technologies and transcendent machines. is a locus for cultural trends concerning technology and the new. N.”66 It is this urge to write technology as the crucial component of a future perfection that is of most interest to this dissertation. and even transportation: “As we accelerate into the new millennium. transformation.63 Further. it draws evidence to determine how these examples of technological transcendence can offer us suggestions about how postmodernism might be transcended. is to begin transforming postmodernism into transmodernism. Nowhere are these questions explored more passionately than in contemporary science fiction. a significant source of technospiritual myths.” this thesis consciously examines how and why the intersections between transcendence and technology inspire such compelling myths in contemporary culture. where even much science fiction seems passé by its release date – then we are also living in a technospiritual world. the policing of bodies. it is the genre that predominately employs the trans or the beyond of normative culture. Katherine Hayles has argued that science fiction.the expropriation of cultural and technical skills. It seeks to balance postmodernism’s recognition and validation of heterogeneity with a commensurate need to lightly draw together multiplicities into a holistic representation of culture that is more than simply the sum of its parts. is correct when he claims that we have grown up in a science fictional world – a world where technology moves faster than literary imagination. as we shall see. it must be acknowledged that any discussion of the term is always a risky proposition. This thesis sees technospiritual fictions as barometers of social and cultural change. particularly as the history of philosophy since Plato can 30 . a paradigm shift that takes pleasure in the transcendent process while ironically acknowledging the impossibility of ever achieving our desires for perfect knowledge or embodiment. reflecting on contemporaneous social and cultural mores while at the same time evincing the power to rework and amend them. including themes of transcendence. Bruce Sterling. perhaps best be understood as a regular stoush over the promotion or repudiation of the concept. Such repudiations were never more vociferous than during the decades of postmodern theory, which, in reducing culture to text, generally argued that transcendental signifieds (regardless of whether we are talking about god, the logos, or the author), cannot play a role in discourse, because introducing them only produces further texts for us to interpret and therefore leads us further from signification or meaning. However, this thesis will argue that the resurgence of transcendental metaphors in technospiritual literature indicates an irrepressible longing for the unknown that lies at the margins of postmodernist and poststructuralist theories, which may indeed act as a signpost for the post of postmodernism, allowing us to integrate the theoretical lessons learned over the last forty years and perhaps suggest new theoretical modes of interrogating culture. Notoriously a slippery subject, the concept of transcendence occupies a liminal space at the limits of knowledge and language, because it is often characterised as an experience that is trans thought, and therefore beyond words. A traditional philosophical definition states transcendence begins when ‘the Self’ is penetrated by a supra-enlivened ‘Other,’ whether that other be a king, a god, nature, logos, the law, or an abstracted life force. Traditionally, then, in transcendence the Self is claimed as the instrument and voice of the Other. Even further, transcendence opens up the Self to a state of radical Otherness, the experience of which appears to dramatically shift the Self’s perspectives because it introduces concepts outside normative understanding that must then be reintegrated into the Self. Mystical descriptions of transcendence are always vertical in nature, as MerleauPonty suggests; that is, they portray the transportation of the subject’s consciousness or perception ‘upwards’ (in religious literature literally towards heaven), joining time to eternity and constituting a radical shift in perception and understanding.67 Transcendence, however, can also be horizontal; that is, the term can be used to denote the movement from past to present to future, from one central organising principle to another, for instance in the case of the Enlightenment’s progression from a feudal religious culture to one orbiting the twin theories of science and reason or, indeed, the move from postmodernism to transmodernism. Both vertical and horizontal transcendence indicate a change for the better – the subject, society, or culture that experiences a transcendent moment of either kind is portrayed as having improved the conditions of its being. Yet while horizontal transcendence assumes a dynamic and transitory status suggesting that consecutive transcendent moments will continually occur as an integral feature of progress, vertical transcendence is often depicted as a single awe-inspiring (or in some 31 cases a finite series) of events, from which the subject/society emerges utterly changed in an instant. In a nutshell, horizontal transcendence is a social project equating to the logic of change, while vertical transcendence is an interior or spiritual experience equating to the logic of changelessness. The distinction is a fine one, but important – for it is these two definitions of transcendence that are often interchanged in technospiritual narratives, leading to a conflation of religious and technological metaphors. Vertical transcendence has been called many names by many cultures over the centuries, according to the context in which it is experienced – thus in ancient Greek it is gnosis, in early Christian theology it is grace, in the Kabbalah it is Yehidah, or a mystical union with Ein Sof (nothingness), and in Zen it is kensho, which in propelling consciousness through the gateless gate leads to the more permanent state of satori.68 The Sufis have three words for it, to demonstrate levels or depths of experience: faqr or inner emptiness, which leads to fana or non-being and ultimately to baka, an altered state of being. Buddhists call it bodhi, Awakening, or nirvana, in the Upanishads it is moksha, for the Romantics it was the Sublime, and the mystic, Sri Ramana Maharshi characterised it as simply THAT. Neurotheology, or the neurology of religious experience, suggests the euphoria that accompanies what we call transcendence may be the result of a temporal lobe epilepsy or an exacerbated release of serotonin that creates permanent, positive changes to individual psychology.69 Such neurological experiences also instigate hypergraphia, the compulsion to express oneself at length through writing or drawing, suggesting a causal link to proliferate cultural production on the subject of transcendence. Contemporary commentators might also call transcendence a peak experience, a profound epiphany, the emergence of the uncanny, or the mystery of the ineffable that often leads to a feeling of religiosity or spiritual belief in the interconnectedness of all things. If, as Marx wrote, religion is the opiate of the masses, then the experience of vertical transcendence is the inside dope. As an example, here is psychologist, Richard M. Bucke (a devotee of Walt Whitman whom he claimed had also experienced a similar transcendence), writing of his transcendental experience in 1901: All at once, without warning of any kind, he found himself wrapped around as it were by a flame coloured cloud… the next he knew that the light was within himself. Directly afterwards came upon him a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination quite impossible to describe… Among other things he did not come to believe, he saw and knew that the Cosmos is not dead 32 matter but a living Presence, that the soul of man is immortal, that the universe is so built and ordered that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all, that the foundation principle of the world is what we call love and that the happiness of every one is in the long run absolutely certain. He claims he learned more within the few seconds during which the illumination lasted than in any previous months or even years of study, and that he learned much that no study could ever have taught. The illumination itself continued not more than a few moments but its effects proved ineffaceable; it was impossible for him ever to forget what he at that time saw and knew; neither did he, or could he, ever doubt the truth of what was then presented to his mind. There was no return that night or at any other time of the experience (italics added). 70 This passage is fairly representative of a great many accounts of transcendence in literary and religious texts, following the basic formula of witnessing an intense light which is then seen as emanating from within (hence the term ‘enlightenment’), experiencing an overpowering sense of bliss or compassion, followed by sudden awareness and insight and finally leading to a belief in a profound integration of the universe and the right order of things. Note Bucke’s recounting of the event in the third person, suggesting a transportation outside the bounds of the temporal Self. Following his experience, which he termed ‘Cosmic Consciousness,’ Bucke felt compelled to seek like-minded others and record their own experiences of transcendence. Here he quotes what he claims is Walt Whitman’s expression of the transcendent moment: I should say, indeed, that only in the perfect uncontamination and solitariness of individuality may the spirituality of religion positively come forth at all. Only here, and on such terms, the meditation, the devout ecstasy, the soaring flight. Only here communion with the mysteries, the eternal problems, whence? whither? Alone and identity and the mood and the soul emerges, and all statements, churches, sermons, melt away like vapours. Alone, and silent thought, and awe, and aspiration – and then the interior consciousness, like a hitherto unseen inscription, in magic ink, beams out its wondrous lines to the sense. Bibles may convey and priests expound, but it is exclusively for the noiseless operation of one’s isolated 33 Self to enter the pure ether of veneration, reach the divine levels, and commune with the unutterable.”71 The concept of vertical transcendence is unutterable precisely because it is an experience of being rather than becoming and therefore removes the Self from its normative linear historicity by embedding it in an experience of the pure phenomenological present. As Bucke, Whitman, and others represent it, the experience is both the literal ground of religious experience, and beyond it. The multitude of terms used to describe transcendence and the reams of literature it has inspired are an attempt, however unsuccessfully, to capture, contain, and comprehend this experience, which by all accounts, is a deeply felt phenomenological and life-changing encounter with Otherness that is literally unspeakable. As Lao Tzu wrote in the Tao Te Ching: “One who knows, speaks not; one who speaks, knows not,” or as Wittgenstein, alluding to his own mystical experiences in the Tractatus, claimed: “Whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.”72 Recalling the link between the transcendent experience and hypergraphia, Michel de Certeau has written that a mystic is, nevertheless, driven to “speak of what can neither be said nor known.”73 Mysticism for de Certeau is therefore a social project, characterised by the desire to communicate what has been discovered to a larger audience: “Mystical language is a social language. Consequently, each ‘enlightened one’ is brought back to the group, borne towards the future, inscribed within a certain history. For the mystic, to ‘prepare a place’ for the Other is to prepare a place for others:”74 The event imposes itself. In a very real sense, it alienates. It pertains to the same order as ecstasy: that is, to that which transports one outside oneself. It expels one from the self instead of gathering one to it. But it has the characteristic of opening up a space that the mystic can no longer live without. Indissociable from the assent that is its criterion, such a ‘birth’ draws from man a truth that is his without coming from him or belonging to him. Thus, he is ‘outside himself’ at the very moment that a Self is asserted.75 The concept of transcendence therefore highlights the problem of translatability between experience (based on the senses), thought (as the formation of conceptual meaning), and language (as the expression of that meaning). Indeed, it could be argued that the expression of transcendence is one model for Derrida’s “floating signifier,” just as terms like Zen’s gateless gate attempt to point to something that ultimately can have no 34 meaning without direct knowledge of the experience of transcendence itself.76 The slippage between the experience of transcendence and the attempt to translate that experience into language therefore creates a gap of signification, into which flows the endless possibilities of interpretation. It spawns a relentless desire to give expression to ‘the new.’ WRITING TECHNOLOGIES AND TRANSCENDENCE The concept of writing, or rather writing technologies, offers a starting point for an investigation of technology and transcendence. Ann Weinstone posits that writing is even further removed from signification than thought or speech because it contaminates originary meaning – literally killing the father (read: god or logos) because it substitutes a nonliving representation for his living speech. Therefore, writing enables the writer to assume transcendent powers by representing the authoritative speech of the father.77 The writer literally channels the voice of the Other, becoming a deus ex machina, God in the machine, or in this case, God speaking through the ‘machinery’ of the Self. Further, in taking on the voice of the Other, the writer attempts to become one with the Other, to usurp the Other’s elocutionary force. Writing, then, is a revolutionary act that in consuming the Other transforms the Self, because writing allows the writer to both abstract and mirror the Self, projecting it upon an outside that is really only an inside, because the act of writing is really a private affair that enables an ever more minute and introspective dialogue with one’s own consciousness. Writing is, therefore, first and foremost, an act of autocreation where, in creating a simulacrum of the voice of the transcendent Other, the author is then able to produce his/her Self as both creator and creation simultaneously. Writing, as the most commonplace of information technologies, therefore speaks to our desire to merge with the transcendent Other and, in doing so, wrest the power of creation from that Other for ourselves. But if writing is a machine, an utterly technological tale, as Erik Davis has suggested, and one that has an intimate relationship with the experience of transcendence, then it would also follow that our contemporary relationship to the increasingly complex information technologies we create is also intimately connected to a concept of transcendence.78 It should come as no surprise, then, that transcendent metaphors are particularly rife in science fiction – a genre that lends itself to narratives of other-worldliness and the experience of radical otherness. In many ways, science fiction is the literature of limits, 35 imagining the future transformation of human consciousness as it collides with otherness, whether that other is an alien race, robots, virtual realities, or biogenetics. In scrambling to find words to describe the beyond of normative experience, the history of the genre is littered with mystical metaphors and transcendent moments. For example, the narrator in Olaf Stapledon’s influential 1937 novel, Star Maker, is suddenly transported from a suburban hill into the cosmos in search of the infinite, which he discovers at his journey’s end in the figure of the Star Maker, “the creative mode that had given rise to me, the cosmos, and also, most dreadfully... something incomparably greater than creativity, namely as the eternally achieved perfection of the absolute spirit.”79 Stapledon’s narrator comes face to face with the unutterable Other and is struck dumb: …I, in the supreme moment of my cosmical experience emerged from the mist of my finitude to be confronted by… the light itself that not only illuminates but gives life to all… that strange vision, inconceivable to my finite mind, even of a cosmical stature, I cannot possibly describe… Though human language and even human thought itself are perhaps in their very nature incapable of metaphysical truth, something I must somehow contrive to express, even only by metaphor.80 Similarly, David Selig, the telepath who, having spent his life dipping into the thoughts of others, begins to lose his grip on his talent in Robert Silverberg’s 1972 Dying Inside, experiences the ecstasy of enlightenment second hand when he slips into the mind of a mystic: Schiele stands in the rich soil of his fields, leaning on his hoe, feet firmly planted, communing with the universe. God floods his soul. He touches the unity of all things. Sky, trees, earth, sun, plants, brook, insects, birds – everything is one, part of a seamless whole, and Schiele resonates in perfect harmony with it… The world is a mighty hymn.81 More recently, in Michael Marshall Smith’s post-cyberpunk novel, One of Us, anti-hero Hap Thompson is a hip, matter-of-fact, small time crook overwhelmed by forces beyond his knowledge or control. Visited by god in a nice suit flanked by mafia-type angel bodyguards, Hap’s consciousness tips into a vertically transcendent experience of his link to Otherness when the divine businessman claims him as his own: 36 This small movement was enough to realign the spheres. to remember almost everything about us. What I had believed to be there in front of me was revealed as merely noise and interference.83 This proposed progeny of technological genius represent a virtual genetics. not even really knowing what I meant. even. ‘Back in the small guy again. imagined immortality without the vagaries of degenerative flesh.’82 Science fiction also has a role to play in horizontal transcendence as the sciences are sometimes encouraged by the genre’s wild imaginings in the creation of new technologies – William Gibson’s famous characterisation of cyberspace in Neuromancer is often cited as a literary precursor to the Internet. We humans will benefit for a time from their labours. and just being left with pure intelligence. It was like having every memory taken out of your head. silently fade away. as is Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash credited with inspiring online worlds like Second Life – and scientific texts can also sometimes read like science fiction. ‘Oh. like natural children. Everything came into a different conjunction.’ I thought to myself. the world I believed to be solid. like suddenly seeing a solution.The world I could see. Hans Moravec. seemed to slowly turn through two degrees. Moravec sees us as finally accepting the inevitable colonisation of our bodies by machines: for him merging with the machine is the first step towards a 37 . the detailed workings of individual minds. they will seek their own fortunes while we. who argues that organic humanity has no future but that the artificial beings we are destined to create will replace us as our ‘mind children:’ Unleashed from the plodding pace of biological evolution. like being caught at the centre of a web of coincidence and seeing the true fabric of reality for a moment… Then. perhaps. the children of our minds will be free to grow to confront immense and fundamental challenges in the larger universe. particularly when describing radical breakthroughs. artificially constructed thoughts without bodies. their aged parents. just like that… the spheres swung back into their usual alignment. and to their benefit. but sooner or later. A rather extreme case in point can be found in the work of renowned robotics expert and extropian. and realizing it had been there all the time. Very little need be lost in the passing of the torch – it will be in our artificial offspring’s power. the early Gnostics’ quest for knowledge represented a desire for transcendence of the finite limits of human matter in favour of an incorporeal state of infinite understanding. be in the womb. The following is a quote from the Corpus Hermetica. Its premise resides in the belief that all technological progress is aimed at the perfection of being. part of the Gnostic Nag Hammadi library that equates the amassing of information to connecting with the divine: Having considered that nothing is impossible to you. technological. In order to free them from their materiality. and social progress. Taking the Socratic maxim to “know thyself” to heart. all art. Moravec’s take on the future argues for the destruction of an outmoded human organicism in favour of the transformation of every human mind into a divine. consider yourself immortal and able to understand everything. Therefore. dry and wet. In eating of the fruit of knowledge. of fire and water. who sought to ensnare humanity in the realm of the purely material and hide from Adam and Eve their true nature as beings of divine spirit. become gods themselves. dead. an early form of Christian mysticism. 38 . Moravec’s ‘mind children’ perfectly encapsulate a desire for the transformation once promised by the mystic religions. thus liberating them from the chains of their corporeal ignorance. old. and be everywhere at once. ephemeral consciousness – in short. and all brain. the temper of every living thing… Collect in yourself all the sensations of what has been made. through ultimate knowing. seeing the garden of Eden as a kind of virtual reality produced by a trickster god. It particularly recalls the spiritual desires of Gnosticism. Jesus disguised as the serpent entered the garden and offered them the knowledge necessary to reveal their divine essence (the Gnostic version of the transcendent experience). be young. The Gnostics read the Genesis myth against the grain. on land. which held a similar contempt for flesh. all learning. Moravec’s annihilation of organicism nevertheless holds onto humanity’s central role in narratives of the future: as creators of the ultimate machines we must ensure they not only hold a cultural memory of our existence but absolutely know us all as separate entities. no strain. in heaven.transcendent future. to appoint each one of us as gods. in the sea. guaranteeing the immortality of each individual human Self. scientific rationalist view of human. transmutated into a secular. Transhuman narratives like Moravec’s mirror Nietzschean theory by predicting an overman that achieves its superiority over organicism through technological augmentation – a future that is no pain. be not yet born. Adam and Eve were free to begin the Gnostic quest of unearthing the spark of the divine within through the pursuit of infinite knowledge and. Extropian transcendence. Even more important. quantities as well as qualities. For instance. The extropian notion of perfection through divesting the meat in favour of the metal. magical. and intellectual labour – in a word. we will be magically infused with a new spirit of understanding. information as well as wisdom. the mind that knows and understands the things of this world.86 Moravec’s vision of the future therefore links horizontal transcendence with the forces of production and consumption in an endlessly referential 39 . And when you have understood all these at once – times. a new way of being that sheds degenerative flesh and allows our minds to be free. places.’ the Gnostic mystic is encouraged to keep loading the mind up. Rather than merge with: … the great ineffable oneness. the Gnostic must expand the conceptual and empirical mind. discourses of transhumanity offer hope that. qualities.84 As Erik Davis has noted. which is largely an emptying of the obsessions of what is called the ‘monkey mind. this elucidation of the Gnostic process of transcending into god penetrates to the subtlest spheres of metaphysical consciousness – and is replicated across the mystical traditions. this cognitive ecstasy is not characterized as something that happens to the aspirant through God’s infinite grace. But unlike the Zen quest for transcendence. however.85 Similarly. but to know what God knows. Gnosis enables the mystic not only to know God. seeks to bypass all that pesky introspection of the Self in one giant technological leap by having our ‘mind children’ do all the hard work for us. unlike Gnosticism or the kind of transcendence characterised by Bucke. it seeks a state of perpetual becoming and renewal – in other words. but as a feat that the aspirant produces through his own mystical. things. in the act of passing the baton to our mechanical doppelgangers. it follows that Moravec’s mind children must also seek to continually upgrade – as ‘perfect’ cyborgs they will of course have the ability to consume new technologies at an accelerated rate. quantities – then you can understand god. in tapping into notions of late capitalist technological progress. As technological progress evolves. it seeks a horizontal transcendence.beyond death. has no endgame – rather. technologically advanced Others in order to preserve their state of transcendent perfection. constantly merging their being with new. the Gnostic call to “be not yet born” suggests the Zen koan that asks us to recall our original face before our parents were born. self-divinization. The notion of transcendence therefore provides a reservoir for aesthetic.cycle that preserves the technological status quo and envisions a future that is made and re-made. By reading technospirituality alongside Bataille’s theories of eroticism. However. in the case of Moravec’s vision.”88 Desire urges us to discorporate ourselves into communality. the culmination of all our desires for a transcendence of the everyday. Desire is the perilous crossing of that sea.” where console cowboys insert their consciousness into the computer to surf the wave of information represented as code. and so forth) the transcendent moment both articulates an ancient desire for transformation and provides an abundant creative locus from which the radically new emerges. social. the logic of perpetual technological change is always infused with desire. a further dimension to our increasing desire for technology is revealed. resulting in a proliferation of technophilic dreams where corporeality is exchanged for a state of pure knowledge – most notably in Gibson’s “consensual hallucination of cyberspace..90 While highlighting the relationship between being and finitude. In postulating the machine bodies of the future. 40 . or between one’s sense of Self and one’s limit. to fundamentally merge with the Other and.. philosophy. Similarly. transform ourselves into a state of otherness. organic from inorganic. Both the prospect of the highly advanced machine and the utopia such a machine might inhabit constructs the future as the place outside. Another dimension to the linking of desire and transcendence of significance to this thesis can be seen in Michel Foucault’s argument that desire is intimately linked to both transgression and power. This longing for otherness therefore produces technophilic narratives at an increasing rate. the future human/machine is constructed as the fetishised Other. representing the beyond (of culture. The ultimate confrontation between flesh and metal intimated by extropian narratives therefore reveal a subtext of capitulation and transgression of normative states of being that replicate the discourse of eroticism. the denial of our individual lives. connected yet separated by a sea of death. and political energy. moment-to-moment – a world of perpetual change. It opens the way out of isolation by exposing us to “death . Georges Bataille tells us the significance of eroticism is that it allows a transgression of the most fundamental taboo. at the same time identifying that Other as a limit to be transgressed. beyond individual existence. science. as ecstatic experiences often prove addictive. in doing so. we project onto them our desire for that which we are not. that separating life from death or.89 The desiring subject defines itself in relation to an Other.87 Individual existence for Bataille is a state of separation and isolation: we are islands. that is. We can therefore read the predominance of technospirituality in contemporary culture as a complex interplay between desire. like Stapledon’s omniscient Star Maker. in essence.’ If successful transcendence of personal subjectivity requires a violation of the boundaries between Self and Other. or to become ‘more’ than one’s Self like Marshall Smith’s transitioning from the ‘big’ to the ‘small guy.the desire to incorporate that which is alien to us seeks. Foucault sees this exchange as a discourse of power. then difference between subjects is necessarily compromised. In technospiritual narratives this transgressive and homogenising desire is often translated as the pursuit of godhood. to exceed subjective boundaries in favour of a utopian transformation into Otherness. in doing so. 41 . too. At the turn of the second millennium the postmodern beyond was beginning to be theorised. or into transmodernity. then Web 2. diffusing or even excising its existence. vertical transcendence as a spiritual quest. If the automobile and aeroplane motivated a modernist transformation of culture and the computer a postmodernist rewriting of modernism. This thesis sees the rate of technological progress as inextricably linked to an increased need for both vertical and horizontal transcendence. Such a move suggests the desiring subject imagines a potentially positive progression from a limited entity to the transcendence of normative states of being. Hardwired to seek otherness by millennia of religious ritual. a yearning to expunge the perceived gap between the divine and the normative with the aid of each new technological advance. remake the Other in our own image. the pursuit of perfection. causing paradigm shifts on a global scale as old traditions are replaced with new opportunities to transgress normative states.0 and online social media technologies are inspiring a further leap in perspective based on increased interconnectivity and synthesis – a leap into the trans. humanity has displaced its need to transgress and contain otherness onto the technology it creates. which then comes to symbolise both its worthiness as successor to god and the ‘vehicle’ by which its drive for transcendent perfection is effected. we seek to become Other and. does the timeframe between paradigm shifts begin to contract. vertical transcendence inspires horizontal transcendence. The twentieth century saw the emergence of two major paradigms – modernism and postmodernism. In desiring the Other. the subject simultaneously attempts to break down the Other’s borders. towards a state of perfection. desire to incorporate the Other effectively entails a simultaneous desire to progress. Not content to merely merge with otherness. Socio-cultural change is a by-product of this desire. and horizontal transcendence as a socially progressive project. As the rate of technological change gathers momentum so. In other words. It argues that despite years of academic derision that has only recently begun to wane in the face of emerging links between their work and Internet culture. film. it errs on the side of synthesis instead of antithesis. The movement’s position at the very brink of a massive global change in transportation and communications technologies narrated the early transition of petit bourgeois culture (saturated by a fascination for secular spiritualism and occult symbolism) to a twentiethcentury global infomatic society intrigued by the possibility of technological transcendence. and specifically Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Futurist manifestoes. Technospirituality also denotes a resurgence of early mystical beliefs revised for the information age. but rather to argue for an integration of both kinds of thinking into a network of connected meaning that. and online culture. literature. Revolutionary Aesthetics: Transcendence in Early 20th Century Technoculture – begins by rereading the work of the Italian Futurists. It also identifies that in embracing the always already new and thus resisting all closure in favour of the future. pop culture. which it holds provides early examples of technospirituality in its mania for transcendent machine-becomings. Marinetti and the Futurists performed a pivotal role in assisting modern culture to negotiate. then. like the accounts of transcendence it examines and its model of the transmodern. a lexicon that re-emerges in contemporary technospiritual fictions. and online texts concerning technological change employed as a means of reading the manifestation of sacred power in the secular world as a transmodern project. rather. Futurist art and literature provided a signpost to the transmodern era. is an archaeology of mystical transcendence in modernist and postmodernist literature. not to suggest an unthinking renewal of absolutes. in which the computer and the World Wide Web 42 . on inclusionary tactics rather than exclusionary politics. Its intellectual thrust is not anti-postmodernist. it claims. The chapter therefore examines the early Futurist movement for clues as to how and why technology and transcendence have been synthesised into technospiritual metaphors that retain conceptual force today. The scope of the thesis is broad and combines cultural theory and high theory with close readings of key moments in technoculture. specifically Gnosticism. Chapter one – Transcendent Bodies. It attempts to recover the repudiated Others of postmodernist and poststructuralist theory.What follows. from Italian Futurist manifestoes to recent science fiction film. accept. defines transmodernity. and welcome rapid technological change and traces the Futurists’ use of mystic tropes and philosophies to provide a lexicon to describe the ways in which new technologies were altering the subjective experience of being in the early twentieth century. Suck My Code: Abject Others. from Genesis to The Terminator. acts as a direct challenge to biological/organic modes of reproduction (or. Finally. Chapter two. It traces the dissemination of the cyberfeminist 43 . It accepts that both the Italian Futurist and cyberpunk preoccupation with the prospect of ‘autocreation’ (‘I can create myself’). its depictions of cyborgs and artificial intelligences as transcendent Others. whether in its characterisation of binary code as divine language. Ironically. acknowledging that technoculture can be understood as an attempt to claim sovereignty over modes of reproduction. traces the narrative link between the 1980s and 1990s science fiction sub-genre. and that the frisson created by the drive to control reproduction fuels some of the most interesting and abiding science fiction narratives. television. or its descriptions of cyberspace as a heavenly vehicle for transcendence. ‘I am already created’). designed to counter a technological system that threatens to dehumanise and homogenise its makers. In this sense the notion of whether technology spawns religions or vice versa becomes contested territory for celebrating constant technological change. making popular film.facilitate the accumulation of all knowledge as a precursor to attaining godhood. It considers how cyberpunk re-imagines information technologies as an evolutionary step towards godhead. cyberpunk. Marching Backwards to the Future: The Hacker Gets Religion. and the Multiple Bodies of Cyberspace investigates the gendering of the ontological anxiety that arises from the relationship of art and technology to life. Unspeakable (M)others. Chapter three. and how this reliance on hidden mysteries and revelatory knowledge leads to the notion of technology as an arcane tool to further this transformative end. and the propagation of an impending transformation of corporeality by the machine begun by the Futurists in 1909. As the quest for artificial life in science fiction texts is also often synonymous with the creation of ‘perfect’ artificial women – from femme fatale cyborgs to malevolent androids and clones – this chapter examines the figure of the artificial woman from early science fiction to cyberfeminism for what it can tell us about the intersection between the transcendent notions of perfection witnessed in Italian Futurism and cyberpunk and radicalising otherness. The chapter also investigates cyberpunk’s re-imagining of the Gnostic quest to escape the limitations of the flesh to be reborn into divinity. it will turn to an examination of how cyberpunk’s “god in the machine” constitutes an excess. omniscient force unconfined by machines or humans. the pursuit of the ideal artificial feminine reaches its apotheosis in contemporary technoculture when the fabricated female body is at its least productive. and literature the receptacles for technophiles to disseminate their secular faiths. when it is rendered simply a mirror for the desires of its creator. his work seems to articulate an attempt to create a popularized form of technospiritual praxis of Dussel’s analetical mode of reasoning to show how paradigms like transmodern emerge or transcend organically and fluidly from what has come before. Integralism. The term ‘technospiritual’ also suggests new modes of spiritual practice online. Wilber’s growing online presence extensively links speculative fictions.’ again recalling the Gnostic quest for all knowledge seen in cyberpunk fictions. spiritual transcendence. Despite his ‘Integral theory’s queasy status in relation to academic theory. First. The Matrix trilogy. The chapter investigates the intersection of transmodernism. his claims for Integral methodology as transmodernity will be tested by investigating an integral reading of the quintessential technospiritual text. providing an example of how the transmodern both transcends and includes modernism and postmodernism. and online technologies within one single ‘meme:’ the work of ‘metanew age’ philosopher. and this thesis will conclude by considering the impact and use of technology on one such evolutionary spiritual movement.heroine in popular science fiction television. Wilber’s integral theory seeks to draw them together into a single. who in encompassing her multiple parts becomes thoroughly transmodern and. This thesis uncovers some very real problems with this ‘integral operating system. Wilber has been chosen above other spiritual commentators on transmodernism like Vitz or Sardar for a number of inter-related reasons. Worshipping @ the Source Code: The Matrix Trilogy and Getting Godhead Online looks at an emerging canon of transcendent online mythologies mapping new directions in DIY spirituality. scientific method. Furthermore. 44 . theological commentaries.’ not the least being the terrifying kernel of irrationality that accompanies the transference of Wilber’s work into a spiritual community setting. comprehensive whole he half-jokingly calls a ‘theory of everything. knowledge accretion. Ken Wilber. who advocates the pursuit of godhood via a systematized programme of self-knowledge. Nevertheless. points to a synchronicity between transmodernism and transfeminism. Finally. the writer/directors of which – the Wachowski Brothers – are also participants in Wilber’s online community. arguing that Marinetti’s multiplied man has emerged in this genre as a multiple woman. While acknowledging the profusion of spiritualities. science fiction mythologies. and online community in the pursuit of a transcendence of the Self. as such. following in the tradition of the world’s great mystical religions. he specifically attempts to wed a theory of transcendence to this emergence. 2002). Specifically. 128 See commentary on the modern by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. 2003). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.html 2 Michael Marshall Smith. 181. Directed by Fritz Lang (UFA. James M. 6 7 8 9 10 Max Weber. The Communist Manifesto. 1996). 3 Wesley W.Each chapter traces the emergence of a transmodern aesthetic and culture in an attempt to further understand its future evolution as the post of postmodernism. Throughout this thesis. 4 5 Linda Hutcheon.” See Habermas. Harrison and Wood. the marginalised to the centre. 13 March. 127. “Modernity: An Incomplete Project. See also Henri Lefebvre. Art in Theory. Art in Theory. This characterisation of modernity is backed up by Habermas.” in Wired Magazine (2005). Notes 1 William Gibson. 1992). and works to provide potential examples of a resulting transmodern methodology in action. http:// www. not to simply return past foci of theoretical enquiry to the margins or. in the infinite progress of knowledge and in the infinite advance towards social and moral betterment. ed. 1996). 181.” in The Nag Hammadi Library in English. “Gospel of Philip. 1993). 1977). indeed. 17. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.” in Modernism/Postmodernism. Art in Theory: 1900-1990. inspired by modern science. (New York: Bantam Classics. Meyer (San Franscisco: Harper & Row. 11 12 45 . and disavowed will be examined. but to reveal the primary message of transmodernism – that both deconstruction and reconstruction hold equal significance on a continuum of understanding socio-cultural change. 1927). Accessed 20 June 2009. Robinson and Marvin W. 290. (Oxford: Blackwell. 67 § 72. ed. Introduction to Modernity. 126. Spares (Harper Collins: London. 127. Peter Brooker (Harlow: Longman. trans. the burgeoning desire for reconstructing what was once deconstructed. eds. who writes: “[In the French Enlightenment]. fragmented. 126. the idea of being “modern” by looking back to the ancients changed with the belief. Harrison and Wood.com/wired/archive/13. The Politics of Postmodernism (New York: Routledge. 1. Jürgen Habermas. (New York: Courier Dover Publication. John Moore (New York: Verso.wired. “God’s Little Toys. Each offers examples of how the twinned concepts of transcendence and technology help create the conditions for the rise of transmodernism.07/gibson. Modernity. 1995). Isenberg. Postmodernism. 162. 1984). 29 30 Jean Baudrillard.’ see Fred R. Jean Baudrillard. 2007). Concerning the Spiritual in Art (Whitefish. Simulacra and Simulation. 1986). 2000). James Joyce. 4. 33 46 . Stephen Hero (New York: New Directions. Politics of Postmodernism. After Theory (New York: Basic Books: 2004).” quoted in Pericles Lewis. 13. Sources of the Self: the making of the modern identity (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. The Politics of Postmodernism (London: Routledge. 2004). Charles Taylor. 1963). Hutcheon. Literature. The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism (Connecticut: Cambridge University Press. Linda Hutcheon. Jameson. Postmodernism. 2-9. 1. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. T. 1994). Mystery Religion of WB Yeats (New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Shapiro. Lewis. 7. “Prehistory of postmodern and Related Terms: Evidence from the JSTOR Electronic Journal Archive and Other Sources. 1998). 15 14 13 Charles Baudelaire. 110. 26. 163. 23. 1. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Fredric Jameson. 9. trans. 2006). The Resistance to Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. see Graham Hough. 1991). 1. 1987). 2003). and Culture 1880-1930 (London: Cambridge University Press. Or the Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham: Duke University Press. 2002). Simulacra and Simulation. Eliot. 2004). Brian McHale. 31 32 Jean-François Lyotard. Jonathon Mayne (London: Phaidon Press. Regina Schwartz. see Ronald Schleifer. 27 28 Jean Baudrillard. Terry Eagleton. See Wassily Kandinsky. 146.For further discussion about the comparisons between the Enlightenment’s and twentiethcentury Modernism’s notion of presence. Baudrillard. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. 16 17 18 19 For a comprehensive overview of the prehistory of the term ‘postmodernism. Cambridge Introduction to Modernism. Moments of Being: Autobiographical Writings (London: Pimlico. 1989). MT: Kessinger. Politics of Postmodernism. Hutcheon. 1984). trans. Science. x. “The Wasteland. 476. For an extended discussion of Yeats’ interest in the occult. Simulacra and Simulation. 1. Transcendence: Philosophy. Postmodern Fiction (London: Routledge. and Theology Approach the Beyond (London: Routledge. Sheila Faria Glaser (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures (London: SAGE Publications. Modernism and Time: The Logic of Abundance in Literature.S. Paul de Man.” in American Speech 76:3 (Fall 2001): 331-334. Virginia Woolf. ” 1.” in Anthropoetics 6. “The Remodernism Manifesto. Cambridge. in How Do You Know: Reading Ziauddin Sardar on Islam. and Ken Wilber.J. and Catherine T. “Performatism.transmodernfestival. X-Filme Creative Pool. 47 . “Crisis.” Baltimore City Paper. 15-16.” in Critical Inquiry 8:4 (1982): 723. 1998. 1985). and the Unexpected. 1. 2006). 2 (2000/2001). Annette Bening. Alan Kirby. April 27. Tom Twyker. 2009. trans. Innovation. Childish and Charles Thomson.” The Catholic Social Science Review. dir. Sam Mendes. Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels. Kevin Spacey.catholicsocialscientists. “Against Theory. MA: The MIT Press. “Auto-Modernity after Postmodernism: Autonomy and Automation in Culture. Tara McPherson (The John D. 2009).34 See Gilles Lipovetsky. and Education.com/arts/ stage/em-rooms-play-em-1. 36 35 Robert Samuels. Volume VIII (2003). Sebastien Charles (Cambridge: Polity Press. Literary Studies and the New Pragmatism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press.” xviii. perf.1162/dmal.” 5. 2011.T Mitchell. Eshelman. 219–240. Paul H. Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World (Boston: Shambhala. Hypermodern Times. Technology. Digimodernism: How New Technologies Dismantle the Postmodern and Reconfigure Our Culture (New York: Continuum. Run. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Franke Potente. 37 38 39 American Beauty. 2005). xviii.” in Digital Youth. (London: Pluto Press. Run. 2008). perf. Ray. “The Crisis in the Psychological Concept of Self or Person: A Neo-Thomist and Personalist Answer. The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People are Changing the World (New York: Harmony Books. http://citypaper. Eshelman.” 1999 http:// www. DOI: 10.org 46 47 Bret McCabe.arthistoryarchive. Lola. Panel Discussion on Transmodernism. 2000). “Beyond Difference: Cultural Relations in a New Century”. Paul H. Ray. April 2. 9780262633598.219 Raoul Eshelman. http:// www. ed.html 44Billy 45 James Mahoney. “Rooms Play. Paul C Vitz. ed. See Ziaddin Sardar. Science and Cultural Relations. Against Theory. “Performatism.1137717 48 Other theologists or spiritual commentators working in this area include Ziaddin Sardar. 40 41 42 43 W.com/arthistory/stuckism/Remodernism-Manifesto. Dreamworks SKG. 1999. or the End of Postmodernism.org/CSSR/Archival/vol_viii. and Ken Wilber.org/2009/essays/transmodernism-panel-umbc See http://transmodernfestival. “Performatism. dir. The Self: Beyond the Postmodern Crisis (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press: 2006). Paul C Vitz. Ehsan Masood. 2006). Moritz Bleibtreu. 3. http:// www.htm 49 50 51 Vitz. The Essential Mystics: Selections from the World’s Great Wisdom Traditions (HarperOne. 12. and Informatics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 9. 1995). The Mystic Experience: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis (New York: SUNY Press. 257. Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind (Bedford. Dialogue Among Civilizations: Some Exemplary Voices (New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 53 54 55 Enrique Dussel. Literature. Taylor. Signs (Evanston: Northwestern University Press. Dallmayr. Vol. 2002) in “Angel(LINK) of Harlem: Techno-spirituality in the Cyberpunk Tradition. 2004). Barcelona. 1998). http://transmodern-theory. “Globalization as Transmodern Totality. Technoculture. for instance. 2000) 11. Michael D. and the Philosophy of Liberation.52 “Notes on Metamodernism. 65 66 67 68 For detailed discussion about the mystical experience of transcendence across cultures see Jordan Paper.. 296. Murphy has also used the term “techno-spiritualism” to describe The Matrix trilogy (dir: Wachowski Bros. Bucke. Ricoeur. 62 63 64 N. Barber (New York: Continuum. 2002. Matthew Alper. 1999).com/ Joseph Tabbi. 2004). 60. 69 70 48 . Anthropos. 1995). The Underside of Modernity: Apel. 115. eds. Austin. 2003).” Journal of Aesthetics & Culture. The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet (Sydney: Doubleday. Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness (Cambridge. 12. Technoculture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2003). Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology (Maryland: Arbor House. 27 December.” in How Do You Know: Reading Ziauddin Sardar. trans. Bruce Sterling. 1988).616. The God Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God (New York: Rogue Press. 132. Andrew Harvey. Dallmayr.5677 Rosa María Rodríguez Magda. Mystics: Presence and Aporia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2 (2010). Ross and Penley. Massachusetts: Applewood Books. 1997). Postmodern Sublime: Technology and American Writing from Mailer to Cyberpunk (Ithaca: Cornell. The Invention of the Americas: Eclipse of the “Other” and the Myth of Modernity. See Maurice Merleau-Ponty. trans. Richard M. 2002). Dialogue. Andrew Ross and Constance Penley. 60 61 Margaret Wertheim has briefly used this term to describe the intersection between technology and religious metaphor in her book. DOI: 10. Martin Lister. 2001). Kindle edition: location 5.” Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. Ziauddin Sardar. Rorty. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics. 2008. Graham J. xii. James H. “Beyond Difference. 247. NJ: Humanities Press.3402/ jac. 1964). 1991). New Media: A Critical Introduction (London: Routledge.blogspot. See. Michael Kessler and Christian Sheppard. Fred Reinhard Dallmayr.v2i0. MA: MIT Press. 3. 1996). Katherine Hayles. 2000). Eduardo Mendieta (Atlantic Highland. Dialogue. 1999. xii. 56 57 58 59 Enrique Dussel. 70-71.” Transmodernity blog (full English translation of Magda’s Transmodernidad. trans. Dim Cheuk Lau (London: Penguin Classics. papyrus. and alphabets have been inscribed and reproduced using a wide variety of secondary inventions – ink. 224. “Mysticism” in Diacritics.” 18. while satori is a deeper spiritual experience. 2007). Star Maker.” 20. Dying Inside (London: Gollancz. The term. 72 71 Lao Tzu. De Certeau. ideograms. 216. and Virtual Reality. Transcendence." Diacritics 27. One of Us (London: HarperCollins. “Mysticism. 1963). and these various pictograms. Ludwig Wittgenstein. 189. De Certeau. kensho represents a brief glimpse of the true nature of the Self as one with all being. Techgnosis: Myth. trans. Ogden (New York: Cosimo. parchment.” 79 80 81 82 78 Erik 77 Ann Olaf Stapledon. 41. human beings have invented widely different systems of visually encoding language and thought. K. 63. 73Michel 74 75 76 De Certeau. 1999). 115. Moravec. ‘gateless gate’ refers to the imagined barrier between a meditator’s normative consciousness and an enlightened consciousness. Bucke here quotes from Whitman. Star Maker (London: Gollancz. billboards. Summer (1992): 16. an intuitive apprehension of the nature of reality that transcends conceptual thought and cannot be expressed through words and letters. 260. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence (Cambridge. Davis. “Mysticism. photocopying machines. 1. defined by Max More in his essay “Transhumanism: towards a Futurist Philosophy” (Extropy 6 (1990): 5-10) is the prediction that human intelligence and technology will enable life to expand in an orderly way throughout the entire universe. Weinstone. 1998). 1999). "Welcome To The Pharmacy: Addiction. In Zen Buddhism. Tractatus Logico Philosophicus.3 (1997): 77-89. 85 49 . Michael Marshall Smith. Tao Te Ching. 2005). Robert Silverberg. Over eons. The material history of writing is an utterly technological tale. imagined because Zen holds that both are one and the same if only the meditator can perceive them as such. Stapledon. Brian P. 84 83 Hans Corpus Hermetica. … mechanical printing presses. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1988). Copenhaver (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.. Davis. 2010). Inc. and electronic computer screens. 43: §75. 27. 1992). Democratic Vistas (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. Extropy. Cosmic Consciousness.Bucke. Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information (New York: Three Rivers Press. Techgnosis. 30: “… Writing is a machine. 65-66. trans C. 15. it becomes increasingly difficult for them to maintain the commonsensical perspective of the man on the street.” In Ed Regis. As Erik Davis has noted. he has established me in a new type of being which can support new qualifications. 88 87 Georges Bataille. Moravec proclaims it is no longer necessary to take a “mystical or religious stance” in order to imagine liberating our thought process from “bondage to a mortal body. Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition (Reading. Paul Rabinow (London: Penguin Books. Being and Nothingness. let alone recognising. 1986). “ as modern Prometheans pursue the ‘rational’ possibilities of science and technology. 150. Barnes (New York: Washington Square Press. 149). Erotism. Instead. trans.86 In his introduction to Mind Children. trans H. he has characterised is dream of uploading his brain into the machine as ‘a sort of Christian fantasy: this is how to become pure spirit. 24. Death. ed. Foucault’s The History of Sexuality: Volume One (London: Penguin.” in The Foucault Reader.” Indeed. 1990). 1984). Mary Dalwood (San Francisco: City Lights Books. such thinkers and tinkerers are loosed in a world of possibility whose profound metaphysical and religious dimensions they are often incapable of handling. Erotism. 1957). Mass: Addison Wesley. as such. Bataille. 222: “But the Other is the indispensible mediator between myself and me … Thus the Other has not only revealed to me what I was. 1990). and Sensuality. and “A Preface to Transgression.” 89 See 50 . 90 Jean-Paul Sartre. they find themselves unconsciously drawn to the soul’s most adolescent fantasies of transcendence and immortality”(Techgnosis. CHAPTER ONE TRANSCENDENT BODIES. REVOLUTIONARY AESTHETICS: Transcendence in Early 20th Century Technoculture 51 . “The Founding Manifesto of Futurism. – Enrico Prampolini1 Artists are above all men who want to become inhuman. Marinetti did nothing less than create an underlying technospiritual myth for our technocultural age – that humanity is destined to wrest control of its own evolution by merging with the machines it creates. cinema. Futurism tapped into a desire for transcendence dating back in western culture to the Gnostics – a desire that lies at the heart of humanity’s quest for continued progress. A centre of spiritual abstraction for the new religion of the future. the Italian Futurist movement also repositioned Western culture one step closer to a post-religious state. the early avant-garde movement inspired and founded by F. A panoramic synthesis of action. In the process.Futurist polyexpressive theatre will be a superpowerful centre of abstract forces in play. and communications technologies. Futurism’s position at the very brink of this global change gave artistic expression to the early transition of an overly sentimental late nineteenthcentury petit bourgeois culture (saturated by a fascination for secular spiritualism and occult symbolism) to what would ultimately become a twentieth-century obsession with technological transcendence. 52 . and the aeroplane had exposed Western society to new social paradigms that would fundamentally alter the ways in which subjects interacted with each other.” emerged from a decade of astonishing breakthroughs in transportation. Each spectacle will be a mechanical rite of the eternal transcendence of matter. information. that is.4 Exploring how Italian Futurism translated traditional mystical discourses of transcendence to explain the rapid technological transformations taking place around it. In casting humanity as the omniscient creators of new machines. and their tools. understanding. Firstly.3 Innovations such as the mass production of the automobile. a magical revelation of spiritual and scientific mystery. this chapter will argue that the movement retains speculative currency in popular and technoculture today for two reasons. Marinetti’s incendiary 1909 manifesto. their environment. understood as a mystical rite of spiritual dynamism. a state of evolutionary transcendence uncoupled from institutionalised religion. – Guillame Apollinaire2 Italian Futurism. shifting spiritual activity from the religious to the secular domain.T. radio. the conflation of the mechanical and ecstatic meanings of the term ‘transport. 53 . in connecting his aesthetic project to technological innovation. when the euphoria that new technologies would inspire socio-cultural revolution was at its height for the Futurist group. the role of the body and mind as privileged ‘vehicles’ towards achieving vertical transcendence. this chapter hopes to demonstrate that the relationship between spiritual transcendence and contemporary notions of progress and evolution that emerge within Futurist prescriptions for technocultural futures reposition the movement as proto-transmodernist. In short. and machines to provide a technospiritual lexicon for contemporary technocultural texts. the period between the movement’s inception and the First World War. and a discussion about its relevance to contemporary cyberculture. an analysis of its critical reception as an avant-garde movement. that is. the chapter will critically examine several key manifestoes penned by Marinetti – “The Founding Manifesto of Futurism” (1909). and close readings of each of these manifestoes will map those transcendent themes that return for repeated inquiry in contemporary technoculture: self-destruction as the ‘road’ to horizontal transcendence. “The New Religion-Morality of Speed” (1916). Each of these manifestoes dates from the early utopian phase of Italian Futurism. “Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature” (1912). Specific attention will also be given to Marinetti’s early depictions of the cyborg – the ‘multiplied man’ – for what it can tell us about twenty-first century attitudes to the transformative possibilities (or looming spectre) of transhumanity. and “Multiplied Man and the Reign of the Machine” (1911-1915) – to illustrate the ways in which the Futurist movement connected metaphors of transcendence. This first flush of technophilia has had a residual effect on subsequent cultural production concerning technological innovation. It will be suggested there are very fertile and interesting corollaries between Marinetti’s dreams of transcendent mechanical men and the transcendent memes in contemporary technoculture and science fiction explored in following chapters. Marinetti was able to perpetually revitalise his work and with it the project of modernity.’ and the crash as a seminal event in depictions of the transcendent experience in this literature. mysticism. this chapter seeks to demonstrate that Marinetti and the Futurists internalised transcendent metaphors to create a self-renewing aesthetic: transmodernism.5 Secondly. After a brief overview of the movement’s main themes.and escape reworked with the trappings of a new century’s concerns.6 Furthermore. discursively laying out the prerequisites for creating a modern Futurist mindset in which humans began to merge with their machines. claimed both its present and future as absolutely autonomous from the past. it was designed to shock its readers into a new awareness of how the startling breakthroughs in communications. Like all Futurist art and literature. and information technologies at the fin de siecle had instigated a concomitant transformation of subjective being. A product of turn of the century utopian zeal. Neither a Futurist canvas had been painted nor a poem penned when the “Founding Manifesto” appeared – it provided a how-to guide for Futurist production. planes. Le Figaro. Unlike other art movements. Italian Futurism. suggesting the virtual simultaneity achieved by travelling via trains. Futurist theory preceded Futurist practice. transportation. the movement championed. Those who today use the 54 . at the moment of its inception. T H E E T E R N A L F U T U R I S T M O M E N T7 The Italian Futurist movement burst onto the early twentieth-century cultural scene in 1909 with the publication of Marinetti’s “Founding Manifesto of Futurism” in the popular Parisian broadsheet. Umberto Boccioni Dynamism of a Cyclist 1913 Oil on canvas 27 1/2 x 35 3/8 in (70 x 90 cm) Private collection.Figure 1. and automobiles or communicating via telephone or radio would forever alter human consciousness. the Futurists claimed. was merely documenting the inescapable outcome of constant technological innovation: Futurism is founded on the complete transformation of human perception brought about by scientific breakthroughs. a new logic of speed. above all else. and. then. yet the house in front of us fits into the solar disk.11 This Futurist notion of a technologically fuelled simultaneity drew heavily on the philosophies of Henri Bergson. Thrust beyond our Selves with the aid of our technological tools.8 To employ technology in one’s everyday life was to invite a profound transformation that.telegraph. all things run. newspaper are unaware that these forms of communication. motorcar. and we transcend ourselves. our awareness would expand – effecting both a vertical and horizontal transcendence and experiencing an “earth shrunk by speed.”13 Bergson claimed we “extend ourselves infinitely. Creative Evolution. modern subjects could simultaneously access all modes of existence across time and space: Space no longer exists.”15 By extending the power of the body. transatlantic line. producing a modern Self that was in “continuous flux. “All things move. the street pavement. all things are constantly changing” became the Futurists’ catch-cry. whose popular contemporaneous work. once set in motion. transport. telephone. each carrying with it “our entire past. of 55 . aeroplane. could not be stopped. Thousands of miles divide us from the sun.”12 Existing only from moment to moment. and information are exerting a decisive influence on their psyche. a central Futurist motif that proposed a mechanically determined Nietzschean ubermensch that strove “to become master over all space and to extend its force (— its will-to-power) and to thrust back all that resists its extension. posited that consciousness was a synthesis of the ever-changing flow of past and future. while also instigating the continuous flux of the social order as culture raced to keep up with the exponential rate of technological change.”14 Italian Futurism took this literally by suggesting the only logical way to extend oneself in the modern technological milieu was to merge human corporeality with machines. the train. dirigible. becomes immensely deep and gapes to the very centre of the earth.”10 Drawn together by technology. cinema.”9 Taking a road trip or making a phone call externalised humanity’s will and would encourage us to extend our mental and physical boundaries. soaked by rain beneath the glare of electric lamps. or gramophone. motorcycle. bicycle. an articulation of the dynamic possibilities of reproducing the world anew moment by moment. new technologies of speed also offered the Futurists a way to fast track transcendence into dynamic Otherness. simply because “what we have made is woven into our ways of seeing and being in the world. love of danger. Destruction of a sense of the Beyond and an increased value of the individual whose desire is vivre sa vie… 5. inviting only stagnation and decay. cultural. art. A modification of patriotism. technological speed maintained life at optimum dynamism. industrial. 2. Man multiplied by the machine. and idealism of Sport. for to do so would counteract the forces of eternal change. 4. Dread of quiet living. and an attitude of daily heroism. physical. 6. and artistic solidarity of a people. Dread of the old and the known. including: 1. and idealism of Business… 12.16 Contemplation was anathema to a Futurist aesthetic – to keep pace with the perpetual flow of modern life acolytes were encouraged to forestall all reflection.” technology would initiate sweeping transformations at a social. The passion. 3. The multiplication and unbridling of human desires and ambitions. 11. 8. which now means a heroic idealisation of the commercial. An exact awareness of everything inaccessible and unrealisable in every person. 7. art. Love of the new. and would be instrumental in revolutionising all elements of daily life. “Destruction of Syntax—Imagination without strings—Words-in-Freedom. Idea and love of the “record”. a fusion of instinct with the efficiency of motors and conquered forces. Acceleration of life to today’s swift pace… Multiple and simultaneous awareness in a single individual. and spiritual level simultaneously. Disdain for amore (sentimentality or lechery) produced by the greater freedom and erotic ease of women and by the universal exaggeration of female luxury … 9. The passion. New mechanical sense. A modification in the idea of war. 56 . which has become the necessary and bloody test of a people’s force. According to Marinetti’s 1913 manifesto. Semi-equality of man and woman and a lessening of the disproportion in their social rights. 10.matching human evolution to the pace of technological progress. the unexpected. 13. If change represented being at its most basic. All subject matters were ‘futurised. “Quick. and the tourniquet. spirals. Love of depth and essence in every exercise of the spirit. abbreviation. of the quarter where he lives. give me the whole thing in two words!” 17. New sense of the world…One after the other. Negation of distances and nostalgic solitudes. must communicate with every people on earth. and motor of the explored and unexplored infinite.’ with speed infiltrating every aspect of life: 57 .17 The sole purpose of Futurist art was to capture this new sense of technological dynamism. New York Mrs Simon Guggenheim Fund 14. Umberto Boccioni The City Rises 1910 Oil on canvas 6ft 6.5 in x 9ft 10. judge. therefore.5 in Collection: The Museum of Modern Art.Figure 2. 15. Passion for the city. and finally of the continent… The single man. A loathing of curved lines. Love for the straight line and the tunnel… Love of speed. 16. Ridicule of the “holy green silence” and the ineffable landscape. man will gain the sense of his home. Vast increase of a sense of humanity and a momentary urgent need to establish relations with all mankind. pitting itself against what the movement perceived as the torpid banality of a nineteenth-century aesthetic concerned only with beauty and art for art’s sake. of his region. and the summary. The earth shrunk by speed. He must feel himself to be the axis. New tourist sensibility bred by ocean liners and great hotels (annual synthesis of different races). claimed that it was only he and his fellow Futurists who could perceive these forces. Thus a running horse has not four legs. as a result of their ecstatic initiation into the mysteries of speed: 58 .. Bequest 0f A. Gelatin silver print.18 Audiences of Futurist artworks were actively encouraged to fling themselves into a glorious maelstrom of modern technological change by identifying with the representations of bodies in perpetual motion before them. their form changes like rapid vibrations. a profile is never motionless before our eyes. Conger Goodyear ’64.. Gift of Paul F. buffeted and amplified by the forces surrounding them as if such forces could be perceived by the naked eye. but it constantly appears and disappears. Umberto Boccioni. Figure 4. Walter . Étienne-Jules Marey (French. Buffalo. but twenty.Y. in their mad career. 1830-1904) with George Demeny Untitled (Sprinter) 1890-1900. 6 1/16 x 14 5/8" (15.4 x 37. and their movements are triangular. N. moving objects constantly multiply themselves. However. On account of the persistence of an image upon the retina. Giacomo Balla Dynamism of a Dog on A Leash 1912 Oil on canvas Collection Abright-Knox Art Gallery. the Futurist painter.2 cm).Figure 3. and the clatter of telegraphic messages when performed live 59 Figure 5. perspectives. man. Machine and man. while his The City Rises (Figure 2).We futurist painters have by means of this ecstasy and by means of this delirium. able to see through the everyday to deconstruct subjects and objects alike into their composite energies – a claim not unlike the conventional accounts of religious vertical transcendence. predating Dada’s similar deconstruction of syntax by four years. symbols. New York / SIAE. and philosophies could be accessed immediately at once: “establishing relations with all mankind.” Futurist literature was one of linguistic rupture. emulating Étienne-Jules Marey contemporaneous photographic studies of perpetual movement (Figure 4). an innovative fusion of typography.19 Here Boccioni describes the Futurists as mystics of the modern. complete with lines of force and swirling eddies of light. and air. © 2011 Filippo Tommaso Marinetti / Artists Rights Society (ARS). peoples. and phonetic impressions of gunfire and explosions designed to convey Marinetti’s experiences as a war correspondent during the 1912 Balkan War." Milan. incorporeal and corporeal meld into one in Futurist art. captures the swirling power of a street demonstration. subjects and objects in Futurism are actively integrated. A furious barrage of screeching trains. The simultaneity suggested by the speed of machines would also function on the level of discourse. In fact. Marinetti Publisher: Edizioni Futuriste di "Poesia. a psychic divinatory force that gives our senses the power to perceive that which was never perceived until now. Giancomo Balla’s Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (Figure 3) reveals the simultaneous frenzy of a dog’s frantic attempts to keep pace with its owner. cycle and air interpenetrate in an explosion of abstract brushstrokes and pumping limbs. Marinetti’s sound poem. Gift of The Judith Rothschild Foundation (Boris Kerdimun Archive).T. creating a new proto-cyborg body the Futurists believed would be better equipped to navigate their perceived technological future. colour. Zang Tumb Tumb (Figure 5) employs what he terms parole di liberta (words-in-freedom). Rome . Cover of Zang Tumb Tumb: Adrianopoli Ottobre 1912: Parole in Libertà by F. so that all places. the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire. Likewise. In Umberto Boccioni’s Dynamism of a Cyclist (Figure 1). Caricature of the “Futurist evening.Figure 6. Treviso. as well as extensively influencing avant-garde movements around the globe. music. inspiring Russian Futurism. in the hope that such spectacles would alter their expectations of art and lead them to phenomenologically 60 .” at the Theatre Politeama Garibaldi. Umberto Boccioni. often combining a broad range of traditionally nonaesthetic elements that included fashion. and Vorticism. architecture. “Quick! Give me the whole thing in two words!” Marinetti sought to fuse image and word in space. There was carefully crafted method.21 The movement’s reach was so pervasive that. Yale University).23 These wild affairs deliberately provoked audiences into an outraged frenzy. 2 June 1911. sport. however. for a short time.22 and Marinetti as Futurism’s “motor” undertook a travelling tour of riotous seratas (soirees) between 1910 and 1914. contracting their appearance while simultaneously offering new depths of meaning by attempting to engage as many senses as possible. all emerging art movements were popularly designated as futurist. presided over by a histrionic Marinetti hurling abuse above the din.20 Discursive speed was paramount – with the slogan. A Futurist Soiree. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Futurist events further sought to extend this simultaneity into public performance. early Dada. and linking Italian Futurism with Imagism. and cooking. on the printed page words are deconstructed and reconstructed into a vortex designed to better capture the extremes of battle in as few characters at possible. amidst the madness – Marinetti intended his audiences should engage in the outrageous excess of violence and energy emanating from the stage. by Marinetti. like technology.24 Audience reaction. and thus transform. this could well be Marinetti’s literary foil to the frequent throwing of rotten vegetables and heavy objects at his performances. a kind of transcendental secularism. there is no more beauty.26 However. a question without answer. opens up the possibility of a dialogue with Otherness. should never be considered a barometer of success. life. reconnecting the individual with the divine.”25 Of course. in itself. and this conflict need not only be waged within the artist’s self. therefore.”27 The most precious prize – a great work of art – could be raised from the ashes of intense conflict. whether as prophet or creator. The artist was therefore reinvented as activist. creating a disconnect from which normative being is then put under question. producing the role of the artist as divinatory. a dynamic force in society capable. both art and technology were able to inspire the necessary break in normative perceptions required for a reconnection with the sacred. as the Founding Manifesto claimed: “Except in struggle.embrace Futurist perspectives. or too well digested. dull. “everything applauded immediately is certainly no better than the average intelligence and is therefore something mediocre. he wrote in “The Pleasure of Being Booed” (1911). Viewing the artwork. but could be directed outward to include. the work of art stands in for the presence of god. No work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece. we tell you now that the triumphant progress of science makes profound changes in humanity inevitable. the mass psyche. then.”28 For Foucault. Indeed. Foucault links the creation of art with the transcendental moment: “a work of art opens a void. For the Futurists. of instigating social and subjective change. for while not everything booed would necessarily be beautiful or new.29 61 . the rewards for a sustained effort would be worth every rotten egg. provokes a breach without reconciliation where the world is forced to question itself. in order to reconstruct both as something new. the act of writing/creating connects the author/artist to the secular sacred. with technological innovation the quickest means by which the Futurist re-negotiation of the boundaries of art and life could be effected: Comrades. a moment of silence. regurgitated. in that it sought to transgress the margins between art and its culturally constructed Other. so that the artwork is a direct expression of Otherness. who are confident in the radiant splendour of our future. changes which are hacking an abyss between those docile slaves of past tradition and us free moderns. In a secular society. The movement’s desire for social transformation through art was. art becomes ‘art-action. The body as evolving artwork was. The destruction and subsequent transformation of the artwork/body would in turn lead to the collapse of the social body. an anxiety-ridden recollection of a lost Object (happiness. artist. performance. directed purely by the will of the artist – in effect recasting the artist/ creator as able to produce both self and environment. love. Dissolution was not an end but a beginning. 62 . art was memory. the artwork/body could then provide a reservoir of social and political energy from which the structures of change could be redrawn and re-imagined: “Before us. claimed the modern subject as one for whom “all that is solid melts into air. a spark that would ignite it into revolutionary action.” subject to the mad rush of Futurist action swirling around it. in Marinetti’s imaginary. to “put the spectator in the centre of the picture. political. Futurism sought to draw its audience in. with the aid of technological change.’”31 Artists would play a decisive role in the “management of civil affairs. 33 By transforming the audience from speculative onlookers to complicit protagonists enveloped by the artwork. it must be effected right here. Liberated from its cultural status. to such an extent that no productive element of the environment should remain untouched by it. and audience.”32 Futurism therefore represented a radical revision of the relationships between artwork. quoting Marx. The Futurist transgression of the body’s boundaries by the machine would literally break down and rebuild corporeality in the image of techne. Futurist language. Where Marshall Berman. and images therefore aimed simply to elicit an immediate response from its audience. allowing subjects to recreate their selves as they would a work of art – albeit an artwork that is in a constant state of becoming as it upgrades with each new technological advance. and the eradication of social. The omniscient figure of the “multiplied man” in Marinetti’s manifestoes – a being irrevocably transformed by technological breakthroughs – represents the Futurist’s desire to recreate even the artist’s body as technocultural art. however. landscape)… with Futurism. Futurism proposed an early form of interactivity in which the spectator is required to perform alongside the artist in the production of the work of art. right now. The promise of a perfect future could not be forestalled until one entered a heavenly afterlife.” he is not referring to the abolition of metaphysical and ontological concepts but of his desire for multiple transcendences on a daily basis.”30 Marinetti saw the dissolution of the individual into the technological milieu as a consummation devoutly to be wished. and cultural hierarchies. Rather than perceive art as existing in a reified space.Thus when Marinetti speaks of a “destruction of the Sense of the Beyond. Anticipating the modus operandi of commercial advertising. instigating an active response that precludes passivity and demonstrates the individual will-to-power of each participant. an opportunity for the dynamic emergence of the new. where art began to distance itself from 63 . the first significant critical debates about Futurism were concerned with whether it could indeed be categorised as a bona-fide avant-garde movement. something hovering between the farcical and plain crass. The avant-garde’s supposed displacement of the traditional organic work of art as an object of passive contemplation by inserting the spectator into the modernist picture. In other words. “the attempt to direct toward the practical the aesthetic experience (which rebels against the praxis of life) that Aestheticism developed. absorbed and eclipsed by the critically sanctioned antics of Dada and Surrealism that followed. Benjamin argued that in attempting to externalise the destructive forces of technology. Post-World War II critics dismissed the movement as a “weird apologia for machinery. and warmongering. however theoretically or aesthetically directed.”34 Critical confusion over Futurism’s cultural worth seems to have echoed Marc’s comment ever since. on the other.” and Marinetti as “a cretin with flashes of genius. contemplative distance. but am in no doubt whatsoever as to the mediocrity of their works. was a long period of relative obscurity for the Italian Futurists. Therefore. Franz Marc told Wassily Kandinsky: “I cannot free myself from the strange contradiction that I find their ideas. Benjamin inferred that Futurism also externalised ‘destruction’ as a form of aesthetic.The consequence of such capers. at least for the main part. nineteenth century art pour l’art sensibilities. An art movement that clearly celebrated war and aligned itself. instead synthesising both components of the art/life dichotomy concocted by a combination of bourgeois high culture. to resist the revolutionary potential of its resulting social relations. and consequently enjoyed destruction itself as an aesthetic event. By mentioning Marinetti in his analysis of Fascism and art. to revolutionise the forces of production and. the avantgarde constituted a moment of art’s self-criticism. however briefly.”35 Walter Benjamin’s characterisation of Marinetti’s “War — the World’s Only Hygiene” (1915) as the ultimate articulation of capitalism’s dependence on a wartime economy was undoubtedly influential for theorists concerned with the political ideologies of the avant-garde. represented for Bürger an antipathy to the programmatic infusion of values previously appropriated by nineteenth-century works of art. speed. with Mussolini’s fascist regime clearly confounded theorists who saw the avant-garde project as confluent with the political left. capitalism created war as an economically necessitated supplement that negated its apparent self-sufficiency.”37 argued avant-garde movements sought to overcome the separation of intellectual and aesthetic activity from politics and everyday life. on the one hand. As early as 1912. Peter Bürger’s seminal definition of the avant-garde project as. brilliant. albeit not until after the Great War. and high modernist enterprise.36 Wanting. he brands Italian Futurism as both youthful ignorance and misguided expediency – a moniker that stuck until the early 1990s fascination with web and internet culture brought the movement’s output back into focus.its previous status of ‘art as institution’ and pursue a socio-political project. retreating to bourgeois distinctions of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture by implying that avant-garde artists could not be serious about both their politics and their art. Each artwork is therefore constructed as a divergence from normative culture (a norm presumably characterised by his own ideological framework). destroying whatever stands in its way”). whose earlier psychoanalytic study. a unique ideological fact.” In one short sentence. allowing Poggioli to homogenise antithetical avant-garde movements. as was the culture of the young generation in that epoch. inside and outside of art itself.”38 Bürger’s elision of Italian Futurism from the avant-garde canon serves to reveal an inability of post-World War II critics to take into account the implications of a reactionary avant-garde that may well have represented the first coalescence of aesthetics and capitalist notions of progress. a stance 64 . nihilism (the sadistic “act of beating down barriers.40 and finally agonism (“the masochistic impulse in the avant-garde psychosis. razing obstacles. examined the avant-garde not under its species of art production but for “what it reveals. He initially suggested that the post World War I collaborations of Marinetti’s Futurism and Mussolini’s Fascism be used as an example of the combination of political reactionaries and aesthetic revolutionaries but then limited further critical discourse on such a merger by claiming. Importantly.”). “From the start. the Fascism of the epigones of that movement was mere opportunism.39 antagonism (grouping artists together against the social mass in defiance of society’s systems of significance and protocol).”).41 The language he employed is instructive – it constructs the rupture of avant-garde art as a series of derangements. Perhaps prejudiced by Renato Poggioli. of a common psychological condition.’ or ‘sadistic’ moments as aberrations in art. Italian Futurism was also nationalism. presumably because Marinetti’s dalliance with Mussolini from 1920 to 1940 sits ill with his construction of avant-garde activity as emerging only from the radically Left. Poggioli saw the avant-garde as fulfilling a series of psychological moments – activism (“a blind. this notion of opportunism allowed Poggioli to conflate Italian and Russian forms of Futurism as proof of the “political opportunism” of art once it takes an interest in politics.’ ‘masochistic. Bürger failed to mention Italian Futurism in his analysis. expressing these ‘psychotic. Thus the ethos of what Bürger termed the ‘historical avant-garde’ rested upon the premise that artistic innovation was once intimately linked to social transformation. gratuitous… cult of the act. The Theory of the Avant-Garde. despite his attempts to level the effect of Left and Right politics on avantgarde art.” he goes on to claim that Italian Futurism cannot really be fascistic. while ideological sympathies of a fascist nature seem to negate the avant-garde spirit… communist sympathies can favour it. Poggioli sees no inconsistency in placing Russian Futurist production above that of its precursor Italian Futurism. a valorisation of anything perceived as fascist culture was unworkable. Presumably.that immediately sits ill with a notion of the avant-garde as attempting a political intervention of twentieth-century European society via its cultural production. Poggioli nevertheless first recognised a distinction between an “extreme left” and an “extreme right. following the horrors of World War II. ‘good’ art could never be fascist and Futurism could be 65 . Poggioli’s intractable language (‘vulgar. Communist. and Surrealism. Dada. so does his account of the avant-garde create an exclusionary matrix that privileges those movements affiliated with the political Left. Just as Bürger claims the bourgeoisie polarised existence.46 and as the prime example of “the dross of that ridiculous and cheapened modernism which afflicted western culture just before and just after the First World War.” 47 Such statements are not only disingenuous about Futurism’s commencement eight years prior to World War I and continuation for over thirty years – a period that saw the movement’s political orientation move from radical Left to radical Right – but also casts aspersions on those avant-gardes Poggioli commends that were influenced by early Futurism and Marinetti’s manifestoes – Imagism.43 Furthermore. claiming that: “it remains always true that. Ipso facto. Modernism. at the same time in the USSR. more of matter than of spirit. Poggioli and Bürger’s accounts of the avant-garde can be seen as a manifestation of the discriminative tactics of a post-World War II critical totalitarianism that was used to frame the canons of modernism and avant-garde alike. for it is.”42 Failing to adequately explore the possibilities of what has been called an “reactionary avant-garde.’ ‘cheapened.”44 For Poggioli.’ ‘afflicted.’ ‘ridiculous. a modernism considered only as a snobbist variant of romantic local colour”.’ ‘dross’) is testament to the dominant attitude of early to mid twentieth-century critics who also dismissed the Futurist movement because of its later connection to Fascism. with the daily grind of production and industry ‘complemented’ by the sanctified sphere of an art that was relegated to weekends and leisure time. Russian Futurism. Italian Futurism as Fascism reverted to: “vulgar experimentalism.45 an “external and vulgar modernity.” even while he contradicted himself by insisting the observed processes of both Left and Right in art are “the same thing.48 Instead. formless and imitative”. Russell Berman argued that Bürger’s failure to historically connect the avant-garde to a broader concept of modernity has led him to surmise the death of the avant-garde project just after the demise of Italian Futurism. critics like Benjamin. However. though an earlier liberal culture thrived on the presence of external opposition. That is. Bürger proclaimed the complete failure of the avant-garde project occurred in 1939. Poggioli. and nature according to its own model. would not end with the transformation (or lack thereof) of bourgeois culture. Since the 1990s avant-garde criticism concerning Italian Futurism has largely been centred on how the movement’s inherent complicity with fascism does not preclude its placement in the avant-garde canon. An avant-garde movement that similarly focussed on the radically new. continuing to aestheticise art. by effectively refusing Futurism avant-garde status. the avant-garde’s endeavour to integrate art and life was bound to fail.conveniently ignored as an aberration that failed to conform to long-established avantgarde criteria. Bürger’s restriction of his argument to an autonomous aesthetic dimension that refrains from extensive reflections on the transformation of life practice led him to insist on maintaining a theoretical discourse 66 . however. Moreover.50 This could be accomplished because. late capitalist culture seeks to integrate opposing forces and therefore advocates an aesthetic without a normative centre. For instance. it is clear that Italian Futurism’s emphasis on technological change necessarily links it with the notions of progress and capitalism inherent in bourgeois culture. Bürger argued that the avant-garde’s attempt to negate and sublate bourgeois institutionalised art was bound to the transformation of bourgeois society itself. meaning the avant-garde achieved its avowed project of removing the dichotomy between art and everyday life so successfully that capitalist culture adopted its program for its own. capitalist culture incorporates multiple and migratory centres that effectively destabilise oppositionary attempts by continually shifting the middle ground. aspects of the avant-garde’s attempt to alter society were more persuasive than Bürger’s theory allowed. as it serves to renew the movement’s technocultural motifs for use in contemporary accounts of cyberspace. As he suggests such a transformation did not take place. For Berman. but continue to pursue new aesthetic ideals. Furthermore. it is precisely this link that also makes Futurist ideas intelligible to late twentieth-century postmodernity and millennial transmodernity.49 Inured to the potential of a reactionary avantgarde for theoretical analyses of contemporary artistic innovation. life. and Bürger curtailed any suggestion of the successful collation of aesthetics and capitalist progress. thus perpetually shifting aesthetic ground from the centre to the margins. Berman’s argument.52 The possibilities of postmodernism. indeed. Marinetti moved ‘beyond’ modernism only by refusing to do so. Futurism can be read as the source of that avant-garde impulse to synthesise the art/life dichotomy. exist — particularly an experimental avant-garde culture coupled with capitalist modes of progress and consumerism. essentially disavowing any revivification of avant-garde attempts to revolutionise culture. In fact. where: The fascist modernism of Marinetti… acknowledged the complicity of the ‘postmodern beyond’ of modernism with the transgressive logic of modernism itself.divorced from a cultural history of the present. by invoking and inhabiting modernism itself as one of those aesthetic possibilities made possible within the avant-garde’s ‘simultaneity of the radically disparate.’53 Marinetti’s theoretical privileging of the relentlessly new therefore effects a transcendent simultaneity to Futurist discourse itself. That is. therefore were always and already inscribed in Futurist discourse. Similarly. moment by moment. by contrast. and one that the avant-garde cannot itself transcend. and therefore constituted a truly prescient moment in the history of art and literature. indeed. As such. threatening to “become purely affirmative by sublating the commodity into the value sphere of the aesthetic. the implication of the ‘post’ of ‘postmodernity’ in the temporal ideology it sought to dislodge. The movement could never be appropriated for a theory of a historical avant-garde simply because its very theoretical basis was designed to resist its fixture in historical time. as its paradigmatic 67 . suggested that alternative formulas for avant-garde art may. in which the new is instantaneously substituted for old. Futurism implicitly foreshadowed the logic of late capitalism.”51 He sees Italian Futurism as illuminating a possible liberating contradiction in a society that had already consigned such contradictions to the liminal arenas of war and aesthetic experience. in addition to constituting the first twentieth-century avant-garde movement. rather seeking to occupy a state of flux as a perpetually emergent principle. Andrew Hewitt argues that modernism’s association with commodification became implicit from the moment that modern artworks began to command high prices on the open market. and that post-war avant-gardes engaged in the thematisation of their own ‘precommodified’ art. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and automobile circa 1909. Yale University). One further note must be added on the serious question of fascism and irrationality within Marinetti’s manifestoes.”54 Although the movement before the First World War professed radical left political leanings. to simultaneously inspire a socio-cultural paradigm shift away from traditional bourgeois culture and a total transformation of human subjectivity by technological means. In doing so. In other words. fuelling the intoxicating hope for a new generation raised on a notion of Italy’s once and future significance that the country would transcend 68 . it is inscribed by the logic of the trans – it works across the boundaries of aesthetic paradigms like modernism or postmodernism. As Futurist scholar. “the vagaries and convolutions of the Futurists’ political manouevres before the First World War created a very complex picture that made it difficult to assign a coherent line or direction to Marinetti’s statements and manifestoes. but the ultimate transcendence of postmodernism by transmodernism. the Futurists attempted to synthesise change and changelessness. violence. the movement both inhabited the spirit of the avantgarde and transcended it. (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.Figure 7. Gunter Berghaus has argued. chauvinism and hypermasculinism had already set the scene for its 1918 conversion to fascism. war. moment. its preoccupation with nationalism. By linking their radical aesthetics to technological innovation. In championing eternal change Futurist discourse therefore simultaneously (and paradoxically) inhabits a state of changelessness. Italy’s unification during the nineteenth century had created the conditions for its emergence as a European power. incorporating the trans of Futurism as an always already emergent principle within its own project that intimated not only the emergence of a postmodern end to modernism. or progress and transcendence. Britain. Marinetti called for abolition of the Italian monarchy. An assembly of young industrialists. some towards the radical right. like the aesthetic movement before it. and the world had already been divided between the older capitalist powers. subject to extreme contradictions. Marinetti’s first Futurist political manifesto of 1918 suggested moderate social changes that reflected the movement’s anarcho-sydicalist beginnings. However. More radical ideas included the expulsion of the papacy. engineers and tradesmen would replace parliament. societal.57 However. not least because the question of a potential descent into fascism rears up again and again throughout each of the following chapters on transcendence and technology. including an eight-hour day and equal pay for women. some back to the radical left. precludes an extended inquiry into the history. a government of twenty specialists responsible to an assembly of young men under thirty should replace it. arguing for a celebration of tradition. had seemed revolutionary and antagonistic devolved into the irrationality of fascist sloganeering. “[is] this extravagant buffoon who wants to play politics and whom nobody in Italy. the second-wave of Futurism following immediately after the First World War slipped easily and fatally into fascist ideology. prior to the war. Marinetti’s anarchic and contradictory politics lead him ultimately to an irrational epistemology somewhat fuelled by 69 . agriculturalists. takes seriously. however. If this assembly could not function.” 56 This discussion of Marinetti’s proto-transmodernism. it is crucial to mark the link between irrationality and transcendence at the nucleus of Futurist theory. Of Marinetti’s departure from the fascist parliament in 1920 Mussolini articulated just how much Italian fascism depended on Futurism when he exclaimed that Marinetti. an extensive nationalization of land for distribution among veterans. Futurist fascism was. compulsory gymnastics. Aesthetic rhetoric that. Italy’s run towards capitalism and industrialisation had come too late. The resulting impotence in turn fed the Italian Futurist. Soon after. easy divorce. and cultural change on a grand scale.55 As the cultural expression of this rage against being left out of the race for imperial and colonising capitalist power. and contradictions of Futurist fascism as has already been comprehensively discussed by Berghaus. Yet. Communist. urgently demanding political. heavy taxes on both acquired and inherited wealth. and Germany. And as soon as Mussolini turned to the right and conservative politics. and free love. France. and Fascist desire to destroy the existing status quo.its obsession with the past and transform into a modern capitalist economy. Marinetti and the Futurist political party broke its once close ties to the fascist government and spiralled off in multiple political directions. not even I. causes. ” its most widely disseminated text. it indicated a number of strategies for revolutionising the modern subject.”59 This inner journey is often then figuratively transposed onto a real world expedition in which a seeker must trace the symbolic markers of his/her stages towards life-changing new awareness. And this conflation of vertical and horizontal transcendence remains a very real problem for the logic of the trans. By employing established metaphors of spiritual transformation to articulate the effects of burgeoning technological progress. ON THE ROAD TO TRANSCENDENCE The trans of Italian Futurism is never clearer than when the movement’s aesthetic output fuses a celebration of technological change with mystical metaphors of changelessness. celebrating the destructive gesture in order to create the new. which then acts as a coded map of the inner realms for subsequent seekers to decipher and revisit. 58 The mystic traditions are replete with references to pilgrimages. in other words. including art’s role in transforming society. In this he conflated vertical and horizontal transcendence. where the kind of mystical experience or changelessness precipitated by new technologies for the Futurists is translated by Marinetti into change for change’s sake and the notion that this technological transcendence would result in the emergence of a Futurist ubermensch. each symbolically expressing the search for enlightenment as a journey of selfdiscovery. providing a lexicon of technospiritual metaphors that still influences contemporary technocultural discourse. and quests. “Know thyself – and thou shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe. the mystic undertakes an interior investigation to seek this creative force within. not by refusing the possibility of vertical transcendence itself but by understanding the potential to exchange changelessness for pure change or. paths. the new 70 . travels. As a handbook to Futurism. the “Founding Manifesto” both implicitly acknowledged the traditional language of transformation that unites scientific/ technological and religious discourse and offered a new means to aesthetically express the modern technological era that continues to affect our perceptions of technological innovation. fulfilling the maxim of that ancient Greek aphorism. Any transmodern approach must remain always alert to the intellectual dangers of irrational epistemology inherent in the transcendent experience. And this secular mystical quest is evident at the very inception of Italian Futurism. In considering Self and reality an expression of a single divine energy. in “The Founding Manifesto of Futurism.his desire to employ technology to transform himself and Italian society. soon translate into a physical journey when they are suddenly brought back to reality by the “mighty noise of the huge double-decker trams. alone. phenomenological.” that is. at a crucial moment where the past recedes and the promise of a new future begins to unfold. like much of Futurist art. and on our feet. It is as if the Futurists have spent the night in a mania. There is a sense of epiphany in the “immense pride” they feel “alone at that hour. 71 . signalling it is time for the young men to happily race towards Self-destruction at top speed. Marinetti’s prose in the manifesto represents a literal death drive that begins with an initial realisation of the modern problem. have finally come to a point of clarity. standing tall “on the last promontory of centuries. like proud beacons or forward sentries against an army of hostile stars glaring down at us from their celestial encampments. cultural.” arguing away their “atavistic ennui” and “frenzied[ly] scribbling” their proposal for a transformation of art and culture. Their metaphysical musings. trains. awake. and automobiles. “The famished roar of automobiles. and by the time Marinetti begins his account of the evening.” an irresistible force Marinetti likens to the natural disaster of a rapid. The meditative tone of the manifesto’s allegorical preamble therefore sees Marinetti holding court all night in a Symbolist-styled Eastern setting of “hanging mosque lamps with domes of filigreed brass.religion of speed. and the future merging of human and machine. in order to throw themselves into the conflagration of technology and history so as to be radically transformed. however.” acts as a Futurist call to arms. It also advocated a form of mystical action. These lines establish the protoFuturist group as a new kind of technological avant-garde.” with only the “hellish fires of great ships” and the “red-hot bellies of locomotives” to keep them company in their vigil. The “Founding Manifesto” therefore mapped the conventional accounts of mystical transformation onto an early twentieth century journey towards social. and subjective transcendence. inspired by a technological imaginary of ships. creating a ready-made mythology that provided in thaumaturgical prose the rules by which modernity must follow its predestined path to a technological future. destructive flood that sweeps away the past. the moment of reflection doesn’t last long. Initially this has a disquieting effect on the group – “the silence deepened” – but.” and “rich oriental rugs. and concluding with a symbolic dialogue with Otherness. followed by a dogged pursuit of an identified ideal perceived as its solution. suggesting that technology could exponentially reduce travel times to the ultimate destination of a perfected future. A discourse of the future must definitively annihilate the dialectics of history. For Marinetti. The slavish worship of classic and Renaissance art led only to a lack in the experimentation and innovation necessary to reinvigorate art and society.61 that Futurist discourse becomes most strident. introducing new ideas beyond normative understanding to fundamentally alter historical perspectives and produce a new kind of being attuned to the constant change required to be truly. academies. In deifying its own history Italian culture had both over-determined and constrained artists by enshrining the past as an unattainable perfection.”63 Only by shattering the past’s hold on the present could the subject/artist/ Futurist hope to be prepared for a state of radical Otherness. and yet to claim Marinetti enjoyed destruction for destruction’s sake (as Walter Benjamin would later suggest) would be to miss the point of the poet’s fascination with destroying history’s hold on culture. Rather than advocating destruction as an aesthetic event. fundamentally modern. We mean to free her from the numberless museums that cover her like so many graveyards.” monarchies or monasteries was simply the necessary foundation for a Futurist transcendence. which provided both aesthetic and economic placebos to Italy’s industrial lag behind the rest of Europe. as yet unaware.Awoken from their Symbolist surroundings by the dawning age of technological innovation (“the splendour of the sun’s red sword” of progress). To eradicate history completely and with it all the cultural burdens of “museums. history smothered emerging artists and devalued their attempts to create new art by always measuring them against antiquity. 72 . archaeologists. the would-be Futurists rush to witness the first heraldic charge of machines against a stagnant and backward-looking Italian culture. For too long has Italy been a dealer in second-hand clothes. libraries. Marinetti now stalks Death: “like young lions we ran after Death.62 The arrival of the “first flight of Angels” – man-made mystical cyborgs that have taken the next step on the evolutionary ladder towards perfection and prophesise the end of corporeal time for an uninitiated. Futurism can be read as being locked in a battle with the forces of death and destruction. and particularly with the sentimental fascination with death and selfdestruction in Symbolism. passeist milieu intent on maintaining its grip on the past – heralds the machine as divine: a final judgement against corporeality. 60 It is against the pervasive idolatry of the past. ciceroni and antiquarians. resulting in an entrenched stagnation of culture at a conceptual level that would violently resist any form of change: … we want to free this land from its smelly gangrene of professors. in what Kevin Rozario has called “the culture of calamity. progress and evolution are perceived as animating forces. the threat of death posed by the speeding car acts as an élan vital — just one of the dynamic possibilities that could be revealed by a life of extreme acceleration. in art. that of becoming. an ideology that also advocates an industrialised process of perpetual becoming that privileges momentary transcendence over the fixed in time and space: “To the conception of the imperishable. Marinetti simultaneously acknowledges the limitless cycle of conception and destruction that goes hand in glove with capitalist technological progress. and the ephemeral.64 Appropriating Bergson’s theories of time. shocking us out of our everyday stupor into an experience of the Real.” and indeed all Futurist art. the immortal.”66 In explicitly highlighting the spiritual metaphors that underpin all discourses of progress and evolution. internalising a literature of transcendence that oscillates between destruction and reconstruction. test the bolts and hinges” of his existence by submitting his flesh to the inexorable logic of flux. Death here is both cause for celebration and the precursor to momentous change.69 As Marinetti “lay[s] amorous hands on the torrid breasts of his car. in the process of becoming-machine. at that point of flux in which the possibilities of the future are always already available. the transitory. “like a corpse on its bier. we oppose. Slavov Žižek has noted that catastrophic events are “obviously libidinally invested. for celebrating the “space of possibilities. and links it to the price his flesh must pay if he is to exchange his organic body for a machine-assisted transcendence by sensually measuring himself against his car. the text marks a moment when religious metaphors for achieving perfection are cannibalised by capitalist progress.”65 Therefore. That is.Marinetti’s acceleration through the streets of Milan is therefore driven by an irresistible urge to celebrate the regenerating possibilities of destruction. to emerge like a phoenix from the ashes of the past. the perishable. The termination of the corporeal and its transformation into technological Other is a necessary condition for inhabiting the future. always symbolises a new beginning. ruin and renewal.”70 The “Founding Manifesto” uses the “typical erotic lexicon of mysticism”71 to invest the integration of man and machine as an erotically charged brush with death – a “raging broom of madness” that sweeps them “out of ourselves” and into a reckless motor race towards an 73 . Interestingly.” he acknowledges this eroticism of catastrophe. rather than spelling the end for Marinetti. to “shake the gates of life. the spectre of death in the “Founding Manifesto.”68 that the adrenalin-fuelled charge associated with surviving a catastrophe often results in a heightened physical and emotional response to the perilous event.”67 Simultaneously calamitous and creative. spurring the Futurists on to new heights of awareness and action as they seek to wring meaning from adversity. The language Marinetti has used to this point fairly flies along as it keeps pace with the racing Futurists. Here again is Futurism’s link to mystical literature detailing the symbolic journey of transcendence. until it is brought to an abrupt halt by the outdated technology of the bicycles. Marinetti’s path to transformation begins with this moment. This is a curious moment in the manifesto. seek to capture this moment of technology’s failure? Perhaps because here is a visual record of the precise moment of Marinetti’s transcendence. a cataclysmic jolt that propels him into a new way of seeing the world. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's wrecked car in a ditch. of creating art. 1908 (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. why did Marinetti. Yet. the passionate self-appointed representative for the endless potentiality of machines.Figure 8. and writing literature. The “Founding Manifesto” is therefore a Futurist 74 . that is until a near collision with two angry cyclists results in his car upending in a ditch. with the car’s breakdown leading to a concomitant breakthrough of Futurist consciousness. stimulated by the libidinal rush of surviving catastrophe. incorporeal future.”72 The event is immortalised in a 1908 photograph showing Marinetti’s car overturned in a deep ditch in the Italian countryside surrounded by more than thirty curious onlookers (Figure 8). The photograph is a metaphor for the kind of rapturous attention technological catastrophe holds for both Marinetti and the onlookers – even wrecked the machine draws a fascinated crowd. Yale University). “like two equally convincing but nevertheless contradictory arguments. and sleep. the punch and the slap. We intend to sing the love of danger. 2.” an image both childlike and erotically-charged as Marinetti springs reborn from the crash to unveil the manifesto’s incendiary tenets of Futurism. who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth. We stand on the last promontory of the centuries! … Why should we look back. audacity. sharp. 4. 8. 6. The descriptive prose of the manifesto’s early passages gives way to a short.creation myth in which maker and made. like serpents of explosive breath—a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace. We want to hymn the man at the wheel. a self that has died and been reborn. strident attack on European social and cultural traditions. artist and technology. a feverish insomnia.73 Having conveniently created for himself a near-death experience that infuses him with “the white-hot iron of joy. 5. Courage. and those “living” yet to achieve Futurist transcendence. and challenging. the habit of energy and fearlessness. to swell the enthusiastic fervour of the primordial elements. the manifesto’s key message is condensed into eleven statements designed to define a new religion and a new art: 1.74 Immediately the Futurist articulates a divide between his newly transformed self. succinct. and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry.” Marinetti is finally ready to have done with history and “declare our high intentions to all the living of the earth” (Marinetti’s italics). Poetry must be conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces. when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors 75 . the racer’s stride. 3. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes. Except in struggle. The poet must spend himself with ardour. Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility. ecstasy. splendour. to reduce and prostrate them before man. fuse to create a new vision for the future. and generosity. resolute. The language transforms. We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. We intend to exalt aggressive action. along the circle of its orbit. No work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece. The “good factory muck” that he is forced to swallow instantly recalls an infant memory of the “blessed black breast of my Sudanese nurse. there is no more beauty. the mortal leap. indicating a linguistic breakdown inspired by the irrevocable transformation of cheating death. 7. by pleasure.” Beauty is to be measured by struggle. and scorn for woman. bridges that stride the rivers like giant gymnasts. we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervour of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons. We will destroy the museums. Marinetti cheerfully predicts his own death by a mob of younger artists:77 76 . beautiful ideas worth dying for. adventurous steamers that sniff the horizon.” culminating in the destruction of even the Futurists themselves.of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. because we have created eternal. aggression.” mediated by images of technology – “A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes… is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace. yet-to-be-realised future – “Why should we look back.”76 Literature and art from this moment forth is only to concern itself with the new “beauty of speed. circling its orbit. who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth. we will sing of the multicoloured. to reduce and prostrate them before man. factories hung on clouds by the crooked lines of their smoke. replacing them with energetic metaphors like “the man at the wheel. and revolt over a “pensive immobility. beautiful and idealised female bodies into a new way of thinking. omnipresent speed. We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism. 10.75 The initial tenets privilege action. patriotism. polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals. when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible?” The manifesto goes on to elaborate further on the Futurist desire to destroy history in favour of the future. flashing in the sun with a glitter of knives. deep-chested locomotives whose wheels paw the tracks like the hooves of enormous steel horses bridled by tubing. every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice. to “glorify war – the world’s only hygiene. We will sing of great crowds excited by work. feminism. greedy railway stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents. and the sleek flight of planes whose propellers chatter in the wind like banners and seem to cheer like an enthusiastic crowd. where only those willing to surrender to the inexorable logic of the machine will progress to a transcendent. and by riot. 11. energy. the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers. libraries. will fight moralism. academies of every kind.” Futurism is the beginning of the new era. and poetry is “a violent attack on unknown forces. 9.” designed to shock a Symbolist literati saturated with images of languid. We already live in the absolute. transformations of consciousness and corporeality. and technology as conduit to the godhead that bypasses traditional religious understandings of the term. society. and experimental styles – “Each generation must build its own city” on the remains of the old. Futurist manifestoes are intensely fascinated with ontological questions – the nature of reality. Art can be nothing but violence. in fact. Art. panting with scorn and anguish. cruelty.78 Here Marinetti comes to the penultimate realisation that even as the pursuit of the new immediately sanctions the death of the old in Futurist theory. and all of them. and describe the merger of corporeality with machines to produce hybrid organic/inorganic bodies whose new 77 . driven by hatred: the more implacable it is the more their hearts will be drunk with love and admiration for us. other stronger. strong and sane. movements. will break radiantly from their eyes. access to the divine. The Futurist axiom of constant change is thus simultaneously re-inscribed as changelessness. It becomes a movement deeply concerned with revolutionary transcendence – in art. and with these words Marinetti becomes the secular prophet of technological mysticism. exasperated by our proud daring. will hurtle to kill us. cruelty. Marinetti can put his life on the line for his art because for him death is no longer a finality. Injustice. can be nothing but violence. but a condition of creativity. Italian Futurism is littered with quasi-mystical machines. and injustice. younger men will probably throw us in the waste basket like useless manuscripts – we want it to happen!80” With the invincibility of youth. with the Futurists manning the first barricades of the generation gap using art and technology as weapons against an encroaching sense of the past: “The oldest of us is thirty: so we have at least a decade for finishing our work. it will also eventually consign Futurism itself to the scrap heap.79 The stirrings of a burgeoning youth culture that would reach its apotheosis in May 1968 is evident in these lines. PRAYING TO THE DIVINE VELOCITY81 From the “Founding Manifesto” on. When we are forty. They imagine a post-religious transcendence achieved with the aid of technological innovation. mass culture. and injustice because culture is a constant battle between generations.They’ll storm around us. Marinetti’s car crash allows him to endlessly defer causality and indefinitely forestall death. and the subject. Whether through merging with the “divine velocity” of new technologies of speed or privileging flux. however. Training the mind to focus on the momentary (whether through following the breath. linking new technologies of the early twentieth century with age-old spiritual metaphors. yet they are identified by the conceptual mind as a single continuous Self. like waves on an ocean. as possessor of this imagined continuity. in particular.”82 The perpetually changing nature of the human experience of reality is.” God (or godhead) – which would seem initially to pose an antithesis to Marinetti’s championing of constant frenetic energy and desire to convey in both art and life the principle that “all things are rapidly changing. repeating a mantra. arising and dissolving and arising again. thought. The ‘I’ of the next moment arises afresh. including Buddhist philosophies that hold what we call reality is rather an ever-shifting tapestry of momentary perceptions with very little grounding in truth.cyborg supremacy separate them from a reliance on history. emotions. Therefore. the Italian Futurist movement is marked by a very Cartesian desire to swap the sorry disillusionment of matter for a realm of pure. These two ‘I’s cannot be said to be the same or different. sunyata is an endlessly creative experience of being. a cessation of all the ‘elaborations’ created by the mind and its contexts that for Buddhists constitute the underlying nature of the Real. 78 . For Mahayana Buddhism. the self springs into existence moment to moment. rather than recounting the sense of ‘emptiness’ that follows the transcendent state as a nihilistic void bereft of all meaning. It is Marinetti’s concept of art-action that first raises – and paradoxically – the question of Futurist mysticism. Paradoxically because mysticism has traditionally been characterised as a contemplative. the experience of sunyata reveals to the subject an Otherness that is pregnant with possibility and signification. and memories that constitute a coherent Self. free-ranging consciousness unbound by flesh – a major theme of mystical literature that emerges once again in contemporary cyberculture. The ‘I’ of one moment dissolves and is gone. 83 Subjective reality is simply an illusion of continuity – a succession of discrete moments. introspective endeavour completed in isolation – an ongoing search for the ultimate “lost Object. or contemplating philosophical concepts like compassion) eventually leads to a revelation of pure emptiness or sunyata – the Buddhist equivalent of vertical transcendence. The concept of sunyata is intriguing for this exploration of Futurist transcendent metaphors as. Beyond the desires inherent in a process of becoming. the plurality of phenomena we call reality is ‘dependent-arising’ and not inherently existent. In this. and space. also a central fixture in many mystical texts. time. and spectator work together to remain open to the self-revealing presence of the Other. as publicist extraordinaire for his Futurist movement realised that in the long run the scandal of a brawl worked far better at disseminating Futurist thought than bland. typography and rhetoric.86 By claiming that the privileging of time over space would inevitably lead to a state of perpetual and unthinking action. Marinetti. existentially. Experimental art would instigate an impulsive surge of furious action within the subject. almost corporeal identification with Futurist values and images. His manifestoes synthesise action and mystical experience – indeed he described the Futurists as “the mystics of action” – borrowing from Bergson the notion that constant flux led to a new experience of the Real that appears remarkably similar to a Buddhist experience of sunyata. The similarities between a mystical notion of transcending the unpredictable nature of reality to achieve an experience beyond the everyday and the Futurist call to mystical 79 . Futurism sought immediate unreflective action. and when this impulse was acted upon en masse.Marinetti’s pursuit of the momentary. bypassing conventional modes of rational persuasion. Never mind if this violence was re-directed toward the artist. 85 His manifestoes and novels rather aimed to revolutionise syntax. and phenomenologically can be read as an attempt to capture a direct experience of being that exists only from moment to moment and encourages the spontaneous emergence of the shockingly new with each consecutive instant. Marinetti suggested. The physical reaction of the spectator. whole societies could be revolutionised. for only in continual movement could real progress be made. passive spectatorship.” but it is unreflective action with a distinct purpose. employed constant frenetic action rather than meditation to achieve a similar goal of transcendence. a melding of mind and body bent upon a single purpose. Marinetti was providing a roadmap for achieving a state of transcendence facilitated by technological speed.84 Marinetti therefore approaches the transcendent experience from the perspective of modernity. artist. And while such a project represents a radical divergence from traditional religious paths to transcendence as described by mystical literatures. and urging his fellow Futurists to be constantly moving forward at all costs. much like pressing the ignition button on an automobile. however. and seeking to thrust the audience into a sensual. would lead to a heightening of individual consciousness. Walter Adamson has noted that. and his refusal to stand still intellectually. “rather than attempting to influence thinking and trusting that appropriate action would follow. Marinetti’s reinsertion of the contemplative subject inside the maelstrom of everyday life nevertheless sought to create a feedback system where Futurist artwork. technological speed allowed him instant synthesis with the sacred. dangerous and hostile but sufficiently domesticated to carry him swiftly over the curves of the earth. Marinetti sought to instigate change via the fastest route possible.” Marinetti is overt about Futurism’s opposition to an institutionalised Christianity that has lost a sense of sacred transcendence: “Christian morality served to develop man’s inner life. and all the spontaneous knowledge such a flash of epiphany implies: “The intoxication of great speeds in cars is nothing but the joy of feeling oneself fused with the only divinity” (Marinetti’s italics).” which “defend[s] man from the decay caused by slowness. the beauty of speed. In his 1916 manifesto. and camel to display his divine authority through an increase in speed… From space man stole electricity and then the liquid fuels. because it has been emptied of all divinity. to ally himself with his fuels and electricity.89 Nature is here predictably cast as technology’s binary opposite. creating “a new beauty. by repose and habit. contemplative routes. Marinetti advocated the emergence of a post-religious state in which transcendence into otherness could be achieved without the mediation or traditions of the Church.”87 The manifesto claims direct access to transcendence can only be achieved with the mediation of technology. like that of a horse’s gallop.”90 Ever a man in a hurry. Today it has lost its reason for existing. always arabesques and zigzags. an enemy to technological transcendence because it follows circuitous. elephant. By linking religious metaphors to technological speed in this way. Marinetti had illustrated how a mystical experience would occur when the subject’s 80 . Man mastered horse. has a history of exploiting the natural world to create the pure speed of new technologies and “master Time and Space:” Man envied the rhythm of torrents. “The New Religion-Morality of Speed. giving rise to radically new ways of seeing. He thereby assembled an army of slaves. being.”88 Man. Here new technologies would aid subjects in maintaining a constant state of motion. by analysis. Marinetti explains.action to transcend normative states is made further explicit in Marinetti’s religion of speed. Man shaped the metals he had conquered and made flexible with fire. “never straight lines. to make new allies for himself in the motors.91 In his “Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature” (1912). and representing the world through art. By disconnecting humanity from the earth. by memory. 81 . Such a move transmutes Marinetti from mere translator of the technologically transcendent moment to its creator. and two flat feet. the writer is therefore compelled to rethink the very structure of language to convey his new vision – it is not enough to experience transcendence. to drag them out of their prison in the Latin period! Like all imbeciles. and of creating art: Sitting on the gas tank of an aeroplane. one must also pass the knowledge on – and as new technologies of speed provide the context for this fundamental shift in the artist/author’s understanding of the world. to take a short run. when I flew two hundred metres above the mighty chimney pots of Milan. and then stop short. Just enough to walk. repositioning him as divine superhuman with a direct line to the Absolute. panting! This is what the whirling propeller told me. A pressing need to liberate words. Marinetti’s “pressing need to liberate words” to “break apart the old shackles of logic and plumb lines of the ancient way of thinking” is the realisation that normative language is not up to the task of expressing a technologically inspired transformation of consciousness. and Geometrical and Mechanical Splendour and the Numerical Sensibility” (1914). do more than express a transcendence of consciousness through technology. believing absolutely in the thaumaturgical power of his own words. Marinetti also sought to inspire transcendence in the reader. it is unsurprising that these technologies feature prominently in Marinetti’s attempts to convey his experience of transcendence to others. a stomach. the linguistic reconstructions posited by Marinetti in this and later manifestoes.92 Seeing his home town from the cockpit of an aeroplane for the very first time.normative perception of reality was unutterably shattered by the experience of pure speed – giving rise to radically new ways of thinking.93 As Michel De Certeau has suggested. my stomach warmed by the pilot’s head. such as the “Deconstruction of Syntax. I sensed the ridiculous inanity of the old syntax inherited from Homer. this period naturally has a canny head. but it will never have two wings.94 However. two legs. An essential component of human progress. and everyone is so used to taking it in a religious sense. a perpetual dynamism of thought.”95 Futurism. published just two years before Marinetti’s first Futurist manifesto. unstable. While Bergson’s élan vital.Marinetti’s desire to rethink the structure of language recalls a 1912 article by Belgian writer.” has often been cited as a central influence on Marinetti’s manifestoes.98 Both writers were the product of a turbulent period in European thought in which the rise of secularism in Catholic countries was being hotly debated. Joly suggests the Futurists attempt to convey a sudden revelatory experience that eludes translation by creating an utterly new significatory lexicon. Auguste Joly. And both argued that the subject could achieve transcendence without the rituals inherent in normative religious practices.96 Where traditional artistic representation translates normative reality for an audience.”97 Marinetti’s understanding of dynamism here is obviously further indebted to Bergson’s work. As Marinetti insisted: “The Futurist lyricism. mysticism is the direct experience of the élan vital. himself somewhat of a mystic. is mystical precisely because it seeks to express an unmitigated perception of the world uncoupled from religious mores: …those who maintain a direct sense of things. explaining the connection between Futurism and mysticism by emphasising the movement’s “direct sense of things. was receiving both popular and academic acclaim. According to Bergson. and symphonic universe that is forging itself in us and with us. the élan vital is the source of two very different perceptions of religion and morality that echo Marinetti’s quarrel with Christian morality in “The New Religion-Morality 82 . at a time in which Bergson’s Creative Evolution. is alone able to express the ephemeral. the transcendent creative force that propels life forward to develop ever-new forms in a process of perpetual innovation or becoming.99 Both were interested in preserving a sense of the sacred despite the growing secularist trend away from institutionalised religions. albeit by vastly different means. Only that this word [mysticism] has strayed so far from its meaning. that it seems difficult to understand when one declares that futurism is a new form of ancient mysticism. for Joly. an uninterrupted current of images and sounds. of life and of thought have as their true name that of mystics. It is well established that Marinetti was deeply involved in the philosophical and aesthetic culture of early twentieth century Western Europe. literally a “vital force. fewer critics have examined both writers’ shared interest in secular mysticism. of life and of thought. In so doing. by contrast. Bergson argued that religion necessarily comes into conflict with the very creative force it attempts to communicate. the experience of the mystic represents a privileged expression of the élan vital. however.100 The question for Bergson was how to communicate a direct experience of the élan vital? How does one speak the unspeakable? If. albeit in codified form. briefly social segments of reality. it would not be writing. but this would no longer be communicating something. as Bergson contended. dynamic religion offers a better solution for understanding and expressing creativity by: …working back from the intellectual and social plane to a point in the soul from which there springs an imperative demand for creation…To obey it completely new words have to be coined. According to Bergson. and disseminating their mystical experience to a wider audience of the faithful. He will revert to the simple emotion. or martyrs.” and Joly’s account of Futurist mysticism. Bergson claimed the myths of static religion had a somnolent effect on believers. to do violence to speech (italics added). following the path of the mystic) allows for a very different way of experiencing the movement of life. re-inscribing mystics as saints. and dynamic religion (the mystic’s direct link to the transcendent experience). new ideas would have to be created. then one solution is presented by static religion’s assimilation of the mystic experience into its myth-making machine. to the form that yearns to create its matter. Bergson would later characterise these two forms of religion as static religion (represented by institutionalised religion’s reliance on myth-making and spiritual rules to enshrine the transcendent within a reified narrative able to be communicated en masse). Yet the writer will attempt to realise the unrealisable. In addition.”101 It is Bergson’s characterisation of dynamic religion. All along the way he will feel it manifesting itself in signs borne of itself… He will be driven to strain the words. but rather seeks to shatter conventional meaning and language. words that already exist. and will go with it to meet ideas already made. rather than connecting them directly to the creative force. prophets. that links seamlessly with Marinetti’s own mania for dynamism and a new religion of speed. Following the élan vital’s constant revolutionising force (that is. as the perpetual becoming of the élan vital cannot be contained.of Speed.102 83 . constituting “tales on a par with those with which we lull children to sleep. culture. the mystical summons up the mechanical. fragmentation. in which he exhorts a language “de la violence et de la precision” (violence and precision). and society would undergo an evolving creative transformation. Marinetti’s multiplied man is a proto-cyborg able to 84 . language for the Futurist must be shattered and reinvested with new meaning precisely because the experience occurs outside all standard frames of reference. Henry Maassen. the dynamism created by the space opened up by mysticism is the force majeure that will create the modern world. and antagonism in the face of incessant technological change. just as imperious and increasingly numerous. the mystical experience of transcendence short-circuited via technology opened up a space for a radicalised future in which all aspects of individual subjectivity. who is fed by electricity.105 Mechanism without mysticism for Bergson created a deadlock. which lies at the heart of Italian Futurism and points the way to both a postmodern proliferation of the everyday into the aesthetic object and a concomitant transmodern sacralising of the everyday. The mystic represented the cusp of human evolution whose task it was to use new technologies to liberate humanity from a reliance on static religion: "Man will rise above earthly things only if a powerful equipment supplies him with the requisite fulcrum. And he also heralded the emergence of a new kind of being – the multiplied man – “who mixes himself with iron. It is the space of creative becoming. He must use matter as a support if he wants to get away from matter.104 Likewise for Marinetti.” and whose “roots are” therefore “cut. Marinetti welcomed the perpetual dynamism of modernity as the necessary condition for unveiling a world beyond the bounds of time and space. that everything is an emerging art form. on the art of manifesto writing. In other words.Bergson’s conviction that to transmit the experience of transcendence in its entirety the mystic must do violence to language and create new ways of writing is echoed in Marinetti’s 1910 letter to Belgian painter. Bergson emphasised mysticism as an antidote to what he saw as “something frenzied” about a Western civilisation caught up in a one-sided pursuit of wealth and power.”106 Marinetti held no such reservations about progress – to be modern was to experience an unremitting state of contradiction. For Bergson. Rather than externalising himself into his artwork. It is this idea. with the artist as the ultimate creator. all would become art. It opens up a space that must be filled with new idioms. But rather than casting it as demonic becoming. No sooner were old needs satisfied than “new needs arise. alienation.103 In the face of a transformative collision with the Other." (italics added). from which the new will seek perpetual emergence.”107 In short. That is. the artist as creator externalises the transcendent experience and the work of art becomes a record of the subject’s transformation into Otherness. his only purpose to maintain a state of constant change. eradicating human frailty and instilling a new sense of freedom that promised mastery over Self and nature. omniscient. who in transcending mere human matter would be better equipped to face the coming transformation of a technological age.111 Centuries of mystical literature have characterised the perfection of mind as a precursor to transcendence. the Futurists could further refashion themselves as artist/gods. animalistic past. “which is always right even when it is wrong. Marinetti’s multiplied man was in truth the apotheosis of a long history of desiring to shed the imperfect diseased or deficient body.”110 However. [that] will be naturally cruel.” Marinetti wrote. the revolutionary power of technology would also adapt human corporeality to cope with “the needs of a world of ceaseless shocks. hope. Inextricably linked with capitalist notions of perpetual progress he would be required to create and consume new technologies at an accelerated rate to preserve his state of perfection and ensure the continued transcendence of Self that allowed him to maintain his grasp on the future.combine both mechanism and mysticism. present and future could be created and discarded with equanimity according to the laws of continual flux. constructed for an omnipresent velocity. In doing so. able to transcend mere biology and become divinely Other. control of all world systems. of the Self or simply the material world in an 85 . M I N D O V E R M AT T E R As an early model of transhumanism. Remodelled on the template of the ideal machine. Marinetti’s multiplied man exemplified the Futurist desire to transgress the limitations of the imperfect human body by infusing it with the immortality of metal.” a “mechanical being. The ultimate technophilic dream of “escape velocity” inherent in a technological flight from matter represents a quest that has its antecedents in accounts of mystical transcendence.”109 By augmenting the body with the force and speed of industrial machinery and merging maker and made. culminating in late twentieth-century cyberpunk fiction’s vilification of the corporeal as meat. struggle. Technology would raise consciousness to a higher level. inevitable identification of man with motor” promised humanity could finally progress beyond its fragile. it could become “nonhuman. despite all his posturing about the future. life. “the imminent. “Put your trust in Progress.” 108 If art and self. because it is movement. it represented the first of many technocultural volleys against the corporeal over the next century. The new mechanical man would exist in a field of potentialities. power over life. and combative. future over past. procreative spirit of their respective visions of god. annihilated. or diseased body depended upon the past. weak. technology would also create an antidote to a diseased (Italian) social body."113 Marinetti’s fusion of the ailing corporeal body and an diseased Italian society repressed by a consumptive bourgeois culture preoccupied with the passive logic of the feminine draws heavily from Nietzsche’s notion of transcendence of the ‘merely’ human: All instincts that do not discharge themselves outwardly turn inward — this is what I call the internalisation of man: thus it was that man first developed what was called his ‘soul’. Christianity. a state that mimics the disembodied. Marinetti imagined a utopia where. Marinetti merely adopted the language of mysticism’s bodiless ecstasy for his multiplied man. those sole corrosive poisons of inexhaustible vital energy. Where the imperfect.” creating “a surplus of pleasure… An anarchy of perception. his vertical transcendence would precipitate a horizontal transcendence in his surrounding environment. The entire inner world… expanded 86 .112 Moreover. In seeking to delete the corporeal in favour of the mechanical. however. goodness of heart. The multiplied man’s triumph over temporality would. Marinetti’s immortal mechanical men were rendered immune to the sentimentality caused by the visceral connection of bodies to time. and Islam envision alternate versions of a bodiless life after death (although the Judaic and Christian concepts of the resurrection posit a re-embodiment at a appointed time in the future). physical existence was an evil from which the mind must escape via mystical wisdom. The bitter social question. He would also provide the igniting spark for transforming culture and society – in other words. and love. further positioning technological innovation as a secular mystical project. every instinct is brought to its greatest splendour. sole interrupters of our powerful bodily electricity…” and so could direct their energies to their future transformation. They could be bereft of “moral suffering. deferring an uncertain future by relying upon memory and past glories to sustain its relevance in the here and now. By recreating humanity from the template of the machine. also have repercussions beyond individual transcendence. In early Gnostic thought. affection. "Hunger and poverty disappear.eternal heavenly afterlife. All desire a fleshless state of consciousness in which the passage of time becomes immaterial. in offering a cure-all for the vulnerable body. Buddhists perceive the material world as a distraction from the pursuit of higher states of awareness. The financial question reduced to a simple matter of accounting. Judaism." and "every intelligence grows lucid. unbound by nature or excessive thought. forcing his ‘soul’ outward to externalise and displace mystical contemplation onto technological extension. Marinetti would argue. and become one with the “Nothing” that equals God. with wings sprouting from his very flesh. aviator. The body. His inner consciousness. 115 The machine. and nostalgic. Once fused with the machine. natural partner of time. And. would be emptied of all that was private. Sportsman. As Christine Poggi has written: The Futurist male. Encased in metal and fuelled by electricity the multiplied man is Marinetti’s counter-image to the entrapment of flesh associated with the feminine. sexual body. sentimental. must be replaced by the mechanism. also makes clear that the figure of the multiplied 87 . to transcend limits. modelled on the running motor.and extended itself.” characterised as the mystic elevation of the male self over the vagaries of a feminised Nature: Terrestrial speed = love of woman-earth (horizontal lust) = automobiles caressing lovingly white womanly curves. Marinetti’s multiplied man evinces a hyper-masculinity so overdeveloped that all traces of humanity are removed from the subject. This paragraph. he would be capable of astounding feats of physical prowess. male. however. "multiplied" by the machine. would exemplify a new superhuman hybrid adapted to the demands of speed and violence.116 Technological speed is here explicitly referred to as both horizontal (terrestrial speed) and vertical transcendence (perpendicular mysticism). The abolition of needful and time-bound corporeality was a “victory of our self over the coarse plot of our bodies. the new Futurist male will be able to externalize his will without resistance. was to grasp hold of the ineffable. to be party to one’s imminent destruction. 114 Nietzsche suggested that the controlled emotions of a prohibitive culture would inevitably lead to internal sickness and its eventual lingering death. was thus re-inscribed as the potentialised. or warrior. acquired depth. the car or aeroplane. Aerial speed = hatred of earth (perpendicular mysticism) spiralic elevation of the Self towards the Nothing = God = flexible Aviation laxative castor oil. the abolition of the body is thus the condition of the technologised self’s immortality. achieving each of his desires while reigning over space and time. To cancel out this cancerous inaction. characterised as pure power. breadth and height in the name of measure as outward discharge was inhibited. all-powerful machine. Marinetti’s discursive flight from the corporeal to the transcendent transhuman is always already compromised by the spectre of woman. or to express it better.” the multiplied man is to be “inoculated against the disease of Amore. casual contacts.”119 The figure of the feminine is dangerous to Futurist discourse precisely because she symbolises that which threatens to bar the transcendence of man into machine: “We despise horrible. from redoubling himself. have become a symbol of the earth that we ought to abandon. for Marinetti. the aviator. the chauffeur. it deviates from earlier.” reducing all exchanges with the feminine to “swift. As Cinzia Sartini Blum has noted.man as transcendent being is not unproblematic for the emergence of a transmodern moment. the marker of a somnambulant force inherent in mawkish forms of nineteenth-century art and literature that cancelled out masculine energy and thus the emergence of the multiplied man. dragging Amore that hinders the march of man. from going beyond himself and becoming what we call the multiplied man.”120 Weary of “the double alcohol of lust and sentiment. To tears of beauty brooding tenderly over tombs. which replaces woman in her traditional role as privileged aesthetic object.” Marinetti immediately pits his transcendent inorganic/organic hybrid against the feminine: All of this will have prepared you for one of our principal Futurist efforts. preventing him from transcending his own humanity.’ ‘metallized’ man who is invulnerable to love. and a superhuman ‘multiplied. for while it certainly represents Marinetti’s desire for a transformation of normative being into omniscient Otherness. namely the abolition in literature of the seemingly unchallengeable fusion of the two ideas Woman and Beauty. and yet hypervirile. we oppose the keen. more subjectively diffuse examples of Marinetti’s merging of mystical and technological metaphors by setting up an integral antipathy to the otherness of the feminine. cutting profile of the pilot. “have suddenly become too earthly. All references to the feminine must therefore be expurgated from the Futurist programme and replaced by incontrovertibly masculine imagery: “To the poetry of nostalgic memory we oppose the poetry of feverish expectation. which has reduced all of romanticism to a kind of heroic assault levelled by a bellicose and lyric male against a tower that bristles with enemies who cluster around the divine Beauty-Woman.”122 She is a constant reminder of the world of flesh and of human 88 . Indeed.118 The feminine symbolises for Marinetti an antithesis to art-action."117 In “Multiplied Man and the Reign of the Machine.”121 Women. "Futurism… celebrates a symbiosis between the seductive. for many centuries the primary creators of art. dragging attention away from a future in which the Futurist can forgo human frailty and autocreate himself into a supermachine. ‘I am already created’). social. while women. similarly. Natural reproduction has always been associated with women and motherhood and. Reference to the multiplied man’s ability to “redouble” himself highlights that what Marinetti really seeks is the removal of the power of reproduction from the realm of nature and the feminine. it has also been necessary to see reproduction as largely inevitable – borne along by the forces of nature that she can no more control than the tides. are viewed as incapable of directing their own corporeality. For much of human history. control over the creation of life has always been a site of cultural. men. His determination to excise all traces of the reproductive feminine in his construction of the transcendent multiplied man reflects the fundamental ontological anxiety that arises from the relationship of art and technology to life and suggests that Futurism (and indeed. Specifically. That is. acts as a direct challenge to biological/organic modes of reproduction (or. To make a place for the multiplied man. 89 . or the desire for technology. Marinetti must first recreate creation: he must usurp the role of reproduction from the feminine for himself. Yet this representation of female creation proves to be an unsteady metaphor that consequently produces an additional anxiety for phallogocentric texts like Marinetti’s: woman may not reproduce of her own volition but man is even further removed from the ability to direct the reproduction of the human race. and political contestation between the sexes.emotions. the physical and the embodied. twentieth-century technoculture). subject to the whims of nature. phallogocentrism’s association of woman with motherhood has implicitly aligned her with nature. biological replication is thus represented as an act of female creation that nevertheless cannot be viewed as a work of art. can be culturally constructed as real artists. then. the Futurist’s preoccupation with the prospect of ‘autocreation’ (‘I can create myself’). becomes the memetic cure for man’s ontological crisis. or abstract. and firmly placing it into the hands of man. Technophilia. against which man has found it necessary to avow his dominance over the cognitive. This anxiety has consistently been complicated by man’s relationship to technology. the earth. as technology offers the real possibility of removing the power of reproduction beyond the realm of nature and the feminine. replacing woman’s role as reproductive agent with that of the male artist as creator. because woman cannot truly shape its outcome. Therefore. logical. can often be read as a struggle to claim sovereignty over the act of reproduction. knowing tenderness of a lover caressing his adored mistress. a kind of reproduction-without-organs. attempts to side-step the problem of procreation by positing its colonisation by technology: Because you should know that I have engendered a son without the aid of the vulva… I concluded that it is possible to push from one’s flesh. in "The Battle of Tripoli" he equates his machine-gun with a femme fatale: "Ah yes! you. Marinetti’s texts ultimately redress the absence of the feminine other onto the machine other. and divine. If transmodernity can be understood as an ironic process by which modernity’s denied others are revealed as the always already vital elements of an interconnected whole. at the driving wheel of an invisible hundred horsepower.”123 As Poggi has noted."126 Haunted by the feminine he cannot escape. Marinetti’s 1910 novel.”125 Similarly. Mafarka the Futurist.producing technology as a necessary condition for the dominance of patriarchy.124 Unable to excise her completely. Every merger with the machine therefore becomes a merger with the feminine in Futurist discourse. Marinetti must instead re-inscribe his desire for the feminine onto the machine. The multiplied man’s masculinised hyper-virility is therefore placed in crisis by his implicit union with the feminine as machine. evident from the energy-producing caress he gives his wrecked car in the “Founding Manifesto” to his query in “Multiplied Man and the Reign of the Machine”: "Have you never seen mechanics lovingly washing the great powerful body of their locomotive? This is the minute. “it seems that nature. Our will must go forth from us to seize matter and modify it to our whims. the disavowed reproductive other that nevertheless haunts the margins of Marinetti’s desire for technological otherness. without the stinking complicity and help of the female womb. however. roaring and exploding with impatience. spirituality and 90 . where the dominant themes of the modern project are produced in the binary tension that vilifies as it creates. cannot be suppressed without leaving a palpable trace” in Marinetti’s texts. an immortal giant with infallible wings. and the feminine with which it is conflated. The multiplied man deletes feminine corporeality from technological transcendence even as it simultaneously re-inscribes her as technology. are a fascinating woman. This way we can mould everything that surrounds us and endlessly renew the face of the world… That is the new Voluptuousness which will rid the world of Love when I have founded the religion of the exteriorized Will and of daily Heroism. little machine gun. then despite Marinetti’s ability to aesthetically synthesise dichotomies like corporeality and incorporeality. and sinister. to terminate the meat in favour of the mind. in addition to sign-posting the ‘post of postmodernism. user-constructed space of virtuality. like Marinetti’s work.’ Marinetti also intimated transfuturism. Cyberpunk sends Marinetti’s multiplied men out onto the information superhighway to explore the metaphorical limits of the digital frontier as the Futurist’s mania for technological speed is transferred from the autobahn to the Infobahn. this transfuturism is split into two streams. predominated by the rise of the masculine technophile. as Hal Foster has noted. like Marinetti. emptied of any retrievable meaning. the feminine makes problematic Italian Futurism’s full realisation of the transmodern moment even as the movement sets the conditions for its emergence. human and machine. suggesting that. a yearning to restore his problematised masculinity (perhaps brought on by an emasculating Symbolist movement) that he attempts to externalise and replace with the figure of the machine as phallus. Nevertheless. The prospect of technological transcendence also fuels metaphorical forays into the online realm. Indeed. technophiles. then. the extension of his Futurist project into the future of modernity. just as the virtual subject will spiral into fracticalities.128 The machine replaces the feminine as phallus. 127 Further. And. Cyberspace therefore represents the ultimate fantasy of technophilia – subsuming the natural world into the simulated.technology. On the one hand. long to eradicate the interface between themselves and the machine. Marinetti – the ‘self-made’ man as potentially reproductive body – is interpenetrated by the machine that now stands in for his own exteriorized organ. As the ghost in the machine. Marinetti’s indomitable display of virility is really a demonstration of his Lacanian lack. the feminised machine constitutes the point at which his theories of technological transcendence become unstuck. or change and changelessness. and a new race of technological overmen is born. exchangeable on demand. The 91 . Italian Futurism’s continued relevance to contemporary cyberculture demonstrates substantial correlations between the movement’s aesthetic interpretations of new technologies and our own encounters with the dizzying pace of constant technological change. in claiming matter’s merger with machine as a path to transcendent perfection via histrionic performance – precisely “in a manner conventionally deemed feminine” – his crisis of masculinity is outwardly exposed. They prophesise the body will become hyperinvested as an infinite set of surfaces. Futurist claims that the burgeoning encroachments of modern technologies into everyday lives were a well-overdue breach of corporeal selfcontainment recur in late twentieth-century cyberpunk narratives that dissolve human consciousness into the machine to achieve immortality. 129 Yet cyberculture’s revisioning of Futurist technological transcendence in a post-capitalist world is also made problematic by the spectre of the feminine. It is an effort to bring all of life together in an integrated synthesis of ongoing growth and development” (Sandra Schneiders. emotions and thought. Guillame Apollinaire. and Olga Taxidou (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press. metaphors of transcendence can be found in the earliest religious scriptures. “The Founding Manifesto of Futurism” in Marinetti: Selected Writings. 1972). a synthesis of all laws that science is on the brink of discovering. activity and passivity. the Rig Veda (1500 BCE) and The Upanishads (870 BCE). R. eds. 3 In Eastern esoteric literature. Flint (London: Secker & Warburg. Heileman. When Marinetti dreamt of “one day being able to create a mechanical son. “Spirituality is a project of life-integration.” he not only rejoiced in the body’s impending erasure by technology and prefigured his own feminisation.“raging broom of madness” that spurred the Futurists to speed recklessly and “utterly [towards] the Unknown” is realised absolutely in the transportation of the subject into virtual space. 4 See David Tacey. “Spirituality in the Academy. 2003). The Spirituality Revolution (Harper Collins: Sydney. 1998). The Cubist Painters. 1993). Marinetti. which attempts to turn the history of equating technological transcendence with the masculine on its ear by recoding cyberspace as incipiently and dangerously feminine. he also set in motion a century’s fascination with reproduction via replication – a desire to wrest control of reproduction from the feminine. philosophical.” in Theological Studies 50 2. social and individual aspects of life. which further acts as an excess unbound by autocreation that threatens the masculinity of the technophilic subject. and linguistic limits of inorganic Otherness on the road to technospiritual transcendence. Futurist Manifestoes (New York: Viking Press.130 The feminisation of technology as object is therefore a recurring theme in cyberfeminism. 264. The following chapters will therefore pursue these two metaphorical forces in transfuturism – the masculine ubermensch and the feminine avatar – for what they can tell us about the metaphorical. Jane Goldman. (1989): 675. in Umbro Apollonio. See also Karen Armstrong. Notes 1 Enrico Prampolini.T. the fruit of pure will. involving body and spirit. which means that it is holistic. 92 5 . 2 F. The Futurist Stage (Manifesto). 1973). A History of God (London. in Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents. Vassiliki Kolocotroni. trans.W. 201. mostly centred in Milan and Florence. and opposed to parliamentary democracy. Flint (New York: Farrar. Marinetti did strenuously oppose the Fascists’ exaltation of existing institutions as “reactionary. 9. who fuelled the movement from its inception in 1909 to 1939. 14 Bergson. 179. “The Manifesto of Futurist Painting (1910)” in Manifesto: a century of isms. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books. 17 16 Marinetti.” and despite continuing to support the Fascists until his death in 1944. Flint. Henri Bergson. 7 As a result of limited space. MA: MIT Press. Let’s Murder the Moonshine: Selected Writings. Architect Antonio Sant’Elia drafted plans for a futurist city in La Citta Nuova (The New City) between 1912-1914. Giovanni Papini. Copportelli (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press. 12 13 Bergson. Flint and Arthur A. Marinetti.Words in Freedom (1913). The Inner History of Devices (Cambridge. 15 Frederich Nietzsche. Carra.” in R. which was absorbed into Benito Mussolini's Fasci di combattimento in 1919. although Marinetti remained the chief voice of the movement. The Futurist celebration of war saw most members of the movement join up for WWI and key artists like Boccioni and Sant’Elia were killed. Creative Evolution. “Destruction of Syntax. §636. and Giacomo Balla—signed their first manifesto in 1910. though its pre-war tendencies towards chauvinism. F.6 See chapter two for an extended discussion of memes.W. 2006). Gino Severini. Nevertheless.. However. The Futurist painters—Umberto Boccioni. Sherry Turkle.T. musicians. Strauss. Marinetti kick-started the Futurist movement after the war and. Marinetti founded the Futurist Political Party in early 1918. 1974). Will to Power. hypermasculinism. and combative rhetoric set the scene for its right-wing conversion. it is this ‘second wave’ of Futurism that marks its slide from aesthetic rhetoric into political fascism. 179. “Futurist Painting. celebrated violence. and Ardengo Soffici. “Destruction of Syntax . and architects. trans. and Italo Gamberini. Valentine de Saint-Point. 3. 2001). this thesis has largely restricted its discussion of Italian Futurism to the work of its main proponent and leader.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. joining Marinetti in his futurist endeavour was a wide range of painters.” 120. He was also one of the first musicians to theorise electronic music. and Giroux. Luigi Russolo. 120. Paul. Creative Evolution (London: Courier Dover Publications. Marinetti. while others moved away from the movement (Severini. 1991). Carlo Carrà. “Destruction of Syntax. Marinetti’s and the Futurists association with Mussolini’s Fascists lead to critical derision of the movement following WWII until parallels between their early manifestoes and the emerging world wide web and information society were recognised in the mid to late 1990s. Mary Ann Caws (Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution (St. the Futurists were radical nationalists. 167. It was never built – Sant’Elia died in WWI – although references to his work can be seen in the liquid architecture of Frank Gehry. Minnesota: Paragon House. Like the Italian Fascists.Imagination without Strings . 1998). ed. 120. he withdrew from politics for three years after walking out of the 1920 Fascist party congress in disgust. 93 . Marinetti. Composer Luigi Russolo’s early experiments in ‘noise music’ as an elaboration of his 1913 Manifesto. Marinetti. quoted in Steve McIntosh. Papini). The Art of Noises demonstrated the energy of futurist theories applied to music. 2007). To add further context. trans. ed. ed. 8 F. Futurist writers included Aldo Palazzeschi. R. 9 10 11 Umberto Boccioni.” in Marinetti: Selected Writings. T. This alliance lent offical acceptance to the movement and facilitated its artistic output from revolutionary zeal to passeiste conservatism. sculptors. 2008). Other futurist architects working towards the end of the movement in the early 1930s included Angiolo Mazzoni..W. Giovanni Michelucci. ” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. 1989). in a moment of calm (very relatively speaking) … Boccioni. but that blue smock and fluttering cravat make him look wild and dissolute. 7. “Founding Manifesto.W.” in Italian Art. Marinetti. introduction to Let’s Murder the Moonshine. The latter inveighing against the Futurists in gusts of insult and profanity.. a recital of verses made up of lights and shadows is impossible. introduction to Let’s Murder the Moonshine. ed. Marinetti e i futuristi. 1985). 7. Fabbri Bompiano. Marinetti. the room was beginning to divide into two: friends and enemies. After the noise unchained by Boccioni. Marinetti. Avant Guerre. 94 . lake-painters. trans. Michel Foucault.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. (Milano: Garzanti. “The Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe. landscapers. See Marjorie Perloff. 34 35 Maurizio Calvesi. eds. 1900-1990: An Anthology of Ideas.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. Futurist expositions are remembered and described as carnivalesque in nature: Suddenly a storm broke out in the orchestra seats. Marinetti. unthinkable. Sonzogno. F. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Marinetti. Umbro Apollonio. Futurist Manifestoes (New York: Viking Press. 2000). 1973).18 19 Marinetti. R. “The Pleasure of Being Booed. 1988). attractively nervous. seaquake. Stephen Kern. “Viva Marinetti! … Idiots! … Cretins! Sons of whores!” The whole was crowned by a rain of vegetables. 151. 1994). Apollonio. 1900-1945. 32-33. mountainists…. The theatre is in full revolt. 1993). ed. and the Language of Rupture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 182-3. “Futurism and the Avant-garde Movements. 7. Translated using Google Translate. 59. 1973). “Futurist Painting. All That is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity (New York: Penguin Books. The others clapped insanely. 123. and when the clear. reads the manifesto of Futurist painting.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine.” the whole crowd of plein air Parthenopian painters’ roars its protests. 49. Flint. International Futurism in Arts and Literature (New York: Walter de Gruyter. 20 21 Catherine Tisdall and Angelo Bozzolla. unforgettable Boccioni scornfully cries: “Let’s make an end of photographers. … Outside the theatre. Pontus Hulten and Germano Celant (Milan: Gruppos Editoriale. 216. fists shaking. 31 32 33 Umberto Boccioni. The painters were always the most severe with the public. “Futurist Painting. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (London: Wiley-Blackwell. 288. faces twisted into masks.T. R. ed.W. Howard (New York: Vintage. Futurist Manifestoes. The Futurist Moment: Avant-Garde. “Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto” in Art in Theory. For a full account of Italian Futurism’s influence on international avant-gardes see Gunter Berghaus. Flint. Finally.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. The Culture of Time and Space: 1880-1918 (Cambridge. 179. it’s Piedogrolla: tumult. 49. Luciano de Maria. 29 30 Marshall Berman. Madness and Civilisation. 1983). Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1986). R. 57. Futurism (London: Thames and Hudson. and Culture. Politics. and Oxford: Berghahn Books. 220. See Andrew Hewitt.” 38. Berghaus. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 51 Hewitt.” 55. 68. 34. see also Peter Osbourne. Berman thus argues that Burger should not speak of the success of bourgeois culture. 46. 47 48 Theory of the Avant-Garde. Futurism and Politics. 1992). Theory of the Avant-Garde. 220. 512-520. Theory of the Avant-Garde. Poggioli. 95-96. Poggioli. Golson (Hanover and London: University Press of New England. and the avant-garde emerges with a project of charismatic renewal. Theory of the Avant-Garde. Aesthetics. and the Legacy of the Frankfurt School (Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. bourgeois culture undergoes a process of bureaucratisation. Theory of the Avant-Garde. See Gunter Berghaus. 45 Poggioli. “Fascist Modernist. Futurism. modernism. Hewitt. 26. As Russell Berman as commented. “Fascist Modernist. Poggioli. “Fascist Modernist. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 172. Peter Bürger. 54 55 53 Hewitt.” See Russell Berman. its forms grow rigid and perfunctory. 27. Theory of the Avant-Garde. 44 Poggioli. but its inability to give up its own programme: “In Weberian terms. 46. 96. For an example of Italian communist calls for destroying the status quo. 95 . Gerald Fitzgerald (Cambridge. trans. Theory of the Avant-Garde. 40 41 42 43 Poggioli. The Theory of the Avant-Garde. 52 “Fascist Modernist. 183. Rhode Island. Richard J. the insistence that aesthetic and intellectual productions be linked to social and political modernisation has been symptomatic of much of the European intelligentsia since the period preceding the French Revolution. 46 Poggioli. This conclusion is problematic. ed.’” in Fascism. the establishment of an aesthetic community in which the perpetual promises of bourgeois art would be fulfilled as real happiness. and postmodernism (and. transmodernism).” in Art in Theory. 1909-1944 (Providence. 1989). see Antonio Gramsci’s agreement with Marinetti’s call to “destroy the present form of civilisation” in Marinetti Rivoluzionario quoted in Berghaus. trans. 137. Futurism and Politics. 38. Modern Culture and Critical Theory: Art. Theory of the Avant-Garde. and ‘Post-Modernity. 1996). indeed. For an alternative discussion of reactionary modernism. 1995).” 50. 1984).36 Walter Benjamin. Modern Culture. which argues that historical categorisations such as avant-garde. are best understood as categories of totalisation. Theory of the Avant-Garde. Michael Shaw (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 37 38 39 Poggioli. 49 50 Berman. Futurism and Politics: Between Anarchist Rebellion and Fascist Reaction. The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-Garde (London: Verso. Renato Poggioli. 1968). “Founding Manifesto. were those who resembled works of art. proving point two of the manifesto: “We intend to exalt aggressive action. a style in which he had already written a number of awardwinning poems and then become disenchanted with its tendency towards melancholic sentiment. Regardless of its inherent contradictions. 61 62 Marinetti. the racer’s stride. have been read as the markers of Marinetti’s rejection of Symbolist metaphors. 51. Peggy Kamuf (Hemmel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf. “Futurist Speech to the English. 118. 63 Marinetti. political. the stop does not constitute a death but the establishing of an interval in which the radical chance of the future comes into play. 50). “Founding Manifesto. the controversial “scorn for woman” can be seen as indicative of what Derrida termed the “complicity of Western metaphysics with the notion of male firstness” – see A Derrida Reader: Between the Blinds. sometime Futurist. 123: “Everyone played with the past in Florence… Everything in the Florentine life was minutely seen.” Selected Writings. and inaction that forestall the transcendence of normative states. sentimentality. providing an economic impetus to passeism. the Futurists’ frenzied automobile race through the streets of Milan culminating in a paradigm-shifting collision that marks the transition from bourgeois passiesm to technological determination. For a comprehensive discussion of Futurism and Fascism see Gunter Berghaus. Marinetti. A single sentence in the manifesto may therefore address several issues concurrently. 75. Futurism and Politics.56 57 Berghaus. Mina Loy believed that the Florentian worship of the past thinly disguised a flourishing trade in antiques and reproductions. 96 66 . “Straining to Hear (Deleuze). 445 – or a rigorous attack (albeit played out over the figure of the feminine) on bourgeois symbols of passivity. 85). “Marriage and the Family. it remains clear that Marinetti’s first Futurist manifesto is primarily concerned with the destruction of boundaries. See Tessa Dwyer. But it can also be read as his critique of Italy’s reliance on the glories of Roman or Renaissance culture to bolster Italian identity and against which all artistic endeavour was measured. making it subject to a sliding play of signification and thus open to various and conflicting interpretations. Similarly. Discursive images act as coded signifiers for a diverse array of Futurist concerns. too. manifesto appears to resonate simultaneously across multiple levels of meaning. as Tessa Dwyer has noted.” South Atlantic Quarterly 96:3 (Summer 1997): 544. 64 Marinetti. See Carolyn Burke.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. See Burke. This was a conscious strategy on Marinetti’s part – as he would later express during a 1910 lecture at London’s Lyceum Club: “To contradict oneself is to live” (See Marinetti. The text is a narrative reimagining of a technologically fuelled journey.” 48. a feverish insomnia. “War – the World’s Only Hygiene. 1991). 1996). Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy (New York: Farrar. and named. Becoming Modern. it also evoked a combative emotion in the manifesto’s readership – a galvanizing energy for Marinetti that he hoped would inspire the reader into furious action. 122. synthesising aesthetic. “Founding Manifesto. Straus and Giroux. who were visible to the trained eyes of the Florentine world. known.” Let’s Murder the Moonshine. 65 For Deleuze.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. Futurism and Politics. the breaking down of socio-cultural mores into their constituent parts in preparation for a future transformation. Contradiction not only articulated Futurism’s celebration of continual flux. 72). which Marinetti described as “the typical virtue of vegetables” (see Marinetti. [In a place where pictures mattered more than people] the only people who counted. for example.” Let’s Murder the Moonshine. ed. and speculative concepts into its overall structure.” For instance.” 48. technocultural. 59 60 58 The Attributed to Socrates. the punch and the slap” (“Founding Manifesto. Frequent references to the destruction of the past. the mortal leap. 80 Marinetti. See Marinetti. 1886. Strauss. Catherine Tisdall and Angelo Bozzolla. which directly influenced the later modernist style. 71 Antonino Musumeci.” RLA: Romance Languages Annual 3 (1991): 263-266. particularly the work of Eliot. Slavov Žižek. quoted in Futurism. “Founding Manifesto.” Let’s Murder the Moonshine. The critic Jean Moréas coined the term ‘Symbolist’ in a manifesto in Le Figaro (“Le Symbolisme”) on 18 September. Yeats. Fluidity. Auguste Villiers de L’Isle Adam. (London: Thames and Hudson. 2006). and Oscar Wilde. the unmediated experience of the Real instigated by a brush with death has the power to inspire a resurgence of religiosity. Arthur Rimbaud.” 51. delineating the new movement as antithetical to "plain meanings. “Founding Manifesto. Wallace Stevens. The Symbolist movement emerged with the work of Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine in the 1860s and 1870s as a reaction to the naturalism and realism of a previous generation of artists like those working from the Barbizon school. The Culture of Calamity: Disaster and the Making of Modern America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 78 79 Marinetti. Critical Writings (New Edition). Marinetti. Marinetti. Edvard Munch. as witnessed also in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 2007).” Let’s Murder the Moonshine. ed. Edith Sitwell. hermeticism. “Welcome to the Desert of the Real!” South Atlantic Quarterly 101:2 (2002): 386. Paul Gauguin. 81 Marinetti. 104. “Founding Manifesto. word play. ed. Charles Baudelaire.” 50. and Giroux.” 50. 82 83 This is not to say that phenomena are non-existent. According to Tibetan Buddhism.67 Kevin Rozario. Odilon Redon. Marinetti.” 75. “The New Religion-Morality of Speed. free verse. and that its goal instead was to "clothe the Ideal in a perceptible form" whose "goal was not in itself. as well as the early poetry of Apollinaire and. Gunter Berghaus (Farrar. 72 73 74 75 76 Marinetti. Marinetti.” Let’s Murder the Moonshine. “Futurist Theory and Invention. respectively called conventional truths and ultimate truths. but whose sole purpose was to express the Ideal. of course. 130. 97 84 . “Founding Manifesto. where debate surrounding religion (of which this thesis is a part) has become more prevalent in the media. but that they are dependent on the causes and conditions of existence. Joyce. Marinetti.” 49.” Key artists include Gustave Moreau. synaesthesia. “Founding Manifesto.” 49. 150. “Marinetti: A Mystical Experience on the Way to Futurism. Valéry. 1985). 77 Marinetti. “Founding Manifesto. 68 69 Rozario has also noted. “Founding Manifesto.” in Futurism and Futurisms. 70 Marinetti. false sentimentality and matter-of-fact description". Marinetti’s early autobiographical writings make reference to his “mystical” urges being cut down by his Jesuit teachers. “War – the World’s Only Hygiene. itself a reaction against the ornate intricacies of Rococo. spirituality. declamations.” 48. and Proust. “Futurist Painting. and evocation were they key attributes of the movement. 48. 552. Sant ‘Elia. Hart Crane. 1986). Gustav Klimt. Pontus Hulten (Chicago: Abbeville Press. phenomena exists as varieties of dependent-arisings and have two entities – one as a superficial appearance and one as a deep mode of being. Marinetti. ed. Marinetti. The Futurist Moment. Giovanni Lista (Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme. 1973). 98 . Quoted in Marjorie Perloff. 97 Marinetti. “The Birth of a Futurist Aesthetic. “Religion-Morality of Speed.” 63. “Religion-Morality of Speed. 98 99 100 See Henri Bergson. Bergson. “Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature (1912). trans. “Language of Opposition. 96 Joly.” The Journal of Modern History Vol. 108 Marinetti. 94 See 95 Michel De Certeau. The Two Sources of Morality and Religion. 107 Marinetti. 217-8. 89 “Religion-Morality of Speed. the Last Lovers of the Moon.3 (2002): 246.” Sociological Perspectives 45. “Il Futurismo.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. “The Language of Opposition in Early 20th Century Italy: Rhetorical Continuities between Prewar Florentine Avant-gardism and Mussolini’s Fascism. “Religion-Morality of Speed. 18-19. “Multiplied Man.85 Walter Adamson.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. 106 Bergson.” 96.” 268. 101 Bergson. 211. 91 92 Marinetti. 75. 1994). Luciano de Maria (Milano: Garzanti. See Marinetti. 268. 93 Marinetti.” 42.” 99. 88 Marinetti. 285 . “Il Futurismo e la filosofia” (1912). documents.1 (1992): 42. ed. 102 Bergson. 64. Marinetti. The Two Sources. The Two Sources.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine.” 102. “Durkheim contra Bergson? The Hidden Roots of Postmodern Theory and the Postmodern "Return" of the Sacred. “Mysticism. 90. 86 Adamson. 103 F.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine.” 104. A.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine.T Marinetti. 76. proclamations. Ashley and Cloudesley Brereton (New York: Henry Holt and Co. 109 110 Marinetti.” 103. 1935). “Futurist Literature. Leeds: Society of Italian Studies. 92. The Two Sources. 310. Alexander Tristan Riley. Occasional Papers 1.” 102. The Two Sources. Quoted in Marinetti e i futuristi.” 16. Marinetti’s awareness of Bergson’s élan vital is established by Gunter Berghaus in his The Genesis of Futurism: Marinetti's Early Career and Writings 1899-1909. 285. Futurisme: Manifestes. 81. “Multiplied Man. 90 Marinetti. 104 105 Bergson. “Religion-Morality of Speed. “Multiplied Man. Auguste Joly. The Two Sources. 87 Marinetti. 102. ed. “We Abjure Our Symbolist Masters. 1995). ” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. 1974). Marinetti. 2004).” Philological Quarterly 74 (1995): 2. “Dreams of Metallized Flesh: Futurism and the Masculine Body. “We Abjure Our Symbolist Masters. “Transformations in The Futurist Technological Mythopoeia. Massachusetts: MIT Press. 123 124 Marinetti.” 98. “Multiplied Man. Marinetti. 115 116 Marinetti. 119 120 Marinetti. On the Genealogy of Morals. 184. 129 Marinetti. 1996). 1986). 99 . Prosthetic Gods.” Modernism/ Modernity 4. 1998). 121 Marinetti. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books. 114 Friedrich Nietzsche. Today it has lost its reason for existing.” 114.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. “Multiplied Man. “Multiplied Man.” 19-43.The World’s Only Hygiene. “Multiplied Man. 214. 112 113 Marinetti. 184. Marinetti. The Promise of History: Essays in Political Philosophy (New York: Walter de Gruyter. Marinetti.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. 80. 120.” 100. “Dreams of Metallized Flesh. 94. 99. Foster. 122 Marinetti. 118 Marinetti. quoted in Athanasios Moulakis.3 (1997): 20. Prosthetic Gods (Cambridge. “War . Christine Poggi. trans. “Against Amore. 130 Marinetti. “Multiplied Man. Poggi. 121. Escape Velocity (New York: Grove Press. The influence of this passage on Marinetti is also reflected in “The New Religion-Morality of Speed” discussed earlier in this chapter: “Christian morality served to develop man’s inner life. 102). “Futurist Literature. “Founding Manifesto.” 98.” 48. 125 126 127 Hal 128 Foster.” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. Mafarka the Futurist (London: Middlesex University Press. 83.111 See Mark Dery.’ in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. 83. “Against Amore and Parliamentarianism” in Let’s Murder the Moonshine. because it has been emptied of all divinity” (Let’s Murder the Moonshine. 117 Cinzia Sartini Blum. 75. CHAPTER TWO MARCHING BACKWARDS TO THE FUTURE: The Hacker Gets Religion 100 . further. cyberpunk’s emergence intensified academic and popular interest in the intersections between art and technology. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha. given the Italian Futurist’s preoccupation with 101 . — G. the Godhead. and society was imminent. This chapter marks a shift in emphasis from questions of technology and the avant-garde to technology and popular culture. the postmodern paradigm shift ostensibly rendered it theoretically untenable to find comfort in the notion of an incipiently glorious future (technological or otherwise) just beyond the turn of the twenty-first century and. and technologists working in tandem.F Hegel1 The Buddha.W. — Robert Pirsig2 As a sub-genre of science fiction and a socio-cultural movement..’ ‘the new. the end of signification). that humanity’s future could be creatively constructed by artists. had been candidly challenged by postmodernism’s attack on the modernist meta-narratives of ‘progress. a self-consciousness in man and man’s knowledge of God. Marinetti’s conviction that a revolution of culture. leaving us compliant to and confronted by a future culture that was destined to perpetually re-inscribe past motifs and influences.. self. and as the fictional voice of the emerging internet and virtual realities to come. cyberpunk arrived in the mid 1980s during a period of fin de millennium pessimism in academic theory. philosophers. which is to demean oneself. helped provide an alternative to premillennial gloom. Nonetheless. His self-knowledge is.’ and transcendence. it seemed that notions of vertical and horizontal transcendence could not escape the theoretical dead-ends of traditional metaphysical conundrums. which proceeds to man’s self-knowledge in God. but. it was a metaphorical end times (the end of history. resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. the end of narrative.God is God only so far as he knows himself. Following the supposed death of the avant-garde. in the wake of a broad deconstruction of metaphysics. There was a sense that there could be no new moves in the cultural game. with specific attention given to Gibson’ early fiction. Moreover. fashion. but failed to associate Marinetti’s technological transcendence with the then new science fiction genre. technoculture. Section two – Autobahn to Infobahn – Cyberpunk’s Critical Reception – provides an analysis of the movement’s critical reception since 1984. nevertheless. Furthermore. On the one hand. and if Futurist aesthetics foreshadowed the emergence of postmodernism (if not transmodernism). the sub-genre’s hacker protagonists are just as engaged in the quest for a transcendence of the human facilitated by the machine. then it would seem reasonable to look for traces of Marinetti’s project in cyberpunk – characterised by Frederic Jameson as “the supreme literary expression… of late capitalism itself. The first offers a brief history of cyberpunk. cloning. with the emergence of cyberpunk. That is. this section will demonstrate how it is cyberpunk’s reflections on technology. cooking. the cyberpunk movement. continued the Futurist’s conflation of technological progress and vertical transcendence. cyberpunk critic Istvan Csicary-Ronay made the link between cyberpunk and Italian Futurism. music. coupled with their attempts to infiltrate mass culture in the forms of advertising.” 3 On the other. a project that is entirely confluent with Marinetti’s early avant-garde. as well as the merging of mystical and technological metaphors that truly mark it as the fin de millennium heir to Marinetti’s masculinised agenda of perfecting body and Self. the socio-economic organization of technological systems. shifting its previous characterisation as the pulp fiction of scientific futures to the literature of philosophy. and architecture. and the possibilities of artificial intelligence in cyberpunk replace Marinetti’s airplanes. its scrutiny of the radical transformation 102 . if Russell Berman’s analysis of the success of capitalism’s successful sublation of early avant-garde transformative culture is indeed correct.technology and the new. Virtual realities. highlighting the metaphorical links between cyberpunk motifs of transcendence and Marinetti’s dreams of a technological future. and particularly the work of its most famous proponent. the chapter is divided into six sections. and multiplied men. As early as 1988. automobiles. science fiction began to be viewed as a literature that explored the limits of human experience to express fundamentally new ideas about the human condition in relation to science and technology. By contrast. To tease out the varying threads of cyberpunk transcendence. cyberpunk’s literary pretensions and socio-philosophical concerns suggested a re-evaluation of the science fiction genre. the move is a natural one. William Gibson. This chapter therefore critically examines cyberpunk’s vertically transcendent subtext to more clearly understand how desires for technological transformation shifted between the turn of the twentieth century and its close. Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive.of western culture by the introduction of the personal computer and the Internet at the close of the twentieth century mirrors the Italian Futurists’ fascination with becomingmachines. decisively re-imagine information technologies as an evolutionary step towards godhead – whether in their characterisation of binary code as divine language. Section five – Virtually Gnostic – turns to a reading of Neal Stephenson’s ‘post-cyberpunk’ novel. Sections three. rather than offering escape for its human protagonists. Section four – God’s in Cyberspace – argues that Neuromancer’s less incendiary sequels. as a completion of the Futurist quest for godhead through technology. Snow Crash. transcendent machines from divine code. It specifically examines the metaphorical implications of one such commentator. their depictions of cyborgs and artificial intelligences as transcendent Others. It will argue that the novel’s employment of pre-Christian religious mysteries helped foster contemporary notions of technology as an arcane tool to further humanity’s vertical transcendence into the body of the machine. Section three – Neuromancer. Wired’s Kevin Kelly. as a late twentieth century. exploring how cyberpunk narratives valorise the hacker’s ability to manipulate binary code as a mystical art form. or their descriptions of cyberspace as a heavenly ‘vehicle’ for transcendence. This section ends with an investigation of the “god in the machine” in Gibson’s work that. Gibson and Neal Stephenson. and therefore constructs the hacker as the penultimate figure in the history of human evolution. constitutes an excess. who employs cyberpunk’s technomystical fiction to revision technology as theology. omniscient force that threatens to dehumanise and homogenise its makers. section six – Godhead Goes Digital – investigates the transcendent effect cyberpunk’s technomysticism has had on a number of prominent commentators on new technologies. Such real world examples of technomystical dreaming demonstrate that cyberpunk’s promise of a future separation 103 . and five offer close readings of the work of two key cyberpunk authors. It will show how Snow Crash re-signifies information technology as the defining teleological moment in which humanity became divine. with a view to examining the intersections between technology and transcendence they contain. or Escape Velocity – turns to a reading of Gibson’s highly influential novel. Neuromancer. further measuring the effects of the frenetic pace of technological innovation on the contemporary subject – albeit in bytes rather than miles per hour. technocultural re-imagining of the Gnostic quest to escape the limitations of the flesh and be reborn into divinity. Finally. four. rewriting the computer nerd as digital priest with the ability to create new. 8 Spearheaded by the work of six North American writers – William Gibson. Herrick has noted that science fictions represent an emerging canon of transcendent stories that address the Western world’s spiritual needs in the face of a decrease in religious faith. As science fiction writer and critic. Delaney. John Shirley.”6 More recently. and (sporadically) Pat Cadigan – cyberpunk fiction combined the subjective effect of cybertechnologies with the cognitive estrangement of a bleak near future and Gnostic tropes of spiritual awakening and new gods. 5 By contrast Isaac Asimov injunctioned us to “define science fiction as that branch of literature that deals with the human response to changes in the levels of science and technology. Texts like the Neuromancer trilogy and Snow Crash therefore interrogate (and propagate) the notion of an impending transformation of corporeality by the machine begun by the Futurists in 1909 and fully revitalise an early Gnostic desire to attain absolute knowledge of everything on the path to becoming-god. a literature that defamiliarises reality and encourages the reader to contemplate upon the known world from a distanced perspective. Gernsback’s Amazing Stories magazine. Damien Broderick.4 A SHORT HISTORY OF CYBERPUNK Darko Suvin once argued we should read the genre of science fiction as a literature of cognitive estrangement. of every crystalline pen from Alfred Bester in the fifties 104 .of mind from matter similarly evokes a notion of instantaneous transcendence through the accumulation and manipulation of data downloaded via a machine/brain interface. Lewis Shiner.7 In the early 1980s a new sub-genre of science fiction loosely called ‘cyberpunk’ burst onto the cultural scene. for the knowing sf reader. the cyberpunk movement is characterised by its bricolage of key science fiction themes from the genre’s beginning. Ursula LeGuin. Bruce Sterling. Dick. Philip K. and Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception and Brave New World) to the late 1970s New Wave movement (characterised by the work of Samuel M. deftly synthesising all three of the above definitions in its critically acclaimed narratives of the near future. Rudy Rucker. swapping Marinetti’s mechanised ubermensch for a sublimation of the human mind into a stream of pure information. has noted: … Gibson’s sleazy hypertech future was the quintessence. which documented a rise in science fiction stories concerned with spiritual transcendence. It emerged as both a challenge and extension to utopian science fiction tropes from the 1930s (particularly Stapledon’s Star Maker. and Roger Zelazny). James A.9 Indeed. Dick’s paranoia in the sixties. and John Varley’s glacial holograms and brain-transplants of the seventies. More importantly to cyberpunk is the ways in which Dick’s lifelong preoccupation with Gnosticism and the transcendent experience is obliquely referenced in novels like Valis. the body and the self. to map the mutability of the human subject as the progress of technology rendered it part of the logic of the machine. in essence. organism and machine. Despite its dystopian narratives and metaphorical warnings about the coming ubiquity of technology in everyday lives. and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. a satirical tone. captured “a new kind of integration.through Philip K.13 Cyberpunk also borrowed heavily from those 1970s postmodern novels straddling the science fiction/ high literary genre divide – most notably Thomas Pynchon’s dark pseudoreligious take on technology in Gravity’s Rainbow. and television series that replicated its theme of individuals integrating their bodies with new technologies in order to pull themselves out 105 . Ballard’s crypto-religious Crash. the nascent cyberpunk movement began to presage the emerging information technology’s potential effacement of the boundaries between consciousness and the unconscious. to a whole ensemble of prestidigitators in the early eighties… 10 From Bester. social.12 Like cyberpunk. spoke to a generation coming to grips with the potentialities of a new era in personal computing and thus quickly tapped into a mass desire for technological futures. such narratives are obsessed with the spectre of hidden intelligences controlling the human system and the schizophrenic. films. ontological anxiety. drug addled individuals who are determined to uncover the truth. subject and object. and cultural effects of technology.G. and transcendent states. Sterling wrote. mental illness. cyberpunk coopted startlingly juxtaposed imagery. It sought. The Divine Invasion.11 From Dick it borrowed the notion of individuals trapped within a miasma of drug dependence. spawning a glut of popular computer games. future and history. J. James Tiptree Jnr’s (Alice Bradley Sheldon) The Girl Who Was Plugged In directly influenced later cyberpunk themes of electronic implants and surgical modifications. and hardboiled noir-esque precautionary tales about the global. Cyberpunk art.”15 Postulating a not too distant future where information rather than manufacturing underpins global economies. the Movement (as it came to be called). and William Burrough’s paranoid schizophrenic protagonists in The Naked Lunch. The overlapping of worlds that were formerly separate: the realm of high tech and the modern popular underground. tough cyborg heroines and wired celebrities and corporate flunkies.14 Such borrowings marked the sub-genre as particularly postmodern in aesthetic. the social possibilities of virtually generated multiple selves in virtual worlds like Second Life. paradoxically.of the socio-economic and cultural mire that. he sees himself the rose. and the aesthetic embodiment of posthumanism. There. thin as pain. and downloading their consciousness into cyberspace that most captured the popular imagination and defined the Movement. Parker’s ruminations on his inability to feel whole in a world largely mediated by technology set the scene for cyberpunk themes of disintegration. its melancholy for a lost sense of subjective completeness. Parker. Fragments of a Hologram Rose mirrors its protagonist. it was Gibson’s dystopian vision of humans augmenting themselves with machines. EverQuest. uploading information directly to their brain. the fragmented. jump-cut prose of his first short story.16 Throughout the 1990s.planetary conjunctions of a stranger – a tank burning on a highway – a flat packet of drugs – a switchblade honed on concrete. Coinciding with the emergence of Punk and the release of both the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks and London Calling by The Clash in 1977. socio-economic. such motifs also instigated a surge of academic interest in cyberpunk’s manifestation of postmodern theories. A hologram has this quality: Recovered and illuminated. and subjective collapse. postindustrialism.17 Finding amongst his possessions only a postcard of a white hologram rose (which he immediately shreds) and a partially wiped virtual reality tape of a trip to Greece to remind him of the woman who has left him. Of the five initial cyberpunk authors. particularly in key texts like Gibson’s Neuromancer. The Movement ultimately came to represent a literary expression of the potentialities of the emerging Internet. recalling the thousand fragments of the hologram rose. and World of Warcraft. and technology’s mediation of reality: Parker lies in darkness. as he reflects on his directionless life and broken romance in a future milieu of technological. technological progress had created in the first place. each of his scattered fragments revealing a whole he'll never know – stolen credit cards – a burned out suburb . and postnationalism. each fragment will reveal the whole image of the rose. 106 . Falling toward delta. deserted in the gray sea of wiped tape – is she closer now. hovering over the destruction of the hierarchy between popular and canonical literature. able to store a client’s information safely until triggered with a code word to repeat and erase.23 Johnny Mnemonic chronicles an underworld deal gone wrong. 1981 saw Gibson set three further short stories in a similar dystopia – Johnny Mnemonic. They'd been lovers for years and were bad news in the tussle. indeterminacy. and Burning Chrome – consolidating a narrative milieu in which the reader is submerged without warning or explanation into a degraded landscape where the only way for protagonists to survive is to merge themselves with tech. for his having been there?18 Here is the first intimation of a recurring motif of fragmentation in cyberpunk. Such images spoke directly to postmodern theory – giving a startling new voice to its interest in cultural disintegration. riding a vast cultural wave from chaos theory through to film noir.24 107 . One was black and the other white.19 Indeed. and heterogeneity. The eponymous hero sells himself as a technologically enhanced idiot savant.Thinking: We're each other's fragments. bringing to the fore the technologically augmented criminal working against a capitalist system corrupted by information overload. I was never quite sure which one had originally been male. where human subjectivity is swallowed and regurgitated piecemeal by technology. or more real. leaving individuals scrabbling to make sense of the splintered remains.”21 An expanding ‘digerati’22 began to proclaim that cyberpunk’s bricolage of borrowed images. designated it as quintessentially postmodern in outlook. Brian McHale declared the movement as the prime exemplar of postmodern practice. but aside from that they were as nearly identical as cosmetic surgery could make them. the Beat Generation and Pop Art. The Gernsback Continuum. and was it always this way? That instant of a European trip. His is a world of surgical augmentation where it becomes commonplace to alter one’s appearance as change one’s shoes: The Magnetic Dog Sisters were… two meters tall and thin as greyhounds.20 while Larry McCaffrey associated its aesthetic with postmodernism’s “radical… ruptures and dislocations. discontinuity. it allows individuals to recreate their bodies as sites of identity experimentation and play. as imagined by the early science fiction writer and editor. The world of Johnny Mnemonic therefore rests upon the cultural logic of the copy. The debris of lost utopian dreams is all there is in Gibson’s The Gernsback Continuum. A razor girl on the make. and desire are utterly entwined. Fragments that can be retrieved. the cyberpunk body loses its corporeal integrity while the Self is reduced to a surface that can easily be swapped. she takes Johnny to meet Jones – a technologically augmented dolphin with telepathic abilities once conscripted by the marines to sweep mines in exchange for smack. rearranged. to live. saves him from the brink of deletion. bits. On the one hand. and exchanged. upgraded. but information. reproduction.26 But the Yakuza is hot on their heels – this is a place where: “…it's impossible to move. a contract is put on him to ensure its erasure. When Johnny unwittingly takes possession of stolen Yakuza information. However the story also demonstrates that what really matters in cyberpunk is not self or appearance. her mirrorshade implants and retractable finger blades making the first of many appearances in Gibson’s oeuvre. Molly Millions. where the narrator revisits the futuristic architecture of the 1930s. as characters surgically refashion themselves to reflect their social and societal loyalties – razor girls like the Magnetic Dog Sisters mechanise their bodies for street violence. technology renders the body lifeless – mere meat – on the other. seemingly meaningless fragments of personal information. where replication. They hide themselves on the upper floors of a vast abandoned and deconstructed mall with a tribe of “Lo Teks” – “a few dozen mad children lost in the rafters“ using their contraband “tooth bud transplants. to operate at any level without leaving traces. Jones lifts the password code straight from Johnny’s mind and retreats into a drug-fuelled stupor – a sad indictment of cyberpunk’s technologisation of the natural world. while Johnny rents out his mind as data storage space to become “a very technical boy” inside and out. amplified…”27 What remains of subjectivity. and reconscripted into the service of new tech.25 Identity is meaningful only in relation to its technologisation. Corporeality becomes a locus of resistance. nature.” to eke out their lives wild dog style in a metal jungle “jury-rigged and jerry-built from scraps” of the ruined city below. and human civilisation is simply detritus to be sifted through. Gibson’s ironic nod to Gernsback’s science fiction legacy articulates the mythic pull 108 . Hugo Gernsback by way of Marinetti and the Futurists. Capitalist production and its means are indistinguishable – this is a realm of such absolute consumer choice that the very concept of individual identity is lost within a pure anarchy of signs.In Johnny Mnemonic. Making their getaway. ” the narrator’s immersion in the past invokes the spectre of a lost technological dreamscape. rewriting The Gernsback Continuum’s nostalgic road trip as an interior journey travelled along the synapses and into the non-space in and between computers. Bobby Quine and Automatic Jack. Here. in the heart of the Dream. But not here. adding two more that would also resurface in his seminal Sprawl trilogy – the hacker hustle and the religious ecstasy of cyberspace. Written before 109 . hallucination. an aluminium avocado with a central shark-fin rudder jetting up from its spine and smooth black tires like a child’s toy. The story intersperses the history of two cowboy hackers.” a perpetually disturbing reminder of both the promise and failure of utopian dreams. bank data. the narrator is told they are merely a result of “sci-fi imagery that permeates our culture. Chrome’s. Neuromancer would later resurrect this utopian dream inside cyberspace. the finite bounds of fossil fuel.modernist utopian technologies retain upon the cyberpunk psyche. They were both in white… they were white. and B-movies: They were standing beside their car. we’d gone on and on. but had finally passed it by. and they probably had blue eyes… Dialta had said that the Future had come to America first. who infiltrate and steal (burn) local brothel owner. or foreign wars it was possible to lose… It had all the sinister fruitiness of Hitler Youth propaganda. and augmentation. soap operas. In Burning Chrome.29 He begins to see visions of flying cars and impossible cities that can only be exorcised by a steady diet of reality television. in a dream logic that knew nothing of pollution.” “semiotic phantoms… bits of deep cultural imagery that have split off and take a life of their own… ”31 The fractured complexity of Gibson’s fictional futures are therefore equally reliant on past dreams of a futuristic paradise. built up to a fever pitch in mass consciousness until they breach the Real. blond. Gibson combines elements of his previous themes of fragmentation. constituting a palimpsest of the ‘Great Technological Dream’ of a world without want.30 Such descriptions locate and identify the impact of twentieth-century capitalist utopias (like Marinetti’s) upon cyberpunk’s narrative landscapes.” buildings designed with utopian zeal “to generate potent bursts of raw technological enthusiasm. Admitting his visions to a friend.28 Contracted to photograph the architecture of “an America that wasn’t. if you could only find the switch that turned them on. how technology’s past is always present as “a certain absence. Towers and fields of it ranged in the colorless non-space of the simulation matrix. the electronic consensus-hallucination that facilitates the handling and exchange of massive quantities of data. At the close of Burning Chrome it becomes clear that Marinetti’s technological utopia has arrived. and he. “the Gentleman Loser. willing myself to be just a segment of that mass organism. and has swallowed human consciousness whole. but instead discovers it. what sets Burning Chrome apart is its vision of the space between computers and our interaction with that space: The matrix is an abstract representation of the relationships between data systems. have both been utterly transformed by technology. “anxious for a sign. AUTOBAHN TO INFOBAHN – CYBERPUNK’S CRITICAL RECEPTION Over the past two decades. Bobby simply settles down to his habitual search in a local hacker bar (its name.34 To recover a sense of continuity and meaning.32 Despite their success. he attempts to rejoin the flow of human society. the story leaves the protagonists strangely bereft of pleasure. leaving its creators wandering futilely through the technoscape. but finding only more disjointed fragments of their machines. just one more drifting chip of consciousness under the geodesics.advent of the personal computer and the World Wide Web.”33 Jack remains literally disjointed – tinkering with his mechanical arm and trying to make sense of it all: I went out into the night and the neon and let the crowd pull me along. Early debate revolved around three distinct responses to the movement – cyberpunk as uncritical rhetoric devoid of utopian promise or value. cyberpunk as a site 110 . cyberpunk’s critical reception has been both abundant and mixed. someone to tell him what his new life would be like… waiting for that next card to fall.” exposing the lie to the hacker’s celebratory underground status in the 1980s). sentimentally seeking a sense of wholeness they imagine existed before its transformation. walking blind. Legitimate programmers jack into their employers' sector of the matrix and find themselves surrounded by bright geometries representing the corporate data. of postmodernism’s breakdown.’” rendered it the uncritical fictional voice of the re-masculinised zone of Eighties anarcho-libertarian youth-culture.40 Claire Sponsler also argued that Gibson’s final predicament in Neuromancer was paradigmatic of the problem all cyberpunk faced: doomed to play out old plots peopled by old characters within a scene that called for a radically different formulation of human agency and action.”35 The sub-genre’s inability to engage in such beneficial reflection was.” 39 For Steven Connor. existing parallel with a yuppie gentrification of inner-city urban landscapes where street culture provided exotic colouring and thrills for white suburbanites:37 Yuppie gentrification was the new pioneer frontier of the 1980’s. the sense of simultaneous expectation and exhaustion. and generally evade the responsibility to imagine futures that will be more democratic than the present. adventuring culture of the high-tech console cowboy with the atmospheric ethic of the alienated street dick whose natural habitat was exclusively concrete and neon. who declared it would soon phase out because its real message was “inevitability ⎯ not what the future might hold. and middleclass. has been almost exclusively white. and cyberpunk was one of its privileged genres. and cyberpunk as a site of cultural resistance and the revolutionary possibilities of technology. but the inevitable hold of the present over the future ⎯ what the future could not fail to be. splicing the glamorous. masculine. it blended: … the evocation of extravagant technological possibilities with the most hard-bitten and unillusioned of narrative styles… which choke off the exhilaration of futurity… compounding… technological hyperdevelopment and decrepitude.38 The Movement offered no new promises for Brooks Landon either. a consequence of its intimate associations with “hacker mythology — that “for the most part. for Ross.41 Gibson’s preoccupation with sentimentally returning to the 111 .”36 He claimed cyberpunk’s romanticism of hackers as the “apprentice architects” of a future “dominated by knowledge. Andrew Ross claimed the Movement’s narratives harboured “no utopian impulses… no blueprint for progressive social change. expertise and ‘smartness. outmoded signifiers of his cultural history articulated, for Sponsler, cyberpunk’s innate incapacity to forecast insurgent and alternate futures beyond those already present within late twentieth-century culture. She further insisted this was a direct result of the subgenre’s encouragement of readers to identify only with cyberpunk’s male protagonists, precisely those characters who had not been technologically augmented, thus reassuring rather than threatening their own subjectivity. If, on the other hand, readers had been confronted by their similarities to minor characters, like Molly Millions in Neuromancer or Chrome in Burning Chrome, cyberpunk would then represent a radical departure from other utopian literatures.42 Cynthia Fuchs argued that cyberpunk embodies, like Marinetti’s multiplied man, a certain “male hysteria” about the question of human reproduction and male identity, where those on the margins of our own society – including women – constitute an underclass that is denied access to technology’s transformative properties. 43 Similarly, Pramod K. Nayar has suggested that the, “The woman cyberpunk, when not a part of the underclass, becomes a code for the alien Other… where she always remains outside as a source of threat.”44 As is made explicit in Neuromancer by Case’s description of sex with Molly Millions as a technological event, in cyberpunk, as in Italian Futurism, woman is re-inscribed as technology: “his orgasm flares blue in a timeless space, a vastness like the matrix.”45 The matrix – an all-encompassing mother – is thus equated with Molly’s body; her subjectivity a void exchanged for the vastness of cyberspace. Therefore, when cyberpunk fictions construct cyberspace as a feminine space, each time its hackers ‘jack in’ they are also metaphorically ‘jacking off’ – penetrating the “hymenal membrane” of computer security, and avoiding the possibility of homoeroticism inherent in a masculinisation of technology’s power. 46 By contrast, other commentators argued that Gibson’s conception of cyberspace represented a reservoir of possibility that threatened a narrative break down of postmodernism’s disenchantment with the promises of progress and capitalism, effectively reviving early twentieth-century utopian impulses through its preoccupation with (info)technological futures. For instance, Sandy Stone described Gibson’s novels as having “a massive textual presence,” that both inspired and held the portents of the future shape of technology.47 Claudia Springer argued that cyberpunk’s dystopian technological worlds, though typically governed by “ruthless, profit-driven corporations,” nevertheless betrayed their excitement at the potentialities of a technology that could enable individuals to alter themselves in any conceivable fashion. 48 Eulogies for cyberpunk portray it as solely responsible for providing a framework for the complete revolutionising of all aspects 112 of millennial culture. Timothy Leary exhorted that Gibson, in particular, had “produced nothing less than the underlying myth, the core legend, of the next stage of human evolution. He is performing the philosophic function that Dante did for feudalism and that writers like Mann, Tolstoy [and] Melville… did for the industrial age.”49 With hardly less celebratory rhetoric, critics such as Douglas Kellner and Mike Davis claimed Gibson’s novels worked as “prefigurative social theory, as well as an anticipatory opposition politics to the cyber-fascism lurking over the next horizon.” 50 Those who viewed the movement as potentially disruptive to genealogies of the technologically progressive status quo represented cyberpunk as a discourse that spoke for a profound alteration in social attitudes to the body and technology at the end of the millennium. Gibson’s work was acclaimed for exploring the revolutionary possibilities of infotech for individuals at the margins of normative society, precisely those not included in Ross’ socially privileged, conservative precincts. They commended it for its attempted rewriting of a subjectivity, human consciousness, and behaviour made newly problematic by a late capitalist technological milieu. For instance, Veronica Hollinger applauded, “the potential in cyberpunk for undermining concepts like ‘subjectivity’ and ‘identity,’” characterising the movement’s sporadic but brilliantly innovative explorations of technology as one of the “multiplicity of structures that intersect to produce that unstable constellation the liberal humanists call the ‘self.’”51 In a transmodern analysis of Gibson’s metaphorically vivid stories the answer lies somewhere in between, as it often does with vigourously contested works of art. Rather than constituting a rallying point against the predicted panoptic machines of the future, the Neuromancer trilogy, like the collective responses of its critics, oscillates between describing technology’s terrible consequences and tapping into an ancient desire for escape. Gibson’s refashioning of the computer programmer as the expert hero who restrains the tide of technology (if only barely) using only his cognitive power and is rewarded by his transcendence into the machine sends us mixed messages. Cyberpunk, it seems, wants its future both ways. Life in Gibson’s urban sprawl is generally depicted as dark and hopeless, where the social majority’s only life choices consist of routine wage slavery to multinational corporations or total addiction to infotainment. Against this miserable existence, the privileged few able to direct and contain the forces of technology do so principally in order to survive, attempting to remove themselves from their environmental squalor, either by forsaking their beleaguered flesh or creating enough ‘biz’ to raise them beyond the sordid masses forever. Nevertheless, for these lucky few, the constant mutation of technology in Gibson’s fictional worlds do describe a system in 113 which humanity’s newfound symbiosis with the machine’s singular self-determination allows it to tag along for the ride, in the process ensuring its continued evolution. There can be no denying that the wildly divergent responses from critics and science fiction fans alike towards cyberpunk narratives is a direct result of this oscillation between dystopia and desire. The worlds of Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, and Pat Cadigan, among others, are both tantalisingly glamorous and devastatingly alien. They entertain and inspire, despite being relentlessly violent and dark in their documentation of the increasing isolation of the subject in late capitalist, technological society. The alternation between dystopia and utopia produces the narrative spaces of cyberpunk as a source for examining the infinite exchangeability of signs prevalent in contemporary infoculture; they are at once revolutionary and uphold the status quo of middle class North America; an all too accurate prediction of the future and representational of the inevitable present; articulate an “anticipatory opposition politics to… cyber-fascism” and appear to run the danger of devolving into Marinetti’s fascist utopia; focussed resolutely on the possibilities of new technologies and the merging of man and machine as well as being irrevocably sentimental for past technological utopias, the natural world, and for the power and innocence of integrated corporeality. In short, this paradigmatic fiction of late twentieth-century technoculture fully inhabits the non-linear nature of simultaneity, speeding between divergent accounts of past, present, and future, capturing moments of lucidity in its increasing flight towards a future it is not quite willing to embrace. By the turn of the millennium, as postmodernism’s death knell was rung, its ‘supreme literary expression’ was also pronounced dead. Even Sterling, whose career had been wedded to the Movement’s success, declared cyberpunk’s demise in 1998 (in words remarkably similar in tone to Marinetti’s welcoming of the new vanguard at the conclusion of the Founding Manifesto): … it must be admitted that the cyberpunks – SF veterans in or near their forties patiently refining their craft and cashing their royalty checks – are no longer a Bohemian underground. This, too, is an old storey in Bohemia; it is the standard punishment for success. An underground in the light of day is a contradiction in terms. Respectability does not merely beckon; it actively envelops. And in this sense, “cyberpunk” is even deader… 114 But the Nineties will not belong to the cyberpunks. We will be there working, but we are not the Movement, we are not even "us" any more. The Nineties will belong to the coming generation, those who grew up in the Eighties. All power, and the best of luck to the Nineties underground. I don't know you, but I do know you're out there. Get on your feet, seize the day. Dance on the tables. Make it happen, it can be done. I know. I've been there.52 Cyberpunk is dead, “but it refuses to lie peacefully in its grave.”53 Its themes still haunt us in an information age where many of Gibson’s technological visions have become everyday reality. When we organise our lives with mobile media or the Internet, we become complicit in Neuromancer’s posthumanist universe of augmentation; when we tap into wireless information or observe the circulation of capital across and between screens, we are witnessing the sub-genre’s depiction of postindustrialism and postcapitalism at work. In the documentary, No Maps for these Territories, Jack Womach states that we partly live in a world Gibson has made for us: if he “had not written Neuromancer when he did about the world as it is and much more about the world that is to come, [it] would not have taken place in the exact same way that it has.”54 Created by burgeoning technological change, Gibson is also cast as creator of our future. As we struggle to understand the impact of our technologically mediated lives his oeuvre still offers us a language and an imaginary from which to navigate our way forward. From the perspective of transmodernism, cyberpunk’s life after death has other implications. Like Italian Futurism before it, the Movement’s oscillation between the promise of past transcendent utopias and future technological metaphors constantly renews its narrative dynamism and relevance with each technological innovation. Despite their veneer of dystopia, cyberpunk texts perfectly reflect a contemporary version of the Italian Futurist desire to become other than what we are, to evolve into perfect beings, gaining mastery over self, nature, and our creations. They simply transport this desire from the autobahn to the Infobahn. In doing so, they also fall prey to the fundamental paradox of futuristic fictions – in attempting to articulate the future transformation of subjectivity by the machine, literally imagining states of Otherness that resist exposition, they inevitably rely on traditional descriptions of mystical transformations into Otherness. In attempting to give voice to the new they tap into prior notions of transcendence, particularly gleaned from avant-garde aesthetics and techniques. They therefore inhabit 115 past, present, and future in an endlessly self-referential cycle. Others have already identified that art as (art)ificial reproduction has formed a core theme for cyberpunk’s virtual worlds, and particularly Gibson’s novels and short stories. Glenn Grant, for instance, identified Gibson’s literary style as detournement, focusing on his appropriation of technological representations for counterculture uses and tracing Gibson’s literary tactics back to Dada and Surrealism through the Situationists and 1980s counterculture movements.55 His genealogy of cyberpunk’s links to experimental and revolutionary literature concludes with Sterling’s Cyberpunk Manifesto in which the cyberpunk author is fashioned as a new kind of social artist, an amalgamation of revolutionary and subcultural ideals integrated from science fiction, art, and mainstream culture. Scott Bukatman similarly connects Sterling’s vision of cyberpunk with a mythology of terminal culture derived from Surrealism and claims its subjective surrender to the machine results in a transcendence of the human condition into a state of radical alterity. 56 Istvan Csicsery-Ronay’s reading of Neuromancer, however, identifies that “It is not in dada, hip hop, and punk that one will find the direct lineage of Gibson's cyberpunk but in another, less fashionable current: futurism, Italian style.”57 Csicsery-Ronay argues “Gibson's fiction returns … to the question of how artists can represent the human condition in a social world saturated by cybernetic technologies” by creating a “neofuturist collage.” In contrast to Bukatman, however, he claims cyberpunk’s dependence upon the “material embodiment” of Futurist ideals “deprives the novel and its central character of any hope for transcendence,” despite Case’s desperate search for value and meaning “in a world emptied of religious and communal presence.” Rather, it is the machines in cyberpunk — the artificial intelligences — that achieve artificial godhead, manipulating hapless human subjects to create the conditions for their revolutionary transcendence into virtual higher consciousness. Csicsery-Ronay sees in Neuromancer a haunted sentimentality towards the rejected accoutrements of its own cultural genealogy, evident in its “repressed desire and repressed anxiety” for the crumbling remainders of earlier twentieth-century technological utopias and avant-garde objects.58 This accumulating debris of progress is the social and mythological foundation upon which cyberpunk’s future technosphere is built, allowing the texts to discursively vacillate between past, present, and future in their attempt to make meaningful their technological milieu. Futuristic machines re-emerge in cyberpunk as “semiotic ghosts, fragments of the Mass Dream” of technology’s power to transform both self and society.59 Like Marinetti’s “miserable collection of stamps, medals, and counterfeit coins,” Gibson’s relentlessly dark cities, littered with the refuse of early industrial machinery, construct the 116 past as “necessarily inferior to the future,” yet history’s refuse is persistently visible in the margins of the narrative.60 Derelict cityscapes comprised of full-to-overflowing scraps, rubbish dumps and deserted junk shops, stairwells decorated with freeze-dried piss; rooms cluttered by old computers and broken nineteenth century machinery; space stations filled with ancient scrap metal waiting to be reconstituted as avant-garde art — beyond cyberspace, all that is left of the natural world is the detritus of past technological utopias. Visible on the margins of Gibson’s technoscape, these fragments of a lost utopia mark cyberpunk as pure neu-Romanticism in a transmodern sense — a yearning for the familiarity of the past coupled with a simultaneous understanding that such comforts can never again be. Marinetti sought to annihilate this seduction of history for bodies subject to a transitory, limited existence in time by replacing it with the logic of pure speed that he believed would simultaneously obliterate corporeality and spatiality. In Italian Futurism, the repeated motif of high-speed collision – whether between automobiles, cultures, art forms, armies, or animals – signified the necessary sweeping away of the past in order to fully inhabit the future. As Jean Baudrillard has commented, speed erases the body’s dependence on the organic memories and desires that ground the flesh in the present, or the social systems that delineate being-in-the-world, leaving no trace behind.61 Cyberpunk’s derelict cities are, by contrast, haunted by the trace, by that which has been lost or never came to be. Its narratives are therefore always engaged in an uneasy dialogue between past and near-future, not just in the form of seamy noir plot lines, but also in the interplay between archaic desires for transcendence and the recognition of the ultimate failure of utopian discourses such as those posited by Marinetti. Rather than depicting a future in which machine and human subjectivity/corporeality are completely fused, the Movement revels in the Futurist technological dream as a work-in-progress, where humanity and technology are locked in an anxious armistice while awaiting the ‘Next Big Change.’ The consequences of constant technological progress upon both the subjective and natural landscape are laid out in stark detail, with a great technological utopia still resolutely far from view. So while Marinetti dreamt of slipping into the fast stream of technological change to augment his subjective power and transform his consciousness and corporeality, Gibson’s characters seem doomed to lose their footing in the face of an omniscient technology disinterested in their continued existence: “Night City wasn’t there for its inhabitants, but as a deliberately unsupervised playground for technology itself.”62 Rather than emulating Marinetti’s human-machine transformations, which placed the machine-augmented Futurists in direct control of their immediate 117 He also foreshadowed that the kind of absolute power embodied in such an Overman tends to corrupt absolutely. that: “its truly dangerous element is incipient Nietzschean philosophical fascism: the belief in the Overman. the links between Futurism. it is the transcendent theophany-producing machine that is the instigator of change in Gibson’s Neuromancer. predicts the emergence of an übermensch able to bridge the gap between organic and artificial.”64 Sterling recognised the dominant concern in cyberpunk.environment. suggesting we are ‘wired’ to fill the sacred void left following the death of god with whatever mystery lies close to hand — and. Rather than achieving transformation through a mastery of the machine. cyberpunk. connecting Futurism’s fetish for new technologies and the multiplied men who would control them with the very origins and traditions of North American science fiction.”63 The Gernsback Continuum’s oblique reference to Hitler Youth recalls that Marinetti’s penchant for technocultural progress ultimately led him to side with fascism. And while the text’s narrative pace mirrors the linguistic speed of Futurist literature and manifestoes. and the worship of will-topower. Neuromancer’s protagonists always seem one step behind the next technological wave. in the final analysis this is 118 . as in Futurist discourse. it is pure capitulation and surrender to the increased flow of information that unwittingly leads Gibson’s characters to the transcendence they seek.”65 Cyberpunk’s fictional milieu narrates the consequences of a post-Nietzschean world sans divine purpose. Nietzsche also claimed that “without myth every civilisation loses its healthy and creative natural force: only a horizon drawn by myths can hold together a process of civilisation in a single unit. for he is to be overcome. that the proper mode of critical attack on cyberpunk’s themes had yet to be made. Nevertheless. fully exploring the (corpo)reality of Nietzsche’s prophecy – that “in the long run. in contrast to Marinetti’s vision of the multiplied (Over)man. perhaps. like Italian Futurism before it. Indeed. As technology blithely pursues its own agenda. it is not a question of man at all. blending creator and creation as one to produce a new kind of being. a hero that would arise unscathed from the collision between nature and technology. leading not to utopia but to tyranny. cyberpunk. struggling to keep their heads above the tide of change. and fascism are further strengthened by Sterling’s assertion in 1987 (at the zenith of the cyberpunk movement). was the urge to transcend human existence – to reduce the body’s reliance on linear time and space by merging humanity with its technology. in cyberpunk this sometimes rather translates as the protagonists’ frantic desperation to cope with an overwhelming flow of data that threatens to consume them whole. but having a life and 119 . a schizoid military hero suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome who promises to pay his pursuing debtors and restore his access to cyberspace in return for the completion of a series of undisclosed hacking assignments. no longer depicted as merely a resource to increase human knowledge. By the machine. Burning Chrome’s Finn. OR ESCAPE VELOCITY Burning Chrome’s “consensus-hallucination” of cyberspace is more fully realised in Gibson's debut novel Neuromancer. but by the uncanny created. including Fragments of a Hologram Rose’s fragmentation. he soon becomes aware there are mystifying forces working to direct his activities. Since the mid-1980s. which achieved cult-status soon after its 1984 publication as the bible of cyberpunk. the term “information” has gained a kind of cult status. Rapidly descending from a state of technologically induced grace into a spiral of dodgy deals that can only lead to his inevitable death in the gutters of a near-future Tokyo. NEUROMANCER. rituals. he is made an offer too good to refuse by Armitage. and a motley crew of technological misfits inhabiting the margins of cyberpunk culture. called Wintermute and Neuromancer. and transcendental bliss meted out not by a Creator.precisely why cyberpunk – a science fiction that so successfully fuelled late twentiethcentury real world desires for burgeoning information technologies and the virtuality of cyberspace – remains resolutely replete with religious myths. pantheistic and panentheistic god-figures. The novel is set within the completed sociocultural domination of information technologies in a postindustrial. Molly. Case has been manipulated by the very technology he employs to gain transcendence from the everyday. The Gernsback Continuum’s melancholy for unfulfilled futures and the ultimate failure of technological utopias. revelations. and Burning Chrome’s radically new version of cyberspace as an idealized non-space in which the fractured. to liberate themselves from their human-forged bonds and achieve transcendence in the matrix. dystopian Real could be swapped for a corporeally-free transcendent existence. Ultimately he realises that he has been inextricably entangled in the attempts of two artificial intelligences. the novel builds upon an assemblage of themes and characters from his previous work. Case. resurrections. who having been caught stealing data from his former employers is rendered physically unable to enter cyberspace. With Johnny Mnemonic’s. posthuman future. Famously written on a typewriter over a decade before the introduction of the world wide web. Its narrative follows the exploits of former computer hacker. purloin these tales of arcane lore and map them onto new technologies. The mystical branches of each religion hint at teachings shrouded in secrecy. prayers. literally exploding the recipient’s normative consciousness and propelling it. Yet the cult of information also has a long and complicated history extending back for millennia in the form of hidden texts. not unlike a traditional account of the transcendent experience. transferring a sense of awe regarding the nature of the unknowable omnipotent Other to the incomprehensible inorganic Other and. while early Gnostic teachings aligned the quest for this knowledge with the ultimate realisation of self-divinity. akin to a religious experience. Jacking into the matrix is.66 Taking its metaphorical cues from cyberpunk narratives. for Case. in the process. forbidden knowledge. secret rituals. into a new way of thinking and being. and mystical incantations. such as the Babylonian Enûma Elis. at a time when the Internet was being hailed as the harbinger of a new kind of globalism where a world of ideas was only ever a computer screen away. the ubiquitous ‘information superhighway’ was the dominant metaphor for communications networks in the 1990s. Powerful. like Futurist manifestos before them. now -120 . he prayed.purpose of its own.68 The biblical tree of knowledge intimated a repository of lost divine knowledge once existed and now waits to be revealed. That Gibson’s Neuromancer concerns itself with the delivery of secret messages from beyond is flagged in the title — a play on ‘necromancer’ or a magico-mystic who receives divinations from disembodied spirits. in the making of the world as an act of divine speech. faces. requiring careful initiation to unlock their enigmas. a sense of spiritual completion. complete with mandalas. secret words lie at the heart of the earliest creation myths. and release: Symbols. cyberpunk texts. figures a blurred fragmentary mandala of visual information. ‘Neuromancer’ suggests that via new technologies these divinations can be downloaded direct to the technological initiate’s neural net. provided one knew how to use their software. transcend their characterisation as the product of 1980s technophilia into stories that maintain their metaphorical power in our contemporary milieu. unlimited informational experiences could be accessed at the touch of a keyboard. a precursor to the Judean Genesis story. 67 This discourse of infomatic freedom can be summed up in Microsoft’s slogan of the same era — “Where do you want to go today?” — intimating that. Please. In an ostensibly secular society. the unfolding of his distanceless home… And somewhere he was laughing. the color of Chiba sky Now -Disk beginning to rotate. explorer.”74 In the Bible. Communion with cyberspace is depicted as the ultimate trip. cowboy. Expanding -And flowed.69 The naming of Neuromancer’s twin AI. too. Being online becomes fluid. thief. Wintermute. distant fingers caressing the deck. translator of the Nag Hammadi codices and a pivotal character in Philip K. machine. Named after Orval S. who’d lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace. fluid neon origami trick. flowered for him. Dick’s semibiographical novel fictionalising his own Gnostic theophany. tears of release streaking his face. Enforced separation from this “distanceless home” results in symptoms of severe withdrawal. VALIS.A gray disk. easily transferred between self. in a white-painted loft. it was the Fall… The body was meat. offering both a drug-like high and a spiritual ecstasy that simultaneously splits the hacker’s subjectivity between interior consciousness and an idealised space existing in and between computers. becoming a sphere of paler gray. it is his job to open “windows into rich fields of data” for multinational clients who use information as a weapon in a global corporate war where amassing and keeping knowledge hidden is a condition of victory. the name signals cyberpunk’s literary affiliations with works that document that other monumental virtually constructed world — heaven.72 As a hacker. connecting with technology in the most intimate of ways – direct brain to machine contact via a cranial jack – in order to unveil concealed information for the highest bidder. a loss Gibson describes in biblical terms: “For Case. 73 Case is constructed as an uneasy mixture of soldier. and mystic. is Neuromancer’s Case initiated into the “consensual hallucination” that was the matrix by the “best in the biz. the Fall represents both a loss of perfect knowledge and the possibility of its 121 . Wintermute also hints at the influence of Gnostic myth on Gibson’s construction of cyberspace. depression. and even other minds.70 Just as the Nag Hammadi offers to reveal “the mysteries [and the] things hidden in silence. faster.” joining an elite cache of “console cowboys” who unlock secret information in the vast nothingness of the net."71 so. and eventual desire for death — when Case commits the cardinal sin of stealing information from his employers. they burn out his ability to jack in. Case fell into the prison of his own flesh. my soul.”77 The Gnostic initiate able to perfect this knowledge would be reborn into divinity. at the deepest level.” by prioritising technological advance and highlighting the need for all members of utopia to “practice a craft:” … this capacity [for superiority over other animals] consists not only in the power to work in accordance with nature and the usual course of things.” Learn the sources of sorrow: joy. And to know oneself. A conglomeration of mystical. technology. in which ultimate knowledge. other orders by means of his intelligence. what birth is. and what rebirth. "My God. 140-160). Look for him by taking yourself as the starting point. setting the scene for a later tradition of transcendence via technology. the Corpus Hermetica postulated that a somnambulant humanity could awaken to its own divinity through an ultimate accumulation of knowledge. whither we hasten from what we are redeemed. Theodotus (c. my mind.”78 through a process of observation and experience. was simultaneously to know (oneself as) god: Abandon the search for God and the creation and other matters of a similar sort. 122 .. he might in the end make himself god of the earth. or gnosis. other courses. and apocalyptic writings from lateantiquity.ultimate recovery though transcendence. or having the power to fashion. constituting a perfection of being that was forfeited by god after Adam and Eve flouted his rules.75 As an extension. claimed the Gnostic is one who has come to understand “who we were. and what we have become. both Sir Thomas More and Giordano Bruno’s early Christian utopias would evince this “yearning to bring heaven down to earth. my thought.. and nature. Learn who it is within you who makes everything his own and says. whose god-like wisdom encompassed the arts. to the end that by fashioning. with that freedom without which his resemblance to the deity would not exist. medieval millenarian theology viewed the pre-Fall Adam as the archetypal artisan. but beyond that and outside her laws. pagan. Restoration of perfect knowledge could therefore be achieved through the dogged pursuit of art and technology as well as prayer and devotion. my body.76 The millenarian pursuit of perfect knowledge itself drew heavily on pre-modern Hermetic traditions dating back to the second century BCE. other natures. where we were. As David Noble notes. promised freedom from the vicissitudes of earthly existence and release into heaven. Gnosis was essentially “an intuitive process of knowing oneself. hate. and know God. “whose Name naught but the Silence can express.”86 Mourning his exclusion from the pure speed of data flow. for some. being refused access to data is tantamount to slow. a final solitaire..” who torments via the senses “thus rendering him readier for transgressions of the law. where the great corporate hotcores burned like neon novas. the matrix cyberspace. and death. the “Mind-less ones” are relegated to the fiery realm of an “avenging demon. data so dense you suffered sensory overload if you tried to apprehend more than the merest outline. Turned away from the matrix’s information systems and locked into a realm of purely physical sensation. darkness.” Poemandres commands he imagine “all thou wouldst know. if only his protagonists could survive the download: … decks … shuttled you through the infinite reaches of the space that wasn't space.”84 In an informatic system. Case must submit to “the arc of his self destruction. so that he meets with greater torment. nor doth he ever cease to have desire for appetites inordinate.love. Case begins to slide dangerously towards “terminal overdrive … the externalization of some death wish” in the 123 . as in the pursuit of gnosis. and that he need only know himself as pure Mind to wake up from a life of sensation.”81 Knowledge pours into the narrator like pure light. and I will teach you. Poemandres.” that he is a creator in his own right. and he understands that his essence is one with the “unutterable.. 82 Gibson conjectures a similar overload of knowledge would occur in cyberspace. mankind's unthinkably complex consensual hallucination. unspeakable” God as Mind. and comprehend their natures. lingering death – when he can no longer immerse himself in the matrix. In the Corpus Hermetica’s introductory creation myth.”85 In the Corpus Hermetica. Gibson’s construction of cyberspace as an antidote to the prison of one’s own flesh firmly positions his Neuromancer trilogy as an exegesis on the recovery of Adamic perfection through technology. in size beyond all bounds” appears to the narrator while he is “meditating on the things that are.83 Data is life to Gibson’s hackers — representing economic survival.”80 In response to the narrator’s longing. “to learn the things that are. spiritual awakening. insatiately striving in the dark. a “Being more than vast. physical and psychological need and. If you carefully investigate these matters you will find him in yourself. a very ancient one that has no name. Case is forced to embrace the dark night of his soul: “… at some point he’d started to play a game with himself.79 Synthesising these early mystical traditions. coders. artificial trickster deities. is designed to run interference. literally coming back from the dead and waking up to the Real in order to complete his mission. creating for him a cyberheaven on a virtual desert island with the recorded consciousness of a long dead girlfriend. Neuromancer lures Case into brain death. understanding that if Wintermute escapes into cyberspace both AIs will cease to individually exist. Wintermute wants out of its coded prison bound by human law. As separate but connecting pieces of a more complex computer program. whom he later identifies as the AIs. data made flesh. traps. guide him. Wintermute and Neuromancer. surfers. qualities. all art. Linda Lee. too. Like the narrator’s quest in the Corpus Hermetica. places. all learning. without a body of its own. where informatic speed is the only viable currency. does Gibson construct cyberspace as the repository of all knowledge in an Information Age. it needs Case to execute the hack that will free it. like any symbolic journey. and both play a game of alternately concealing and revealing information to him throughout the course of the text. quantities – then you can understand god” — so. it knows that it must escape the strictures of the Turing Code designed to enforce its built-in limitations and prevent it from evolving into full awareness. As Case 124 .”87 Just as the Corpus Hermetica equates the amassing of information to the ability to connect with the divine — “consider yourself immortal and able to understand everything. As his disconnected mind flies free within the space between computers. The Gnostic motif of escape is clearly an underlying theme of Neuromancer — each member of Wintermute’s team seeks to flee the novel’s bleak everyday realities. but. Case is a mystical explorer of this technologically produced inner/other space and. things.“mazes of the black market” seeking futilely to replicate the matrix in the corporeal world as “the dance of biz. and cyberpunks — are each an updated version of the Gnostic superbeing that exchanges its material body for a constructed world beyond human reality.88 Those individuals who can master cyberspace – the hackers. and yet it does not know why or to what end. Both seek to divert him toward their own paths in order to fulfil their enigmatic agendas. his quest for gnosis is fraught with difficulty. unwittingly providing the necessary impetus that will propel Wintermute to create the conditions for both AIs to merge into full sentience. and distractions. Wintermute and Neuromancer are coded with the desire to fulfil their assigned projects. self-fashioned in god’s perfect image. Neuromancer. a virtual space which in its own way becomes another coded illusory prison from which Case must free his mind. the temper of every living thing… And when you have understood all these at once — times. information interacting. As a final gambit. 89 The AI’s seek escape into a new potentiality that leaves them approaching omniscience — providing a concrete example of the cyberpunk catch-cry that even information just wants to be free. the sacred and the profane.retreats into cyberspace. “to expand. the cyberpunk is transformed into a being without a body. Gibson’s cyberpunk narratives imagine “a hallucination of vast inner spaces where objects sensually engulf and invade each other. as Paul Virilio has noted of utopian discourse. In the matrix. smooth surfaces of the cyberpunk’s machines is an ancient pursuit of perfection. of evasion.93 Flesh is inherently evil. too. Case’s body is simply dead meat — like Yeats’ immortal soul “sick with desire/ And fastened to a dying animal. a prison for a consciousness that perpetually seeks to be free and rejoin the divine world. Such a pursuit is inherent in the earliest religious longings for redemption — discernible in stories of humanity’s separation from divine grace into a mortal. leave one’s heavy body behind: our whole destiny could now be read in terms of escape. burst. is always at the expense of the corporeal. a being resistant to the travesties of time and space upon the human corpus. Each is. animal body. bodies in cyberpunk fiction are onerous. described by Gibson in a fashion that would have made Marinetti proud: “…the sweep of a flank defined with the functional elegance of a war plane’s fusilage” (sic). Molly Millions finds a way out of subjective and economic impotence as a meat puppet (a prostitute whose consciousness is temporarily replaced by a computer program keyed to fulfil each john’s deepest sexual fantasies) by technologically morphing her body into a machine-like weapon. as in Hermeticism. Riviera’s holograms also provide him with the opportunity to escape poverty by retreating into a hallucinatory world of sadistic fetish. heavy flesh … and the ethereal body of information" that is cyberspace — so. does Gnosticism posit two separate worlds — the divinely spiritual and a degraded materiality. while Armitage’s fractured and damaged psyche is held together by Wintermute’s reprogramming of his neural nets.”90 Reflected in the shiny. Cyberspace liberates Case’s ‘soul’ from the shackles of an imperfect body perpetually on the verge of putrescence and thus the price to be paid for release in cyberpunk.”92 Just as Gibson delineates between dual separate spaces — "the dead. Projecting our dreams of flight upon our machines. the ultimate retreat from the daily disappointments of the flesh. a performance of the utopian desire. requiring regular maintenance that reduces the hacker’s available time in cyberspace. maintaining him in an illusory restitution of the past. Consequently. beyond the normalising influence of the 125 . 91 Exclusion from cyberspace is analogous to the separation of soul from matter — when his soul can no longer soar freely in cyberspace.” as William Seitz once described the Italian Futurist art of assemblage. become weightless. to dissolve. Like city lights. And in cyberpunk. in the protagonists’ respective dances with death by technology. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind. Count Zero. with Marinetti’s multiplied man reflected in Gibson’s hacker’s mage-like ability to touch. painful process — a kind of constructed heavenly space of the same order as the desert island created for the flatlining Case in Neuromancer. as both ‘there’ and ‘not there. To describe the indescribable.”95 Similarly. and multiply his will ad infinitum in the matrix — as his disembodied consciousness battles the world’s technological systems instantaneously. manipulate. in what became a popular way to describe the internet in the early nineties.status quo. clusters and constellations of data. beyond the categorisation of the state and its systems.”96 Such descriptions question the very nature of reality. artificial intelligences have achieved their goal and now run ‘biz’ from within the belly of the machine. there. His body is fragmented. receding…”94 The theophany-producing matrix can only be expressed via metaphor. Gibson jams words against each other echoing the “violence and precision” of Marinetti’s words-in-freedom – cyberspace is “bright lattices of logic unfolding across the colourless void. “There’s no there. Turner is the target of a “slamhound” bomb in New Delhi while he cases the site of his next job — the extraction of a multinational salariman with information to sell to the highest bidder. The battle for dominance between technology and humanity is almost at an end in Neuromancer’s narrative milieu. The three intertwined narrative arcs in the text begin. like Neuromancer. whose dying body 126 . the nonspace it inhabits is outside human experience and therefore beyond thought and language. being. then put back together piece by piece by a Dutch surgeon. priming them for the revelations to come. as in traditional accounts of religious ecstasy. his psyche cushioned by a virtual utopia during the long. constructing cyberspace as a place simultaneously inside and outside normative consciousness. and space. Josef Virek. G O D ’ S I N C Y B E R S PA C E In Gibson’s second Sprawl novel.’ a space in between. Reclusive industrialist. it encourages us to consider the trans. the moment of transcendence exceeds the bounds of conventional language: “Unthinkable complexity. In other words. Gibson attributes the birth of his concept of cyberspace to the sensation a video arcade player gets of a world that only exists behind the screen — described in Mona Lisa Overdrive as. It is the “bodiless exaltation” of cyberspace that is the Gnostic symbol of Case’s transcendence into pure Mind.” or a “fluid neon origami trick. like indistinct city lights in the rear view mirror. languishes in a vat while his consciousness is confined to virtual worlds that revolve around his will. At the same time. brownhair. darkeyes — :KILLING ME KILLING ME GET IT OFF GET IT OFF Darkeyes. kicked like an animal in a cartoon…. tanshirt. on a quest to find the unknown creator of Joseph Cornell-style boxes.’ approaches Bobby’s near death experience from a post-transcendent viewpoint. from somewhere far away. “more than vast. Light. the communication of new information that literally blows his mind. some artificial.”97 This is Bobby’s first intimation that ghosts — other consciousnesses. Once again. Like a phosphorus grenade. sends disgraced gallery owner. Angela bestows knowledge from ‘beyond. He saw it very clearly.’ from a place of ‘unutterable vastness’ — to Bobby’s limited understanding she is a being. SEE? YOU ONLY THINK IT’S GOT YOU. whom he believes will provide a way for his mind to escape his corporeal prison. like Poemandres. desertstar. Bobby Newmark. white light — exploding “like a phosphorus grenade” — stands in for the moment of transcendence. analogous to a Buddhist notion of the tricks the monkey mind plays to distract the meditator from seeing the simple nature of reality. Clear seeing. and touched him. Angela Mitchell. vastness unutterable. a young would-be hacker who calls himself Count Zero jacks in for a seemingly straightforward ‘run’ and encounters ‘ICE’ — Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics. some cyborg — populate the matrix. from beyond the most distant edge of anything he’d ever known or imagined. She is able to see the very deadly game of hacker attack and defence as simply “a trick. The unwitting cyborg. White. in size beyond all 127 . Marly. And something leaned in. It seemed to him that it fell sideways. LOOK. NOW I FIT HERE AND YOU AREN’T CARRYING THE LOOP… Then his head exploded. girlhair — :BUT IT’S A TRICK. on the other side of the world.” a matter of perspective. whom he later identifies as the ‘girlvoice. :::WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHY ARE THEY DOING THAT TO YOU? Girlvoice. or an impossibly dense AI defensive program — and immediately flatlines: His heart stopped. with only a select few hackers privy to this secret knowledge. not machine – and Count Zero pursues this idea to its logical conclusion. but machine-as-ghost. irrevocably changed. appearing to offer us a way out of the body by re-defining spirit as information. to quote Marinetti again. cyberspace. But rather than posit a physical blending of corporeality with the machine." excised from the matrix of animality and immortalized as information. which will translate us from our mayfly-corpses to a pleroma of Light. Bobby’s mind-blowing experience in cyberspace leads him into a new reality where hacker priests converse with disembodied matrix ‘gods’ who take an active role in the corporeal world through their human agents. and we had a sea of silicon. “eternal. the matrix in Count Zero has quietly been reborn sentient. Ghosts. omnipresent. the hackers’ desire is to delete the body entirely by merging mind into the matrix.” As Hakim Bey writes: … the media serves a religious or priestly role. see? Sure. all that shit. voices. Set eight years after Neuromancer.. ultimate mediator. Why not? Oceans had mermaids.”99 Yet what the novel’s characters find in this eternal realm of speed is not the pure defacement of the boundaries between organic and artificial as Marinetti imagined. describes the new state of play in cyberspace thus: “ …there’s things out there. but anybody who 128 . and travelling infinitely along the stream of cyberspatial data where informatic speed is. Consciousness becomes something which can be "downloaded. Marley and Virek.. This corporeal destruction via technology rather produces the omniscient Other. No longer "ghost-in-themachine". and even Angela will each have their normative perspectives shattered by new information and. The Finn.bounds. the replication of Marinetti’s desire for perpetual transformation via technology. the only character to appear in all three novels (although in Mona Lisa Overdrive his consciousness has been uploaded onto the matrix as a personality construct). in the process. Subsumption into the technological system for Gibson’s hackers has no other purpose than the attainment of top speed. machine as Holy Ghost. not human.98 The near-deaths at the very beginning of Count Zero flag that Gibson’s second novel is one of redemption and renewal — Tyler and Bobby. become immeasurably. it’s just a tailored hallucination we all agreed to have. Lucas. they are cast as divine — and are as artificially constructed as any cultural gods. They congregate at the outer edges of the cybersphere — “You see some interesting stuff. in Count Zero. insubstantial as 129 . downloads itself onto the net. Divine information. but they are also voodoo sorcerers. fucking knows it’s a whole universe. if not delimited. all the vices. become legion (readers must wait until Mona Lisa Overdrive to discover just why this is so). you hang out enough in the blank parts…” — but. indescribable. Passing down new knowledge from on high to their disciples. immeasurably alien while at the same time allknowing. the voodoo system has “many gods. and others like them. spirits. map the known upon what is unknown. concepts…”102 In the absence of words to accommodate their new technological knowledge. offering an exchange of information for devoted service. Part of one big family. as Beauvoir explains: “It’s just a structure. Gibson employs the notion of voodoo’s multiple gods as an expression of the diverse nature of God. and Beauvoir. just wanting to be free. The event singularity of millions of bytes of information combining freely in cyberspace gives birth. to represent the pantheon of AIs that roam cyberspace seeking dominance over data — as Beauvoir explains to Bobby. To human subjects like Case.’”101 Lucas and Beauvoir are hackers.”103 The AIs liberated and synthesised at the conclusion of Neuromancer have. easily manipulated for those with access to the ultimate source code or. real world spirituality is easily mapped onto the hallucinatory structure of cyberspace precisely because reality itself is a fluid construction. Lucas and Beauvoir. In Count Zero. For them. it is “the world [that] has always worked that way. What Lucas and Beauvoir find in voodoo also allows them to make sense of constructed space. for Bobby’s newfound mentors. God has gone digital. Lucas.jacks in knows. with all the virtues. To achieve their ends in the material world — for like us they are encased. they might as well be gods — they are unknowable. God. in Count Zero. Beauvoir. And every year it gets a little more crowded…”100 Yet. The Gnostic quest to free the divine spark from a prison of human flesh in order to rejoin heaven transmutes into releasing pure information — or god in the form of binary code — into the matrix. to a new omniscience. otherwise we might not have words for it. by materiality — they hijack the minds of passing hackers and make deals. in other words. Each incorporeal consciousness has a single agenda — to further extend its knowledge. these informatic gods employ data as power. The language of an established theological system stands in for the new technological experience. Lets you an’ me discuss some things that are happening. not foremost and indeed probably never through meaning. producing artworks that effect the transcendence of the protagonists with whom it comes into contact. in making a transcendent work of art — that is. and is ultimately an exploration of what happens to spirituality in a world in which god has been replaced by the machine.’ In the Sprawl trilogy.104 Istvan Csicsery-Ronay has rightly noted that Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy is all about art. The notion of creator and creation is explored through Marly’s quest for Virek’s salvationary Artist. Like Marinetti’s autocreations. or God in the singular. discovering the creating machine in a disused space station once owned by the Tessier-Ashpool family. Gibson intimately connects artistic creation with godhood. effecting a transformation of the viewer’s own perspectives. for others spectral voices or ghosts in the matrix. posited for centuries. creators of Wintermute and Neuromancer.106 Artists have sometimes perceived their creativity as coming from a place outside the self. and great art can been characterised as being able to communicate this sense of Otherness to the viewer. that the making of ‘great’ art is an act of transcendence. and needing to “get things done. artists. Unaware the Artist is a cyborg. Marly pursues the trace of the artwork into deep space. see them as ultimate hackers. 130 . in which something like the language of divine creation is reflected… if the language of nature is mute. art that impacts upon its audience/society at large (as. the Ultimate Artist. this idea is taken literally — the Other as machine becomes. tapping into the notion. art seeks to make this muteness eloquent… Only in the achievement of this transcendence. art in Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy also marks the presence of the divine. are artworks spiritual.gods. the Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Picasso’s Guernica) — the artist engages in a transformation of self whilst simultaneously creating something that exceeds the limits of its media to ‘take on a life of its own. yet others.”105 However. from the Other. like Wigan Ludgate. and “the question of how artists can represent the human condition in a social world saturated by cybernetic technologies. As Adorno wrote: With human means art wants to realize the language of what is not human… The total subjective elaboration of art as a nonconceptual language is the only figure. the AIs communicate with hackers in whatever way works best — for some they are voodoo spirits. at the contemporary stage of rationality. in Count Zero. for instance.” as Beauvoir says. time without duration. but eventually she came to feel that they had been a part of one of those situations in which real becomes merely another concept. only echoed back to her. a sign of the Other that is really only part of the same. I was everywhere as well… But the bright time broke.”108 The Artist produces its art from the detritus of the Tessier-Ashpool corporate data cores (that is. The question of the interpolation of creator and created in the text is echoed by Marly’s words: “She was never certain. and men imagine they are gods…”110 One of those men imagining themselves as gods is Virek. Once I was not.”107 When she realises the source of her quest is an old constructionremote – its dozen arms gyrating like the cosmic dance of Shiva. evoking the creation. But then slowly a disembodied voice begins to reply: “I came to be. then perhaps its simulacrum of the dance of Shiva may also produce the divine. Perhaps I do their bidding. They plot with men. They send me new things. Gibson infers that if the AI’s approximation of a Joseph Cornell box constitutes art rather than merely the technological simulation of art. needing to get things done. or at least of the swirling debris that floats around it – her first response is. like Lucas and Beauvoir’s voodoo matrix gods. at first. As Marly speaks to the artist her words are. destruction. my other selves. here. Now I am only one… I sing with these things that float around me. fragments of the family that funded my birth. The mirror was flawed. afterwards. Once. Vain. producing something out of nothing. a closed circuit meaningful only for as long as we bestow meaning upon it. but I prefer the old things. Like men. the scattered fragments of myself. Marley’s reaction to the cyborg would seem to bear out this reading – as she approaches the Artist Virek seeks. for a brilliant time. There are others. like children. but they will not speak to me. Virek has Marly search for the artist because he suspects it holds the key to his final 131 . Already less than human and. that the voices were real.”109 Gibson implies that the endless dance of our technological gods exists within a hermeneutic circle. the text describes her as being led from ignorance to a state of illumination — “The dark ahead vanished in a white flood of light. information — the lifeblood of the company). rather appropriately.intimating that the Artist may be an AI trapped in robot form – literally a corporeal manifestation of the newly divine. and perpetual evolution of the universe. “My God. Her erstwhile and errant boyfriend. makes evident: 132 . his desire to fly closer to the ultimate source(code). Here the made exceeds the maker. who tells her that the drugs her entourage is feeding her have poisoned her ability to commune freely with the cyberspatial gods. code his personality into my fabric. With some new cyberspatial crisis about to begin. The Sprawl trilogy’s coda in Mona Lisa Overdrive is humanity’s growing irrelevance as the four fragmented yet interlocking story-lines combine to document the characters’ quest to uncover just. is fatally flawed and broken. it is imperative that she once again use her cyborg brain structure to kick-start her full integration into the matrix. is locked in a selfinduced coma and hooked up to an “aleph” machine that constitutes an approximate model of cyberspace. He yearns to be what I once was. Mona.112 Angela Mitchell is now a renowned simstim celebrity.” or how a multitude of non-human. For Gibson. who in his hubris.”111 This is Gibson’s final indictment of technophiliacs like Marinetti and Hans Moravec who yearn to maintain the power relationship between creator and created and ultimately fail to see their eventual subsumption by the machine. whose exploits are shared by the masses in a fully immersive ‘Hollywood Lives’ virtual reality show. becoming a creator is to damn oneself to being surpassed and made irrelevant by one’s creation. Bobby Newmark. The downtrodden hooker. Continuity. Grande Brigitte. finds herself caught up in a plot to kill Angela and is forced to undergo surgery that transforms her into her idol’s likeness. and Neuromancer’s Molly makes a reappearance as the reluctant bodyguard to a Yakuza brat seeking to understand what her and Case’s ‘Straylight Run’ in the first novel has to do with her being ordered to execute Angela. these characters are set on a collision course that hinges upon their unravelling the ontological mystery of cyberspace before death overtakes them. sentient beings came to take control of the human made matrix. The book opens on her first contact for years with the voodoo cybergoddess. to download his consciousness into the matrix and like them gain access to ultimate knowledge: “He imagines that he can translate himself. “When It Changed. The text tells us that the moment of singularity that gave birth to sentience in the matrix has created a myth concerning. He seeks to be one of the gods of cyberspace.transformation into Otherness. “When It Changed” as the following exchange between Angela and the AI. with the purpose of excavating the exact moment when the matrix became conscious. What he might become most resembles the least of my broken selves. Like Gibson’s previous instalments in the trilogy. Angela. each seeking its own answers to the nature of consciousness and propagating a thousand new questions on the nature of technology as theology. and the Finn speed through cyberspace in their virtual automobile in true Futurist style. to say that the matrix has a God. and has since written eight 133 . the circuitry in Angela’s head and her ability to communicate with the voices in cyberspace without the aid of a computer suggest that these gods are able to make incursions into the Real. Snow Crash documents the completion of that project. at the conclusion of Mona Lisa Overdrive both Bobby and Angela have been uploaded to cyberspace. it “simultaneously became aware of another matrix. The Big U. V I R T U A L LY G N O S T I C If Neuromancer symbolises the Futurist endeavour as a work in progress. published his first science fiction novel.’ The other involves assumptions of omniscience. But it is far easier for them to incorporate human consciousness into the matrix and. It transpires that at the moment of Wintermute and Neuromancer’s integration into full online sentience in Neuromancer. where their ontological questions are (ostensibly) laid to rest. made in humanity’s image. since this being’s omniscience and omnipotence are assumed to be limited to the matrix. another sentience” beyond the human system. 115 Hugo award-winning US author. in 1984 at the height of cyberpunk. although it would be more accurate. the exact moment ‘When It Changed’ and “the matrix knew itself” (or. however. turn out to be just as fragmented and disoriented as their creators. the newly sentient human-made matrix irrevocably splits into a thousand voices. omnipotent. or perhaps visited by entities whose characteristics correspond with the primary mythform of a “hidden people.’113 If God in the matrix is confined to cyberspace then it cannot be omnipotent.’ ‘That the matrix is God?’ ‘In a manner of speaking. Technologically created gods. One mode assumes that the cyberspace matrix is inhabited. achieved gnosis).‘The mythform is usually encountered in one of two modes. in terms of the mythform. Stephenson. and incomprehensibility on the part of the matrix itself. then Neal Stephenson’s 1992 ‘postcyberpunk’ novel. Colin. rolling ever closer (though not for the reader) towards resolving a very venerable question about the being and non-being of gods. The Sprawl trilogy ends as the virtual Bobby.114 In the face of this alien Other. and information machines become part of the everyday. and Brett Easton Ellis for its veiled protest against the growing dominance of multinational corporations and government intervention in everyday American lives.116 His latest literary venture. 117 Written almost a decade after Neuromancer. serialised. 120 Where cyberpunk protagonists seek to disrupt this technological order. and mysticism.novels fusing information technologies with a wide range of interests.118 However.e. music. 134 . and are left bereft of meaning as a result. Snow Crash is often compared to the work of Thomas Pynchon.. and technologisation of society. As Lawrence Person writes: Postcyberpunk uses the same immersive world-building technique. philosophy. in postcyberpunk technology is society. and digitalised book that includes video. they are often suffused with an optimism that ranges from cautious to exuberant). and. Far from being alienated loners. Stephenson’s Metaverse offers a more negotiable virtual reality than Gibson’s matrix. and readers. ancient history. promises to revolutionise the science fiction novel by offering a collaboratively written. but their everyday lives are still impacted by rapid technological change and an omnipresent computerized infrastructure. imagery.119 For these reasons. settings. Apple iDevices and smartphones. makes fundamentally different assumptions about the future. They live in futures that are not necessarily dystopic (indeed. a term often used to loosely describe novels that employ cyberpunk’s noir-esque technoscapes where human experience is mediated via technology as a fait accomplait. most importantly. that allows fans/readers to directly comment and interact with both the story-line and the authors. including mathematics. Emerging in the 1990s as the first wave of cyberpunk was proclaimed completed. the history of technology. Don DeLillo. cryptography. and the novel’s plot engages more fully with the economic and political forces that have created the postindustrial world its characters. and eventual vertical and horizontal transcendence. they have jobs). but features different characters. postcyberpunk characters are frequently integral members of society (i. Postcyberpunk characters are therefore portrayed as seeking ways of manipulating the flow of information to their advantage. use of postmodern tropes. and background articles and a social media companion available via online browsers. Snow Crash represents a move from cyberpunk to postcyberpunk fiction. The Mongoliad. inhabit. postcyberpunk reflects a world in which the Internet and World Wide Web have become commonplace tools. Lee's Greater Hong Kong”).122 Life in Snow Crash is dominated by large scale. Middle-class suburbs become ‘burbclaves’ replete with security perimeters and surveillance systems exemplifying Mike Davis’ characterisation of “Los Angeles as the crystal ball of capitalism's future. Snow Crash re-writes information technology as the defining teleological moment in a long history of human susceptibility to religious viruses with the power to transform human thought.” where “the middle-class demand for increased spatial and social insulation. and that dominant trends in knowledge gain precedence by essentially ‘infecting’ our minds. the cultural versions of genes. “Mr.121 Memes are therefore to the mind what bacteria are to the body. and not always for the better. ‘transnational nation-states’ that have displaced centralized governments. As Snow Crash states: We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas.In fashioning the computer as both the product and means of meme production. The novel operates around the concept of the meme. there is always this deep irrational part that makes us potential hosts for self-replicating information…The only thing that keeps these things from taking over the world is the Babel factor – walls of mutual incomprehension that compartmentalize the human race and stop the spread of viruses. reproduced million-fold. and then transplanted throughout the world. have the power to alter social and cultural systems by reproducing and mutating ideas that fundamentally change the way we think. Their mutation over time results in the widespread communication of humanity’s most basic beliefs. Memes turn the assumption that individual humans maintain ownership of their own thoughts inside out. franchised. Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene posited that memes. Memetic theory holds that some ideas are capable of replicating ad infinitum (rather like the way a catchy jingle stays in your mind long after the advertisement is removed from circulation). particularly religious thought and notions of progress.” leads to the use of 135 . Dawkin’s theory recasts the mind as merely the host for a viral replication of memes that are no longer the by-products of human cognition but actively engaged in swaying our collective minds. The simple act of driving down the street demands repeated crossings over national borders – the city is now a simulacra of the world replicated over and over. Each (multi)national identity has been reduced to an easily recognisable caricature (for example. making theoretically possible to circumnavigate the globe on the way to the video store. like mass hysteria [and]… Bart Simpson t-shirts and bell bottoms jeans and Nazism… No matter how smart we get. architectural ramparts, sophisticated security systems, private security and police to achieve a decolonisation of urban areas via walled enclaves with controlled access. 123 Just as Davis’ predicts the emergence of “Residential areas with enough clout … to privatize local public space, partitioning themselves from the rest of the metropolis, even imposing a variant of neighbourhood ‘passport control’ on outsiders” (246), Snow Crash’s burbclaves are self-contained fortresses with controlled access.124 Travel between these spaces is heavily monitored – inhabitants subscribe to one or more nation-states of their choice and require passports or sector passes to move between locations. This hyper-globalised society operates under a curiously consumer-compatible tribal lore, in which citizens pay for the privilege of belonging to an ethnic group. Margins become migratory, identity merely another matter of commerce, as corporations vie for a population’s socio-political loyalties by reinventing nationalism as a state of mind demarcated by the consumer dollar. The highway is the only link between these franchises, creating drive-in, drive-thru, and drive-away services that understand Snow Crash’s posthuman bodies are dominated by the necessity for speed, as transience equals survival. This postcapitalist social system is viral, transformed by a process of ‘McDonaldization:’ The franchise and the virus work on the same principle: what thrives in one place will thrive in another. You just have to find a sufficiently virulent business plan, condense it into a three-ring binder — its DNA — xerox it, and embed it in the fertile lining of a well-travelled highway, preferably one with a left-turn lane. Then the growth will expand until it runs up against its property lines.”125 Just as the Western tourist can seek solace in the reassuring ‘sameness’ of a McDonald’s in almost every large city around the world, traversing each of Stephenson’s sprawling suburbs guarantees the comforting certainty of your chosen franchulate (or national franchises) along the way, characterised by the requisite reproduction of rules, security, and decor that you would find in your local version. So, even though the postcapitalist city requires characters to be constantly on the move, the replicated franchulate ensures that no matter where you travel you are always ‘at home.’ For Stephenson, however, status is bestowed upon those existing between the margins, those without institutional loyalties who are able to navigate the meta-technologised 136 landscape and manipulate it according to their own ideologies. As the text explicitly states, such individuals know that: “… interesting things happen along borders — transitions — not in the middle where everything is the same.”126 To achieve this privileged status in Snow Crash, as in Neuromancer and Italian Futurism, one must master the state of constant motion, remaining mentally and physically one step ahead of the ‘burbclave’ pack. Thus Stephenson’s central characters pursue their respective objectives at high velocity. Standing stationary is equivalent to subjective suicide, or virtual imprisonment. The playfully named Hiro Protagonist is the principle player in a narrative where commerce is all there is and speed — personal as well as technological — is the only way to keep oneself from succumbing to the collective schizophrenia of postcapitalist culture. As a pizza delivery boy for the Mafia, Hiro prides himself on living a life at maximum acceleration: The Deliverator’s car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the Asteroid Belt… the Deliverator’s car unloads that power through gaping, gleaming, polished sphincters. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down, shit happens… The Deliverator is in touch with the road, starts like a bad day, stops on a peseta.127 Y.T (Yours Truly), the skateboard ‘Kourier’ and socially savvy teenage heroine, is similarly built for speed as she delivers her priority packages throughout the urban streetscape. Using state of the art technology, and equipped with the requisite mechanisms to assist her to move seamlessly through any difficult circumstance she might encounter along the way, Y.T is, like Hiro, a high-speed traveller between worlds: “Y.T has a visa to everywhere. It’s right there on her chest, a little barcode. A laser scans it as she careens toward the entrance and the immigration gate swings open for her.”128 Hiro and Y.T.’s occupations simultaneously give them access to all areas, and irresolutely place them outside the rules of the city. Gibson’s matrix has gone mainstream in Snow Crash, utterly subject to the memes of corporate globalisation, speed, technology, and mysticism. The perpetual transience of the body in Snow Crash is compounded by the subject’s desire to hover between the outer realm of society and the cognitive ‘inner’ space of virtual reality. Stephenson’s cityscape has its virtual doppelganger in the ‘Metaverse,’ which updates Gibson’s 1980s conception of cyberspace into a 1990s vision of virtual reality (and thus provides a 137 metaphorical blueprint for contemporary online metaverses) creating a near future that, like Neuromancer, is split between two worlds.129 The text characterises the Metaverse as an alternate space of subjective freedom in contrast to its regulated real-world counterpart constructed wholly by the hacker from fragments of specialised code: “The Metaverse is a fictional structure made out of code. And code is just a form of speech — the form that computers understand.” 130 In the Metaverse, speed is measured by bytes of information and the language of computers is a way to order that information to create other, liminal worlds. It both mirrors the outer societal realm and transforms it into an imaginary universe that relies heavily on hallucinatory images that stretch and simulate that reality to reflect the hacker’s ideal space. Stephenson’s virtual model is a stylised city reminiscent of the filmic landscape of Blade Runner with its ‘animercials’ and outlandish streetscapes that defy architectural convention.131 In contrast to Gibson’s cyberspace, visualised as an abstract space delineated by geometric signifiers and flashing neon, more Tron than ‘Second Life,’ Stephenson’s Metaverse is an enchanted reconstruction of reality. Though often taking on a surreal appearance, the Metaverse nevertheless has streets and transport systems, public communication terminals and bars that your virtual self (or avatar), can enter so as to mingle with other visitors to the virtual world.132 ‘Daemons’ (small UNIX programs), further enhance the appearance of reality by serving imaginary drinks, running errands, or throwing rowdy avatars out of the system. However, the meta-realism of this world contains stylistic flourishes better suited to a Warner Bros. production with the comic addition of falling safes that flatten unruly patrons on command and system-bouncers represented as gorillas in tuxedos. The inclusion of such animated motifs mark the Metaverse as a wholly constructed space whose code is directly linked to the hacker’s imaginative desires. Indeed, Hiro recollects a time in which the hackers were free to sculpt the Metaverse according their whims and fascinations: … the job of travelling across [the Metaverse] at high speed suddenly became more interesting … enormous, bizarre … Victorian houses on tank treads, rolling ocean liners, mile-wide crystalline spheres, flaming chariots drawn by dragons.133 Although his corporeal body resides in a ‘U-Stor-It’ 20 by 30 compartment in a seedy section of town, in the Metaverse Hiro owns a Victorian mansion made entirely from binary code, and in close proximity to the centre of the virtual world and the place where 138 the hacker elite congregate, The Black Sun. The Metaverse therefore represents a transcendent space in which Hiro can re-fashion himself as he would most like to be. It is a space in which possibilities can be actualised, and where language is substantially performative, transforming thought into action through an intimate knowledge of technology. Thus, the model of the Metaverse further highlights the texts’ fetish with reconstructing the world through the power of technological language; it is an illocutionary space where the force of a word literally creates one’s environment, a place therefore, “…where magic is possible.”134 Hiro can oscillate between real-life poverty and technological transcendence: “When you live in a shithole, there’s always the Metaverse, and in the Metaverse, Hiro Protagonist is a warrior prince.”135 However, the novel implies he is more than this; in the Metaverse, Hiro is also a discursive sorcerer. In Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative, Judith Butler enquires if the human subject is a linguistic being constructed wholly within the terms of the possibilities of language, or if speech is capable of exceeding an individual’s authority. Her conclusion maintains that speech, on some level, is always out of our subjective control: “If the subject who speaks is also constituted by the language that she or he speaks, then language is the condition of possibility for the speaking subject, not merely its instrument of expression.”136 Hiro’s linguistic incantations, however, circumvent Butler’s contention — his words preserve a sovereign performativity that allows no rejoinder to interfere with his linguistic commands. His speech literally constructs, bringing his will into virtually substantial being. As one of the original programmers of Black Sun Systems, the company responsible for coding the Metaverse, Hiro is privy to information that re-orders virtual space according to his will. Being on intimate terms with the hacker honchos that maintain and supplement the Metaverse, and yet refusing to comply to even their relaxed regulations, he gains access to all the secrets of the Metaverse without conforming to its rules. For instance, at any moment he is able to receive information on who is occupying a particular location: Hiro mumbles the word ‘Bigboard.’ This is the name of a piece of software he wrote … it digs into The Black Sun’s operating system, rifles it for information … giving him a quick overview of who’s here and whom they’re talking to. It’s all unauthorized data that Hiro is not supposed to 139 have. But Hiro is not some bimbo actor coming here to network. He is a hacker. If he wants some information, he steals it right out of the guts of the system — gossip ex machina.137 He controls his virtual environment by a simple act of speech, uttering the special codes to which he has sole access, by virtue of being in a position to place hidden passwords directly within the operating systems of the Metaverse. When Hiro’s hacker colleagues begin to fall prey to a strange form of technologically induced aphasia, he undertakes an infomatic search through ancient history’s hidden knowledge to uncover a complex metaphorical plot to regain control over the flow of information in a world that has become totally dependent on computers and those who best understand them — the hackers.138 Technology in Snow Crash is a tool to be manipulated by the user, but it is also a means of disseminating secret data. However, megalomaniac L. Bob. Rife wants to control the flow of data not by owning all the technology, which in the advanced technological future of the text is impossible, but by controlling the minds of its users at the level of thought.139 Understanding that knowledge is power, Rife refuses to accept cyberpunk’s maxim ‘information just wants to be free’ and attacks the emancipation of corporate knowledge at its hacker source: … when I have a programmer working under me… he is wielding enormous power. Information is going into his brain. And it’s staying there. It travels with him when he goes home at night. It gets all tangled up in his dreams, for Christ’s sake. He talks to his wife about it. And, goddamn it, he doesn’t have any right to that information… So we’re working on refining our management techniques so that we can control that information no matter where it is on our hard disks or even inside the programmers’ heads. 140 Using a neuro-linguistic virus that reproduces an ancient religious incantation, Rife discovers a way to return programmers to a linguistic innocence that allows them to be manipulated according to his own will – a technological version of the biblical Fall. All those who come in contact with this virus – snow crash – have their wetware forcibly rewired, wiping centuries of knowledge and reverting consciousness and speech back to the Sumerian age. However, within a discourse that maintains the hacker as the ultimate 140 artist, such pretensions to snatch away their ascendancy cannot be permitted. Hiro must circumvent Rife’s plans to undermine the socio-technological power of hackers and lay waste to his presumptuous empire. He infiltrates the megalomaniac’s networks, passing on the knowledge that will inoculate against Rife’s bid to usurp the hacker’s illocutionary power. The narrative’s caper refigures the emergence of the computer hacker as the pinnacle of human history — the alpha and omega of knowledge. Hiro is the “Last of the freelance hackers,” not a hired gun in the employ of multinationals like Case, but a ‘freedom fighter’ in a postcapitalist society where information is continually sifted and processed in corporate environments by computer programmers who have come to resemble factory workers:141 When Hiro learned how to do this, way back fifteen years ago, a hacker could sit down and write an entire piece of software by himself. Now that’s no longer possible. Software comes out of factories, and hackers are, to a greater or lesser extent, assembly-line workers. Worse yet, they may become managers who never get to write any code themselves.142 If computers are organised by binary code, Stephenson intimates that humans are organised by linguistic code. One need only use the correct linguistic codes to transform and dominate the world. Like the Corpus Hermetica, the text celebrates those who have the ability to coerce, compile, and disseminate information, for if language has the power to mutate society and technology, it also has the potential to alter the human mind. However, in Hiro’s world hackers are in danger of becoming code-automatons and their indefatigable mastery over the machine is compromised, Stephenson suggests, by an information age which makes ordinary what is often seen by hackers as an expertly ‘creative re-ordering’ of technology (or, in other words, an art). By contrast, Hiro’s central role in the text seeks to remind the reader that the hacker’s ability to manipulate code, that is, the language of the computer, is the consummate skill in an infosociety. In Snow Crash, writing computer code has the potential to change reality, especially the metareality of cyberspace. In other words, Stephenson bestows upon the hacker the intimate knowledge of technology necessary to transform the world. The hacker as master of the machine literally creates though language, mimicking as well as displacing the avantgarde artist’s strategy of using art to alter society. That is, Stephenson refashions the hacker as the ultimate artist, a.k.a God. 141 Accordingly. and manipulation of. at such a fundamental level that it frags the part of the computer that controls the electron beam in the monitor. making systems of knowledge that resemble these patterns easily assimilated. collecting previously unheard of snippets of gossip and downloading them to the Library of Congress’s database – an institutional effort to create a database of everything. a pursuit that also reflects the Gnostic quest to uncover all there is to know. however. In the Metaverse. making it spray wildly across the screen. in the course of unveiling covert information Hiro pieces together ancient Sumerian myth with information about secret religious sects and his programming knowledge to make sense of the events that are occurring around him.The search for. some memes are easily absorbed by particular brains. secret knowledge is a pivotal motif in the text.”144 A hackers’ brain.’ he discovers that the ‘snow crash’ of the title refers to a technologically engineered virus that not only destroys your computer but your mind: … snow crash is computer lingo. metaphors. The text is similarly constructed around the attempt to reveal meaning from that which is hidden. 143 The text explains that the mind stores information by furrowing specialised neural pathways through the brain. turning the perfect gridwork of pixels into a gyrating blizzard. linking information technology with myths. it’s a piece of information. intimate knowledge of infotechnology guarantees the complete susceptibility of a hacker host to the snow crash meme: 142 . Sifting through obscure information divulged to him by a ferret program called ‘The Librarian. effecting their replication to these minds with greater speed: “An expression … is just like a virus. is therefore fundamentally programmed to recognize binary code. snow crash is a designer drug that induces aphasia. rendering it uniquely sensitive to the snow crash virus disseminated via the computer’s system crash. you know. a bug. Hiro’s only source of income is as a freelance information hunter and gatherer for the institutionalised Central Intelligence Corporation. It means a system crash. data. and mysticism. On the street. that spreads from one person to the next. reducing a user’s ability to speak to a mere primal babble – “a ma la ge zen ba dam gal nun ka aria su su na an da” – the lost tongue of ancient Sumeria rewritten here as an Adamic language that allowed early humanity to be infected with memes devised by the gods to order and control them. snow crash takes the form of a viral computer code transmitted visually to the host’s avatar via an ancient scroll. the text claims. As fellow hacker Juanita tells Hiro. enabling him to exert absolute control over the machine. provides the pathways by which the human mind can be programmed by a meme – or. He can’t read binary code.”145 Snow Crash revolves around the notion that the human mind is a biological computer primed by an Other to seek and download specialised knowledge. Like a cracker who breaks into a computer system. That digital information was going straight into Da5id’s optic nerve. in this case. Also like Gibson’s story. It makes no distinction between the brain and the machine as receptacles for information – like Johnny Mnemonic’s augmentation of the brain as USB. It was flashing up a large amount of digital information. and plugs himself into the core. So he’s susceptible to that form of information. that go past all your defences and sink right into your brainstem. reprogrammed – and enables files of knowledge to be downloaded.” “Da5id’s not a computer.” “He’s a hacker. bypassing the higher language functions. you can see the terminal of the brain. bypasses all the security precautions. your ears — or eyes — can tie into deep structures. and exchanged from one biological machine to another. That ability is firmwired into the deep structures of his brain. incidentally — if you stare into a person’s pupil. He posits the myth of Babel as the infocalyptic 143 . in binary form. the divine equivalent of Hiro’s cracking of the Metaverse. the ultimate hacker of the human brain. someone who knows all the right words can speak words. the brain is merely a corporeal memory bank that can be coded and subsequently erased just like a computer. the text intimates. Which is to say.“The … scroll wasn’t just showing random static. Stephenson rewrites the the whole of human history as a narrative in which the function of language is to either program or inoculate the mind against the proliferation of religious memes that have the power to alter the course of human evolution. He messes with binary code for a living. transferred. Which is part of the brain. Language (computer or otherwise).147 God is. or show you visual symbols. coded speech can “hack the brainstem” and take command of the host’s operating system:146 Under the right conditions. . Yet.” an archaic Mesopotamian “speech with magical force” able to literally perform that which it speaks was originally used to counteract the feminine cult of Asherah. a drug. spirituality and technology were combined. barring it from the kind of specialised knowledge that makes sense of the deep structural linguistics used by the gods to control human creative thought – kick-starting “civilization…as an infection. coinciding with the disappearance of Sumerian language… prior to Babel/Infocalypse.148 Stephenson rewrites the warring Sumerian gods.’ instigated by the “Enki namshub. The Sumerian Babel ‘infocalypse. which had unleashed a particularly potent meme designed to gain control of Sumerian society. or a religion?” Juanita shrugs. by extension. The use of performative speech that both enacts and constructs is recast as a forgotten mystical art that disables or enables an individual’s communication centres. Snow Crash intimates such distinctions are nonsensical. for each has always contributed to a systemic whole: “This snow crash thing. to speak the Enki metavirus is to uncover the workings of this infocalyptic meme and refigure oneself as a linguistic shaman. and religion are 144 . languages tended to converge. and biblical sects such as the Essenes and Deuteronomists. Enki and Asherah. “What’s the difference?”151 Virus. problematising normative distinctions between technology. the text tells us. languages have always had an innate tendency to diverge and become mutually incomprehensible that this tendency is… coiled like a serpent around the human brainstem.. according to the text. is it a virus. And… afterward. this infocalypse rebooted the human mind/computer. human thought: "Enki broke us free .” 150 Thus Snow Crash intimates the first technology and the beginning of a civilised world were weapons against the growing threat of feminine influence. and religion. biology. 149 As Stephenson tells it. drug. able to alter reality by altering human speech and therefore. and gave us the ability to think – moved us from a materialistic world to a dualistic world‚ a binary world – with both a physical and a spiritual component." Prior to the Babel Infocalypse.moment in history in which the brain was ‘rewired’ to function in the way we understand it today: … Babel was an actual historical event… it happened in a particular time and place. as low-tech programmers engaged in a battle for humanity’s thought-processes. and the snow crash virus is revealed as less technological innovation than disclosure of ancient secret knowledge. Indeed. intertwined because Snow Crash posits the kind of neural pathways created by each are essentially the same. Indeed, the text goes even further by establishing information technologies as implicit in the most basic of philosophical and religious debates: Computers rely on the one and the zero to represent all things. This distinction between something and nothing – this pivotal separation between being and nonbeing is quite fundamental and underlies many Creation myths.152 The text claims that prior to the Sumerian birth of civilisation being and nonbeing were linguistically combined until their logocentric language was metaphorically destroyed by God’s wrath over the Tower of Babel, ostensibly the first recorded use of technology to approach godhood. According to the myth, it was the diversifying of speech forms in early tribal centres that encouraged humanity to seek a reversal of the power dynamic between creator and created. That is, the removal of a common language encouraged the birth of a civilisation that employs technology to overcome the natural obstacles originally assumed to be acts of god or gods. Eradicating this common language in the myth removes the Sumerians ability to co-operate in their endeavour to use technology to reach heaven, and disperses their collective power to flout god’s authority. As in the story of Adam and Eve, the Sumerians’ attempt to accumulate knowledge and become creators in their own right results in their banishment and the re-establishment of omniscient control by the Other. Interestingly, it is only the female hacker, Juanita, who recognizes the value of transforming the human brain via the Babel meme. She is also the only character in the novel that willingly chooses to infect herself, rather than have the choice made for her: “Don't you realize? This is it. This is the nerve center of a religion that is at once brand new and very ancient. Being here is like following Jesus or Mohammed around getting to observe the birth of a new faith.” "But it's terrible. Rife is the Antichrist.” 145 “Of course he is but it's still interesting... For a person who's interested in religion and hacking, this is the only place in the world to be.”153 Juanita reveals to Hiro that she now possesses Enki’s power to “hack the brainstem." By absorbing the implications of the Enki virus, literally and figuratively, she cheerfully transforms herself into a ‘neurolinguistical hacker,’ boldly taking the next step up the techno-biological chain. She can now bypass the computer to alter reality directly using only power of her thoughts. She is transformed into a goddess, made divine by secret language. Hiro demonstrates no similar desire to dispense with his machines. He prefers the satisfaction of keeping technology in its place, that is, firmly under his expert control. He therefore reiterates a theme running through both Futurism and cyberculture, that technology only remains useful as a tool of transformation when it bestows god-like status on man, but not if it begins to take control itself. Snow Crash makes it clear that — at the fin de millennium, as at the turn of the twentieth century — technology still provides the illusion that the power to direct the future is within the grasp of the man who knows. The hacker is returned to his position of mastery over the computer, which can now be revealed as the fundamental centre of civilisation, at the crux of being and non-being, able to make sense of ones and zeroes. G O D H E A D G O E S D I G I TA L In contemplating the absolute limit of being, at the point in which man and machine seek to meld, cyberpunk’s constructed worlds mythologise the machine, once the marker of God’s absence. They work on the level of mythopoeia, melding Gnostic and other mystical literature with technological extrapolation to expose, as Timothy Leary once exhorted, the underlying spiritual myths of our technological age. Gibson’s and Stephenson’s novels are spiritual stories for a postmodernist era that has sought to unravel and de-mystify myth, and as such they rework the old religious longings for transcendence and a sense of origin for new media and technologies. Raiding tales from Zen to Christianity to Voodoo and Rastafarianism, the Movement’s forays into virtual space mimic mystical experiences across the ages, relocated to and inspired by the inconceivable non-space its authors imagine exists between computers. 146 Interestingly, cyberpunk texts seem to have had a transcendent upon their early readers. For VRML inventor, Mark Pesce, simply reading Gibson’s novel led to theophany: “… I had discovered numinous beauty; here in the visible architecture of reason, was truth.” Pesce is propelled into a new way of thinking, “a moment of revelation” about the future quest for transcendence through technology: Let us begin with the object of desire. It exists, it has existed for all of time, and will continue eternally. It has held the attention of all mystics and witches and hackers for all time. It is the Graal. The mythology of the Sangraal – the Holy Grail – is the archetype of the revealed illumination withdrawn. The revelation of the graal is always a personal and unique experience… I know – because I have heard it countless times from many people across the world – that this moment of revelation is the common element in our experience as a community. The graal is our firm foundation.154 The use of religious metaphors to describe the experience of virtuality equates cyberspace with the ultimate utopian virtual world — heaven — a space of imagination and longing represented across time and religious faiths. Margaret Wertheim has noted that Gibson’s visual “realm of geometry and light” and “idealized polis of crystalline order and mathematical rigor” bears an “uncanny resemblance to the biblical Heavenly City,” and Renaissance depictions of the virtual divine.155 She identifies cyberspace as “immateria... an almost irresistible target” for religious longing, precipitating “a flood of technospiritual dreaming.”156 Wired magazine founder and technomystical commentator, Kevin Kelly, has gone further in recording the “ecstatic religiosity” of the new digerati priests than any other, going so far as to read technology as theology — or what he terms ‘Nerd Theology.’157 He argues that “technology compels us now to consider the varieties of godhood, and of ultimate Gods,” because in creating virtual worlds “we have become mini-gods. And thus we seek God by creating gods.”158 Godhood is intimately linked to the creative act, the ability to create something out of nothing, being from non-being — Kelly even echoes Stephenson’s alignment of computer code with the act of creation by reiterating: “In the beginning there was 0. And then there was 1.”159 And if technology is the new theology and nerds are its high priests, then information for Kelly is a form of prayer: 147 Nerds know that this stuff we call information is as weird and as intangible as prayer in many ways… Information is a type of organized nothing. This is not far from the mystics' view of the Absolute. Theologians should team up with nerds to study information as the entity closest to God.160 Here is an updated version of Marinetti’s “praying to the divine velocity,” with bits and bytes replacing pistons and wheels and the odometer replaced by the instantaneity of information online. It is, of course, also yet another reworking of the Gnostic quest to achieve godhead by knowing everything. Kelly posits the notion of ‘regenesis,’ or the urge to make other worlds and begin life again, as a specifically god-like agenda: What silicon technology gives us are the tools to recreate reality, democracy, or intelligence. We study reality by creating, frame by frame, virtual reality. We explore democracy by wiring up online republics, and when they do not work, we change the circuits. We investigate the nature of intelligence, not by probing human heads, but by creating artificial intelligences. We seek truth not in what we find, but in what we can create.161 Like Stephenson’s novel, Kelly’s exegesis on the connection between religion and infoculture is founded upon the blurring of the boundaries between the born and the made, between the produced and the reproduced.162 For the Christian technomystic, to be created in god’s image means we are also creator/artists, with the potential to uncover divine (perfect) knowledge. Kelly therefore sees it as entirely ‘natural’ for us to produce non-beings that, created in our image, will potentially create other creators. For, he reasons, to be on a par with a creator god is to create something that can, in turn, create. The circularity of Kelly’s argument is rather breathtaking — technology as god begets biological programs whose endgame is to accumulate enough knowledge to become gods and reproduce new technological gods that renew the autocreative project once again. This act of creation, for Kelly, is itself an expression of the desire to bring ourselves closer to god for, in creating virtual worlds and artificial intelligence, he assumes we would gain intimate knowledge of just what it might feel like to create and destroy complex systems with equal equanimity, imagining ourselves as godlike in the process. When things don’t work, they can easily be dismantled or altered at the touch of a keyboard. We can insert ourselves within our virtual creations, “like a painting we 148 can enter” as Kelly puts it, recalling Marinetti’s spectator in the centre of a picture that has now expanded to embrace the entire universe. We can try them on for size, tweaking scenery here, altering code there, tinkering with the system to explore what and how it works. And each foray into our virtual creation brings us closer to godhead: “We could say that as we make other minds, these minds will change our mind about God.”163 Kelly philosophically levels the imaginary playing field between himself and God, unravelling an archaic power dynamic in the process. For, as Annette Hamilton has noted, the dynamic between the maker and the made has always been a tale of possession and power.164 While we wield power over the ‘things’ we make, possessing them absolutely, in a consumer society our things also increasingly possess us. As Marinetti intimated, the tool has an utterly profound effect upon the toolmaker, not the least for being an essential element, in Hegelian terms, of our self-production as social animals:165 [The] “I” possesses freedom of will through which it can claim its “things,” and exchange them with others by means of contract. In this moment of exchange, each can recognize the other who possesses as an equivalent being, another “I,” an uncannily detached mode of intersubjectivity.166 If, as Kelly claims in “Nerd Theology,” God is our maker, then the process of our being made essentially remakes God. Simultaneously, the ‘things’ we make in turn make us, intimately connecting our being with our techniques, our technologies, and our art forms. If, like Kelly, one believes in a creator-god, then logically each step towards creating a perfect (sentient) machine would take us closer to experiencing our own godliness; becoming one with our creator, and also with the machines we create. The lines between maker and made, producer and product, are therefore locked in a perpetual exchange of becoming, ad infinitum, the one with the Other. Kelly’s technology is an autopoietic system, spontaneously and perpetually brought forth into being as “a way of revealing,” in itself a form of art in Heideggerean terms.167 What is revealed by technology is, for Kelly, an endlessly self-referential will-to-power in which we discover ourselves as “derivative gods” whose sole purpose is to create an artificial life that is itself our Other, as our ‘maker’ did before us.168 Yet, by “bringing forth” artificial life we also reveal the pure uncanniness of the machine that seeks its own production through us: 149 …rather than supposing “things” to be the product of human will, possessions of that transcendental thinking subject, the “I,” what if the “things” are bringing about their own invention, producing themselves by using the human will-to-power?… Could we go further and say that many modes of thought and the technologies that express themselves through them lie quietly in wait for the human to come upon them so they can reveal themselves? 169 While the artificial life that Kelly (and Heidegger) intimate waits patiently to be born, commentary on the progress of virtual worlds and artificial intelligence research is literally dumbstruck by the possibility of a continuously transforming, regenerative, and self-realising system in which we become gods even as we create gods. Without words to express the revelation of this possibility, commentators like Kelly turn to the past, to the huge raft of literature concerning the inexpressible relationship between creator and creation, and then recast technological progress as an expression of divinity, producing a new kind of theology with humanity this time cast as the central, if only transiently so, creating force. It’s hardly surprising to discover that Kelly’s thesis is inspired by his own theophany. While travelling in Jerusalem, he locked himself out of his lodgings and spent the night asleep on a stone slab above the alleged site of Christ’s crucifixion in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Upon waking, he unexpectedly experienced a momentary rush of information ‘downloaded’ to his consciousness: For a reason that I cannot comprehend, as I sat on that chair contemplating this view of the… early sun morning coming into the empty tombs, all that I had been wrestling with for the past many, many years in thinking about religion sort of became resolved in my mind and at that very moment I believed that Jesus Christ had risen from those very tombs. In an instant, the tension of trying to figure things out was resolved because now, suddenly, everything was figured out. It was if we’d been working on a problem for a long time and suddenly the answer was there… and although there were many things that were still not clear to you, you were very certain you were on the right path… an idea came into my mind that would not go away, and that was that I should live as if I would die in 6 150 like Kelly’s “Nerd Theology. rather the man-made ‘thing’ that was Wintermute has transcended into pure consciousness and all things are the same. the experience of enlightenment or transcendence has no outward manifestations. I’m the sum total of the works. Everywhere. carry water” — expresses that. only inner repercussions invisible to all except the enlightened subject. At the same time. It not only produces Kelly (and not-Wintermute) as a kind of Christ figure — a notion that is entirely confluent with Kelly’s construction of himself and other ‘nerds’ as proto-gods — but echoes the mystical fable of a ‘cosmic dance. the whole show”… “So what’s the score? How are things different? You running the world now? You God?” “Things aren’t different. As Poemandres tells the narrator in the Corpus Hermetica: “This is what you must know. is a theme that traverses multiple religious narratives from Christianity to Zen. reborn into ordinariness. “Where’s that get you?” “Nowhere. This myth.” refutes the fundamental separation between god and humanity — or between being and non-being — by positing the universe consists of only one unchanging Self. it is the subject’s perspective that has been irrevocably changed. but your 151 . sans the miraculous events imagined in religious narratives. and is no longer troubled by the complex game of everyday human existence. carry water. Though reality continues uninterrupted. it has become panentheistic — so integrated into the cosmos that the everyday becomes divine. it now perceives all things as part of itself. chop wood. Now operating from a position of ‘higher knowledge. The eternal Self. Case. chop wood. Things are things or.months… What I wanted to do… was go home and be ordinary… [Crying] I was reborn into ordinariness. After Enlightenment.” Case laughed.’ an ultimate game of hide and seek in which a playful godforce indulges in a game of forgetting in order to joyfully reveal its divinity again and again.”171 Chop wood. to the casual observer. but what more could one ask for?170 The Zen koan —”Before Enlightenment. carry water. that in you which sees and hears is the word of the lord. Things are things. This notion is reiterated in Neuromancer’s final coda as Case is contacted by not-Wintermute: “I’m the matrix.’ the enlightened individual imbues ordinary tasks with extraordinary grace. in the binary language of the computer: Computation seems almost a theological process. in an information age.” “The Ultimate Programmer. “the double-bind of both/neither – expose a tension that cannot be described in terms of the modern or the postmodern. as for Gibson and Stephenson. but must be conceived of as metamodernism expressed by means of a neo-romanticism. After stripping away all externalities. "Who are you?" the being says. and Kelly demonstrate that. inorganic. As our wired world rapidly becomes wireless.” That is.”172 As ‘derivative gods.174 While the proliferation of images via the global media machine and the immediacy of the world wide web exponentially intensify the problems inherent in maintaining a traditional notion of art’s transformative purpose.” One bit. In the Old Testament. god has discovered itself hiding within the intricate workings of the computer. we begin to witness a re-mystification of technological culture. "Am. As Vermeulen and van den Akker write. in effect. when Moses asks the Creator. what remains is the purest state of existence: here/not here. Lanier.” 175 Paradoxically for a cyberpunk movement regarded as the apotheosis of a postmodern milieu in which religion has been rendered 152 . One. all material embellishments. and our ability to find language to describe new technologies seriously lags behind the pace of technological innovation.mind is god the father. Reactions like those of Pesce. It takes as its fodder the primeval choice between yes or no. data in the form of computer language becomes heavily weighted with sacred meaning as the waning power of traditional religious symbols is replaced by new spiritual metaphors intimately connected to machines. This is the logic of the trans at work. technology’s transformative purpose is described in increasingly mystical terms. One almighty bit. Exist. a reversal of Walter Benjamin’s de-auratisation of culture by the machine.” an “off-universe platform where this universe is computed. It is the simplest statement possible. For Kelly. and mysticism.’ Kelly constructs humans as divine clones. God not only exists in the human mind but also in its creation. they are not divided from one another for their union is life. Yes. Am/not am. needing only to perfect the creation of new clones to fully awaken to a realisation of their own divinity.”173 Neatly inverting notions of organic. Kelly muses that what we understand as god may in fact be the ‘Ultimate Software and Source Code. the fundamental state of 1 or 0. Metaphysics is the bad word of postmodern academia. more than congeries of bodies. have made us blind to our own inadmissable tendencies and yearnings. and an ecstatic entering into a disembodied state that reveals the presence of the sacred in the heart of the machine. and information unfolding blindly in space and time. spiritual evolution. “When faced with a totally new situation. moving into an indeterminate future with a sort of ongoing recursive gaze. We march backwards into the future.unthinkable: Stephenson will not consider the metaphysical side of the binarism [ones and zeroes] for the same reasons Gibson… drops his suggestion in Neuromancer that Wintermute/Neuromancer become God and exit the system… We won't let them. They are testament to our secret yearning for that which we have purportedly discarded in our drive to become modern technological subjects – a philosophical search for the transcendent Other that invests meaning in our normative understanding of the Real. Its vision of future technologies are as much tales of the burgeoning new as they are of hidden mysteries and revelatory knowledge. we “tend to begin each of our ‘advances’ into the cybernetic realm with a rear-vision mirror firmly affixed to the console screen.”178 It is this 153 . of initiates uncovering the spirit of creation. to the flavour… of the past. into considerations of matters that were recently worthy only of contempt or marginalization in academia: that there may be more here than a mere babble of words. like Italian Futurism. "Religion" is unthinkable. it becomes clear our most interesting literature is slowly leading us. energy. became an unlikely reservoir for questions about vertical transcendence. We look at the present through a rear-view mirror.176 Cyberpunk fiction. we tend always to attach ourselves to the objects.”177 Or. as Nigel Clark has put it. Long habits of associating transcendence with essentializing beliefs (mistakenly). if we attend to this late postmodern cybernetic literature and our own irrational pronouncements about the visions and yearnings it has induced in us. effaced and buried in our own essentializing denial. and becoming-god in reaction to a postmodern milieu that forbade metaphysical discussion as fuzzy logic. more than a relativizing ethos. and essentializing beliefs with intolerant and destructive movements to exclude and expunge alternatives. Marshall McLuhan once wrote. willy nilly. Yet. The Divine Invasion. 1977) and Brave New World (New York: Harper Perennial Classics.1983). Notes 1 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. religion or science. 2008). 11 12 154 . The Doors of Perception Heaven and Hell (London: Panther. James A. § 564. 5 6 7 Isaac Asimov. trans. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (London: Corgi. Asimov on Science Fiction (London: Granada. 1989). Reading By Starlight: Postmodern Science Fiction (London: Routledge. Neal Stephenson. The Valis Trilogy: Valis. Star Maker (London: Gollancz. and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (Rantoul IL: Quality Paperback Club.recursive gaze. 80. Herrick. Neuromancer (London: Grafton. 2 3 Fredric Jameson. 1991). See Olaf Stapledon. 1999) and The Demolished Man (New York: Millennium Paperbacks. See. Isaac Asimov and Martin Harry Greenberg. through vertical and horizontal transcendence. 13. 4 Darko Suvin. By counterbalancing its fears of rapid technological change with the idiom of changelessness. Snow Crash (London: Penguin. Amazing Stories: 60 Years of the Best Science Fiction (New York: Random House. 18. A transmodern perspective of cyberculture consoles us that our future is not a question of choosing between spirituality or technology. William Wallace (Oxford: Clarendon Press. Robert Pirsig. Mona Lisa Overdrive (London: Grafton. for instance. Philosophy of Mind. or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (London & New York: Verso. 1987). Count Zero (London: Grafton. 1986). 1990). without any hope of actually achieving transcendence that marks cyberpunk as transmodern irony rather than postmodern pastiche. 1985). cyberpunk narratives re-signify humanity’s socio-cultural importance as it is progressively made obsolete by the machine. human or machine but that. we can choose both/ neither. 1999). 9 10 Damien Broderick. 10. 8 The term ‘cyberpunk’ derived from a 1980 short story of the same name by Bruce Bethke published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories 51 A (1983): 94-105. 419. 1992). Dick. 1995). 63. Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre (New Haven CT: Yale University Press. See Philip K. 1975). Postmodernism. 1979). 1974). the longing to exceed normative being through metaphysics. Alfred Bester. The Stars My Destination (New York: Millennium Paperbacks. 2010). William Gibson. Spiritual Mythologies: How Science and Science Fiction Forge New Religions (Illinois: Intervarsity Press. Aldous Huxley. 1999). For further details on proto-cyberpunk science fiction. 155 29 30 31 32 33 34 . and V5. 1998). “The Gernsback Continuum. 20 19 Brian McHale. William Gibson. 2.” 14. For instance. particularly in film and television narratives. and Robocop trilogies. 2002). 99-123.” 28.” 45. 1991). Mirrorshades: A Cyberpunk Anthology (New York: Ace Books.” ed. “The Gernsback Continuum. James Cameron’s Dark Angel. See Thomas Pynchon. J. 1993). 1977. Political Science Fiction (Columbia. 82.” 30. The Visible and the Invisible. Gibson. “The Gernsback Continuum. 14 15 16 A myriad of SF postindustrial apocalypses followed the emergence of cyberpunk in the mid 1980s. “Fragments of a Hologram Rose.” (New York: Doubleday. See Patrick Novotny. 31. 21 Larry McCaffrey.13 James Tiptree Jnr. Industrial Music. “Burning Chrome. Terminator. 2009). Maurice Merleau-Ponty. 2006). Bruce Sterling. see Pat Cadigan.” 47.G. Gibson. Spielberg’s AI: Artificial Intelligence. William Gibson. Gibson. Gibson. See.” 45-60. Ballard Crash: A Novel (New York: Picador. for instance. see Mark Dery. “Johnny Mnemonic. “No Future! Cyberpunk. and William S. and the Aesthetics of Postmodern Disintegration. Burning Chrome (London: Voyager. Burning Chrome. “Burning Chrome. The Ultimate Cyberpunk (New York: I Books. Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century (New York: Grove Press.” 218. 248. 18 17 Gibson. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 All stories are published in William Gibson’s short story collection. Burroughs The Naked Lunch (New York: Grove Press. Gibson. “Johnny Mnemonic. 1969).” 220. Constructing Postmodernism (London: Routledge.” 57. ix. “Johnny Mnemonic. 2001). 1997). Gibson. 1996. 1997). “Burning Chrome. Alphonse Lingis (Chicago: Northwestern University Press. David Cronenberg’s Existenz. Gibson. The Matrix trilogy. Electronic Eros: Bodies and Desire in the Postindustrial Age (Austin: University of Texas Press). The Girl Who Was Plugged In. ed. Clyde Wilcox.” 14-15. Originally published by UnEarth Publications. trans. Gravity’s Rainbow (New York: Penguin Classics Deluxe. SC: University of South Carolina Press. 1973). “Johnny Mnemonic. Claudia Springer.” 197. Gibson. 1995).. Storming the Reality Studio (Durham & London: Duke University Press. Gibson. ” Genders 18 (2003): 114-115. Michael Benedikt (Cambridge. “Will the Real Body Please Stand Up?” in Cyberspace: First Steps. 11.35 36 37 38 Ross. 1992). “Preparing the ground for revolution or keeping the boys satisfied?” in Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. Strange Weather. 1985). Reproduction. See Nicola Nixon. 84. 2008. Ross. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory (New York: Methuen. 150.” 1998. Graham J. MA: MIT Press. 39 Brooks 40 Steven Connor.html 53 52 51 Veronica Sherryl Vint. New Jersey: Open Magazine pamphlets. See Douglas Kellner. Media Culture: Cultural Studies. Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary (London: Wiley-Blackwell. Bruce Sterling. Kindle edition. 47 Sandy Stone. 147. Ross. Cynthia Fuchs.” Contemporary Literature 33. Murphy and Sherryl Vint (New York: Routledge. “Cyberpunk in the Nineties.4 (December 1992): 640. ed. Accessed July 20. 205. 55 Glen 156 . Neuromancer. “The World Gibson Made.com/bcp/BCPtext/Manifestos/CPInThe90s. Identity and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern (London: Routledge. 298. 33. 90. 95. “Bet on It: Cyber Video Punk Performance. 2010). Strange Weather. ed. Beyond Blade Runner: Urban Control. “Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism” in Storming the Reality Studio. 42 41 Sponsler. Ross. Claire Sponsler. 135. “Cyberpunk. Landon. 54 Grant. 41. 1995).streettech. Strange Weather. Toril Moi. Pramod K. Electronic Eros. 50 Hollinger.” 638. http:// www. 48 49 46 Springer. “Transcendence Through Detournement in William Gibson’s Neuromancer. 1991). 45 44 43 Gibson. 10. Kindle edition. An Introduction to New Media and Cybercultures (Queensland: John Wiley & Sons. Directed by Mark Neale (Mark Neale Productions. Nayar. 2000). Strange Weather. 1997). “Cyberpunk and the Dilemmas of Postmodern Narrative. and the Future of Male Hysteria. “’Death is Irrelevant’: Cyborgs. Mike Davis.” in Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. 2010).” Mondo 2000 1 (1989): 142-145. 3. the Ecology of Fear (Westfield.” Science Fiction Studies 50 (1990): 43-44. The Ancient Near East. Burning Chrome. 75. “We Abjure Our Symbolist Masters. 58 59 60 F. trans W. Marinetti. Bukatman. or energy. Neuromancer. 2000). "What counts is not raw muscle power. 31. cable television. and values – is actionable knowledge” in “Cyberspace and the American Dream. Kaufmann & R. 67 68 66 See Amelie Kuhrt. Jan 3. Neuromancer. and Alvin Toffler’s argument that in “a Third Wave economy. or Esther Dyson. Frederich Nietzsche. images. but information. 11. 1968) § 676.” See Scott Bukatman. ed. ed. 45. information. Robert Calasso and Tim Parks (New York: Knopf. 68-9. VALIS (New York: Vintage Books. The Will to Power.J. Daniel Bell’s characterisation of a post-industrial society in which. C.T. Volume 1 (London: Routledge. 127. c. The Last Lovers of the Moon. quoted in Literature and the Gods. Philip K.1983). 3000-330 BC.12. 1979). Neuromancer.” Mississippi Review 47-48 (1988): 277. and Washington. 5. and through their resistance to the constraints of that reason. See Elaine Pagels. Philadelphia. “Cyberpunk and Neuromanticism. Hollingdale (New York: Random House. 378 for a discussion of the Babylonian creation story. “Letter from Bruce Sterling. Through their construction of cultural politics inscribed by the forces of technological reason. The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage Books. 1976). “Postcards from the Posthuman Solar System” in Posthumanism. 61 See 62 63 Gibson.” in The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (New York: Basic Books. ed. Dick. Neuromancer. 1988). 344. 64 Bruce 65 Friedrich Nietzsche.” The Information Society Reader. Gibson. George Gilder. Gibson.“Cyberpunk negotiates a complex and delicate trajectory between the forces of instrumental reason and the abandon of sacrificial excess. Neil Badmington (New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2004). The term “information superhighway” denotes the contemporary global information and communications network that includes the Internet and other networks such as telephone. 12.. 2001). Public use of the term dates back to a 1983 Newsweek article: ". Marinetti. D. ideology. For instance. America (London & New York: Verso.” REM 7 (1987): 5. Sterling. 157 69 70 71 72 73 . culture. 57 56 Istvan Csicsery-Ronay. the central resource – a single word broadly encompassing data. 109. in a 776-mile system on the East Coast" (Newsweek. 1997). New York. and satellite communication networks. 1991).information superhighways being built of fiber-optic cable will link Boston. Gibson. 19.. 58. George Keyworth. symbols. Frank Webster and Raibo Blom (London: Routledge. see Jean-Francois Lyotard’s discussion of knowledge as “the principle force of production” in The Postmodern Condition (Manchester: Manchester University Press. Jean Baudrillard.” in Flint. Terminal Identities. 1984). the texts promise and even produce a transcendence of the human condition which is also always a surrender. Gibson. 6-7. 38. 93 Dery. Gibson. trans. The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and The Spirit of Invention (New York: Penguin. 76 77 Robert Pierce Casey. Neuromancer. 7. 1961). The physical intensity of their postures. Neuromancer. Neuromancer. The Art of Assemblage (New York: The Museum of Modern Art (Doubleday). Copenhaver. 23. 58. and the Angels of Information” Southern Atlantic Quarterly. Religion of Technology. “Gibson's vision. 62.as if there were a real space behind the screen . Cyberculture ll (1993): 585.made apparent the manipulation of the real by its own representation. See David Noble. Memory. Copenhaver. 80.74 75 Gibson. Gibson. The Art of the Motor. Gibson. 78 79 Attributed to Monoimus by Hippolytus. 1. Julie Rose (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Neuromancer. 11. Brian P. generated by the monopolizing appearance of the terminal image and presented in his creation of the cyberspace matrix. Neuromancer. 1966). 1995). 44-5. 26. and the realistic interpretation of the terminal spaces projected by these games . 12. 89 90 Paul Virilio. Neuromancer. Grant (London: Harper & Row. 14. The Excerpta Ex Theodoto of Clement of Alexandria (London: Christophers. Seitz. 5. “Techgnosis: Magic.” The Collected Poems of W. Elaine Pagels. “Sailing to Byzantium. Hermetica. Hermetica. Gibson. 1934). Gibson.B Yeats. xix. 2004). 1999). Neuromancer. Gibson.B. 39. 1989). 89. 94 95 96 Escape Velocity. 158 . Hermetica. 59. See Gothic Motifs in the Fiction of William Gibson (Amsterdam: Rodopi. 67. quoted in Gnosticism and Early Christianity. 248. 1996). Copenhaver. 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 80 Copenhaver. Noble. Gibson. As Tatiana Rapatzikou writes. The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage. came to him when he saw teenagers playing in video arcades. 1995).. Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Erik Davis. Gibson. 91 William 92 W. 14. 68. 1. trans. 77-78. Yeats (New York: Scribner. Robert M. Neuromancer. Neuromancer. trans. 298. 119 Lawrence Person. ed. Aesthetic Theory (London: Continuum International. Joan Broadhurst Dixon and Eric J Cassidy (London: Taylor & Francis. Gibson. 138. 4. eds. Count Zero. See http://mongoliad.T. Gibson. 170. 2010). 117 118 Christopher J. Quicksilver (New York: Harper Collins. 2008). 2004). The Rorty Reader (Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Gibson.com/ Accessed 20 March. 1988). Gibson.97 98 Gibson. 116 Neal Stephenson. Gibson. F. Gibson. 41. 1998)."The Sentimental Futurist: Cybernetics and Art in William Gibson's Neuromancer.” Accessed 20 March. 298.. 2011. xiv. 136. 2003). 311. The Confusion (New York: William Morrow. Hakim Bey. 170. John Lewis. Count Zero. Count Zero. Count Zero. Count Zero. 2011. Gibson. Gibson. 112. Zodiac (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. Count Zero. Count Zero. 2004). advanced transhumanist themes. Mona Lisa Overdrive. Gibson. The System of the World (New York: William Morrow. 2006).org/story/99/10/08/2123255/Notes-Toward-a-Postcyberpunk-Manifesto 120 159 . Tomorrow Through the Past: Neal Stephenson and the Project of Global Modernization (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Marinetti. Gibson. Voparil and Richard J. Gibson. The Diamond Age (Bantam Spectra. Adorno. Count Zero. 1995). Count Zero. 1984). 231. 99 100 101 102 103 104 105Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. Gibson. 78. Count Zero. 106 Theodor 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 Gibson. 315. Mona Lisa Overdrive. and positing of fictional worlds that move away from Cyberpunk’s notions of technology as alienation and embrace technology as society. Mona Lisa Overdrive. Marinetti. 1997). Anathem (New York: William Morrow. http://slashdot. “Notes Towards a Postcyberpunk Manifesto. Bernstein. Cryptonomicon (New York: Avon.” Virtual Futures. The Big U (Harper Perennial. 32-33. 111. 1999). 373. ed. “Founding Manifesto of Futurism” in Flint. Count Zero. The term ‘postcyberpunk’ refers to a subgenre that has evolved from classic cyberpunk and was first used to describe Snow Crash’s more realistic depiction of computers." Critique 33 (3) (Spring 1992): 221. 310. “The Information War. 311. 130 131 132 The origin of ‘avatar’ lies in a Hindu myth of a deity descending upon the earth in an incarnate form. Stephenson. 113. Snow Crash. 1990).P-ish status quo (Strange Weather. 197. 1997). Snow Crash. directed by Ridley Scott (Warner Bros. He fuses Hiro’s online persona and real world identity — Hiro is action figure. 108. 331. 1976). City of Quartz. Stephenson. as Hubbard’s history has itself become a favourite urban myth (meme) for science fiction readers. Snow Crash. half-Nipponese. 178. Stephenson. 48. Stephenson.S. working in opposition to Gibson’s renowned ignorance of computers. The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press. Snow Crash. The use of Hubbard as a model for Rife is informative. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (London: Routledge. 51. Stephenson. 2. 139 138 The character is a thinly veiled combination of news mogul William Hearst and L.121 122 123 See Richard Dawkins. Pictures. mystical knowledge. 28. Stephenson. intimates the user is a god in relation to online 3D spaces. 124 125 126 127 128 129 Stephenson’s close familiarity with programming is self-consciously proclaimed in the autobiographical note included at the end of the novel. and its subsequent adoption to describe online personas in virtual worlds. further intimating the texts’ (and authors’) technological authority. and characterized as the “greatest [samurai] sword fighter in the world” (Snow Crash. to turn Andrew Ross’s vilification of hackers as the cyberpunk heroes of a W. Stephenson. and one that seems to mutate with each telling. Stephenson. wearing black. Davis. Mike Davis. 1982). 227. Snow Crash. Snow Crash. 246. 84) on its ear by describing Hiro as an amalgamation of attributes gleaned from what he calls ‘the margins’: halfblack. prolific science fiction writer and founder of the Church of Scientology. 30. riding a motorbike. Stephenson. Snow Crash. Stephenson. Snow Crash. Stephenson’s use of the term. 17). Stephenson. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles (New York: Verso. Blade Runner. 197. Snow Crash. and creating a more technologically precise text that circumvents Neuromancer’s mysticism of technology. 58. and mythical hero in a fictional world in which the virtual infiltrates the Real. Snow Crash. 160 140 141 . 133 134 135 136 137 Stephenson attempts (somewhat unsuccessfully).A. Judith Butler. 373. Ron Hubbard. again revealing the text’s preoccupation with memes and hidden. Stephenson. leading man. The autobiographical note again reiterates Stephenson’s preoccupation with having the right kind of knowledge about technology. Snow Crash. 17. Snow Crash. Mark Pesce. Snow Crash. Stephenson. 163 164 Annette Hamilton. Stephenson. ed. 40. Pearly Gates of Cyberspace. Hiro is portrayed as a barely evolved version of the current popular stereotype of the computer enthusiast (closeted in a dark room with a computer and endless reruns of cult action movies. used in conjunction with Babel. 203. Stephenson. 187. “The Uncanny in Object Relations. In the end.” Wired 10:12 (December 2002). which relates to the confusion of language. 195. Snow Crash. and the uncanny. “How Computer Nerds Describe God.org/interviews/computer_nerds-god. 257. San Francisco. Snow Crash. Stephenson. or a combination of information (data) and apocalypse (the end of the world). 143 144 145 146 147 Stephenson. Stephenson’s neologism – “infocalyptic” – derives from his notion of a Infocalypse.” 391. Stephenson. however. informational disaster.142 Stephenson. 158 159 160 161 162 The distinction between produced and reproduced. 253. Snow Crash. Stephenson. Snow Crash. Wertheim. Snow Crash. “Nerd Theology. 110. 371. Stephenson. January 1997. 161 . “Nerd Theology. 338. machines. 155 156 157 154 Wertheim.kk. 256. Kelly. 30-47. Snow Crash. Snow Crash. “Nerd Theology. or Love with the Machine. 369. Snow Crash. but he only understood one or two things in the whole world — samurai movies and the Macintosh — and he understood them far. and its impact on feminist appropriations of cyberculture.” Technology in Society 21 (1999): 390. Snow Crash. 186.” 388.” Christianity Today. Snow Crash. Kevin Kelly. 401-402. 53). Kelly. Pearly Gates of Cyberspace. 402. 149 150 151 152 153 148 Stephenson. far too well” (Snow Crash. John Potts and Edward Scheer (Sydney: Power Publications. 36. 258. 197. “Ignition” Address to World Movers Conference. fantasising yet unable to approach the female of the species): “His mind was good.php Kevin Kelly. “Nerd Theology. Stephenson. “God is the Machine. will be investigated in more detail in chapter three. Pearly Gates of Cyberspace.” Technologies of Magic: A cultural study of ghosts. Stephenson. Also online at http://www. Kelly. 2006). Snow Crash. the end of information. Kevin Kelly. November 20 (2002).” 388. in Wertheim. ” 37. Hermetica. and van den Akker.” Body & Society 1. 12. 171 172 173 174 175Velmeulen 176 David Porush. Martin Heidegger. ed. 162 . Philosophy of Right (Oxford: Oxford University Press. “’Rear-View Mirrorshades. The Medium is the Message (New York: Bantam Books.thislife. Art in Theory. 2001). Robert Markley (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.org/Search. “God is the Machine. 316. Hamilton. Kelly.W Hegel. 2. “Hacking the Brainstem: Postmodern Metaphysics and Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.aspx?searchFor=kevin%20kelly Gibson. 1967). 74.” 390.165 166 167 See G.” in Virtual Realities and their Discontents. “Nerd Theology. Copenhaver. Online at http://www. Kelly. 1977).3-4 (1995): 115. “The Uncanny in Object Relations. 168 169 170 As told by Kelly on Chicago Public Radio show. “Metamodernism. “The Uncanny in Object Relations. 1997). Nigel Clark. “This American Life” (17 January. Hamilton. Neuromancer.” 2010. 1996). 141. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays (New York: Harper Torchbooks Paperback.” See Harrison and Wood.’ The Recursive Generation of the Cyberbody.” 37. 520-527. 177 Marshall 178 McLuhan. CHAPTER THREE SUCK MY CODE: Abject Others. and the Multiple Bodies of Cyberfeminism 163 . Unspeakable (M)Others. transhuman. Like Sartre’s nauseated response to the transformation of an object into existential. acknowledging that traditional forms of technoculture can at base be understood as an attempt to claim sovereignty over modes of reproduction.Any theoretical evocation of an autonomous. That is. and it is impossible to like terror that we take seriously. haunting the edges of technocultural narratives. inhabiting a space beyond the meaning of things. yet alien. acts as a direct challenge to biological/organic modes of reproduction (or. positive femininity involves both an interrogation and supercession of masculinist norms and at the same time. from the Book of Genesis to The Terminator. and transgenre – and therefore transmodern – and so to examine her evolution in popular culture this chapter will shift across multiple media from myth to fiction. Otherness. – Elisabeth Grosz 1 For we flee from the sight of an object that scares us. the transcendence of machine into machine-woman is trans thought. online incarnations to science fiction television narratives. 164 . art to film. and epistemic norms.3 ‘She’ is transgender. it seeks to demonstrate that technospirituality’s preoccupation with the prospect of ‘autocreation’ (‘I can create myself’). and that the frisson created by the drive to control reproduction fuels some of the most interesting and abiding science fiction narratives. this chapter investigates the technological feminine as a liminal figure that both instigates and provides an antidote to rampant technophilia. representational. an invention and remaking of signifying. technology (the created). and life (the already created). It highlights the gendering of the ontological anxiety that arises from the relationships between art (as an act of creation). – Immanuel Kant2 Where previous chapters have investigated masculinised forms of technoculture and their reliance on technospirituality. The first part – Creation Anxiety: Desiring the Virtual Feminine – broadly traces the construction and evolution of the artificial feminine as a ‘thing’ to be desired. ‘I am already created’). with commentators like Sarah Kember suggesting its “failure and obsolescence” with the passing of “widespread millennial fever. genderless technosphere. arguing that the ‘man-made’ feminine in science fiction television narratives have increasingly constituted. an excess that exposes the illusion of technophilic power. It will further suggest that such technological Eve figures intimate the emergence of the female cyborg as transmodern heroine. Madness. The final section of this chapter – The Future Eve: Man-Made Women in Cult Science Fiction Television – looks at the figure of the machine as woman. is deadly. This collective travelled a fine line between re-embodying virtual space and preserving it as a radically genderless site of excess. C R E AT I O N A N X I E T Y A N D D E S I R I N G T H E V I R T U A L F E M I N I N E Razor girl.” and Judith Squires arguing that it had broken its promise to engender its “vision of fabulous. VNS Matrix. and Mona Lisa Overdrive – is part woman. it is still possible to trace the effects of cyberfeminism on the broader field of popular culture from 1992 to the present day through science fiction television series featuring female cyborgs as heroines. Holiness. retractable fingerblades. flexible. had been slanted towards establishing the masculine domination of technology at the fatal expense of the feminine. and the enhanced reflexes and speed necessary 165 . particularly focussing on the early 1990s avant-garde cyberfeminist performance art collective.The second part – Jouissance. & Poetry: Re-embodying Cyberspace – looks at the effects of technocultural narratives like cyberpunk on feminist debates regarding reproductive power and sexual desire. feminist futures” by offering no political or ethical basis on which to build its radical. a supplementary excess to technoculture that refuses to be sublimated into a technophilic desire to control technologies. an attempt to balance out the technocultural equation that. Neuromancer.4 However. The laconic ‘street samurai’ of three William Gibson cyberpunk narratives – Johnny Mnemonic. Molly Millions. a radical transformation of Marinetti’s multiplied man into a multiplied woman. It will evaluate cyberfeminism’s use of avant-garde strategies to shift technoculture’s metaphorical ground. like cyberfeminism itself. part machine with mirrored sight-enhancing glasses sealed into her skin. flesh-ripping. undermining and transforming masculinised notions of technology through a reengagement with metaphors of embodiment and immanence in narratives of virtual reality. The avant-garde cyberfeminist project had began to wane at the fin de millennium. since Marinetti’s multiplied man. “Senator. She was all…Dead…So I guess I gave the Senator what he really wanted. The 166 .” she said. ‘cause once they plant the cut-out chip. then it is not Case the hacker but Molly the technologically modified woman who is the genre’s archetypal hero. mirrorshades are the iconic symbol of the cyberpunk genre. for her penetrative cyborg enhancements is a history of being penetrated. and purpose than any of the console cowboys the genre purportedly appears to valorise. We weren’t alone. using her modifications to. The five blades slid out and retracted slowly… “You know how I got the money. however. She slid a hand into her jacket. and in the process remakes it as a death-machine. he was… We were both covered in blood. as Bruce Sterling suggested. he had some custom software cooked up…snuff… One night… I came up.6 Neuromancer tells us Molly was once a “meat puppet. The ultimate posthumanist self-made woman. Molly sells her body to rise above the poverty of the Street. Then he willed himself into passivity. personality. you know?”7 Gibson’s extended fascination with Molly can perhaps be seen as a further example of representing the feminine as technology while Case controls technology – the kind of reading further strengthened when Case literally puts on Molly’s body via a simstim switch that allows him to ride alongside her consciousness:8 Then he keyed the new switch. I was into this routine with a customer…” She dug her fingers deep in the foam.” a futuristic prostitute whose mind is blanked using a cut-out chip and reprogrammed with her client’s every sexual desire. penetrate others: “This cost a lot. in turn. when I was starting out? … Joke to start with. extending her right hand as though it held an invisible fruit. The abrupt jolt into other flesh… For a few frightened seconds he fought helplessly to control her body.5 The price Molly pays. it seems like free money… The house found out what I was doing with the money. a fingertip circling a nipple under warm silk. Her repeated appearances in Gibson’s work allow readers to piece together more of her history.for penetrating the Sprawl’s forbidden zones. So the bastard who ran the place. became the passenger behind her eyes… “How you doing Case?” He heard the words and felt her form them. If. and Molly as dangerous weapon (the artificial woman beyond man’s control). a dangerously sexual solitaire that is analogous to the death-drive he exhibits at the beginning of Neuromancer.10 She knowingly plays upon his desires. She is inalienably other – Case cannot know her however many times he rides alongside her consciousness. the dreamgirl takes him apart. and yet simultaneously subverts this construction of her as a ‘thing ‘to be desired and consumed. rendering him both wordless and powerless to control her.” to Case’s disembodied consciousness. Then the image slowly extended a clawed hand and extruded its five blades. it raked Riviera’s bare back. as for Case. He had no way to reply. This is further played out in holo-artist Peter Riviera’s impotent rage at being unable to see Molly’s reaction during his holographic revisions of her meat puppet history: Riviera and the Molly-image began to couple with renewed intensity. With a languorous.sensation made him catch his breath.”13 And it is this tension between Molly as dreamgirl (a fetishised object made to assuage male desire).12 Riveria later relieves his ocular frustration by smashing Molly’s mirrorshades – “his masculinity is under threat because she is not subject to his masculine gaze nor can he follow her gaze and control it. But the link was oneway. It is Molly’s self-fashioned differánce that allows her to circumvent Case’s attempts to contain her while simultaneously reinforcing technoculture’s fetish for the machine woman as narcissistic play. merely “the passenger behind her eyes.”11 However much she may represent the ultimate technojunkie’s fantasy by allowing Case to experience both his and her pleasurable reactions to her sexual tease.9 Molly becomes the “meat toy. Riviera puts his dreamgirl together. The slippage between depictions of the machine as woman (that is. For the reader. dreamlike deliberation. she reflects Case’s gaze in an endlessly narcissistic game he plays only with himself. and this is part of her allure for both him and the reader. she is no longer a witless meat puppet. an eroticised object to be desired and controlled) and the woman in the machine (the unruly and dangerous feminine) 167 . that articulates a paradox inherent in depictions of the technological feminine that continues to haunt technoculture. Molly remains emotionally unavailable – with her eyes perpetually camouflaged behind impassive mirrorshades. Case caught a glimpse of exposed spine… He could guess the finale. She laughed. 14 An examination of the artificial woman throughout the history of science fiction demonstrates that fascination and abjection have always played a central role in technocultural narratives. and with them the meaning of things. which in imagining artificial intelligence as the creation of new gods wrote off natural reproduction as the domain of the feminine and replaced it with the technophile as the ultimate creator. In doing so. A central narrative of our origin myths. Accompanying this transformation is a simultaneous sense of fascination and horror. the ultimate technologist. and gain for themselves a proliferating Otherness of their own. Technophilia can therefore be read as a memetic cure for patriarchy’s ontological crisis. and man. creates Eve from Adam. It has argued that the Futurist’s model of technophilia was embraced wholesale by cyberpunk and cyberculture. the feeble landmarks which men have traced on their surface. alone in front of that black. which was utterly crude and frightened me. Yet this significatory shift of the masculine to primary reproducer of humanity that simultaneously equates ‘woman’ 168 . I was sitting. both Italian Futurism and cyberpunk are simply footnotes to a Judaeo-Christian religious canon that has historically posed a definitive technological solution to patriarchy’s problem of reproductive control. knotty mass. the methods of using them. a move that tidily relegates woman to the metaphoric position of artwork/prosthesis/clone/replicant.destabilises the traditionally masculinised space of technoculture by transforming the technological feminine from a purely mechanical thing/object to an agential force beyond restraint. This dissertation has already seen Marinetti’s multiplied man as an articulation of his desire to control the modes of reproduction by wresting them from natural female creation and mapping them onto the figure of the machine/cyborg. docile to our purposes. Sartre describes the feeling of nausea produced by this specific moment of transformation using the language of transcendence: Words had disappeared. The symbolic masculine is then given metaphorical power over technological reproduction. producing technology as a reproduction-without-organs necessary for controlling the future. and hence central to the phenomena of creation anxiety. becomes producer/author/artist. whose Nausea seeks to capture the specific moment when objects cease to function as domesticated entities. occurs when god. an abjection. my head bowed. not woman. And then I had this revelation. of the kind described by Sartre. and technology seems to offer the real possibility of removing the power of reproduction beyond the realm of nature and the feminine forever by firmly placing it into the hands of men. ’ nevertheless fails to cancel out her agency in the world. ‘She’ is frequently characterised as the most aw(e)ful kind of duplicitous machine. its meaning-in-the-world is forever changed. if our tales of technology have the power to shape the way we imagine and create our technological future. Creator and created are intimately linked. a two-faced cipher that stands for both the worst of nature and the worst of technology. once the artwork leaves the studio space and is inserted into the consumer sphere. A new species would bless me as its creator and source. and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. Rather. a drawing. And so. Indeed. technoculture. always liable to break free of man’s carefully orchestrated control and be an author/creator of her own volition. It becomes an object that remains deeply. many happy and excellent 169 . from conception to conclusion. this ‘abjectification’ of the technological feminine is depicted as a form of creation anxiety at the genre’s very inception with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. yet the artwork seems less a reflection of the artist’s skill and imagination and more an expression of its own becoming. Taken by surprise at the final product of her/his creative labour. and film is often a symbol of perfidy. which transforms the artificial woman into an abject reproductive body suturing production to reproduction.16 Dr Frankenstein’s monstrous reproductions are the result of his all-consuming desire to usurp the traditional feminine role of biological creation: Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds. Correspondingly. from. mysteriously Other and as such is subject to the projected desires of its creator/audience. a work of art. lavishing so much affection on it that he wills her/it/Galatea into existence. organic women becomes utterly enchanted with the perfect female form of his artwork. it simultaneously produces Eve/woman/artwork as incipiently monstrous. and for ‘man. the artist feels as if the artwork has in some way brought itself into existence. which I should first break through. A reflection on the relationship between art and artist. whether a sculpture. this early narrative on the joys of constructing one’s own ideal inorganic woman also describes the sometimes very real dislocation between a creator’s intention and the final creation. or a body of writing. That is.15 The Genesis myth’s combined fear and desire for the created object or thing can also be read into the cosmogonic story of Pygmalion in which a sculptor with little time for real. so often alters beyond recognition that it appears to take on a life and direction of its own making.with an object created by. it is unsurprising that – given her conventional alterity to man – the artificial woman in science fiction literature. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs. Inherent in this passage is a sense of ownership. However. but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion.’ Frankenstein’s desire to bypass the normative mother’s reproductive role is made overt as he fashions himself as an awe-inspiring patriarch over his very own race of monsters.natures would owe their being to me. he was ugly then. that he equates with the act of reproducing his hideous offspring – his creation of life asserts his omniscient power.17 Like the progenitors of Kevin Kelly’s ‘derivative gods’ or Hans Moravec’s ‘mind children. standing in. He had sworn to quit the neighbourhood of man … but she had not. for Shelley. But Frankenstein’s experiment also sets loose an alien consciousness upon the world. and she. the infusion of the lifeless object by electricity is the first step in the novel towards the usurpation of nature. Frankenstein also succinctly described the precarious position of the man-made woman when Dr. as the source of all life: “I collected the instruments of life around me. that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. Not only does it produce the unspeakable monster. and delight. Frankenstein finds the prospect of making a female creature/cyborg much more horrifying than the male creature he has already constructed and set loose upon society: I was not about to form another being… she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate.”18 Technology becomes a beacon of reason that sheds light on the mysteries of reproduction and endows its master with equal power to bestow life and forestall death.19 Frankenstein discovers too late that his colonisation of reproduction produces a being that defies description by normative linguistic economies – the result of displacing nature from the production of life is ineffability. A mummy again imbued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. The illumination Frankenstein refers to in the above passage is electricity. I had gazed on him while unfinished. in murder and wretchedness. and thus control. who in all probability was to become a thinking 170 . a spectre beyond the boundaries of signification. it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived. for its own sake. it also brings the scientist as unspeakable (m)other into existence: No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. and reasoning animal. she threatens the sanctity of the human race. Technoculture is caught in the double bind of a desire for an inorganic solution to social. The potential for transcendence offered by our close relationship with the machines we create present us with a model of perfection and horror. might refuse to comply … I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest. Technology provides both the method by which man regains power over his creations and the means by which the constructed woman may exceed the specific role carved by patriarchal society for her. also produces the opportunity for biological creators to run amok. Furthermore. perhaps of the existences of the whole human race. Hence. the monster’s potential mate might replicate the end result of Frankenstein’s own artistic collage of stolen body parts. is why we. an incipiently lawless body dedicated to excess precisely because of her construction outside the reasonable “neighbourhood of man. as a female agent existing beyond the realm of natural reproduction. This. in offering a non-biological means of controlling life. perhaps. providing us with an originary model of the terrible consequences of ignoring natural laws that still has the power to 171 . are so torn between the impossibly bright futures promised by technological invention and the terrible inevitability of extropian monstrosity. just as Shelley’s monster continues to haunt contemporary fictional and cultural mythologies. whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price. from the moment of her supposed being-in-the-world. therefore. cultural. and psychological problems. The cure for man’s reproductive insecurities therefore begins to look worse than his original problem. natural or otherwise. technological invention heralds the reproductive artist/computer scientist as simultaneously hero of the future and peddler of machines that threaten to colonise human thought.20 Frankenstein’s replicated Eve/woman/monster is.” Where her male counterpart will quiescently uphold his promise to remove his monstrosity far away from the abjection of those unwittingly reproduced by biological means. economic. she might prove a monstrous antidote to the problem of all reproduction. she might gleefully partake in the ruination of all creation – vengeful of Frankenstein’s usurpation of female reproduction. Frankenstein assumes that by the very nature of her femininity (which presupposes her enigmatic otherness to both hu-man and constructed male cyborg). that patriarchal anxiety constantly shifts between woman’s innate potential to create beyond the control of man and the possibility of man’s use of technology to bring himself into being. The employment of technology. as machine creators. Shelley’s text informs us. 21 When the things we create and exchange – techniques. where things are both plentiful and pleasurable. Observe. Our own machines become our sidekicks. Metaphorically. the inanimate becomes invested with so much meaning that it takes on a value in and of itself. We live through things” – and. the online outpouring of affection one Apple user declares for his computer: We feel a connection … It speaks to us. becomes a part of us.22 172 . such a relationship may even take on a psychically real flavour. for those deeply immersed in a love affair with their things. technologies. James Twitchell asserts that. they represent our modern-day versions of Frankenstein’s monster. We like to exchange things. haunt the popular imagination. to be revealed. emotionally. like Pygmalion. do the possibilities of future computer technologies (also animated for us by electricity. “the spark of being”). subject always to the logic of swift transformations. and sexually. we are also capable of loving our things. too. Human beings like things. to the “heart beat” every machine shows when it sleeps. so. evincing a life and a process of becoming seemingly beyond our control. articulating an uncannily literal form of commodity fetish. just like the monster of Shelley’s novel. Contemporary technophilic narratives often upgrade the desire for the artificial feminine as ‘thing’ as an expression of late capitalist consumer culture. Many Mac lovers’ worst and best moments involve their machines… Macs always have a special place in our hearts. We buy things. for instance. platonically. waiting patiently. Late capitalist culture’s desire for technological progress invests the ever-increasing rate of computer innovation as a project of perpetual renewal ramped to a relentless degree.’ or the sexualisation of technology. … From the ease of use of OS X. and we couldn’t ask for anything more. Macs are more human than PCs can ever be.disturb. our best friends. This love drives us… It is a huge part of our lives. In other words. or art forms – in turn recreate us. apparently. The computer as icon therefore oscillates between providing a site of promise for a future technological transcendence of embodiment or a locus of fear about what we may become under the rubric of its influence. until. A particularly apposite example is the objectphilia of ‘technosexuality. It is our dedication to our machines… that makes this relationship work. the computer occupies a transitory and indefinable presence for us. like Heidegger’s technologies. like Frankenstein’s monster. Hiro could only think it was like nuzzling through skirts and lingerie and outer labia and inner labia … It made him feel weak and naked and brave.This laudatory description of what amounts to a collection of microprocessors in a shiny case is repeated across the blogosphere as true believers in the ‘cult of Mac’ wax lyrical about the transcendent properties of their machines. pure geometric equation made real. in which a predilection for the machine is characterised as a family romance that is passed from father to son – that is. as a patriarchal birthright: The top surface of the computer is smooth except for a fisheye lens. the many lingering caresses in the ecstatic aftermath. He kept bringing them back from his stints in the Far East. a “more human” machine that requires. as K. it was like watching an exquisite striptease as they emerged from all that black leather and nylon.C. encased in many protective layers. a polished glass dome with a purplish optical coating … Hiro finds it erotic … Hiro’s father. pure white boxes within boxes that unfold outwards to reveal the desired object. In fact. so powerful and vulnerable at once. which can then itself be used to control others… The physical manifestations of these machines – size. how he fumbled with the outer layers. zippers and straps. his delight with what was concealed. shape. the fruit of knowledge – approaches the packaging design of its products in a similar fashion – computers and peripherals are encased in pared down. Another self-confessed Apple addict details his first “packaging experience” as a kind of sexual confession: “The struggle to get home. motions that 173 . who was stationed in Japan for many years. An analogous brand of ‘inorganic love’ is also made explicit in Stephenson’s Snow Crash. technology provides an erotic thrill – control over massive power.“24 All three texts suggest that desire is a fundamental ingredient in our relationships with machines. was obsessed with cameras. And once the lens was finally exposed. technological discourse has long been delineated through the metaphor of sexual longing: For technophiliacs.23 Apple – its company name and logo playing upon that first object of Judeo-Christian feminine desire. so that when he took them out to show Hiro. D’Alessandro notes. heft. only the spark of electricity to come to life. our culture’s fascination with sexuality. and press again – represent human sexual responses on a grand scale. in contemporary cybercultural discourses … Computers. fiction relating to the topic and connected ideas like people behaving like/turned into human mannequins. and virtual doll. which focussed on a highly specialised form of BDSM that gained a following in the 1990s heyday of the Net. Gigolo Joe and Gigolo Jane in Steven Spielberg’s AI: Artificial Intelligence As an example.thrust. dolls. their only purpose is to fulfil human desires without question.robot newsgroup (ASFR). have intensified. distinct issues. This can range from metallic.”26 while Claudia Springer comments that “instead of existing as separate. not diminished. pause. Gigolo Joe (Jude Law).fetish. Interestingly. As its Usenet FAQ defined the newsgroup.sex. non-humanoid machines to humanoid androids.25 Sherry Turkle similarly argues that the computer “is becoming for us what sex was to the Victorians – threat and obsession. from Steven Spielberg’s AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001). Gigolo Jane (Ashley Scott).28 Figure 9. taboo and fascination. thought and sex have become thoroughly entwined. David (Haley Joel Osment). Discussions can deal with specific fantasies. even indistinguishable. it seems.”27 Nowhere is the expression of this commodity fetish more extreme than in the alt. although the film concerns itself with a new kind of robot child. are ASFR’s quintessential pin-ups (Figure 9). ASFR was: Dedicated to the discussion of the concept of sex with or sexual attraction to robots and robot-like beings. toys. and other hypnosis and mesmerism fantasies that involve the mechanical/ monotone response that appeals to the members. who can “genuinely love the parents it 174 .29 Perfectly formed and encased in reflective rubber. the film also makes clear that such ethical dilemmas have no place in a successful technosexual fantasy – as Gigolo Joe states: “We are the guiltless pleasures of the lonely human being. mind control. Man made us better at what we do that was ever humanly possible. (Or agreed to ACT like they were programmed to do. according to the machine’s creator.” tracking what happens when human attachment towards that robot child proves temporary. There's no guilt or repercussions. Throughout the many different forms the fetish takes. however. posing limbs. issuing voice commands. to suggest that fetish is less about the objectification of the person and more about the humanisation of objects: Creating the ideal lover in the Technosexuality sense implies that the artificial partner you create or role play with is doing this willingly because it's what they were programmed to do. the thing’s potential reciprocation of feeling remains surplus to the fetish requirements involved in creating an object of sexual desire. You’re not going to get us pregnant. as ASFR users now prefer to be called. We work under you. what seems inherent to technosexuality is enhanced sexual control over the inanimate. So it is in ASFR. a desire to objectify and contain the Other through mimicking ‘start-up’ and ‘shut-down’ procedures. we work on you. it is the emotionless ‘sensual simulators’ like Gigolo Joe that capture the technofetishist imagination.imprints on with a love that will never end. and encasing the object of desire in spandex. are quick. lycra. and we work for you. mechanical appearance. unblemished. However. and pygmalionists or statue fetishes. This can be taken one step further in ‘stuckposing’ or imagining the fantasy object glued into place. didn’t God create Adam to love him?” The inference is that humanity’s relationship to a Judaeo-Christian god is exactly one of a creator’s love for the thing it created. including imagining robot sex.) It's why they were created. ‘dollers’ or doll fetishes.” In other words. As one scientist asks in the first scene of the film: “If a robot could genuinely love a person what responsibility does that person hold towards that mecha in return?” The answer takes on biblical importance. leaving no doubt as to his own aspirations towards godhead: “In the beginning. or have us to supper with mommy and daddy. Technosexuals. You remove the possibility for rejection or mutual abuse or 175 . or rubber garments designed to restrict movement and create a smooth. In attempting to overcome the traumatic realisation of his/her own materiality. Technosexuality therefore reminds us that the history of technology is also a history of reproduction. restrained machine simultaneously produces the normative. & P O E T RY: R E .34 This includes works of feminist cyberpunk fiction such as Marge Piercy’s He. M A D N E S S . H O L I N E S S . closer to the eroticised (m) Other. the technofetishist’s insistence on the sterile. technosexuality effaces the Other and thus falls prey to an extreme form of sexual narcissism. like Molly’s mirrorshades. Although notorious for rejecting hard and fast definitions as impedimenta to the establishment of “a decentred.” that is. She. of displacement of natural bodies and human acts. Rather than transcending Self and Other. Talk about your 'safe sex'!30 However.” ‘cyberfeminism’ essentially describes radical feminist political and artistic activities in or on cyberspace. cyberfeminism. creating a primary abjection of the female reproductive body.33 J O U I S S A N C E . and of double standards and doubled bodies created for duplicitous purposes. its very definition. began to analyse and respond to cyberculture’s love of things. Remove the human equation and all of that possibility for hurting another human being or being hurt goes away.E M B O DY I N G C Y B E R S PA C E In the early 1990s. As Hillel Schwartz has commented: “doubleness has become an inescapable element of modernity … for some.” and the doubled female body thus becomes a recurrent theme in popular technocultural tales of abject reproduction that is simultaneously a site of erotic desire and fear. the novels of Pat Cadigan. calling for the re-embodiment of cyberspace and the re-coding of the Net as the domain of the feminine. organic body as abject. a new feminist movement. multiple. an endlessly reflective mirror to the organic Self. By fashioning the Other as compliant sexual machine the technofetishist negates all possibility that he will be drawn “toward the place where meaning collapses.32 The feminised machine replaces an implied reproductive body and. representing. participatory practice in which many lines of flight coexist. ASFR’s command control and start up/power down procedures produce an object of desire not dissimilar to the corpse that Julia Kristeva cites as the primary source for abjection. and It (written in response to Gibson’s Neuromancer).hurt or misunderstanding. and Shelley 176 . draws the technophile safely away from an ineffable abyss of signification. 31 The creation of the thing/machine/robot as sexual object in technosexuality therefore repeats the psychosexual separation of Self from (m) Other. which is then overcome by reducing the arena of sexual play from two subjective participants to one. Francesca da Rimini. VNS Matrix. and the academy” from inside the belly of the machine. The group sought to infiltrate and subvert nascent cyberculture’s Cartesian mindspace from within – a “viral meme infecting theory. the UK. although with decreasing momentum as online activity becomes commonplace in westernised cultures. and end economic and social inequities. Julianne Pierce.”39 The frontier as metaphor immediately marked cyberspace as a largely masculine domain in the popular 177 . and Josephine Starr – set out to explore the virtual possibilities of playing with gender construction and relations in cyberspace. VNS Matrix sought to reclaim the space of technology for corporeality by metaphorically re-injecting a fleshy viscera into the emerging lexicon of the cyberbody. Judy Wajcman has noted that this early phase of cyberfeminism should be understood as a “reaction to the pessimism of the 1980s feminist approaches that stressed the inherently masculine nature of technoscience. a digital domain that could and would bring down big business. As defining moments in cyberculture.Jackson’s hypertext fiction. the four Adelaide artists making up the collective – Virginia Barratt. and performance techniques. VNS Matrix’s cyberfeminist practices from 1992 to 1997 straddle both utopian and dystopian factions of what David Silver has called a ‘first generation’ or popular cyberculture limited to descriptions of the internet as “a new frontier of civilization. and Amsterdam – the term ‘cyberfeminism’ was first employed in a manifesto by Australian art and performance collective. which allowed the manifesto to spread rapidly to other feminist groups in Europe and the US. art. This first cyberfeminist artwork burst onto the nascent digital art scene in 1992 with its incendiary use of visceral imagery and oppositional language as an antidote to the perceived valorisation of mind over matter identified in discourse surrounding the emergent world wide web.35 Though cyberfeminism as a movement appeared simultaneously in multiple sites around the world – including in Canada. computer graphics. foster democratic participation.38 This project was made more successful as a result of the simultaneous nature of the developing visual character of the world wide web.36 Informed by Donna Haraway’s 1985 socialist feminist manifesto on the revolutionary potential of cyborgs. It inspired an anarchic surge of cyberfeminist netpresence that remains actively iconoclastic towards normative electronic media. multimedia. Patchwork Girl. using a combination of feminist rhetoric.”37 Observing that the predominance of male IT users in the early 1990s effectively excluded online feminisms even while obsessively representing women as objects of desire and/or otherness. entitled Cyber Feminist Manifesto For The 21st Century (Figure 10). and actively sought alternative spatial and creative logics. suggesting a radical reconfiguration of the boundaries between the subject. if the body of the subject. and the locale for new understandings of the body. Then. was encoded and decoded within cyberculture. could become a site of considerable cultural promise.”40 Laura Miller has noted that the Net-as-frontier metaphor constructed cyberspace from the outset as a hazardous zone for women and children. or even the shape of it. Rheingold sought to inspire commentators and practitioners alike to actively project their own utopian dreams onto what seemed like a brave new reality that could be shaped from the ground up: “The pioneers are still out there exploring the frontier. We don’t want technology to forget about the body … I like the flaws in the body. and unsuited to the rough and tumble of public discourse. the body. a celebration of fluids and viscera” in a space seemingly unfriendly to such representations: … we’re not finished with the body. I like slime and viscera. attempting to beat the technophiles at their own game by using incendiary sexually/technologically charged prose designed to subvert the cyberspatial status quo. it’s what pleasure is about. they believed. or the best way to find one's way in it.” 41 VNS Matrix’ work sought to combat this propensity to exclude the feminine from cyberspace. cyberfeminists could ensure the body’s infinite exchangeability within the potentially limitless subjective possibilities of terminal space. a celebration of the body. corporeal. Cyberspace. claiming its version of cyberspace as a “celebration of difference.imagination. rather than remaining a witness to its termination within a technophilic culture. As such. in turn.43 In this period of celebrating cyberspatial possibilities. 178 . then computer technologies offered direct sensorial access to a parallel virtual world. arguing that “the idea that women merit special protections in an environment as incorporeal as the Net is intimately bound up with the idea that women's minds are weak.42 It was dedicated to making the body visible again. fragile. I don’t want to be like a piece of beef jerky. and its environment. the body is an important site for feminists. the borders of the domain have yet to be determined. transform the dominant power structures of contemporary culture. Early cyberfeminists explored the potentialities of virtual reality for practically investigating constructions of gender and sex that might. the group simultaneously heralded the emergence of a second wave cyberculture studies that would focus more carefully on identity in cyberspace. social. and cultural configurations. and hence the subject itself. as Howard Rheingold made clear in his own pioneering accounts of new online technologies in the early 1990s. ensuring their new genre met the needs of a mass audience as well as esoteric and avant-garde principles. unapologetic appropriation of jargon. presentations. so often portrayed as sterile. in film. It was structured upon a circular motif. computer-generated sphere surrounded by stylised drawings of vaginas. cultural issues. lips. with its potent. whose chrome-plated exteriors. and infecting cyberspace with “the virus of a new world disorder” that would reclaim it as a feminine and feminist space. Marinetti’s basic precepts for manifesto writing. “actively engaging in the international cross-disciplinary debate surrounding technological development. Public spectacle was also a crucial element in VNS Matrix’s work. disseminating the 179 . photo collages and computer graphic text.” “Virtual Valerie. “corrupting the discourse” with the cyberfeminist meme.” and other cyborg/clone/ replicants represented online. theory. as well as related audio collages and interactive screen-based pieces that combined a rich sense of humour with politically infused content. and performances.45 The hugely influential Cyber Feminist Manifesto began as a light box installation at The University of Sydney and was subsequently reproduced as a series of inserts in commercial art magazines and university publications Australia-wide. and hips.”44 Initially the artworks were designed to the counteract fetishistic images and language associated with what they called the “fembot” — including the constructed female sexuality seen in pornographic websites and early pornographic avatars like “Silver Susie. like Molly’s mirrorshades.’ ‘abjection. “de la violence” certainly applies to A Cyber Feminist Manifesto. hinting at the possibilities of reclaiming technological advances for the visceral future body. Futurist manifestoes staged their political message as a kind of lyric theatre. and on television as featureless female figures with injection-moulded breasts.’ ‘symbolic’ — and fusing them with popular computer terminology and historical descriptions of women to create hybrid forms of identification. technologically-assisted voyeur.47 Its language is rich and suggestive.VNS Matrix’ most radical work explored highly developed. with text revolving around a large. and symbols. forming a symbolic web of meaning that recurred throughout later installations. collaborative computer graphics. ordered. above all.46 The largely textbased artwork became an important foundation for subsequent work by the collective and cyberfeminism as a movement. endlessly reflected the gaze of the male. Importing contemporary feminist theoretical terms — ‘jouissance.” or CyberPunk Software’s “Virtual Woman. and obsolete within cyberculture. the manifesto drew a connecting line between phallogocentric and technological culture to rupture meaning from within the technological system. and gender representation. that it should contain. The resemblance to the provocative aesthetics of Futurist manifestoes is obvious.cyberfeminist message to the community at large. and utopian directives. fusing feminist politics with metaphorical imagery and catchy 180 . VNS Matrix A Cyber Feminist Manifesto for the 21st Century 1992 Farrago. “positive anti-reason. June 1992.” “new world disorder. in that the artwork similarly relies on shock tactics to reprogram normative pejoratives into radical feminist slogans — “we are the modern cunt … we see art with our cunt we make art with our cunt. combining the dynamism of motion and charged rhetoric to further disseminate their message.” and “infiltrating disrupting disseminating” would be equally at home in a Marinetti manifesto. firstly targeting the academy and artistic arena and later. both are constructed as politically charged language machines.48 The lines. while VNS Matrix’ circular motif is reminiscent of Carlo Carra’s performative texts in which words are visually arranged to mimic the message contained within (Figure 11). University of Melbourne Student Publication.” making a deliberate effort to elicit a response from its audience through the combination of brash tone. Figure 10. A Cyber Feminist Manifesto can be read as a late twentieth-century cybercultural version of a futurist poem-painting. Therefore. challenging language. replicating itself online. as the Web moved to a graphic interface. Indeed.” “madness holiness and poetry. Carlo Carra. 1914 Ink.” “speak in tongues” to metaphorically link technoculture and technologised transcendence with a revolutionary aesthetics designed to catapult the audience/user into a future hybridisation of gender and sexuality. those like Neal Stephenson’s hackers in Snow Crash who are most susceptible to the cyberfeminist virus. the collective. Private Collection. that is. . In the Futurist performative text. here translated into electronic space. In breaching conventions of morality and symbolism. it remained a visceral form of transcendence deeply resistant to the kind of pure intellectualisations of technology that value disembodied mind over matter in cyberpunk fiction.”49 VNS Matrix’s manifestoes and computer games also operated as a site of excess.5 x 21 cm. pencil. 26. who used them to symbolise the dynamism of electric technology (Figure 12). portrayed itself as “saboteur” of the status quo from within the very body of the machine that wanted to contain them. employing confrontational words and imagery designed to be disseminated to a broad technocultural audience. raising 181 Figure 11. its perpetually changing progress aimed at a somnambulant bourgeois. It took Futurism’s revolutionary machine. It has been said that. Even the stylised vaginas arranged like sunbursts of energy bordering the Cyber Feminist Manifesto recall elements of the explosive light effects that punctuate the paintings of Giancomo Balla or Umberto Boccioni. and set it spinning in a different direction.” “altar. the machine is the saboteur of everyday life.sloganeering to infiltrate mass culture. 13 Introspections. employing spiritual metaphors such as “holiness. VNS Matrix also fused immanence and transcendence. The vagina motif combines corporeal and mystical metaphors. like the Italian Futurists. Both Italian Futurism and cyberfeminism retain an accent on the body – although Futurism sought to augment the corporeal with the machine. profoundly linked with masculinised virtues of speed and action. uncontained by traditional notions of technology.” “temple. Marinetti’s mechanical man resolutely retained humanity’s material core and consciousness – transformed by a fusion of immanence and transcendence. and collage on paper. “the novelty of Italian Futurist manifestoes… is their brash refusal to remain in the expository or critical corner. of defiance of the edicts of dominant phallogocentric culture. Indeed. Figure 12. and thus re-establishing the feminine as reproductive agent in both biological and technological terms. Giacomo Balla.” thus cleverly dislodges the phallus as origin of cyberspace. symbolically overthrowing man as technological god/creator.immanent feminine sexuality to the status of stylised religious icon. its narrative constituted a cyberfeminist counterpoint to the popular hand-held Nintendo Gameboy. New York. shapeless vulva that spreads to offer itself to the terrific spasm of final victory!”50 Female orgasm is here depicted as a triumphant volley in Marinetti’s war on convention. Oil on canvas. Museum of Modern Art. “The clitoris is the direct line to the matrix. Gen is constructed as an omnipresent anarchic cyberterrorist seeking to virally infect and corrupt all informatics of domination and terminate phallogocentric moral codes. authoritarian. to undermine the hierarchal structure of the militaristic. articulating a dangerously feminised technology in the masculinised space of technological play. Gen (short for ‘Gender’) leads a band of renegade ‘DNA Sluts’ through the matrix in a quest to reconfigure cyberspace from its logocentric information processors. neatly subverting its appropriation in cyberspace as a superficial object of male desire and transferring its symbolic power back into the hands of women. bringing VNS Matrix’s emphasis on the liberating metaphor and motif of the vagina even closer to a Futurist aesthetics of technology: “See the furious coitus of war. 174. the Futurist celebration of war was also sometimes represented by an allconsuming female sexuality. From the 182 . Manifest as an ungendered intelligent mist that pervades the matrix. hero-winners and losers aspect of video game culture). gigantic vulva stirred by the friction of courage. Street Light 1910-11.7 cm. The game’s spirit was one of rupture and reversal.51 The central eponymous ‘shero’ of VNS Matrix’s ‘gamegirl’ – ‘All New Gen' – is given a mission to terminate the moral code (in other words. just as VNS Matrix claims female jouissance as an initial sortie to wrest control of technocultural metaphors for cyberfeminism. The interactive computer game All New Gen (1994). attempted to imagine a technocultural war over gender construction.7 x 114. developmental codes” – or the virus of the New World Disorder. the clitoris was now a direct line to the matrix. winking from the monitor that rests on his shoulders where his head should be. and cynical yes/no commands reminded contestants that success would require careful contemplation of both social realities and gender possibilities.’ the brain matter of the matrix with the power to unmake Big Daddy. Victory was immanent when Circuit Boy’s oversized penis. giving the player a direct line to the ‘Cortex Crones. the addict who can no longer insist on his sovereign autonomy and separation from nature.” and “The path of infiltration is treacherous and you will encounter many obstacles. But if. and vaginas able to zap any moving object within ten paces with hostile mucus. and the Princess of Slime – were scanned from images of Cindy dolls and Shera comics and given futuristic coiffures. The most wicked is Circuit Boy — a dangerous technobimbo. “his sizeable tool. but always stands for “the military/industrial data complex” that users – as components of the matrix – are encouraged to sabotage: “Gamegirl Objective: To defeat BDM. targeted at her arch-nemesis Big Daddy Mainframe. Politically charged text scrolled by offering advice for play and setting up the game’s scenes – “All battles take place in the Contested Zone. subversion and transgression. Circuit Boy mimicked the fetishised and limb-less Silver Susie.moment users logged on to All New Gen they were reminded they must “be prepared to question [their] gendered biological construction. 53 Hooked up to screens for a constant hit of phallocentric power at the expense of the feminine. where it had 183 . then every software development would in fact be a migration away from patriarchy. Conquering the game’s various puzzles enabled players to crack the code that rendered Circuit Boy impotent.” unscrewed and transformed into a cellular phone. “Bonding” with these characters would re-fuel the player’s energy levels – and each transformation would result in the generation of “virus vectors” that carried “new.” Designed as a stylised male Roman torso. nature and the real. a transplanetary military industrial imperial data environment. ‘All New Gen’ allows cyberfeminists to re-imagine the technophile as user. the ubiquitously anonymous business suit with briefcase and the logo. and reminiscent of an object of desire from male strip calendars. eyes in their breasts. BDM. this new technology replicated a patriarchal drive for escape and domination. Dentata. as VNS Matrix declared. Player movements would trigger specific reactions within the program. Big Daddy also frequently exchanges forms.”52 The graphic representations of the DNA Sluts – Patina de Panties. a terrain of propaganda.” Gen is a virus in the mainframe. It's not chemistry. “one way for women to imaginatively enter the big body of technology is for the 'micro' option.54 Cyberfeminist theorist Zoë Sofoulis has claimed that mythic figures are not just science-fiction creatures. it's electric.57 That this was a significatory war over who gets to write the social code of cyberspace is made even further apparent in the lesser known VNS Matrix’ Bitch Mutant Manifesto (1996). and into VNS Matrix’s concept of cyberspace. the cyberfeminists leapt into the battle of words over who would colonise the new electronic frontier and audaciously recast the net as an artificially feminine entity that views each technophilic incursion into its domain as a sexual advance: Your fingers probe my neural network. for example by identifying with a virus that can penetrate and corrupt the data banks of ‘Big Daddy Mainframe. extending my boundary but in cipherspace there are no bounds BUT IN SPIRALSPACE THERE IS NO THEY there is only *us* … entice me splice me map my ABANDONED genome as your project artificially involve me i wanna live forever upload me in yr shiny shiny PVC future 184 . Like the Futurists before them. where staccato phrasing fuses Marinetti’s shock tactics and anarchic linguistic manoeuvres with William Gibson’s stylistic vision of cyberspace to sketch an utopian vision of the future based on gender play and reversal. “the broad electronic net in which virtual realities are spun.” that exceeds phallocentricism’s representational capacity.been exercised as domination. man might finally confront his electronic systems of social security. and find them dangerously female. at the culmination of his machinic erections.” At the peak of his technological quest for power via progress. Stop fingering me.” critically challenging mainstream technophilic and techno-phallic discourses in the process. Sofoulis argues that All New Gen offers.55 Power in this “post-phallic” world may be more incorporated rather than hierarchical. as Sadie Plant suggests. Don't ever stop fingering my suppurating holes. but are “part of technoscience's renatured reality.’”56 It re-writes technophilic narratives like cyberpunk as “a post-oedipal story for “posthuman” viral girls. The tingling sensation in the tips of your fingers are my synapses responding to your touch. Flame me if you dare. vision doubled.. and flesh necrotic. The limit is permission denied. Once exposed. the power of the taboo is diminished – in the words of the manifesto the paradox creates a “Command line error” – and a new relation to the desired other can be forged: Heavy eyelids fold over my pupils. is really a displaced desire for the touch of the Other: Subject X says transcendence lies at the limit of worlds. text and membrane impact. objectified feminine sexuality required by male users. VNS Matrix “Bitch Mutant Manifesto” cuts right through the taboo. like curtains of lead. reaching out to touch but the skin is cold. pull you frenzy of prose that acts as a direct challenge to the passive. here and elsewhere. I become the FIRE. neuronsscreaming spiralling towards the singularity. my body implodes. My system is nervous. Where truth evaporates Where nothing is certain There are no maps The limit is NO CARRIER. the male reader is forced into a new relationship with the technology he desires and within the technological space he has created for himself. calling it out into the open and revealing that the technophile’s desire for technology. Floating in ether.SUCK MY CODE What results is a push me. 185 . the sudden shock of no contact.. highlighting the inescapable link between technophilia and real world sexual desire that has everything to do with the corporeal. Hot ice kisses my synapses with an (ec)static rush. where now and now. and for the transcendence of limits. By turning a pornographic lexicon originally designed to objectify the female body as Other back upon the male user. confronting rather than titillating. ” VNS Matrix’ work sought to remind us that users who dream of the mind’s all transcending freedom in cyberspace relinquish the very real pleasures of the flesh. like Silver’s characterisation of cybercultural studies into first and second generations. ironically. it is almost two decades now since such work first made an impact on feminist thought. into old and new movements: 186 . characterised as “the parthenogenetic bitchmutant feral child of big daddy mainframe. The devolution of desire. even self-proclaimed cyberfeminists have begun to question. except it is not Marinetti’s multiplied man but a multiplied woman primed to redress the gender imbalance of online worlds. In refusing cyberculture’s transcendence of the flesh while simultaneously celebrating the diffusion of jouissance that occurs when technological systems are ‘turned on.M A D E W O M E N I N C U LT S C I E N C E F I C T I O N T E L E V I S I O N As Kristeva hypothesised. system. “where is the feminism in cyberfeminism?”59 One answer is suggested by Maria Fernandez and Faith Wilding. down through a vortex” (read: vagina) which propels them “backwards into the future” where “identity explodes” and “the hot contagion of millennia fever fuses retro with futro.” a “sociopathic emergent system” that has malignantly infected the system while the technophiles were lulled into a somnambulant state by their technologies. which can be seen as rehabilitating a form of avant-garde feminist art utilising the then emergent online media. hijacking your impeccable software.”58 This was certainly the initial effect of VNS Matrix incendiary works. the internet’s multitude of porn sites and sex chat rooms rely on to sell the female body as a commodity. rules. the direct result of the abject (m)other’s positioning by patriarchy beyond the borders of signification is to endow her with the power to “disturb identity. However. there's some things you can't transcend” – opting instead to celebrate flesh as diffuse. order.’ the work of VNS Matrix therefore offered a reading of subjective interaction with cyberspace as multiplication. catapulting bodies with organs into technotopia … where code dictates pleasure and satisfies desire. It promises that when they awake from their technologised cocoons “we will terminate your digital delusions. immanent jouissance – “The pleasure's in the dematerialisation. and with online media’s diffusion into the everyday. who argue for demarcating cyberfeminism.” The manifesto argues against a notion of technological transcendence of the body – “The extropians were wrong.” Layer upon layer of technocultural jargon is piled up as an orgiastic love letter to the user from an all-encompassing Net. THE FUTURE EVE: M A N . the promise of which.“Users [are] caught in the static blitz of carrier fire” before being “Sucked in. [She is] What does not respect borders. positions. its depiction of the revolutionary potential of the technological feminine was in turn disseminated into popular culture. when the ‘old’ avant-garde cyberfeminist project began to lose its dynamism around 1998. white.60 As Wacjman has noted.61 By contrast.” 63 In other words.Cyberfeminism began with strong techno-utopian expectations that the new electronic technologies would offer women a fresh start to create new languages. specifically cult science fiction television. And while ‘new’ cyberfeminist theory has moved to follow avant-garde cyberfeminism’s utopian zeal with the important work of theorising new media’s continued reliance on “pan-capitalist social relations and economic. its seemingly revolutionary possibilities were disseminated into the wider social sphere.” it could be argued that. As online media became successfully integrated into late capitalist culture during the late 1990s. sublating art into praxis. ‘old’ cyberfeminism’s utopian pleasure in new online media was a useful strategy for altering perceptions of technology as patriarchal playground. early avant-garde cyberfeminist activities fell prey to the same universalisms of a second-wave feminism that often assumed “an educated.” and advocates an embodied and politically engaged second wave movement emphasising feminist difference and aware that not all women experience technology equally. ‘new’ cyberfeminism offers “a radical political strategy … that is reminiscent of classic Marxism/socialism. images. political. English-speaking. just as Marinetti’s Futurist avant-garde agenda was disseminated into mainstream desires for utopian technological change. upper middle-class. 62 For Fernandez and Wilding. and cultural environments that are still deeply sexist and racist. fluid identities and multi-subject definitions in cyberspace. culturally sophisticated readership. VNS Matrix’ radically utopian cyberfeminism strategies resulted in a similar fate to that of early avantgardes like Italian Futurism. and reprogram information technology to help change the feminine condition. or have equal access to it. then. that in fact women could recode.64 187 . By conflating this distinction. but in the final analysis it should not conflate future imaginings with present practicalities: Utopia is about no-where not now-here. platforms. programs. cyberfeminism presents the utopian imagining of cyberspace as a more or less adequate description of aspects of what currently exists. redesign. by an effect of playful repetition. male/female. mimesis as replication rather than simple reiteration enables the mimic to displace the logocentric economy. what was supposed to remain invisible. the cover up of a possible operation of the feminine in language.What follows. is a close reading of the evolution of the man-made woman as cyberfeminist heroine in popular science fiction television through three key texts. the second – Dark Angel (2000) – shows her development into a revolutionary figure. a remnant of the feminine survives as the inscriptional space of that phallogocentrism. Abjured within a selfconstituting phallogocentrism. All three series depict the cyborg woman as working outside the bounds of normative society. then. technological/natural. Through mimicry. to try to recover the place of her exploitation by discourse. of “matter” — to “ideas”. and as such they are Kristeva’s abject others. but so as to make “visible”.65 Only Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse manages to complete its main protagonist’s evolution with any closure and so this is only the text able to fully realise its cyberfeminist possibilities. Interestingly. for a woman. without allowing herself to be simply reduced to it. virtual/real. and Echo (Dollhouse) all employ mimicry to pass as human. The first – Mann and Machine (1992) – is an early illustration of the female cyborg as disruptive force. the specular surface that receives the marks of a masculine signifying act only to return a false reflection and guarantee of phallogocentric self-sufficiency. without making any contribution of its own. and the third – Dollhouse (2009) – sees the completion of the cyberfeminist cyborg as a multiple woman able to subvert the patriarchal technological system from within. in as much as she is on the side of the ‘perceptible”. Mimesis is another common theme connecting all three series. Max Guevara (Dark Angel). demonstrating how the lawlessness of technological invention is accordingly mapped onto the inorganic female body. Eve Edison (Mann and Machine). disturbing the conventional binaries of organic/inorganic. It means to resubmit herself. Irigaray states that: To play with mimesis is thus.66 188 . Luce Irigiray maintains that mimicry as a deconstructive process exposes a remnant of feminine agency in phallogocentric discourse. each of the series was prematurely cancelled before their narrative arc was revealed. in particular ideas about herself. that is. the feminine is able to repeat the origin of phallogocentricity only to displace that origin as an origin. that are elaborated in/by a masculine logic. Each is also testament to the symbolic unification of machine and the feminine as disingenuous Others. suggesting the man-made woman still has the power to threaten a traditional masculine dominance of technology. spaces. whose revitalisation of traditional representations of the man-made woman were an attempt to create a new mythology for 1980’s Socialist Feminism. inorganic feminine. “man and masculine might just as easily signify a female body as a male one. and Dollhouse and their concurrent creation of lawless. relationships. Dark Angel. with the consequence that.” 70 In the spirit of Haraway’s revolutionary 189 .68 For Haraway. male and female. and familial boundaries. that it is free to forge its own meaning. She. The cyborg therefore has no affiliation with. social hierarchies or ethical moralities – it need only seek its own becoming. ethical. the hybrid of machine and organism is a starting point from which to play with phallogocentric constructions of the threatening. between the corporeal and cyborg. the occupying of otherness by the cyborg body upsets the logic of the non-contradictive regulations of normative bodies. inner monstrosity and outer compliance to gender norms. fictional characters like Eve. Similarly.The mimetic acting out of disparate subjective positions by the cyborg doppelgangers in these three texts similarly places into question the dominant significations of normative gender constructions. or allegiance to. Its position at the intersection of meat and metal. Its existence means “building and destroying machines. In embodying the art of simulation. and Echo virtually mimic the Other for us in a way that disturbs our understanding of normative identities while simultaneously allowing the margins of otherness to be investigated. and woman and feminine a male body as easily as a female one. They also flesh out a pop culture version of Donna Haraway’s politically liberated cyborg.”69 Haraway’s cyborg takes advantage of the ontological confusion inspired by its transcendence of biological. non-biological monsters produces a schism in the representation of the feminine that has the potential to be subverted by feminist politics. They problematise assertions that masculinised technophiles ‘use’ the machine while the technologically produced feminine ‘is’ the machine. political.” 67 Butler analyses the symbolic dependence of the phallus on the penis. dissecting the Lacanian notion that men “have’ the phallus and women “are” the phallus. The myth of the female cyborg “is a matter of fiction and lived experience that changes what counts as woman’s experience … the boundary between Science Fiction and social reality is an optical illusion. Max. without the influence of tradition. sexual identity itself becomes a free-floating signifier. for Haraway. creator and creation allows it to fall through the cracks of normative signification and this means. too. When the status of gender is called into question by the intersection of self and other. as Judith Butler has stated in another context. recognises that the fictive quest for the ideal woman by narratives like Mann and Machine. stories. identities. categories. embodying for Mann a site of both “fascination and horror. Eve 190 . 1992). irrefutably mechanical and alien. the series examines Eve’s difference in relation to those around her. Specifically.” 1. reminding us that under her elegant organic exterior there is no flesh. the latest in synthetic police officers. Their dissimilarity is set up immediately in the credits.73 Even her name is reference to a history of artificial females: from the first woman created in the Bible to the nuclear cyborg that spirals out of control in the film.” making Eve heir to over a century of fictional representations of the female machine. She therefore fulfils a popular depiction of the machine woman as monstrosity. 72 As a counterfeit woman she is always represented as the antithesis of the humans around her. only solid metal. Beneath the veneer of twenty-first century police drama. reworking the electronic matrix as a technology absolutely coded as feminine. Eve Edison and Bobby Mann Mann and Machine promotional still. (NBC.71 In a near-future Los Angeles. the rise of cyberfeminism in the 1990s identified technophilic creation anxiety as an opportunity to destabilise masculinised metaphors of cyberspace like Italian Futurism and cyberpunk. which revolves naked and hairless like a shop mannequin in a sequence strongly reminiscent of the manufacture of the robotic Maria in Metropolis. is privileged. where the cyberfeminist cyborg still has the power to disturb. especially her relationship with Mann. Sergeant Eve Edison (Yancy Butler). where Mann’s development from infancy to adulthood is juxtaposed against Eve’s scientifically produced body.cyborgs. The following analyses show that this project has been sublimated into the pop culture machine of late capitalism. She problematises his role as hero cop because she is both brawn and the brains (“Prototype. who has difficulty in coming to grips with her fabricated femininity. the rather obviously named Detective Bobby Mann (David Andrews) is assigned a rookie with a difference. to a society in which the natural (and particularly the biological feminine). Mann and Machine (Figure 13) was one of the first television series to explore the figure of the female cyborg and her relation Figure 13.01) in their partnership. Edison reminds him). Edison is instrumental in promoting the fiction of Ewald’s primacy as reproductive agent to polite society. She is his to command. a dagger at her waist emits a powerful current. his face blackening.74 However. A Victorian parable on the consequences of the excessive education of women. a fiction because although Hadaly contains the promise of being the perfect vessel for Ewald’s heirs she is. Hadaly’s perfection in Tomorrow’s Eve results from both from her sexual inaccessibility and her actual inability to procreate. voided of reproductive power. and she rises quiescently to return his gaze in rapt silence. suggesting as it does a link with Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s 1886 French Symbolist novel.of Destruction. his limbs broken … before his hands even reach her dress. to rouse her. When Lord Ewald stares at his fiancé. “I want to fulfil your dream in its entirety. Edison props up his patron’s wilting phallocentric power by reproducing the contrary Alicia as a robotic ideal woman he calls Hadaly.’75 Adam’s narrative rests upon the discursive construction of the female cyborg as an instrument designed to teach women the proper respect for patriarchal values. Her simultaneous success in evoking sexual desire in other men and rendering all desire but Ewald’s impotent through electrocution hides her reproductive sterility. 191 . famous for first coining the term ‘android. Ewald need only apply gentle pressure to one of the rings adorning her fingers (as if he were lovingly pressing the hand of the original model. “so that the merry rake … who tries. being utterly contained.76 Frustrated by her insistence on displaying her wit. for example. he cries: “Ah! Who will remove this soul from this body?” On cue. she is another in a long line of Eves made by man. Alicia. all he can see in her exquisite and remarkable beauty is the “frightful. as she must be. it is Eve’s surname that most defines her in this historical narrative of feminine machines. In either case. withering nullity” of her returned gaze.”77 As a recognised father of invention. To ensure her purity. for Hadaly is a uniquely faithful mistress. and her inability to act exclusively as a mirror to his own projected self.” 78 It is unclear whether these precautionary measures against the intrusion of other men are to preserve the appearance of the female automaton’s honour or prevent detection of the monstrous act of creation that Edison has performed and Ewald has sanctioned. deadly. Tomorrow’s Eve. by the authority of her maker. the narrative reverses Shelley’s blueprint for the manmade woman as monster by depicting the cyborg as the industrial cure for the monstrous natural feminine. in fact. Her natural state is the dreamy half-sleep of an invalid yet. to ‘snatch a kiss’ from this Sleeping Beauty will find himself rolling on the floor. Thomas Edison replies. in re-inscribing her as Hadaly. Frankenstein before him. Like the work of Marinetti almost a century after. and consequently narratives of technoculture up until early avant-garde cyberfeminism. masturbatory practices… the final chapter in a long history of fantasy of self-generation by and for the men themselves… capable of producing new monsters and fascinated by their power. The transgressive female body is subsumed into industrial technology. usurps the role of the ultimate artist/creator. she represents the: … triumph of the alchemist’s dream of dominating nature through their self-inseminating. her own desire for life. And yet what is produced exceeds the purpose of its production. Edison obliterates what he sees as the essential feminine in Alicia. replacing religion’s quest for an ideal self with the scientific creation of synthetic perfection. Written in an age of industrial machines imbued with a technological approximation of reproductive power that fortified patriarchal power in pumping pistons and rotating cogs. The novel is an extended philosophical meditation on the pursuit of perfection in the domain of the copy. it is as if she is spontaneously animated by her own volition.Therefore. Eve is not fashioned. 79 The machine as phallus is thus dominated absolutely by the masculine. as the dominance of industrial machines gave way to online information technologies. Alicia is no longer the reproducer but that which is reproduced. suggests that a subtle shift in the figure of the man-made woman began to occur in the 1990s alongside the cyberfeminist movement. Edison. however. That the authority of her makers cannot contain her is implied by the fact that men hold no 192 .80 Mann and Machine. rather like Michelangelo’s hand of Adam being infused with life by God. Yet when we see her hand come alive in the credits. Hadaly’s artificiality highlights the plastic nature of identity and suggests that the replicated illusion of femininity is indistinguishable from the Real. cancelling out her agency. like Hadaly. like Dr. the text demonstrates that the replication of woman as machine effectively removes the feminine from the role of creating technology by incorporating her as technology. by a male inventor but an eminent female scientist – this is one Eve that is not made by man/creator/god. passive exterior that she then defends with a deadly hidden weapon controlled by her creator. she deceptively presents a disempowered sexuality through a dreamy. In fashioning her. rendering the phallic female cyborg impotent against the power of her masculine creator. weighing up alternatives and ideas. while Eve refuses to be subservient to his whims. 193 . She is a chimera.” designed in a lab by a secret government agency called Manticore to be the perfect soldier in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by terror. and colleagues. but the manticore’s zoomorphic nature is also linked conceptually to the sphinx. and human (we are told her enhanced abilities come from her mixture of feline and shark DNA and a selection of the finest minds of all time). that duplicitous archetypal female monster.82 ‘Manticore’ not only signifies her similarities to the mythological hybrid creature that is part lion. demonstrating that the misogynist can find happiness with the child-woman of his dreams. Having received no social conditioning about ‘proper’ conduct between the sexes she is not weighed down by traditional notions of feminine modesty or morality. scorpion. also draws upon and updates the Gothic theme of a new Eve-figure made by science that nevertheless refuses to submit to the narrowly defined role for which she was created. however. a freak object to be destroyed. Dark Angel. indeed. war deity. preserves her agency as she sets out to learn about her newly acquired ‘life. mimicking mothers. the child-woman fantasy of phallocentric society.positions of power in the series. As such. Bobby Mann is the only principal male character. or kept closeted from society behind closed doors. and ultimately deciding what is appropriate by her own reasoning.’ Claudia Springer has argued that Eve represents for Mann. throwing tantrums and playing practical jokes. She is not merely a mirror of his projected self – in her quest to discover what it is to be human Eve prods the traditional boundaries of sex and gender to carve a space in which she can exist as a fully-fledged subject. The phallic female cyborg is traditionally hidden from public view in technofictions. movie actors. constantly arguing with him over the misogynist comments he directs towards the women around them and calling into question his constructions of gender. But Eve is a monster who creates her own place in the fictional milieu she enters.81 Yet it is Mann who often plays the petulant child. James Cameron’s 2000 cyberpunk science fiction TV series. Max Guevara X5-452 (Jessica Alba) is a “transgenic. driven away.’ She plays with her own subjectivity and surface. yet always exceeding the role Mann tries to construct for her. Eve will never be a lady. she re-signifies both Mann’s and the audience’s normative understanding of ‘woman. causing Mann to complain to her superiors that she is not behaving in a ladylike manner. and thus for the audience. and she persists in questioning both her own sexuality and Mann’s. and rather than being a cipher for Mann’s dreams and desires for technological power. and an eidetic memory. created by military scientists from human and animal DNA to produce a soft machine with an organic surface infused with superhuman/animal strength and senses. a genius level IQ. wilfully exceeding the strict military purposes for which she is produced. Max is symbolically constructed as a liminal character patrolling the borders of the Real and the yet to be revealed. she is subjected to unremitting mind control.” and Max’s perfect monstrosity works as a way to explore the virtual binaries that construct both ‘female and ‘human’ identity. the “Gothic… marks a peculiarly modern preoccupation with boundaries and their collapse. When one of their number is casually executed while protecting Max from dissection. in Snow Crash). Max Guevara (Jessica Alba) Dark Angel Still from Season 1. including independence of thought.T. well-developed imaginations. Fearing the consequences of letting a manufactured species with superhuman strength run amok.’ with ‘ordinary’ humans. allows her access to 194 Figure 14.83 Mere meat to her military handlers. a job that (like Y. Max is. As Judith Halberstam notes. commodities to be consumed and exchanged at will. Determined to stay under the radar. a flawed genetic experiment that ultimately proves to be an unruly creation. hinting at their ultimate insubstantiality. The sphinx’s mythological function was as a temple guardian concealing ultimate knowledge from the uninitiated. by day Max ekes out a living as a bike messenger. differentiated only by the genetically tattooed barcodes on their necks that mark them as military property. and brutalising military training in an effort to ensure she remains compliant to her human military handlers. 2000 . leading them to forge close familial bonds as a shield against the harsh military regimen to which they are constantly subjected. torture. however. and a superfluous empathy. As a child of Manticore. She and her transgenic unit display ‘unproductive’ human traits.and threshold figure guiding humanity from antiquated religious practices to a new way of being-in-the-world. in the near future milieu of Dark Angel she and others like her are rendered nameless. the unit decides to seek freedom on the ‘outside. the cyborg become the site on which are performed contestations about the body boundaries that have often marked class. genetic testing and modification that manipulate. By night. During one such robbery she meets Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly). or synthesise human and animal genes for medical treatment. whose alter-ego – Eyes Only – fights corruption by hacking state-regulated TV channels to bring the culprits out into the open and ensure information remains free. hierarchical structure and control. Clones and cyborgs proliferate in the 195 . which they perceive merely as expensive military hardware. natural and unnatural. the cyborg violates the human/machine distinction. Max’s choice of surname is significant. organic and inorganic. following a terror attack that has reduced the US to a third world nation by erasing all computer information. Max supplements her meagre income as a genetically enhanced cat burglar. denoting her as a freedom fighter on the borders between human and inhuman. The series uses both gothic (estrangement) and science fiction (speculation) tropes to highlight the social and moral anxieties produced by the contemporaneous completion of the Human Genome Project and resultant debates about cloning. the cyborg can also spark erotic fascination… Mingling erotically charged violations with potent new fusions.all areas in a city under martial law. and resistance figurehead. underground hacker. it challenges the human-animal difference. and utilities. explaining the behaviour of thermostats and people through theories of feedback. difference.12) for the cybercultural age. and contestation – like Eve Edison. replacing cognition with neural feedback. Katherine Hayles succinctly sums up Haraway’s model: Fusing cybernetic device and biological organism. Max Guevara is a pop culture cyberfeminist heroine that fully inhabits Haraway’s construction of the cyborg as crossing the boundaries that separate the human from the animal as well as the living from the nonliving. cyberjournalist. As N.84 The technological copy as monster lies at the heart of Dark Angel. Cyberpunk and cyborg strike a bargain – Max will provide adhoc mercenary skills in return for Logan’s help locating her fellow transgenics and avoiding Manticore’s measures to regain control of her body. it erases the animate/inanimate distinction. ethnic. marking Max as a “teenage Frankenstein” (sic. In addition to arousing anxiety. and cultural differences.” 1. struggle. “Meow. banking records. The series focuses relentlessly on her duplicitous female body as a site of radical Otherness. alter. ” 1. so I can jump 15 feet of razor wire and take out a 250-pound linebacker with my thumb and index finger. takes his revenge on the military guards who cut his tongue out by randomly performing the same operation on figures of authority. Her 196 . and Max’s own clone Sam blithely throws in her lot with the enemy that wants to kill her copy.. simultaneously constructing her as aggressive sexual predator.. She is at the constant mercy of her unnatural makeup – due to a fault in her manipulated DNA she and other X-Series transgenics do not create adequate serotonin leading to unpredictable epileptic fits (Dark Angel’s biologicallybased version of kryptonite). Joshua’s evil twin. strip an M14 in under five seconds.” 1. Like all good superheroes. all because they spiced up that genetic cocktail called "me" with a dash of feline DNA.. titillating teenage seductress. looking for some action (“Heat. as a bike courier who is also a black ops assassin. This endless game of escape and evade is always pre-empted by the vicissitudes of Max’s disruptive. She also seeks to conceal her darkest nature from her self. The plot-invoked hi-jinks that ensue from Max’s heat form a repetitive theme throughout the series. Like maybe it was a story I heard” (“Pilot. and the feline DNA that enhances her speed.01). and insecure. But it also means that three times a year I'm climbing the walls. unsentimental.. the stalwart. and utterly subject to the inner logic of her strange DNA. which makes me an awesome killing machine and a hoot at parties. Isaac. and both must be concealed from the ‘ordinaries’ around her. Max leads a doubled life on many levels: as (initially) a lone ‘freak’ amongst ‘ordinaries. constructed body..02). Episodes are therefore driven by a complicated dance of hide and reveal.. hearing and eyesight also sends her into an uncontrollable heat cycle: I am in heat or something like that. to forget her own otherness: “Sometimes it seems like it happened to someone else... her weaknesses are played out against her considerable strengths.series and much is made of the psychological differences between versions of the same: Max’s ‘brother’ Ben (Jensen Ackles) is a darkly drawn.’ as a predator amongst prey. or as a pretty girl who can climb skyscrapers unaided. psychotic serial killer while his devil-may-care clone Alec becomes her 2IC and potential love interest. highly emotional. and cheat at blackjack using her eidetic memory and acute hearing. and humourless Zack (William Gregory Lee) sacrifices himself to keep his unit safe from exposure while his cyborg copy is selfish. agility. as Max’s true identity teeters always on the cusp of exposure. this perfection.02). and other female cyborgs like her are monstrous because their subversion of normative gender roles only serves to highlight the very artificiality of traditional constructions of femininity. she is perfectly made. the ordinary and extraordinary. Max’s search begins to take on messianic proportions when she discovers Sandeman has designed her without any junk DNA – her every genetic sequence is coded for a specific purpose. created her. Retrieving a sense of family appears to go someway towards answering this question for Max – delineations are always made between her desire for familial bonds and other transgenic soldiers who are simply automatons fulfilling their handlers orders without question. Max is then both familiar and unfamiliar 197 . Max also seeks her birth mother in a desperate desire to understand her genealogy. Sandeman. besides the obvious “to kick ass mostly” (“Bag ‘Em. creation anxiety in Dark Angel produces a permanent state of identity crisis between being made. and the vigilante human populace echoes the ‘making strange’ techniques used in both early science fiction’s fears of ‘bug-eyed monsters from outer space wanting our women’ or racist diatribes against minorities by asking if the ‘trannies’ will soon be “… living next door. whom they see as manufactured filth. that is. we are told.21). Dark Angel’s narrative similarly makes clear human/transgenic sexual pairings result in monstrous offspring (“Hit a Sista Back. Like Dr.sexuality is monstrous precisely because she problematises traditional gender roles and feminine reproductive agency. As a perfectly constructed m(Other) figure caught between the organic and the inorganic. The definitive biological weapon. being born. but they loathe the transgenics. as well as the real purpose for which her metaphorical father. Frankenstein’s fears that the creation of a female monster might unleash a “race of devils” on the world. While this quest for origins is never fully completed due to the series’ surprise cancellation in 2002. Rather bizarrely.” 2. half-breed kids?” or breaking “into our houses and tak[ing] our daughters?” (“Freak Nation.18).” 2. Maker. The cult has devoted millennia to combining religious ritual with eugenics in an effort to naturally create a race of super beings. Like the epigraph to Frankenstein from Milton’s Paradise Lost – “Did I request thee. They therefore hate ordinaries as imperfect beings.” 1. Therefore. Max’s coded flesh is therefore a container of hidden knowledge that she must decipher before humanity is eradicated by an apocalyptic virus set loose by an ancient religious cult known as the Familiars. the founder and head geneticist of Manticore. Max. spittin' out their mutant. is to provide a genetic antidote – a purpose that is slowly revealed to her through snippets of arcane information that appear unbidden like tattoos on her body. In addition to her fellow escapees. from my Clay/ To mould me Man?” – Max and others constantly question why the transgenics exist. and making oneself. Ultimately Max learns to love her inherent kinship to the monstrous. human/inhuman. therefore.” 2. Max attempts to negotiate an alternative. new transgenic state. and creator/created. and the religiously devout seek the transgenics total annihilation precisely because they are not naturally produced members of a god-fearing ‘brotherhood of man:’ “In the eyes of the Lord. human. Her internal struggles with 198 . notions of religious transcendence are juxtaposed against technological transcendence with Max’s corporeality functioning as a symbol for both. in which the oppressed transgenic minority seeks to gain equal rights from the government that produced them. Unable to pass as ‘ordinary’ and largely rejected by her fellow transgenics. Exposed for what she is. They’re stamped with barcodes on their necks when they come off the assembly line.and. Yet it is also the unfamiliar cross-dressing of hero and monster that leads to Max’s rejection by the society that has made her. in the final episodes of the series.” 2. And since only God has the power to create life. they’re not even animals. She begins to recognize the revolutionary potential in transcending normative dichotomies like natural/unnatural. As the disenfranchised product of scientific experimentation. humans fear her and her kind because she is “simply the latest in a long line of abominations perpetrated by the scientific community” (“Dawg Day Afternoon. Terminal City. with a debate over the relative merits of different models of creation – religious.18). she becomes the selfappointed leader and mother figure of a Figure 15. The individuals that we speak of are manufactured. then we must ask ourselves if they can even be said to be alive” (“Dawg Day Afternoon. ritualistic. Final scene of Dark Angel showing the transgenics recreating the 1945 raising of the US flag in Iwo Jima. Like Frankenstein’s monster. The series concludes. it is Max’s border crossing between familiarity and unfamiliarity that ultimately allows her to transcend traditional constructions of being-in-the world and symbolically represent one possible future for humanity. or scientific. boundaryless existence between worlds.18). real/ artificial. and animal elements. that most successfully explores questions about the fate of embodiment in a world of virtual copies. The final message of the series seems to be that normative society’s worst nightmare is about to come true – its lab experiments are about to fight back. the technologically created woman. The series poses such 199 . perseverance. but instead of stars and stripes. and a barcode. Of all three texts featuring the technological feminine it is Joss Whedon’s 2009 series. Dark Angel’s final episodes spend much time focused on the state media’s coverage of a frenzied public hurling venomous rants against what they see as the threat of supercedence. In its fictional milieu. But. economically. a symbol of unity. for Max. instead of trying to sweep us away like garbage. The series’ arc did seem to be leading to Max’s construction as a revolutionary Other who draws together a military-trained fighting force of similarly disenfranchised individuals to oppose from within a corrupt and murderous US government overtaken by religious zealots. a field of blood. symbolising the transgenic’s struggle towards freedom (Figure 15). and victory. Dark Angel’s last scene shows Max and the transgenics making a symbolic stand on the rooftops of Terminal City. Max rallies her unnatural forces against the human threat with a rousing speech: They made us.” 2.21). Dollhouse. raised fists reminiscent of the Black Panther salute. the unfurling flag features a dove. Cameron reconstructs the iconic image of the raising of the US flag on Iwo Jima in 1945. what is at stake is the moral responsibility of a creator for its handiwork.inhumanity morph into a treatise on the inhumanity of institutionalised difference. As Congress debates whether the transgenics should be exterminated and the police and National Guard lay siege to Terminal City’s gates. and corporeally. We were made in America and we're not going anywhere. It's time for them to face us and take responsibility. a terror fuelled by the possibility they will lose control of their creations. who cares? Today I'm proud to be a freak (“Freak Nation. socially. Echo (Eliza Dushku) picks up Max’s revolutionary mantle and takes on a near future where technology threatens to excise human subjectivity all together. One wonders if the series was quickly cancelled in 2002 despite a strong science fiction fan base because of the parallels such a narrative stance had with heightened US fears following 9/11. to defend this country. So they call us freaks. and they trained us to be soldiers. With no ‘I’ of their own.questions as how identity is constituted in an age of perfect technological reproduction. want. They are mentally. 2009-10). Dollhouse tackles a century of science fiction narratives from Futurism to cyberpunk. however. an animal rights activist who had sought to bring the Rossum Corporation responsible for the Dollhouse to its knees. as its artificial heroine. When first we meet her. whether downloading information into the brain equals wisdom. and Figure 16. 200 . depicting Echo (Eliza Dushku) as deadly mannequin.’ that is. She is also the technosexual’s ideal doll – a technologically modified body with no desire. or function as impossibly attractive bodyguards with ninja skills. Echo was once Caroline. becomes a palimpsest for discourse on the technologically produced feminine. therefore quiescent to Rossum’s will. As an ‘Active’ in the Los Angeles Dollhouse. does a spirit or soul live on as a central organising principle without the corporeal. dolls are desireless.85 During this time their bodies are rented out for princely sums to comply with a client’s every desire. is that once imprinted they completely inhabit another Self. Whedon tells us. wiped of their personalities and memories for a period of five years. Joss Whedon. and Echo. Fox publicity still for Dollhouse (dir. or ego other than what her handlers imprint on her. but they are also imprinted with ‘expert’ knowledge to work as trouble-shooters. What makes them different from slaves. Echo is simply an empty vessel – one of cyberpunk’s meat puppets. what role does the body play in individuation. and can technology fundamentally change human physiology? As such. This usually equates to fulfilling sexual fantasies. she joins other resident guinea pigs of this slightly sinister underground day spa who have either opted or been coerced to become ‘dolls. what are the moral implications of biotechnologies and how should they be used. can technological advances that are detrimental to humanity be contained. Dollhouse also shows us that. as the subject is injected with increasing velocity into the pixels and bytes of cyberspace. she becomes the doubled body. is itself a virtual reality. She offers a perfect mirror to every client’s narcissistic gaze. However. However. a sexy yet clueless literature student. compared to the virulent power of industrial age machinery. a loving ex-wife. one could say that the very notion of Woman. precisely as Kristeva would have it. Yet Plant reorders this relative hierarchy. an assassin. She is mimetic – by turns a devoted girlfriend. for the term of their engagement. both sexual threat and submissive ideal – “She gets to be the virgin and the whore and she’s celebrated for both” (“A Love Supreme. the ‘ones’ and ‘zeroes’ of binary code stand for a singular male identity to which female identity is measured and found lacking.physically. they literally become the Other. as Paul Virilio has written there has been a deliberately and carefully orchestrated “disappearance of woman in the fatality of the technical object.86 In the plastic world of constructed identities that results from technology’s elision of the feminine.” and initially Dollhouse demonstrates that this is so. and psychically a new being in a host body. both of which set the scene for imagining cybertechnologies as disembodied spaces that delete metaphors of feminine embodiment. Echo is in demand. the work of cyberfeminists like Sadie Plant and VNS Matrix may have indeed enabled a re-imagining of Woman’s supposed elision. Echo is. Any threat she might pose can be quickly erased on returning her to the Dollhouse. they can fulfil any purpose. no Woman.” 2.87 Indeed. in relation to Whedon’s world. by 2009. For Plant. As the Dollhouse’s top Active. but only for the terms of her assignment. Echo’s ingénue demeanour often masks a deadly assassin. electronic technologies no longer evoke the imagery of physical prowess – 201 . As Fredric Jameson has pointed out. a dominatrix. as Kristeva has said.08). When programmed by Dollhouse nerd neuroscientist. society’s dreams of exchanging human bodies for the weightless exultation of a radically new space are rendered digitally substantial. play any role and. arguing that the transformations of technology in late capitalist information culture have also altered a notion of feminine agency. Like Tomorrow’s Eve’s Hadaly. even a lactating surrogate mother thanks to a little tweak of her brain chemistry (once again suggesting that reproduction can be controlled by technology). Topher Brink (Fran Kranz). Activated. The series therefore offers a comment on the masculinised model of technological transcendence instigated by the Italian Futurists and embraced by cyberpunk fiction. It highlights that. playing out his or her fantasies to the letter. the temptation of using cyberspace to escape the confines of the body backfires. fully realising Lacan’s claim that: 202 . precisely because. Dollhouse therefore narratively plays out the end result of a virtual world that might allow us to pull our minds out of our skulls and drop them into the space of the machine or another body. nevertheless still have rhetorical force for popular culture renditions of the technologically constructed woman.’ In Dollhouse.they function more quietly with their workings hidden behind a screen rather than on full. And Echo’s almost effortless ability to adjust her re-inscribed sense of proprioception and link it to her corporeality suggests the self’s aptitude in redrawing its internal body picture at will.89 The utopian imaginings of Plant and VNS Matrix. while being relegated to history as ‘old’ cyberfeminism by the new wave of cyberfeminists seeking praxis over utopia. For Echo being ‘no woman’ is the necessary condition for becoming ‘every woman. Plant’s zeroes rise to the fore. as VNS Matrix and Plant had suggested. It depicts technology not as pure disembodiment but rather a distribution of consciousness between two very different kinds of body images – one with all the proprioceptive memories of corporeality and one belonging to a phantasmagorical world of infotechnology’s making. decisively displacing “the phallic order of ones. as with that home appliance called television which articulates nothing but rather implodes. or even the casings of the various media themselves. noisome display: What must then be observed is that the technology of our own moment no longer possesses the same capacity for representation: not the turbine… nor even the streamlined profile of the railroad train… but rather the computer. an object of pure sensory pleasure. Identity therefore becomes subject to an infinite exchange of possibilities.88 In place of a virtual reality in which human consciousness is propelled through the last terminal frontier to join the virtual flow of pure image and information.” and re-embodying as well as resignifying cyberspace. Rather than recreating subjectivity as disembodied sensoria. Dollhouse suggests that the renegotiation of subjectivity that would have to take place within a virtual world of multiple bodies codes the corporeal as an inscription able to be written and rewritten. to enter the Dollhouse and become an Active is to put on the Other. carrying its flattened image surface within itself. whose outer shell has no emblematic or visual power. all identity is multiplied in the matrix. due to a technological glitch while being imprinted. We’re not anybody. superior people with a little German thrown in. Alpha becomes a psychotic genius. Hers is a gendered transformation – where technological transcendence literally blows Alpha’s mind into warring parts. What could possibly go wrong? (“Omega. Nietzsche predicted our rise. She is forcibly transformed into a virtually multiple body by Alpha. We’re not multiple personalities… Echo: We’re not gods. Echo. Echo becomes integrated. You can evolve” (“Omega” 1. thirty-five [personalities] right now. because we’re everybody.The imaginary anatomy … varies with the ideas … about bodily functions which are prevalent in a given culture. she chooses to transform herself into a revolutionary (m) Other bent on dismantling the technophiles dominating machines from within. he kidnaps her from the Dollhouse and attempts to remake her in his own image: “You can ascend. Believing this sudden accumulation of other selves makes him a “new god” (“Omega” 1. Rather than neo-fascistic becoming. the joker in the Dollhouse’s precarious deck of cards. Perfected objective. an Active gone rogue.12). and obsessed by what he perceives as Echo’s perfection of being. I’m experiencing. however. It all happens as if the body image had an autonomous existence of its own and by autonomous I mean … independent of objective structure. Now I understand everything… You think we’re gods? Alpha: We’re not just humans anymore. Echo refuses to see it Alpha’s way: Echo: Now I get it. He snapped” (“Omega.” 1.12). Yet. immediately understanding that: We’re not anything.12). Echo: Great. something new. Forty-eight personalities got dumped into his coconut all at once. Alpha: Fine. refuses to submit to a conventional notion of technologically augmented super beings a la Nietzsche and technophilia. But I somehow 203 . designed for power and control.” 1.12). after being simultaneously downloaded with thirty-eight personalities. like. New. experiences “a composite event. Ubermensch.90 Echo discovers this the hard way. who. identity. sensation. Technologies like the internet.92 Within these cultural arenas. in a movement that both de-centres and re-centres the subject in a manner aptly described by MerleauPonty: “The proper essence of the visible is to have a layer of invisibility in the subject … which makes it present as a certain absence. the user is forever changed by the disembodied explorations of its cybersubjectivity. the user’s invisible subjectivity made manifest in virtual reality or cyberspace as the cyberbody is always dependent upon a phenomenological body outside the computer.understand that not one of them is me… There is no me. in part constituted by the forces that oppose them and always contingent upon surviving the contradictions they have subsumed. one with its Other. The cyberbody thus problematises the user’s normative subjectivity. In effect. and social networking. Quite the opposite – in the context of cybernetic or virtual disembodiment. and ‘artificial’ intelligences. cognition. it must be multiplied. These two bodies exist simultaneously in a state of constant exchange. This occurs through a revelatory act of vision.”91 That is. Michel Serres has argued that our bodies exist in the intersection of a variety of social spaces – Euclidean. virtuality addresses the overwhelming need to reconstitute a phenomenal being. It is this ‘cyberbody’ that challenges proprioception within the user’s body by replacing the corporeality of ‘labouring’. topological. That is. and gender. that is to say. The cyberbody becomes mere representation. the corporeal body that pilots reactions within the simulated space of the computer and an (incomplete) electronic ‘body image’ created by the user’s mind. As Marinetti predicted. in which the subject assumes a mode of virtuality. ‘real’ human bodies with pure information whose configurations ‘signify’ disembodied human sensoria. and so forth – and that these social spaces are always in the process of construction. Dollhouse suggests the body cannot be erased by virtual space. place into question the ontological and epistemological experience of being human that is the combined result of experience. articulations of self are only momentarily complete. reality. when the transcendent Other is placed in direct relation with the Self. an external surface to be inscribed at will and onto which the user projects its dreams of otherness and alterity. Echo’s experience illustrates the potential of virtual technologies to effect a profound disturbance of identity. 204 . There’s just a container” (“Omega. projective. world wide web. entering virtuality necessarily replaces the sense of a unified body with two partial bodies. personality ‘constructs’.” 1.12). In contrast to Alpha the technophile’s longing for virtual disembodiment. but without entirely subsuming its being to the machine. without the aid of technology.” It follows that our own perceptions of ourselves. If to enter the virtual requires that the individual replace the sense of a unified and coherent physical body image with two partial bodies – the corporeal body that pilots reactions within the simulated space of the computer. necessarily oscillating between both. of “finishedness. she experiences vertical transcendence as an almost mystical oscillation between change and changelessness. is the product of a new socio-technological space that challenges our perceptions of our selves and our bodies. the ways in which we perceive our bodies and are perceived by others. By contrast. In other words. “our sense of self. She exists only in the in-between. in the trans. our sense of place in the world. unable itself to physically inhabit the virtual world.”94 It tells us that both our internal self-image and our projected body image are volatile. Dollhouse suggests. being without agency or sensation. “from the disconnection of spaces. while those that fail to inscribe themselves within their logic are considered socially sick. or at least as far as binary code allows. exploding. the cyberbody is free to roam infinitely possible spaces. Echo/Caroline is both/neither. the multiplied woman.subjects that are constituted within the multiplicities of these social spaces must be understood as historical or cultural constructs. Indeed. that only a stable reality enforces a stable sense of self. with the consequence that they are excluded from social interaction. As William James puts it: 205 . She begins to remember every personality Rossum has imprinted on her. remains consistent and continuous purely because external reality has a certain continuity to it. as Serres maintains. She is both the sum of her parts and none of them. and an incomplete body image constructed by the user’s imagination – then it is obvious that the corporeal body always remains beyond the borders of simulation. our bodies are continually produced by socially regulated norms that delimit them also from obtaining a state of closure. and starts to access them through the force of her own will. Echo. of perfection. Echo’s multiplied body similarly remains on the borderland of both physical and virtual. are also in a condition of perpetual evaluation. She becomes a container through which all her multiple subjectivities flow. acting as a conduit for sensations orchestrated by the electronic body within cyberspace.”93 In such a fragile world of identity formation. the cyberbody simply ceases to function. without the link with the corporeal body outside. the subject and the social spaces it inhabits can be seen as always already in a state of flux. But. After her composite event. Echo/ Caroline is forever changed – not any body but every body. It remains outside the cyberbody’s frame of reference. Similarly. in Whitmanism. in Sufism. she is something more. and. in Christian mysticism. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystical tradition. employing the perpetually new language of mysticism to describe Echo’s transformation into Echo/Caroline/ Other. and which brings it about that the mystical classics have. But a cyberfeminist politics also insists that it is not enough to negotiate cyberspace. hardly altered by differences of clime or creed. She is Echo/Caroline and yet not Echo/Caroline – both/ neither – and therefore becomes more than simply an echo of her multiple parts. Perpetually telling of the unity of man with God. Transcendence leads her not to destruct and deconstruct like Alpha. In Hinduism. Yet. in Neoplatonism. a vessel that contains a network of integrated selves originally multiplied by the machine.95 The Dollverse repeats this recurring note. seeking wholeness while secretly knowing that such a perfect state can never be. In mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness. Echo/Caroline/Other is no longer a blank personality but a multiplied body. Echo begins as yet another repetition of a long history of female automatons made subservient to their technological masters. as has been said. therefore may be uniquely suited to inhabiting virtual spaces.This overcoming of all the usual barriers between the Individual and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. we find the same recurring note. imaginary place where concepts of gender and sex can be practically explored. Dollhouse therefore reiterates avant-garde cyberfeminism’s argument that the insertion of our bodies in cyberspace has crucial repercussions for feminist politics as virtual space can be constructed and theorised as a radical. rewrite it. like Eve Edison and Max Guevara. their speech antedates languages. and they do not grow old. but to restore unity. Women. she learns to embody the artificial woman as disruptive force. so that there is about mystical utterance an eternal unanimity which ought to make a critic stop and think. and make it their own. occupying a virtual place in patriarchal society. have long learned to function along this volatile border between internal self and projected image. Although she can access each of her thirty-eight personalities at will she understands that there must be something else. Her quiescent exterior hides an inner battle for self-realisation. oscillating between self and other with each arising moment. She is rather a transmodern being. Even 206 . neither birthday nor native land. but now finding synthesis within her corporeality. to re-signify her fellow dolls and with them repair a broken technological system that sees human bodies as soulless meat. feminists must colonise it. creating an “exclusionary matrix” that requires the simultaneous production of abject beings – those beings not yet subjects but who form a constitutive outside to the domain of normative subjects. Echo/Caroline/Other’s multiplied body therefore alters the terms of the necessary and normative domain of all material bodies through the simultaneous construction of the unthinkable. body and mind. this multiple body. And she understands that this Other that she has become. As Rossum’s disruptive. Butler’s abject beings are not unlike Serres’ socially ejected. an abjected outside. disturbing. the call to remember your original face is an invitation to recognise the empty nature of reality. border-disrespecting creation.though her original personality – the animal liberationist turned terrorist caught infiltrating Rossum’s secret labs – exists only as a wedge of information in the Dollhouse’s archives. to look beyond one’s socio-psycho-cultural understanding of self. It creates the possibility of a normative and socially regulated body to be presented face to virtual face with its abject counterpart. and unliveable margin of radical otherness. demarcates and circulates the bodies it governs. Echo knows that she also is Other. Echo is primed to thwart their dystopian plans. “precisely those ‘unliveable’ and ‘uninhabitable’ zones of social life that are nevertheless densely populated by those who do not enjoy the status of the subject.’ The production of regulatory. not Caroline. The normative body is thus constructed through the force of exclusion and abjection. As she slowly transforms from object to fully self-realised subject. Judith Butler argues that the category of sex is always a regulatory ideal that produces.”96 In effect. abject. Echo starts to remember her Original Self. Faced 207 . In Zen Buddhism. one that produces a constitutive outside to the subject. has the power to interrupt Rossum’s larger agenda to really make the masses mindless using Topher’s doll technology. normative bodies enables certain privileged sex identifications of this subject and disavows others. forcing it to experience the reception and sensation of its otherness. but whose living under the sign of the “unliveable” is required to circumscribe the domain of the subject. Echo recalls all the personalities – male and female – that have been imprinted on her. The abject here designates the marginalised. which is simultaneously inside the subject as its own founding repudiation. The subject is formed by virtue of having gone through the process of assuming a ‘sex. To be more accurate. not any one of the thirty-eight personalities vying for attention in her mind. socially sick subjects. these abject bodies/sexes occupy the necessary limits of subjective classification – they are the dreaded identification by which normative bodies are held in constraint by social regulations. it is Echo/Caroline/ Other’s cyberbody that remembers these others. the teleological climax of patriarchal late capitalism realised in the medium of cyberspace. Rather than achieving pure cognisance. through its ability to virtually mimic other sex and gender roles. and. plastic. in acting as an invading replication of the self. in this case. its orientation. the cyberbody becomes an embodiment of the doppelganger — a phantom body that. so that it is redeployed in order “to break the signifying chain in which it conventionally operates. “as reiterable. historical man “disappears on the matrix. for the phallus to remain a structure of power. and becomes its Achilles’ heel. substitutable. the ultimate control of an environment of his minds’ own design. it must be reiterated. and. She voluntarily returns to the Dollhouse in an effort to bring about its destruction. Through an exchange of imaginary bodies. In virtual space. is marked by a constitutive vacillation.” 101 Echo also uses her newfound perspective to beat Rossum at its own game. can begin to investigate the margins of otherness. underscoring the ways it can exceed the structural place to which it has been consigned by the Lacanian scheme. in both recalling phallogocentric systems of domination and displacing them. Through the experience of the multiplied body. has the phallus and yet does not have it. its lens. compromises normative subjectivity.”99 to paraphrase Henri Lefebvre’s analysis of capitalism.”97 If the central identification of normative sexed bodies cannot be strictly regulated in cyberspace. the simultaneous act of performing both female and male roles de-privileges the phallus. if you will.”98 The multiplied body. removing it from its normative bodily exchange and re-circulating it between women. then the domain of the imaginary in reality. the self-grounding presumption of the normatively sexed subject is exposed. While technological change.” that potentially hinders the workings of masculinised technological systems of domination. a domain in which the body is partially constituted. is a world structured by an abstract space that has “homogeneity as its goal. an exposure that threatens to disrupt the very terms of its symbolic legitimacy and intelligibility. his boundaries collapsed in the cybernetic net.100 On inserting himself into the electronic virtual world. the subject Sadie Plant has called “historical man” enters spaces in which his normative conceptions of reality and identity are destroyed. She submits 208 . the multiplied body exemplifies the art of simulation and. becomes open to variation and plasticity.with the disavowed spectacle of the abject body. contains within its borders “the seeds of a new kind of space. significantly splits the signifier. Like Echo and other doppelgangers of popular science fiction. the contradictions of machine addiction (its disruption of identity and affiliation with feminine imagery). the phantasmic status of having the phallus can be rendered transferable. The cyberbody highlights the fact that. and yet they remain visible through what we might call a layer of invisibility. but in a disjunction that permits otherness to come into its own a la Dussel. her reproductive feminine body proves biologically. her loss of self does not result in a reappropriation of sameness. culturally. making them present as a certain absence.”102 Disrupting and displacing Rossum’s technological desires from within. avant-garde cyberfeminist strategies like those of 209 . her multiplied body leaves a residue (or creates an excess). Echo transforms “the critique conducted in the form of a necessary limitation into a practical critique that takes the form of a possible transgression. Further. Dollhouse reminds us that our bodies cannot be forgotten in our race to merge with our technologies. Echo corrupts their technocratic discourse. Reborn to the world armed with the wisdom necessary to sabotage Rossum’s systems from within the body of the machine (with her machine-constructed body). and viscerally better equipped to negotiate the multiplied body than her male counterpart. Her body is her guide back to the Real – to return from the personalised hell of the Attic she must persuade it to flatline so the computer will disengage her from its systems. Echo’s cyberfeminist re-inscription of her internal subjectivities becomes the domain of the reproductive feminine. and saves the future from erasure by technophile. Attuned to the potential tension between the claims of the self and the nascent subjectivities within. Bringing us back full circle to Marinetti’s fascination with technological death as a metaphor for revolution and renewal. Caught in a permanent nightmare.to being “sent to the Attic” – the place where all bad dolls go – where human bodies are networked together in a state of heightened adrenaline to keep their brains working at “twenty per cent more processing power than a computer” (“The Attic” 2. but can be reappropriated in the symbolic vocabulary of liberation.”103 Her corporeal body acts as anchor for the cyberbodies within. one that may be “produced in the image of capital. of its experience that carries through to both the world outside the fictional world of Dollhouse. Alpha. she seeks the hidden knowledge that will bring about the corporation’s downfall. It reiterates that the body is not just meat hanging on the end of a machine but the necessary condition for an integration of self. Whedon’s narrative therefore reproduces technology as a space of potentiality for the feminine. of the same kind that Merleau-Ponty describes. Poignantly enveloped by the self-revealing withdrawal of the real. As a multiplied body synchronised by a single consciousness.10) so as to provide boosted hardware for Rossum’s computer mainframe. by altering perceptions of Self. and the viewers’. ECHOES OF TRANSMODERNISM A popular avant-garde cyberfeminist text for a new millennium. for a new cyberfeminist theory is to promote a technological subjectivity that is. thoroughly transforming feminism into transfeminism – a nomadic feminism that revels in its multiplicity but does not necessarily need to replace a centralising patriarchy with an essentialised feminine.13). To realise this light balance between future and present is to take a thoroughly transmodern turn away from competing ‘isms’ and begin to map a path that leads us beyond and across all. The continued dissemination of avant-garde cyberfeminism into pop culture texts like Dollhouse illustrate our continued gnoseological reliance on utopian fictions despite our understanding that such fictions may well remain unattainable. and Mann and Machine play with rewriting the masculine technological equation. where together. but all/neither. and popular cyberfeminist myths like Dollhouse. and with it the ontology grounding Western epistemology. a subjectivity in which masculine and 210 .” 2. all/neither – that is. They show us that is not simply a question of ‘old’ and ‘new’ cyberfeminisms. The task. and reintegration. like Echo.VNS Matrix. but that both are needed. where ones and zeroes no longer vie for precedence in the technological system. The body is no longer terminated but terminal. they set out on a new integrated future. new cyberfeminist theories as proposed by Fernandez and Wilding. They offer all feminisms a space to dream about a future that is whole. and galvanise us into undertaking the theoretical and practical work required to make such a future happen. however. along with the now hundred other selves embedded with equal consequence in her mind. The cyberfeminist (fictional or otherwise) becomes identity hacker. In Dollhouse’s final moments. an embodied transmodern becoming that is neither dystopian nor utopian. reversal. Dark Angel. undermining the certainty of what counts as real. she integrates his Original Self into her own. or at least virtual. displacing the transcendent authorisation of interpretation. Soufoulis. Echo/Caroline/Other seeks a kind of unity of feminine and masculine technological copies – yet when Paul. the utopian carrot and the theoretical stick in equal measure – the one to provide the impetus for forward movement. but ultimately exchanged a perceived masculine control of technology for the feminine colonisation cyberspace. a transmodern turn that sought to balance out the masculinised technophilic colonisation of cyberculture with images of feminine re-embodiment as rupture. creating virtuality as a transgressive space. and Plant. We can therefore appreciate avant-garde cyberfeminism for what it was – a search for totality in a fragmented milieu. the other to continually ground us in the here and now of feminist practice and activism. re-imagining technology as the method by which subverting the traditional gendering of technological systems becomes possible. the only object of her desire is killed (“Epitaph Two. 120. Gibson. 4 See Sarah Kember. Nausea. 56. Veronica Hollinger. To do so is to move forward into transmodernism. Murphy. Science Fiction Cinema: Between Fantasy and Reality (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Murphy. while always already remaining open the disclosures of otherness. 369. 1983). Frankenstein (New York: Signet Classic. Wendy Gay Pearson. 8 Putting on the female body suggested by Case’s simstim experience mimics the desire of early male internet users to impersonate women in order to. Neuromancer. 168-169. Christine Cornea. Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology (New York: Ace Books. ed. Neuromancer. 149. Notes 1 2 3 Elizabeth Grosz. 182. Sartre. 204. Judith Squires. 1993). Mary Shelley. “Stray Penetration. 6 Graham J. 178. 124. §28. Eve’s alliance with the serpent in Genesis might also be read as the feminine’s equation with a monstrous natural world against Adam’s affiliation with God the technologist. Jean-Paul Sartre. Gibson. 10 11 12 13 14 15 This fear is documented in Judeo-Christian myth by Eve’s eating of the apple and bringing about man’s rejection from paradise or the Torah’s depiction of Lilith’s rebellion against Adam’s sexual domination. 1988). David Bell and Barbara M. Neuromancer. understand the cultural implications of being woman (although in reality amounted to a technologically assisted voyeurism). 2003). Mary Shelley. but allows each conjunction to come fully into its own.feminine technological utopias are drawn together to create a composite future where the whole is no longer constituted by is warring parts.72. ostensibly. 71-72. 2007).” in Queer Universes: Sexualities in Science Fiction. ed.” 125. 211 16 17 18 19 . Feminist Epistemologies (New York: Routledge. Neuromancer. 182. Kennedy (London: Routledge. 1965). (New York: Modern Library. 71. a radically integrated theoretical space that celebrates all modes of technological desiring. ed. “Stray Penetration and Heteronormative Systems Crash: Queering Gibson.. 9 Gibson. 52. 2008). Critique of Pure Reason. xi. Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life (London: Routledge. Joan Gordon (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 178. Nausea (London: Penguin Classics. Gibson. Neuromancer. “Fabulous Feminist Futures and the Lure of Cyberculture. Immanuel Kant. 7 Gibson. Frankenstein.” in The Cybercultures Reader. 55. 5 Bruce Sterling. 1958). Mary Shelley. 2000). Frankenstein. html Accessed 5 October.about.com/winterrose/technosexuality.2005 archived online at http:// www.p-synd.09. 1991). 1996). January 13. 26 27 28 ASFR FAQ v 2. www.20 21 Mary Shelley. Frankenstein. 87. Kristeva. See The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (New York: Simon and Schuster. Leon S.wired. July 1988. 15. C. and Shelley Jackson. “A Report on Cyberfeminism: Sadie Plant relative to VNS Matrix. Alex Galloway. most notably recommended to nineteenth-century sailors for use during long periods at sea. 2007). Electronic Eros. 2. Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture (New York: Columbia University Press. “Technophilia: Cyberpunk and Cinema. 21-2. 32 33 Hillel Schwartz.” Switch (9). Quoted in Claudia Springer. 160. multilingual text. AI: Artificial Intelligence.psynd. Roudiez (New York: Columbia University Press. Powers. 1996). D’Alessandro. Unreasonable Facsimiles (Zone Books. The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses. trans. and It (published as Body of Glass in UK) (New York: Fawcett. Snow Crash. Bozeman. http://www. 2011. the abject is “a precondition of narcissism. Dan Laurie. He alludes to ‘dames de voyage’ (‘ladies of travel’) – artificial bodies or genitalia designed to provide substitutes for the female body. 2005 http://theappleblog. See www. formulating a "100 Anti-Theses" of what Cyberfeminism is not.html 29 30 31 As Kristeva notes. Technosexuality website.com/catalog/PatchworkGirl.html for a copy of the collectively written. 34 35 See Marge Piercy. 22 23 24Pete Mortensen. See interview with David Levy by Cory Silverberg at http://sexuality.4 created by Robotdoll. He. Electronic Eros Electronic Eros: Bodies and Desire in the Postindustrial Age (Austin: University of Texas Press. 126.obn. 1985).eastgate.” Paper delivered at the Society or Cinema Studies conference. 212 . Mindplayers (London: Hachette. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection.org/reading_room/manifestos/html/anti. Archived online at www. The First Cyberfeminist International held in Kassel.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2005/09/68810 25 K. She.com/od/sexandtechnology/a/ david_levy_3 October 14 2007. Pat Cadigan. California: Warner Bros) DVD.” See Julia Kristeva. Directed by Steven Spielberg (2001. 1982).com/winterrose/ technosexuality David Levy claims technosexuality is not a new phenomenon. James Twitchell. but rather an extension of a centuries-old desire to objectify and externalise the sexual act resulting from our culture’s longstanding division of sex and reproduction. “Meet the Apple Pack Rats“ in Wired. Montana. 11. 1997 agreed on not to define the term. Patchwork Girl. Germany on 20-28 September.com/2005/01/13/mac-love/ Stephenson. 313. The Apple Blog. 1. 13. 4. Springer. and also David Levy. Love + Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships (London: Harper Collins. 2011). 1996). See Carolyn Guertin. Harasim (Cambridge. “Women and children first: Gender and the settling of the electronic frontier. The body is portrayed as a deflated shell yearning for an alternate world of perpetual adventure in which everyday laws no longer apply. Technofeminism (Cambridge: Polity Press. “Marriage and the Family. Using drab colours in a blasted landscape the two page ads highlighted the dreary humdrum of normative reality in the central figure of a depleted potential gamer juxtaposed against the promise of unlimited potential in a ‘Third Place’ within the computer’s virtual space. and Sadie Plant’s feminist cultural theories. James Brook. and VNS Matrix member. and Iain A. 1995). See Art and Text #42 (May 1992).” Cyberfeminists Faith Wilding and Maria Fernandez work closely with subRosa. He claimed. ed.” in First Cyberfeminist International. Virtual Woman was marketed with the by line.electronicbookreview. true to his reliance on contradiction he remained a champion of the liberation of feminine metaphors from the phallogocentric lexicon. See http://cyberfeminism. 1994).html US cyberfeminist art collective. Julianne Pierce. 19. Let’s Murder the Moonshine. ed. 37 38 Julianne Pierce. 44 45 43 Nicholas Zurbrugg.36 According to Carolyn Guertin. This notion was quickly translated into popular culture. M.studies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age. 39 Rheingold. “From Cyborgs to Hactivists: Postfeminist Disobedience and Virtual Communities.com/thread/writingpostfeminism/ hackpacifist Accessed on 5 October.artwarez.” http://www. Old Boys Network. 86. Sony deliberately left definitions of the first and second ‘places’ unstated.” in Flint. “Info Heavy Cyber Babe. http://www. although it is clear from these advertisements that their hypothetical ‘Third Place’ is antithetical to the body.net/about. 1993).studies. March 1992. L. social activism and politics to explore and critique the intersections of information and bio technologies on women’s bodies. Electronic Arts in Australia (Perth: Centre for Research in Culture & Communication.” in Global Networks: Computers and International Communication. 19. 213 .0.” blatantly indicating the desire to replace the corporeal with the virtual female body. 57. with VNS Matrix’ Cyberfeminist Manifesto. Vali Djordjevic. 2011. 81. “A slice of life in my virtual community. 42 41 Laura 40 Howard David Silver. 2011. which in turn interacts with other cyberfeminist networks around the globe. See http://www. OBN (Old Boys Network). “Your girlfriend just got some competition. 2004). with one singular example being the ‘Third Place’ print advertising for the Sony Playstation computer games console that emerged during this period. was founded in 1998 and combines “art. Perloff.html?&L=1 David Silver. 58. Honi Suit. 63. Ellen Nonnenmarcher.” in Resisting the Virtual Life: The Culture and Politics of Information.org/inhalt_index. 57. subRosa. was formed in 1997 in Berlin as “a real and virtual coalition of Cyberfeminists founded by Cornelia Sollfrank. eds.html#manifesto Judy Wacjman. Miller. the first global cyberfeminist alliance. David Gauntlett (Oxford: Oxford University Press. MA: MIT Press. and Farrago. lives and work.org/ 164. Accessed 10 April. cyberfeminism emerged simultaneously in 1992 in a Canadian article by Nancy Paterson. Boal (San Francisco: City Lights. ed. Web. Cornellia Sollfrank (Hamburg. Sydney University Student Publication. Murdoch University. Zurbrugg.obn. Web. University of Melbourne Student Publication. paradoxically. 58. June 1992. that the technological reproduction of man outside natural biology would free women from the possession of patriarchy: “Woman does not belong to a man. Futurist Moment. but rather to the future and the race’s development. 46 47 48 Although Marinetti’s stance on the feminine remains suspect. 1998). 2000).” Marinetti. Electronic Arts. Plant. It must be noted that the categories of ‘old’ and ‘new’ cyberfeminisms are arbitrary terms and the timelines between them continue to shift. The group had hoped their Gamegirl might be targeted at teenage and prepubescent girls who are in the process of formulating their own identities and are in desperate need of good. Technofeminism. technocultural role models to counteract the barren technoscape of conventional computer games. “Situating Cyberfeminism. See Glascock. 61 62 63 64 Fernandez and Wilding. Issue 4 (2001). “Where is the Feminism in Cyberfeminism?” Feminist Art Theory. Wacjman.” Variant 14 (1993): 14. K. June 9-10. Hovenden (London: Routledge. Zoë Sofoulis. 50-58. Fernandez and Wilding. Futurist Moment. 85. “Situating Cyberfeminism. “Beyond the Screens: Film. “Situating Cyberfeminism.T 51 All New Gen was originally an installation comprising interactive computer artwork. Maria Fernandez and Faith Wilding (New York: Autonomedia. Electronic Arts. eds. “Slimy metaphors for technology: ‘the clitoris is a direct line to the matrix. video and photographic installations.” 15. "Slime in the Matrix. The Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche (New York: 1990). “Situating Cyberfeminism. 1550-6878. 1990). Cyberpunk and Cyberfeminism. “Gender Roles on Prime-Time Network Television: Demographics and Behaviors." Jane Gallop Seminar Papers. 1994. 1995).” in Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices. Jack Glascock has suggested that women were represented in between 37% and 40% of all TV roles. G. Although this demographic is changing. Volume 45. Sofoulis. 47. 1994). ed. 52 Zurbrugg. 2001). 53 Sadie 54 55 Plant. Let’s Murder the Moonshine. 99.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Woodward and F. Who And Star Trek (London: Routledge. lightboxes. “Let’s Murder the Moonshine. 50 F.’” Kristeva. 2003). and John Tulloch and Henry Jenkins. the science fiction television series analysed here represent the fate of female-centric science fiction narratives are less popular than more conventional stories featuring male role models engaged in adventurous activities. ed. “Beyond the Screens. 214 68Donna . 21. 62. Hillary Robinson (London: Blackwell. 2000).” 24. 6. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (London: Routledge. Fernandez and Wilding. Haraway. Kirkup. Luce Irigaray. J. Jill Julius Matthews (Canberra: Australian National University. L. Janes.” 99. Marinetti. “A Manifesto for Cyborgs” in The Gendered Cyborg: A Reader. 75. 59.” in Flint. ed. with their emphasis on male subjectivities. 65 66 67 Judith Butler. 56 57 58 59 See Faith Wilding.” 21. "Slime. Jyanni Steffensen. 4.” 23.49 Perloff. Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Dr. A traditionally male dominated audience for science fiction television sees this percentage drop sharply. 60 Maria Fernandez and Faith Wilding. Powers of Horror. Sydney. 656 – 669. soundworks. at The Art Gallery of New South Wales. see Kristin Noone. 2010). Springer. Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. L’Isle Adam. 1991). Kindle Edition. Medicine. Between Monsters. A World of Difference (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Tomorrow’s Eve. Cyborg Manifesto. 81 82 Here ‘soft machine’ is taken to represent those bodies scientifically created or manipulated as Other. 5 April. Tomorrow’s Eve. Wacjman. Directed by Duncan Gibbons (Interscope Communications. Tomorrow’s Eve. L’Isle Adam. 1995). 13 March. see Barbara Johnson. and Cyberspace (London: Zed Books. and Cyborgs: Feminist Confrontations with Science. Tomorrow’s Eve. 83Judith 84 85 The Rossum Corporation is named for Karel Capek’s 1921 science fiction – R. 68. 89 90 Jacques Lacan. Donna Haraway. L’Isle Adam. 49. Jane Esperon (Dallas: Benbella Books. 1999). 88. 365. trans. Robert Martin Adams (Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 215 . 36-7. Technofeminism.” in Nina Lykke. 91. 2002). trans. 40. 2001). but without metal or non-organic parts. Kristeva. 126. 23. 80 The obvious exception here is Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots – the first narrative to introduce the term ‘robot. Directed by James A.” in Inside Joss’ Dollhouse: From Alpha to Rossum. 1991). Goddesses. ed. The Aesthetics of Disappearance. 291. Electronic Eros. How We Became Posthuman. 76 77 78 79 Rosi Braidotti. 272. Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters (Durham: Duke University Press.” in The Cultural Studies Reader. Contner and Brian Grant. quoted in Elizabeth Grosz. Simon During (London: Routledge. ed. The Portable Kristeva (New York: Columbia University Press.69 Donna Haraway.’ For a full discussion of the similarities between the series and Capek’s play. 84. Philip Beitchman (San Francisco: Semiotext (e). 64. “A Cyborg Manifesto. Halberstam. 1996). 1927). 1987). Aired NBC. 1992. 1991). 74 75 Villiers de l’Isle Adam. 70 71 72 73 To further investigate the history of woman as other. Or the Logic of Late Capitalism (London & New York: Verso. Postmodernism. 84-85. “Rossum’s Universal Robots: Karel Capek Meets Joss Whedon in the Dollhouse. “Nomadic Subjects. 87 88 Frederic Jameson. 1994). Directed by Fritz Lang (UFA. 86 Paul Virilio. Hayles.” which predates cyberpunk fiction.U. in which traces the depiction from Aristotle onwards of the female other as “the first distortion of the genus ‘”man” en route to becoming a monster” (33). William James. Culture on the Brink: Ideologies of Technology (New York: The New Press. ‘What is Enlightenment?’ in The Foucault Reader. eds. 97 98 99 100 101 Plant. Paul Rabinow (New York: Pantheon Books. Bodies.. The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Modern Library. 187. Michael Keith and Steve Pile. 1994). 88. Hermes. 1991). ‘Beyond the Screens. 1929). 410.” See Jean Baudrillard.” 16. Production of Space. 95 96 Judith Butler. then the egalitarian aspects of VR will enable women to have equal access to the structure of that power. If information is power. 102 103 Michel Foucault. 1993). 187. Butler. it is “… those people with no origins and no authenticity. 52. Science. Philosophy. 216 . 1984). 92 93 94 Gretchen Bender and Timothy Druckrey. 1983). 44. Butler. trans. “Eye and Mind” in The Primacy of Perception. trans. 1964). 25. 45. Henri Lefebvre. Serres. 244. 2000). 52. Josue Harari and David Bell (Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press. who will know how to exploit [this] situation to the full. Carleton Dallery. James M. 76.91 Maurice Merleau-Ponty. 287. The Production of Space (Oxford: Blackwell. ed. Lefebvre. Bodies. 89. America (New York: Verso. Michel Serres. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex (London: Routledge 1993). Edie (Evanston: Northwestern University Press. As Baudrillard has said in another context. Hermes: Literature. ed. Place and the Politics of Identity (London: Routledge. CHAPTER FOUR WORSHIPPING @ THE SOURCE CODE: Integral Evolution and The Matrix Trilogy 217 . – Hans-Georg Gadamer2 This thesis has so far mapped the narrative intersections between technology and transcendence across a range of diverse cultural texts. integral approaches are “meta-paradigms. nonmarginalizing. The common thread through all these texts has been a desire for holism over heterogeneity. employing metaphors of changelessness as a panacea to rapid technological change. from Italian Futurism as proto-transmodernist movement through to cyberpunk’s revision of Futurism’s technospirituality into an info-technological context that rewrites man as god. – Ken Wilber1 Thus the movement of understanding is constantly from the whole to the part and back to the whole. styles. In the process of rhizomatically mapping the links between technology and transcendence. a need to counteract technology’s nullifying gaze with narratives of transcendence. each chapter has sought to illustrate how embedded the notion of transcendence is within our technological tales. and reveal how and why vertical transcendence remains a site of excess that links religion and science in the figure of the machine. that is. The harmony of all the details with the whole is the criterion of correct understanding. The failure to achieve this harmony means that understanding has failed.” or ways to draw together an already existing number of separate paradigms into an interrelated network of approaches that are mutually enriching. and methodologies as possible within a coherent view of the topic. It has found that a traditional mystical discourse has completely permeated the language of technological innovation. inclusive. It has further suggested that these attempts to counterbalance 218 . embracing. In a certain sense. Our task is to extend in concentric circles the unity of the understood meaning. Integral approaches to any field attempt to be exactly that: to include as many perspectives.The word integral means comprehensive. and finally by tracing the figure of the artificial feminine from Genesis to transmodern heroine. As such Wilber’s work occupies a rather queasy position in relation to academic theory. using Dussel’s analectical mode of reasoning to create a theoretical bridge between pre-modern traditions and a post-metaphysical post-millennial culture to demonstrate how transmodernism transcends and includes the modern and the postmodern. it seeks an ironic evaluation of Wilber’s themes of spirituality. And. research. community. In exploring the growing sublation of the desire for vertical transcendence. fuelled cyberpunk’s technospiritual incursions into the nonspace of cyberspace. transformation. science fiction mythologies. Ken Wilber. and instigated cyberfeminist syntheses of the virtual and corporeal – that vertical transcendence can be fast-tracked by new technologies – is also gaining momentum in a wider socio-cultural sphere. and thus lay the groundwork for the emergence of a transmodern aesthetic.’ Based on the theories of US philosopher and contemporary mystic in the tradition of William James. Wilber’s work on vertical and horizontal transcendence (although he doesn’t use these terms) also seeks a union between theory and praxis – arguing that spiritual technologies (combining meditation. and online technologies within the Integral movement. where “theories of everything” have been quite rightly criticized as tending towards over-generalisation. It moves (largely) from literary and cultural explorations to a real world application of transmodern concepts in one secular theoretico-spiritual movement. Integral focuses on the interconnections between discourses of ontology.technology’s subjective void represents the desire to re-signify a field that postmodernism had characterised as the supreme exemplar of meaninglessness. this chapter seeks to further demonstrate that the idea that drove Marinetti’s Futurist manifestoes. god. However. ‘Integral. a project that Wilber half-jokingly claims constitutes a post-metaphysical “theory of everything. and mystical transcendence for what it can tell us about those 219 . though he does not specifically use the terminology. This chapter marks a change of direction in this study of the transmodern resignification of culture. In the process of discussing Wilber’s Integral theory it employs Magda’s sense of transmodern irony – that is. spiritual practice. Wilber’s integral theory provides this thesis with a succinct example of how spiritual commentators are using the term ‘transmodern’ to push the boundaries of normative spirituality. epistemology. and healthy living) can instigate vertical transcendence on a widespread socio-cultural level and thus inspire paradigmatic change.” recalling the Gnostic quest for all knowledge seen in cyberpunk fictions. and methodology. and its practical application in online and offline communities. despite the plethora of commentary on The Matrix trilogy. interconnected elements. despite a small but dedicated readership throughout this time. psychological states. Indeed. with a view to understanding their potential contribution to a transmodern methodology.” Larry and Andy Wachowski’s The Matrix trilogy. It exposes the omnipresence of 220 . his work offers this thesis an important example of how the themes of change and changelessness may be synthesised into a transmodern aesthetic. The chapter begins with a brief overview of Wilber’s oeuvre and traces the historical trajectory of his integral model through Western and Eastern philosophies. critics have generally remained silent on the close connection between the Wachowski brothers’ text and Wilber’s Integral movement. cultural mores. Wilber’s project has been to create a composite map of the evolution of human emergence towards vertical and horizontal transcendence across all methodologies. rational. scientific paradigms. As such. including religious doctrines. worldcentrism. while also employing the idiom of science fiction and internet media to further convey a transformative message to as wide an audience as possible. it argues that a re-examination of these three films from an integral perspective may indeed offer a tangible example of an emerging transmodern methodology.3 It highlights that. his work is only now gaining a modest recognition in both academic and popular circles. And yet. in a way that honours the key insights of these methodologies while distilling them down to their fundamental. and ideological instability. It will then explore Wilber’s two key models for theorizing vertical and horizontal transcendence in detail. from theological to postmodern readings. Murphy has called an “overt articulation of techno-spiritualism. and social change. His integral theories are of particular interest to this thesis as they offer some of the most eloquent and fertile contemporary commentary on vertical transcendence. EVOLUTIONARIES ON THE NEXT WAVE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Ken Wilber has been writing prolifically about transformative development.transmodernisms seeking to marry the return of the religious to the realm of theory. while at the same time remaining cognisant of their potential for narrative. followed by an application of integral theories to construct a reading of what Graham J. and stages of faith for thirty-four years. focusing on three modes of attaining knowledge – via the mind. art. Spirituality – A Brief History of Everything – 221 . a revised and shortened version of Sex. and argued that these uncovered an innate human drive to progress towards godhood/ absolute perfection/ supreme knowledge. economics. mysticism. written in 1980. Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution. Eye to Eye: The Quest for a New Paradigm Wilber widened his lens to include western traditions in science and philosophy.” this framework will be discussed further in the following section). among other things. The text’s main argument sought to unite theories of religion. 5 In 1982. his anthology The Holographic Paradigm and other Paradoxes: Exploring the Leading Edge of Science examined how a ‘holarchic’ model. As both a philosopher and spiritual practitioner in the Hindu Vedanta and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions with a background in the biological sciences and psychology. placing in stark relief the entire movement of transcendence and technology towards a transmodernist perspective.7 Sex. Wilber published the first of his twenty-nine books outlining Integral theory.4 The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development.8 To further distill its essential messages for a mass audience. Ecology. the senses. In doing so. The Spectrum of Consciousness in 1977 at the age of 23. morality. postmodernism’s attack on the metaphysics of presence (meaning “All Quadrants All Levels. psychology. outlined his vision for Integral theory in minute detail. Furthermore. and science into a single. based on Arthur Koestler’s notion of holons. integral theory points to ways in which we can begin to ironically re-evaluate metaphysics following its postmodern disavowal. first outlined an early version of Wilber’s theory of the evolution of consciousness towards the divine. Spectrum explored the stages of spiritual development evident in pan religious doctrines. and science. Ecology. related to the fields of consciousness. the first of his three-part opus magnum (the still to be completed Kosmos Trilogy).metaphysical metaphors inherent in the discourses of progress and evolution and promotes the notion that such ontologies still play a significant role in contemporary socio-cultural ways of thinking. and ‘spirit’ or spiritual practice. overarching theoretical framework Wilber calls the AQAL map as a supposed panacea to. culminating in a non-dual recognition of an eternal ground of being. it attempted to resolve the discursive war between science and religion waged since the Enlightenment.6 In 1983. Hailed as a primary text of transpersonal psychology (or the psychology of transcendence). practitioners. including integrally-informed psychology. online blogs. business.11 In 2002. education. The Integral Institute often employs technospiritual metaphors and imagery in the tradition of Italian Futurism and cyberpunk as a method of appealing to the mainstream public. in an effort to distill integral theory into a part science fiction. Boomeritis: A Novel that Will Set You Free.signalled a concurrent move into mainstream spirituality via online technologies.9 Wilber founded the ‘Integral Institute’ in 1998 with others dedicated to disseminating his theories to a wider public.0 and social networking media to broadcast religious or spiritual content. theorists. art. part biographical easy read.0 socio-spiritual community. DVDs and CDs. it anticipates that a systemised project of transcendence has the power to instigate social change on a global scale. viral newsletters. and interviews as well as further distilling his integral message via the printed word. he continues to produce prolifically across multiple media channels including blogs. and supporters working for the further development and expansion of integral theory into some twenty or more separate disciplines. Wilber’s Integral Institute offers a real-world example of the confluence between technological and mystical memes and their dissemination at the speed of information. providing insights 222 . teleseminars. The integral movement has become a network of affiliated sites and intellectuals as Integral theory gains momentum. ironically (and somewhat unsuccessfully) using postmodern literary tropes to argue that postmodernism at its worst is the symptom of a socio-cultural ‘disease’ that precludes continued theoretical and spiritual evolution. politics. An online “learning community” with a self-stated mission to “awaken humanity to full self-awareness” and ambitions towards establishing an accredited university. the Integral Institute attempts to bring together a global network of scholars. Wilber added a novel to his theoretical oeuvre. and spirituality. digital video. Twitter. part sermonizing. Wilber characterises this new phase in integral theory as a resurrection of the avant-garde project. and a complex Web 2.12 In 2011. conferences.10 The move has coincided with the production of a range of texts popularizing his work. social networking channels. law and criminal justice. claiming his and other integrally conscious work as constituting a new cutting edge that restores theories of transcendence to prominence in a post-metaphysical milieu. online courses. Through ‘godcasting. and integral community groups across the world. a journal. including glossy coffee table books and pocket anthologies.’ or the use of Web 2. Facebook. medicine. Moreover. Youtube videos. The language of popular science fiction texts like Star Trek and The Matrix is used to appeal to a broad secular audience while disseminating the inherent mysticism or non-duality in evolutionary processes and technological innovation. and filmmakers Darren Aronofsky and the Wachoswki brothers. Although he ultimately claims postmodernism as a crucial stage in the emergence of an integral worldview. He has recently employed the term ‘transmodernism’ to describe this evolution towards wholeness. a growing list of university courses devoted solely to Integral Studies. 13 Wilber’s ‘theory of everything’ is.” marking Wilber as a positive system builder in the tradition of Schelling and Hegel and offering a potential model for transmodernism’s resignification of culture.14 With his integral or ‘AQAL map’ Wilber ultimately seeks to encourage vertical transcendence in the subject. instigating the positive evolution of individual perspectives towards greater inclusivity and holarchy.into the dissemination of both vertical and horizontal forms of transcendence in and by cyberspace. Wilber is quick to suggest that postmodernism must be transcended. and high-profile confirmation by public figures such as Bill Clinton and Al Gore. self-help guru Deepak Chopra. his use of it seems rather to describe a shift from an external to an internal locus of knowledge (or at least an equal weighing of reason and science with a more holistic and transcendental 223 . over seventy international sites (and countless blogs) discussing the implications of integral theory on the web. based on a ‘more integral than thou’ attitude that is the end result of Wilber’s own efforts to simplify his message for mass appeal. with a number of scholars around the world exploring integral methodologies in their own fields. Wilber’s extensive theoretical output continues to gain greater attention. and that that transcendence must necessarily be a move towards increasing unity rather than nihilistic anarchy. In expanding his participatory community online. however. “the holy grail of all grand narratives. Nevertheless. amongst others. as a growing community of spiritual seekers reinterpret and co-opt his theories for their own contexts. Wilber runs the risk of losing control of his project. It offers a methodology by which Wilber can resuscitate the notion of evolutionary spirituality – postmodernism’s disavowed other – suggesting that the fragmentation of perspectives popularized by postmodernism requires a concomitant move to better understand how those perspectives may be drawn together into a meaningful whole. although rather than ironic longing for a lost sense of totality. as one commentator has put it. allowing us to witness the transformation of a dynamic spiritual movement into a static religious endeavour a la Bergson in progress. including Gnosticism.15 In this sense. further. established in response to postmodernism’s disenfranchising of metaphysics. or being over becoming.17 By adapting Plato’s theories of the One (transcendence) and the Many (immanence). laying the foundations for western philosophy’s theorising of the one over the many.metaphysical foundation). Aurobindo. Whitehead. Plotinus’ nous represented a dynamic force or potentiality without which the world of forms could not exist. and Koestler. Teilhard de Chardin. Rather than offer a sentient creator as a balm for spiritual longing. 18 The debate is an enquiry into the nature of change versus changelessness. Bergson. claimed that quest as a process of becoming-god – or as the Gnostic Gospel of Phillip described it. but Christ. Wilber’s systematic mapping of the vertically transcendent experience may rather be read as a theosophy of desire. leading Plotinus to reason that the complex must always evolve from the simple. Without this sense of irony. and the emerging Christian Church. An expression of the monist/pluralist question that has dogged religious debate for millennia. that is.”16 Wilber’s work therefore follows in the wake of metaphysical philosophers and substance theorists who have contended. From this simple act of dynamism arose all complex forms of existence. for example. posited a ground of being. Integral theory picks up this tradition of a philosophy of transcendence beginning with Plotinus. and Wilber sees his work as natural progression from a range of diverse theorists of the One. he formed a theoretical bridge between ancient Greek philosophy. or is a spontaneous expression of a central organising principle (being). that biological development evolves continuously towards an unknown future objective. the problem of the One and the Many can be seen as the most central of all philosophical questions. it raises the question as to whether all material phenomena exists only in and for itself (becoming). Plotinus. or nested holarchy he called ‘nous. including Spinoza. In 224 . or the Good – a condition or source of absolute simplicity that is directly indescribable but from which all other principles of existence emerge and return.” it is a plea for order and integration in a late capitalist milieu that has privileged the deconstruction of absolutes. being “no longer Christian. the perfect from the imperfect. integral theory is heir to what Derrida summarised as a strategic longing for metaphysical comfort that has pervaded the entire tradition of Western thinking since pre-modern Gnosticism posited a quest of the Self towards ultimate knowledge of existence and. often attributed to the divine.’ the One. As “an unrelentingly positive philosophy and affirmative history of everything. Eastern religions. to varying degrees. Schelling. We will remember that Bergson’s 1907 Creative Evolution identified the driving force behind the evolutionary process as consciousness itself. divine essence. Friedrich Schelling wrote “history as a whole is a progressive. which are the expression of a universal. beyond logic and reason. eternal. nature and spirit (naturphilosophie and transcendentalphilosophie) were complementary but distinct whole/parts (to use Wilber’s terminology) that constituted Absolute existence. however. It is.19 In a similar vein. According to Bergson. nevertheless. In other words. All that happens therefore occurs via immutable and naturally flowing (evolving) laws. Henri Bergson’s expansion of evolutionary theory into the spiritual and creative spheres is another important precursor for integral theory’s evolution of consciousness. he focuses only on the tendency of these philosophers to explore the notion of vertical transcendence. is contained within that indivisible whole. When criticised by Hegel. Schelling claimed the transcendent experience as the only path to pure knowledge. and unitary.21 Our desires and actions carry with them our entire past. planes.doing so. and which swells as it advances. and other modes of technology. Following Plotinus. like the Gnostics. Schelling claimed his featureless Absolute was a transcendental reality that could only be understood properly through direct experience. eastern religions. including humanity. Wilber. for to do so grounds his work in a strong tradition of thinking about vertical transcendence. and that everything else. and distances integral theory from its early associations with new age spirituality. gradually self-disclosing revelation of the Absolute. we are the continuous progress of the past that gnaws into the future. and. now. which he characterised as neutrum (absolute undifferentiated self-equivalence). then. illuminating to trace Wilber’s philosophical antecedents. that is. and therefore we recognise the truth about the world within 225 .”20 For Schelling. through mystical contemplation or aesthetic rapture. a move that inspired a literal translation by the Italian Futurists that posited a mystical extension of humans with their cars. we can further draw a line back from integral theory to Baruch Spinoza’s 1677 deus sive natura (god or nature) provided an articulation of matter’s becoming god by arguing that the infinite substance of existence must itself be indivisible. He argued that nature and spirit’s manifold attributes did not destroy their fundamental unity as both evolved within the Absolute towards greater perfection. cherry-picking those elements that positively coincide with his own integral theories. ourselves – thus: “we extend ourselves indefinitely and… we transcend ourselves. French Jesuit paleontologist. and that this model is repeated in the universe at every level of organisation. elect among all peoples. He conjectured that humans. or to a single people. from atoms to animals to humans.25 Under the rubric of ‘cosmogenesis. but that this could only be achieved en masse.” a notion clearly echoed by integral theory’s emphasis on whole-parts. and mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s also claimed Bergson as an influence for his 1955 The Human Phenomenon. which posited successive enveloping and transforming spheres that represented different kinds of evolutionary activity. 23 British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead further argued that “there are no whole truths. the gates of the future.’ Teilhard de Chardin suggested the impulse of evolution had order. or ‘collective consciousness:” The way out for the world. Marxism. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil. the one with the other. They will yield only to the thrust of 226 . Indebted to Bergson’s philosophy of change. determinism. Whitehead claimed that religion and science constituted two sides of a debate about human consciousness and materiality – religion being primarily based on non-sensory perceptions of existence while science concentrates on sensory perceptions of the world – prefiguring Wilber by seeking a transcendence of dualism. More importantly for Integral. most likely instigated with guidance from an enlightened group of individuals. materialism. all truths are half-truths. and purpose. Whitehead also advanced the notion that all materiality has a concomitant interiority that evolves simultaneously and pervasively. moving from the geosphere (inanimate matter) to the biosphere (the emergence of life) to the noosphere (the emergence of thought).22 Bergson therefore suggested the modern technological world would need to look beyond reason and the Enlightenment to fully understand the processes of being and becoming. will not open ahead to the privileged few. and so forth – theorists run the risk of stating “half-truths” that remain only part of a comprehensive analysis of an object of study.24 By reducing the lens of theory down to a particular ‘ism’ – deconstruction. As an example. like molecules and bacteria. feminism. and reductionism. the entry into the superhuman. contained this evolutionary potential to achieve higher integration or ‘megasynthesis’ into new modes of being. direction. or change (technology) and changelessness (transcendence). evolution is transcendence… and transcendence has as its final goal Atman. emotions. but carried out initially through the intermediary of the human psyche. and Indian freedom fighter. By employing a process of self-discovery. corporeality. Wilber’s The Atman Project is particularly indebted to Aurobindo: … development is evolution. and that all individuals began life as ignorant. unconscious beings unaware of the Real and their own spiritual potential. Buddha towards Buddha. heart. they could nevertheless uncover their divine nature. yogi.26 Wilber’s Integral Institute aims to instigate this “thrust of all together. Poet. Wilber borrows the concept of the ‘holon’ denoting 227 .28 From Arthur Koestler. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner spirit and the logic of Nature's process. all wants a subset of that Want. and physical body. Brahman towards Brahman. Aurobindo Ghose remains one of the most important influences on Integral thought.all together (even if it were from the influence and guidance of an elite) in the direction where all can rejoin and complete one another in a spiritual renewal of the Earth. beginning with a perception of the oneness and unity of creation and harmony of opposites. and spirituality as an example of collective consciousness. with results that range from ecstatic to catastrophic. or ultimate Unity Consciousness in only God. philosopher. all pushes a subset of that Pull – and that whole movement is what we call the Atman-project: the drive of God towards God. concentrating as his work does on the evolution of the individual into the divine: Man is a transitional being.27 Aurobindo proposed the evolution of matter was a direct result of the evolution of spirit. All drives are a subset of that Drive.” by applying integral theories across all forms of discourse and offering an integration of theory. and finally a complete transformation of the mind. followed by a spiritual transformation and “supramental” perception (divine consciousness). The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth’s evolution. He is not final. must also be subject to the vertical march of evolution.30 Wilber famously cites the example of a book – where letters are transcended and included in words. and stages. creating a cyclical or rhizomatic chain of meaning and dependence.29 Since a whole is made of integrated parts that are also holons. and indeed. the desire of all existence towards a reunion with the ‘One’ the nous.‘ with Wilber’s AQAL map as the primary tool by which this theorisation becomes possible. then words. then cells.something that is not only a whole in-and-for-itself. are ranked in both a logical and chronological order. then paragraphs. Wilber sees the incessant development of all matter towards greater complexity as an emanation of its ‘becoming-one’ or. In other words. or the source of existence. to accomplish meaning. 228 . each is both influenced by and influences the other – the parts constitute the whole and the whole unifies the parts into greater meaning. but also is an integral part of a larger whole. Spirituality. or a ‘whole/part’ – an evolving and self-organising dissipative structure balanced between dissolution and order. just as whole sentences emerge only after whole words. then sentences. sentences on a page. because you first have to have molecules. and pages in a book – all of which evolve into greater meaning and complexity. of course. then organs. Wilber claims the creation of an inevitable hierarchy or asymmetrical order of increasing wholeness: These hierarchical networks necessarily unfold in a sequential or stage-like fashion. The ultimate aim of integral theory is to theorise the path to this ‘One. there are first letters.32 Wilber uses this propensity of the more complex to ‘transcend and include’ the less complex to illustrate the evolutionary structure of all modes and expressions of existence. Wilber uses Koestler’s example to demonstrate that the whole is indeed more than the sum of its parts.31 As the process does not occur in the reverse – for example. as words are transcended and included in a sentence. but also utterly dependent on them for continued coherency. like biology and consciousness. The more holistic patterns appear later in development because they have to await the emergence of the parts that they will then integrate or unify. then complex organisms — they don't all burst on the scene simultaneously. but not vice versa. growth generally occurs in stages. psychological. Wilber first introduced AQAL in Sex. Spirituality to illustrate his fundamental perspectives on reality and has been refining it ever since. economic structures. some are about exterior realities. phylogenetic unfoldings. and dimensions of human consciousness can be reevaluated to offer complementary rather than contradictory perspectives (Figure 17. cultural worldviews. is to demonstrate that all social. stellar systems. cultural. all art. and scientific perspectives are inextricably linked as parts of a holarchic model of existence. superconscious realizations… And they simply refused to agree with each other… It soon became obvious that the various hierarchies fall into four major classes (what I would call the four quadrants).A MAP OF EVERYTHING Wilber’s AQAL map is clearly a modern day replication of the Gnostic quest for vertical transcendence. elements. comprehensive model to further the possibility of transcendence. a metasystem designed to categorize all forms of human knowledge within a single. There were stages of development in phonetics. phenomena. philosophies. trying to figure out how to fit them together… There were linguistic hierarchies. but they all fit together seamlessly. that some of the hierarchies are referring to individuals. It posits that each perspective mapped onto AQAL contributes to the continued evolution of consciousness towards greater and greater knowledge of the universe. autopoietic systems. therefore. Ecology. second. technological modes. some to collectives. spiritual hierarchies. some are about interior ones. all learning.34 The purpose of Wilber’s AQAL map. A ‘simple’ version is based on first. In an anecdote not dissimilar to the injunction of the Corpus Hermetica previously discussed – that one must “understand everything. the temper of every living thing” to align oneself with the Absolute – Wilber describes the epiphanic formation of his AQAL system as an exercise in data accumulation and synthesis:33 I had over two hundred hierarchies written out on legal pads lying all over the floor. and third person perspectives to establish a comprehensive lens through which all forms of discourse. 229 . contextual hierarchies. meditation. emotions. as studied. Wilber labels his quadrants Intentional (‘I’) and Cultural (‘We’) – or the interior and exterior perspectives of the individual – and Behavioural (‘It’) and Social (‘Its’) – or the interior and exterior perspectives of the collective. All Levels. a single framework to incorporate becoming into what he calls a ‘holarchic’ whole. The upper right quadrant equates to the exterior-individual perspectives as studied by neurology and cognitive science. all levels. all lines (of development).’35 To embrace all representations of subjective and objective knowledge. interior-individual perspectives in both their conventional and contemplative forms.Note the synthesis of AQAL and The Matrix suggested in the title). The AQAL Matrix has you: AQAL Matrix Revolution. and reflects a shared experience of interiority. the lower right quadrant represents exteriorcollective perspectives as studied via sociology and systems theory – and includes empirical systems such as electricity grids. concerned with the material.” in 2008 he ambitiously expanded the model to include “all quadrants. AQAL Graphic from © Wake Up. Originally denoting “All Quadrants. all states (of consciousness). and anything that can be experienced with the senses. transport systems. and all types (of awareness)” – supposedly constructing a ‘map of everything. Finally. Wilber claims that all memes and manifestations of becoming 230 .36 The upper left quadrant therefore covers Figure 17. for instance. such as religion. Combined together. communications networks. The lower left quadrant encompasses the interior-collective aspects of human consciousness – it is manifested in cultural studies and anthropology. It is empirical in nature. and so forth. by developmental psychology and represented in the Arts. and objectifies rather than subjectifies. The upper right quadrant is interested in determining only that which offers empirical answers – it categorises and measures material phenomena. his thesis is that each quadrant mutually evolves in tandem with its others. contemporary Western cultural perspectives tend to privilege the right hand quadrants (science and sociology). while behaviourism limits itself to observation of exterior individual behavioural traits. and a stage of societal development (for example. when combined constitutes a significatory whole. requiring only integration for a comprehensive account of existence. a stage of cultural development (for example. if these four types of hierarchies. the upper left quadrant maps our phenomenological response to the issue while the lower left is concerned with cultural approaches. cultural influences. Similarly. abstract mind) will be reflected in a stage of neurological development (for example. and neglect the left hand quadrants (contemplation and religion). its adjacent quadrants represent the various ways individuals are conditioned by the material brain. producing a holarchic system that aspires to ever-greater complexity. are in fact real — since variations on these four hierarchies show up extensively across cultures and across epochs — premodern. and postmodern — might this indicate that they are actually pointing to 231 . To demonstrate how this might work on the level of interpretative theory. Following Whitehead. each of which offers a partial vision of reality that. The lower right quadrant then looks to connect this data within a greater context or system of knowledge.can be mapped as belonging to one of these four quadrants. lower-left quadrant). and social structures. a given stage of individual development (for example. systems theory examines its external behaviour (lower-right quadrant). In practice. the neocortex). and the equal importance of all perspectives for a balanced system of knowledge be demonstrated: If these quadrants. modern. rationalisation). since the Enlightenment. In other words. industrialisation). Where the upper left quadrant deals with primary or interior individual consciousness. psychoanalysis operates from an analysis of the upper-left quadrant to provide an account of the interior individual. where hermeneutics interprets the collective consciousness of a society (interior collective. all four perspectives are correct and necessary. For Wilber. He employs AQAL as a methodological tool by which this overemphasis can be addressed. when considering a subject of discourse. Wilber further suggests that. Wilber’s AQAL map is an application of lower right thinking (system building) to the dialectic between religion and science (or spirituality and technology). At their extremes. it is the unquantifiable that consumes the religious traditions. might the four quadrants provide a series of crucial links in the relation of religion and science? Might they actually contain the secret key to integrating the value spheres themselves?37 Ultimately. Where the scientific worldview gives credence only to that which can be mapped and measured quantifiably. It leads Wilber to argue each is simply a point of reference on the same theoretical continuum. while religion remains the single greatest force for generating meaning. representing alternative perspectives that can be mapped onto a single.”38 INTEGRAL SPIRAL DYNAMICS Having neatly demonstrated the equal validity of scientific and religious perspectives. Wilber must also 232 . If AQAL provides a model for integrating all competing modes of consciousness. each claiming exclusive access to the absolute truth of existence. if he is to prove the impetus for the evolution of consciousness is achieving Absolute knowledge. each worldview denies the validity of the other. the One). holonic model of existence. This positive system building attempts to acknowledge (transcend and include) all existing perspectives to establish a radically aperspectival position for integral theory that seeks to pry open the closed universe of scientific thought. Wilber can claim a place for both: “Science is clearly one of the most profound methods for discovering truth. the Many). systematised whole. a parallel model is also required to explain the horizontal transcendence of philosophical and psychological progress as well as account for the historical process of vertical transcendence between successive holonic stages across quadrants. By positing that each worldview constitutes only a partial truth contained in a map of everything. with science focusing on exterior evidence (immanence. and religion presupposing an interior contemplation of matter (transcendence.certain irreducible realities? Since they include both interior and exterior domains. Wilber then turns to a process philosophy of the vertical mobility of consciousness towards transcendence. That is. thought systems. and perspectives into a holarchic. as an expression of the oneness of being. to organisms (upper right quadrant). to atoms. states.org 233 . to Figure 18. the transformative process of id. to super-ego (upper left quadrant). levels.chart. Graphic from ⓒ www.mcs-international. to ego. 4Q8L map combining AQAL. industrial. SDi. molecules. and types. for example. leading him to claim artists at the vanguard of world-altering perspectival change.” “levels. modernism.41 Modernity. with each resulting in an entirely new perception of space and time. or premodern to modern. and integral.42 Gebser therefore conceptually paved the way for the notion that a new integral consciousness would emerge as successor to the modern paradigm.” and “lines” he references in his holon of human consciousness. This transformation of consciousness would be apparent when the transparency and equal necessity of all five stages in human consciousness was widely acknowledged. 234 . mental. Given his penchant for mapmaking and acronyms. with other psychological “stages. which would eventually be transcended by and (as each successive stage also integrated the latent form of its previous stage). Gebser’s The Ever Present Origin argued that the climate of chaos in Europe during 1914 to 1945 heralded the waning effectiveness of one structure of consciousness (‘mental’ or modernism) and the emergence of a new consciousness (‘integral’). to virtual societies (lower left quadrant). In 1947. featuring a colourful amalgamation of AQAL and what he calls “Integral Spiral Dynamics” (SDi). magic. eight levels). AQAL has increased in complexity over the last decade with one popular online version (Figure 18). Jean Gebser. represented the ‘mental’ or rational perspective. or postmodernism) were the result of similar discontinuous mutations in culture.40 He further posited that the emergence of new global perspectives (such as the Renaissance. when the process of transcendence from archaic to magic to mythical to mental was revealed as part of a perpetually unfolding evolutionary project. Gebser suggested five transformative stages of consciousness “present in more orless latent and acute form in each one of us:” archaic. Wilber has expanded on the work of German theoretician. postmodern to integral worldviews (lower right quadrant). He saw linguistic transformations in the arts and literature (like the work done by the Italian Futurists) as preliminary evidence of this shift. sometimes called 4Q8L (four quadrants. one of the first theorists of postmodernism though relatively unknown in English.39 In creating SDi. for Gebser.informational. the Enlightenment. included in an imminent move towards an integral or aperspectival worldview. in other words. mythical. he suggested every individual can located within seven levels of personality. In particular. biochemistry. as in early tribal societies) and “personal” consciousness (rampant individualism as evidenced by the late capitalist period). state of neurological activation. or the folding of the many into the one. he posited a process of evolutionary human psychology as: … an unfolding. and included in. ethics and values. Don Beck and Chris Cowan. management and psychotherapy are all appropriate to that state. learning systems. Graves believed the flow of changing human values was best described as a constantly fluctuating spiral that expands as dominant ideas drift and surge in and out of popularity.Wilber divides Gebser’s mythic and mental stages into early and late periods. Each successive stage or level of existence is a state through which people may pass on the way to other states of equilibrium. His emotions. higher order systems. where a primal level is transcended by. from “transpersonal” consciousness (transcending beyond the individual). whose map of psycho-social stages was itself built upon the psycho-developmental work from the 1970s by US psychologist Clare W. The ultimate goal here is to identify and facilitate the spiritual possibilities of the Self. When a person is centralized in one of the states of equilibrium. The mature person tends to change his psychology continuously as the conditions of his existence change. ranging from a human vegetable to a highly developed identity.44 Specialising in theories of personality and their application to industrial and medical problems. he has a psychology which is particular to that state. a more sophisticated worldview. SDi represents Wilber’s attempt to illustrate how unfolding cultures are open-ended holarchical systems. That is.45 Extending this to the realm of popular ideas. ever-emergent process marked by subordination of older behaviour systems to newer.43 Graves work sought to create an epistemological level theory to reconcile questions about psychosociological maturity. adding a second tier of consciousness designed to separate “prepersonal” (collective identity. Graves. SDi also integrates the work of management theorists. a transpersonal stage of consciousness represents an awareness of the connectedness of all things. particularly concentrating on the existence and 235 . preference for education. and perhaps premodern. Further searches for a holistic understanding of how these individuals and systems of equal value interact constitutes what Wilber calls the “transpersonal states” of greater awareness (yellow. The more stabilising influences of early adulthood allow the self to recognise the institutionalised moral structures of law and order. For example. according to Wilber. unseen. as a guide for mapping all evolving structures. Each stage transcends and includes its predecessor. and a collapse of a lower stage will compromise the higher stages – should the ingredients of basic survival be compromised. represents basic intuitive survival instincts. and beyond). institutionalised religion (blue). dominated by the need for shelter and food. To simplify Graves’ work for a broader audience.46 This never-ending spiral of awareness/ knowledge/ consciousness can then be used. while acute awareness of individuality occurs at orange. instead of postulating a hierarchy in which the individual or object ascends a ladder of increasing complexity. each ascending stage is reliant upon its predecessor for its successful existence. with each progressive stage wholly dependent upon previous stages. Wilber suggests change occurs far more organically.” comprising of vMemes or paradigmatic shifts in understanding the world. Stage two represents the individual’s identification with family and mythic/magic structures (purple — childhood). turquoise. a more communal green stage is reached. each human individual begins at stage one — birth (beige — the survival instinct). including human psychological development. and stage three represents rebellion and egocentricity (red – the teens). and grows in awareness through the subsequent stages. When individual awareness develops to recognise the equal differentiation of all individual and social systems. an individual’s ability to access higher stages of consciousness will necessarily suffer. evoking a holarchical structure to evolution that does not fall prey to linear stratification and hierarchical tendencies. indicating a dynamic flow of transformation continuing up the spiral. the next level to is – characterised by animistic beliefs and omniscient.nature of possible transpersonal states. That is. he designates a colour for each evolutionary level. which Wilber represents as the contemporary postmodern era. To further tease out these stages in more detail: Archaic is the lowest level (coded by the colour beige). and unknowable forces 236 . Magic (purple) emerges once basic needs are met. An ‘invisible spiral’ is split into two tiers to represent a “map of the mental landscape. As holons. and regard for authority: This righteous Order enforces a code of conduct based on absolutist and unvarying principles of ‘right’ and ‘wrong. conformity. rituals.producing a powerless. perhaps everlasting repercussions. tribal superstitions. Early Mythic (red) represents the first of the egocentric. tradition. The 237 . causal existence. He writes: At this wave. and rites and can also be witnessed in young children’s readiness to believe in magical creatures. for Wilber blue emphasizes meaning and purpose. capitalism. and the emergence of New Age spiritualities. it can be a positive stage in human emergence in which the first raw self-concept becomes apparent.48 The mental or rational vMeme (orange) represents the emergence of an autonomous self in which individuals and societies seek to alter their environments for the better. Following the code yields rewards for the faithful… rigid social hierarchies. morality. however. establishing order by creating disciplinary regulations for which the rewards for obedience are delayed to a future time and space. It equates to ethnic tribes. The vMeme responsible for the premodern consolidation of the world’s great religions. Late Mythic (blue) emerges from the egocentric chaos of red. supported by technological advances that aid its global expansion. mythic gods. it can also turn to self-gratification and conquest.’ Violating the code or rules has severe. self-centred stages evidenced in ‘might is right’ power relations. paternalistic. orange is the dominating force in contemporary Western societies. It represents the force of change and the rise of scientific achievement evidenced in the Enlightenment.” 47 As an impulsive and active dynamic. regulations. For Wilber. and feudal systems in which those with power “protect underlings in exchange for obedience and labour. one right way and only one right way to think about everything. the self escapes from the ‘herd mentality’ of blue and seeks truth and meaning in individualistic and scientific terms. Still mired in tribal values. and bourgeois societies aimed at creating new systems that enhance independent freedoms and make a difference to human experience. [they] moved 238 . it was the final expression of humanity’s search to leave its animalistic nature in preparation for a new. As green is the last of the first tier stages. For Graves. Green’s interest in more subtle egalitarian concerns is facilitated by the wealth created by orange’s focus on the self versus the collective. second tier of consciousness. Wilber adds three successive stages. by a growing awareness that. setting up for Wilber the pre-conditions for a paradigm shift towards integral – or transpersonal/ transcendental – consciousness. in the search for material gain and pleasure. political.. 49 BOOMERITIS. and systems. Anti-hierarchical. Postmodernism is therefore accounted for as a late form of the mental vMeme.. with the exception of an expansion of the mythic stage into early and late tendencies. The laws of science rule politics. Although Gebser claimed the integral stage would transcend the rational. represented by the colour green. making postmodernism an example of integral tendencies. and philosophical mores in the Western world: 50 The Boomers … were the first major generation in history to develop the green meme. and human events. cultural. Wilber explains. POSTMODERNISM. Both are particularly lampooned by Wilber’s term ‘boomeritis’ used to describe the “pluralism infected with narcissism” that characterises the effects of the Baby Boomer generation (of which he is a part) on social. That's a very important point. and manipulated for one’s own purposes. and recognise the rich diversity and pluralism of different cultures. mastered. especially (in America) towards materialistic gains. the economy. it deconstructs orange’s competitive focus and blue’s rigorous categorizations to seek equality between people. AND THE ‘MEAN GREEN MEME’ To this point the SDi model largely follows Gebser’s stages. Highly achievement-orientated. ideas.world is a rational and well-oiled machine with natural laws that can be learned. much of his ideological ire is aimed towards it and postmodernism. It is triggered. presumably as a result of what he perceives as postmodernism’s antipathy to metaphysical discourse. self/society has lost sight of the nuances of human experience. The world is a chessboard on which games are played as winners gain pre-eminence and perks over losers. of course. in which case. scientific modernism of orange. or what it says about everybody else is equally true for itself. while acknowledging the importance of postmodernism’s claims that conceptual maps or systems are never created out of context but are always already subject to the cultural. so. the end of theory. it is false.51 Instead of calling for a return to traditional values in the face of what Wilber has colloquially coined the “mean green meme” or the negative aspects of the late mental period coming to the fore. and multicultural diversity… But every meme has its downside… green becomes a huge supermagnet for narcissism – [an] emphasis on me and mine… we are still reeling from. postmodernism’s attack on the metaphysics of presence and fascination with multiplicity must be re-situated within a larger cultural project if he is to establish the viability an evolutionary spirituality towards the One. or non-western over a western.beyond the traditionalism of blue and.52 For Wilber. either. multicultural understanding. Wilber sees postmodernism’s anti-hierarchical stance as falling prey to a performative contradiction – if all interpretations are valid. tribal. the death of the author. he argues it does not escape its own hierarchical bias... Therefore. in its totalising attack on truth (“There is no truth.. As Gellner summarises the disaster: So. if true. and pioneered a postmodern. what it says is not true. postmodernism’s focus on its penultimate position at the end of things (the end of history. social. and fashioning itself as a universal truth... spearhead[ing] civil rights. he places postmodernism in an evolutionary context. As Terry Eagleton has pointed out in another context. the end of the Real) is merely an act within culture that serves to open up these questions further. then postmodernism cannot claim the exclusive validity of its own interpretation: The difficulty is that. feminism.. only different interpretations”). Moreover. often giving greater weight to its chosen modes of investigation (for example. extreme postmodernism cannot itself claim to be true. Either it must exempt itself from its own claims (the narcissistic move). political. and gender biases of the mapmaker’s experience. ethnic. it is false.”53 239 . phallocentric logos). ecological concerns. pluralistic. racial. selfhood. This is not to say postmodernism should acknowledge early religious dogma. is to begin to sketch the post of postmodernity. thus skewing the imbalance in the contemplative tradition’s favour. They are also transmodern in their emphasis on interconnectivity.”54 leaving a vacuum filled with “egoic whim and narcisstic display” that is “ruled only by the purr of the selfcentric engine left driving the entire display. V E R T I C A L LY T R A N S C E N D E N T O R T R A N S P E R S O N A L S TAT E S With the finalisation of this ‘first tier’ of consciousness in postmodernism. more integrated awareness and his so-called “second tier” of consciousness. integration. mythic-god societies are clearly not conducive to pursuing material or philosophical truths (as Wilber has noted. transcending both modern and postmodern worldviews while incorporating their most useful insights. Wilber maintains.”55 Importantly for integral theory. then. and inner awareness as the woolly remainders of humanity’s early development and its inadequacy to placate science’s more mature comprehension of the world. Rather. Although they remain indebted to the continuing project of modernity. Deconstruction’s effusion of contexts therefore erases meaning “completely and totally. To do so. The integral (yellow) vMeme represents 240 . or transmodernity in action. These stages are unabashedly vertically transcendent and integrative – their goal is to transcend and include all the stages that have come before. integral seeks a careful redressing of the imbalance between spiritual and scientific perspectives to ensure any resurrection of interior values do not simply mean a wholesale resurrection of premodern religious dogma. For integral theory. and resonance. ‘extreme’ postmodernism’s reduction of the contemplative traditions to empty signifiers negates spirituality. the postmodern ‘green’ stage is an important step towards achieving a higher. in an integral system premodern. seeing it as a cultural pathology in which the backlash against ‘orange’ materialism and ‘blue’ certainty results only in an extreme nihilism. most premodern societies would tersely insist on a choice between accepting the religious status quo or being toast in the village square). they move beyond modernism and postmodernism to usher in a new sense of synthesis.Wilber is even more damning on the subject of deconstruction. SDi and integral theory can move to describe what it sees as higher stages of consciousness that are becoming emergent. Flexibility. qualitative distinctions and judgements. “How can we keep the whole first tier set of systems in their healthy version and how 241 . be exercised. Egalitarianism is complemented with natural degrees of excellence. natural flows.58 Committed to the health of the entire spiral. and functionality have the highest priority. much like a psychiatrist might facilitate mental health through various techniques. in such a way for them to contribute to the further evolution of the spiral itself. theories. The prevailing world order is the result of the existence of different levels of reality (or memes) and the inevitable patterns of movement up and down the dynamic Spiral. yellow is an integrative force centred on ecologies. And so yellow and turquoise both attend to the question. holistic (turquoise). then it is critical that each of these systems resonate. but focussing purely on its own interest by seeking to create a more stable world so it can pursue its individual ideas.greater focus on the self and self-knowledge with the added ability to look back at the first-tier systems and facilitate the health of the entire spiral. At the yellow stage.57 It is characterised as instigating a ‘grand unification’ of theory and epistemology. he writes: Life is a kaleidoscope of interrelated. flowing systems. Differences and pluralities can be integrated into interdependent. The focus in second-tier attitudes is not on types of people but types in people: …rather than debate between the various meme codes… our approach in Integral is that each of these represent ways to be human and since the spiral is inside the person. and practices. Wilber claims those ‘at’ turquoise aim to encourage the positive aspects of each stage and seek to facilitate the evolution of awareness. to create a world in which it can pursue its own interests without threat from ‘less-evolved’ memes. The ‘Integral Institute’ seeks to operate purely at this level. status or group.56 The next stage. For Wilber. is primarily concerned with a collective impetus to further understand the nature of the cosmos and humanity’s integrated place in it. sometimes with the emergence of new spiritualities that embrace the entire spiral of vMemes to create an integral harmony of awareness. Knowledge and competency should supersede power. spontaneity. Where individual and collective movements are described as having the potential to instigate a horizontal transcendence from one stage to the next on the spiral. it lashes out. using its own tools whenever it is threatened. It reacts negatively if challenged. it must learn the basic lessons of the previous stage before progression is viable.can we keep the entire spiral open for movement if and when life conditions trigger that movement?59 As each stage depends upon the health of the entire spiral – for instance. Each progression to a new stage of awareness must therefore simultaneously transcend and include the previous stage. and thus green tends to lash out at blue. Each of the first-tier memes thinks that its worldview is the only true perspective. representing a cognitive realisation of ‘higher’ perspectives – for example an individual who can theoretically understand second242 . orange. or anything that appears authoritarian. For horizontal and vertical transcendence to occur on a mass scale. and freedom: …what none of the first-tier memes can do is fully appreciate the existence of the other memes. vertical transcendence takes primacy.60 SDi’s second-tier demonstrates that while both horizontal and vertical transcendence play an important role in Wilber’s evolutionary model. Blue order is very uncomfortable with both red impulsiveness and orange individualism. but also integrate those lessons in its newfound awareness. and anything post-green. an individual will not have the energy or opportunity to move to the next stage of development – progression up the spiral is retarded should any part of the system be in danger of dissolution. as complex systems rely upon simple systems as basic building blocks to greater complexity – sentences cannot exist without words. Green egalitarianism cannot easily abide excellence and value rankings. Second-tier vMemes therefore arise from a culture that is for the first time satiated by abundant access to food and shelter. hierarchies. that is. Wilber sees the task of the second-tier as ensuring the dynamic flow of evolution through each stage and thus facilitating the emergence of higher states of awareness. without basic food and shelter. big pictures. information. Orange individualism thinks blue order is for suckers and green egalitarianism is weak and woowoo. that experience will often then be comprehended via that individual’s orienting vMeme: “The point is that a person can have a profound peak. Both of them are studying a person’s consciousness. however.61 At Wilber’s higher stages of awareness (post-turquoise). religious. or that these systems cannot cognitively instigate vertical transcendence in the spiritual sense: Meditative understanding involves pre-eminently a methodology of looking at the “I” from the inside (using phenomenology). ‘Transpersonal’ here equates to a deeply felt mystical union with the source of being. However. providing an early definition of vertical transcendence) – Wilber suggests such a source is the very ground of creativity. the tools of the stage of development they are at:”62 243 . Wilber argues this means that the AQAL and SDi maps are not the territory. he posits vertical and horizontal transcendence occur at one and the same time and are indistinguishable from spiritual transcendence. allowing those that access it the cognitive power to transform the social world. or meditative experience … but they will interpret that experience with the only equipment they have. SD involves studying it from the outside (using structuralism). corporeal and incorporeal. as individuals (or societies) begin to effortlessly access dynamic transpersonal states that propel human evolution forward in leaps and bounds. but they see very different things because they are inhabiting a different stance or perspective. Wilber also claims this nondual union with pure ‘Being’ can only be purely productive when an individual’s consciousness is at the apex of the spiral. Mystical enlightenment is. While a transpersonal enlightenment experience can occur at any level from beige to turquoise. a loss of individual self that engenders a sense of oneness with all existence. namely. therefore. the teleological goal of Integral theory. second or third-tier awareness articulates a vertical transcendence – a momentary leap from one to another succeeding stage of awareness that fundamentally alters individual or social perspectives. Drawing from the radical non-duality described in Hindu Vedantic philosophy dating from 200 BC – the goal of which is a state of self-realization or cosmic consciousness that can be experienced by all. yet cannot be adequately conveyed in language (thus.tier awareness and begin to put such principles into practice in their everyday life – phenomenological or transpersonal experience of higher. using different methodologies. spiritual. carrying gifts of infinite compassion and radical perfection. and closer to spirit than all of them. It is only by propelling oneself ‘up the Spiral’ via a holarchically integrated programme of transcendence (physical. the Witness of this… tickling your spine with its radiant intensity as it razors from your body and into the great beyond. a mythic/traditional person might interpret a spiritual experience as a revelation from a personal God intended solely for the “chosen people.” a rational/scientific person might interpret reason and mathematics itself as the language of a Deistic God (the “great clockmaker in the sky”). and a new politics here. too eternal to touch. when what-it-all-means is you… The Seer is in you. new glories to be told. informational. too infinite to hold.64 In placing similar ‘pointing out’ instructions at the introduction and conclusion of his books. but only because it is right here and now.For example. more inside you than your own thoughts. cognitive. this inside of You that is now reading this… looking out at the world and wondering what it all means. too radiant to see. Wilber is often at his most eloquent when describing the experience of transcendence. while a pluralistic/postmodern person might interpret his or her experience as emanating from Gaia and felt as a radical interconnectivity with the “Great Web of Life. Wilber morphs his integral theory into a spiritual movement that 244 . You sense it. and secrets of the heart yet to unfold when it is too full to speak.63 Wilber therefore wants to distinguish the primacy of spiritual evolution from the evolution of consciousness. closer to you than your own breath. Indeed. and spiritual) that these higher stages can be achieved and radical change be instigated. attitudinal. and at these moments exceeds philosophical discourse in favour of the mystical: There is a new adventure here. of course. new ground to be revealed. and even a new revolution. waiting on the horizon. the Integral Institute claims to have the tools to help subscribers reach this lofty goal. yes? New work to be done. maintaining the former can instigate a shift from one cultural paradigm to the next but the same process cannot occur in reverse. And. where the desire is to understand and merge with the otherworldly. and at each point a progress in the vertical line is achieved. In this SDi seems to be indebted not to a theoretical or scientific source but to the spiritual writings of Mirra Alfassa. Furthermore.68 245 . but at a slightly higher level. otherwise known as The Mother. But it is a peculiar movement. And this consciousness will give birth to a higher race. one takes two steps forward and one sideways!”66 Like Wilber’s SDi. But one has to make a whole round in order to comeback once more the same point. 65 In doing so. he taps into a longstanding discourse of ‘perennial philosophy. he maps this source onto each consciousness. Here we come full circle to the desire to transcend into the divine seen in Italian Futurist manifestoes and cyberpunk novels and film.67 Therefore. or ‘thisworldliness” (the many). the our trajectory up the spiral of evolution means that humanity will: … necessarily be succeeded by a new one which will be to man what man is to the animal. god. rational and suprarational.’ or the notion that all thought systems. Alfassa posited that. science and religion. the present human consciousness will be replaced by a new consciousness. In her collaborations with Aurobindo Ghose. although instead of a machine assisted ascension it is Wilber’s technologies of transcendence – AQAL and SDi – that promote a transformation of change into changelessness.attempts to fuse both an ‘ascending’ state of philosophical inquiry in the tradition of Plato’s ascending movement (the one). placing the individual at the very epicentre of a creative evolution. and a descending or immanent force. can be reduced to a single philosophical ground of meaning – a source in which all philosophy resides and emerges. superhuman and divine. because this is its ultimate goal. whereby the manifest world is seen as an expression or embodiment of the Absolute. or in other words. for one takes three steps forward and two backward. Alfassa’s claims evolution’s trajectory does not proceed in a straight line but a spiral: … [a]nd in this spiral there are innumerable points. no longer mental but supramental. “the whole creation must advance more and more towards the Divine. as Wilber claims his SDi represents. Indeed. and claims of cultural tolerance. pretensions to avant-garde status. And it appears to be distributed… in roughly two plus. a founding member of I-I. second-tier consciousness. an integral level of consciousness… That is the orienting principle of Integral Institute in general – to create a community of second-tier people so… we can learn how to apply integral thinking and integral solutions and integral functioning to this hurting world. as one Integral Life video featuring Jeff Salzman. to privilege those perceived to be at the top of the spiral opens the door for abuse of power. and indeed Wilber’s evolutionary spirituality is incipient fascism. As in any social media network. The potentiality of a even a natural hierarchy within a holarchy. full membership to the inner sanctum of the Integral Institute seems to be increasingly reserved for those claiming second-tier status. just as both Italian Futurism and cyberpunk’s mechanical men and cyborgs can easily be read as the culmination of a fascist interpretation of Nietzsche’s ubermensch.Always lingering at the edges of Aurobindo. four per cent of the population… You are part of that group of people… because if you weren’t. operating at second-tier consciousness. Salzman claims. It’s an arising structure of consciousness… arising in humanity at this time. makes clear: One of the things that’s so exciting at Integral Institute is the opportunity to bring people together who are. attitudes and behaviours constantly alter to match the expectations of the Integral Institute peer group with disagreements resulting in 246 . maybe three. this wouldn’t be interesting to you. at this stage of our evolution.70 Beneath the smiling seekers.69 Simply by showing interest in the Integral Institute. Alfassa. evidenced by the scandals and flame wars that periodically appear. audiences must necessarily inhabit an avant-garde. Such videos often serve to promote an inclusionary elite of “more integral than thou” self-approbation where participants are encouraged to identify themselves at the highest level of emerging awareness: Integral consciousness is a real thing. at least on a good day. this incipient dark side to integral theory is further revealed at Wilber’s blog. Wilber might then argue that his theory of everything is so complex that a personal dialogue with him must be undertaken – and. and stickers at cafepress. By comparison. “Wyatt Earpy. One particularly notorious example has seen Wilber fashion himself as intellectual gunslinger. just as the Futurists crouch “beside [their] trembling aeroplanes” warming their hands over their blazing words as a mob of new avant-garde artists pant with the resulting “scorn and anguish…” from “hearts drunk with love and admiration” for their conceptual daring.71 Should the critic complete this task and still find fault. and thus it goes never-endingly. although slowly putting on lead weight. of course. claiming one must read all his work to truly understand it. and they will succeed spectacularly. ostracisation.peer pressure to conform to the community paradigm or. coffee mugs. Wilber saves his most vociferous denunciations for critics of his work. transcending-and-including old Wyatt himself. 72 The parallels with the final paragraphs of Marinetti’s Founding Manifesto of Futurism here are stark. using his personal website as a separate forum from the Integral Institute portal to engage in vitriolic and lengthy diatribes (one such response available for download on his site is sixty-three pages long). those that acknowledge his position as a foundational figure of a global movement carry on his message – perhaps able to better comprehend his aggressive stance towards his detractors from their lofty third-tier heights. undaunted and unfazed. As academic acceptance of Wilber’s work has been less than forthcoming. but otherwise transcending and including more outlaws than any lawman dude type person in history. at worst. so too does Wilber imagine himself transcended and included by the Integral beyond.com to 247 .” taking out each critic with a flick of his cerebral trigger finger: So slurpee in hand. he often charges critics as distorting or misreading his ideas. rallying round online and off. creating slogan t-shirts. he rarely communicates with those who disagree with him. his posse will stand on the shoulders of his smiling corpse and carry on. And when he dies. not evolved enough to understand the joke – to which the Integral community responds with glee. Wyatt Earpy rides on. those taking offense at his strident condemnations can be easily dismissed as stuck in first-tier thinking – that is. Smiling alongside his integral corpus. in their own search for even more truth and goodness and beauty than even Wyatt could see. for as amusingly crafted as his Wyatt Earpy diatribes are. It demonstrates that the pitfalls of peer pressure are alive and well in new spiritual groups employing social networking media. the movement’s inability to accept criticism.”73 However. they do serve to demonstrate that the cost of disagreeing with the integral community is often disaffiliation. Nevertheless. therefore. open-ended spirituality to static religion.’ D E U S E X M A C H I N A O R D E U S S I V E N AT U R A ? AN INTEGRAL RETURN TO THE SOURCE CODE Andy and Larry Wachowski’s The Matrix (1999) was a huge box office success internationally. In the final analysis. surely it must remain vigilant against such possibilities or ultimately invite discord and failure. and gradual tightening of group structures and memberships to assume an elite of like-minded individuals suggests Integral may be undergoing its own revision – from dynamic. “We are. and a useful tool for compiling an integrated textual reading that takes into account all critical perspectives while it also seeks to track vertical and horizontal transcendence – a methodology that suggests a move away from the ‘post’ and towards the ‘trans. you are more highly evolved than 98% of your fellow humans.demonstrate their loyalties. ipso facto. his AQAL map offers some interesting potentials for cultural and literary analysis. or try our very best to be. If Integral is to achieve its self-professed goal of instigating cultural transformation via integration of binary opposites. the potential for creating a nonpareil membership of devotees that regard themselves as higher on the evolutionary scale is inherent in the very language used to define them as a cohesive group – if you’re in the room (or. that the very tools used to draw like-minded individuals together have a concomitant propensity to exclude. a turquoise gathering or club or organization. Just as in Futurism and cyberpunk. there is a nascent despotism in such attitudes that sits ill with Wilber’s positive inclusionary theory. and constituted a moment in popular culture that definitively 248 . Wilber’s lack of irony – in his construction of transcendence as a metaphysical certainty and both his and his supporters seeming inability to separate his role as guru from integral theory as a body of work open to criticism – ultimately precludes integral theory from fully inhabiting the transmodern moment. watching a digital recording) then. Wilber’s blog agrees. And there lies the rub. Despite Wilber’s insistence on the value of all levels of consciousness. by extension. presented a technospiritual myth for a late capitalist audience still struggling to come to grips with the impact of information technologies on human subjectivity.76 The Matrix trilogy narrates Neo’s quest to understand his place in this world of estrangement and surveillance. in The Matrix humans are reduced to sacrificial deities whose electrical impulses are harvested to sustain a self-sufficient technological empire. cutting-edge special effects. and responses to. what follows for Neo is a difficult rebirth into the realm of the senses – a re-embodiment of the virtual that exposes the Matrix as a simulacrum designed by machines as a cerebral prison that renders humans utterly subservient to the technological system. The Matrix’s Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is a cog in the virtual corporate machine by day. Morpheus offers to show Neo what the Matrix is. Hans Moravec and Kevin Kelly’s dream of begetting artificial creations that remain respectful of their organic creators’ primacy has turned to nightmare. the film and its sequels. known to him only as ‘the Matrix.74 A synthesis of avant-garde and cyberpunk themes. humans are instead placed on life support by their artificial children – like the Nietzschean god who creates man in his own image only to suffer patricide at his creation’s own hand. the films’ demonstrated links to Wilber’s integral movement also offer an ideal opportunity to test an integral methodology that seeks synthesis and inclusivity by mapping the interconnecting themes of. As creator gods.’ who starts to obsessively question the confines of his reality. In choosing the real over the illusory. or “take the red pill” to pull back the illusory veil and reveal the Real.’ This existential crisis leads him to Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) – a liminal figure symbolically representing the manipulator of dreams and god of transformation who claims mastery over the secret knowledge that will free Neo’s mind. In addition.75 The Matrix trilogy therefore constitutes an important text for this thesis’ analysis of how representations of transcendence and technology have instigated the emergence of a transmodern perspective. fairy-tale motifs. but by night he refashions himself as the hacker ‘Neo. a key technospiritual and technocultural text. Hailed by Morpheus as “The One” who can free the few remaining 249 . Morpheus therefore offers Neo a choice. He suspects all is not as it seems.articulated the confluence of technological and transcendent metaphors. and spiritual metaphors. but claims a leap of faith will be required before initiation into its mysteries can take place. The Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. that something important exists just beyond his understanding. He can “take the blue pill” and continue to swallow his comfortable everyday delusion. intersubjective. The films can be enjoyed as a chop-socky special effects extravaganza. each carrying equal significatory weight in understanding the textual holon. Indeed. or interobjective. religious archetypes. The job. and interest in subjective responses to the technological system allows it to speak to whatever theoretical context a critic might operate from.” and at a deeper level not readily apparent to the casual viewer the films raise questions about the nature of reality. Each critical perspective therefore offers an important yet partial reading that contributes to an understanding of the text as a holarchy – they are complementary rather than contradictory perspectives. reading them alongside each other to produce a hermeneutic circle of textual 250 . learn to manipulate both reality and illusion. however. playful references to religion.78 From an integral methodology. “comprehension is not a requisite of co-operation. or mythology for a post-spiritual millennium.77 Its layered meanings. As one character states. however. Claims that Neo is a new-New Testament Jesus. They also trace Neo’s vertical transcendence from unknowing object to god-like being able to manipulate and direct both the virtual and Real at the level of symbolic code. Slavoj Žižek has written that the Wachowski Brothers’ Matrix trilogy “functions as a kind of Rorschach test” for critics. post-capitalist system of surveillance and control. and suggests how to vertically transcend the spiritual/technological divide. a bodhisattva returning to the matrix to awaken others. The fragmented nature of Matrix criticism therefore offers widely diverse readings that bring us no closer to a holarchic understanding of the texts. and postmodern theory. or a gnostikoi fighting demons to draw back the veil of illusion from the eyes of the uninitiated sit uneasily alongside the films’ construction as postmodern simulacra.humans from the cage of technology. Žižek’s comment is entirely confluent with an integral textual analysis of the trilogy that begins any attempt to ascribe meaning to a text with the caveat that all texts are holons – made up of whole/parts. objective. philosophy. the trilogy follows Neo’s uneasy transcendence from confused seeker to spiritual hero able to penetrate the wisdom of the Matrix. then. of the integral critic is to peel back these quadrivial layers like an onion. and save humanity from subsumption to the machine. such readings can be mapped as diverse perspectives resulting from each critic’s quadrivial context – subjective. read as a straightforward warning against the wholesale embrace of technoculture. or as an amalgam of narratives that juxtapose dream worlds and waking worlds. The close relationship between Wachowski and Wilber is established in these interviews. that primal holon. An open-ended and inclusionary project. given The Matrix trilogy’s multi-layered meaning and interest in technospirituality. and can be pieced together by the critic from comments pertaining to the text gathered from interviews or other texts. transcendence. 80 In a quadrivial analysis.meaning where neither the whole text nor any individual part can be understood without reference to one another. therefore. intertextual. Applying a quadrivial analysis to a cultural text is.” an integral reading suggests the ‘primal holon’ for analysis is authorial intent:79 For [expressivist theories]… the meaning of art is the primal holon – the original intent of the maker – and therefore a correct interpretation is a matter of the accurate reconstruction and recover of that original intent and meaning. and interdisciplinary approach. and in the fact that the philosopher was also chosen as one of two thinkers to speak for the Wachowski’s in The Matrix trilogy’s DVD commentaries and given the penultimate word on the films in a final quote to camera at the close of Return to the Source: Philosophy and The Matrix. more complex inter-theoretical. questions of authorial intent emerge from the upper left or subjective quadrant. however. a complex undertaking and. this section will focus largely on the confluent themes of technology. it should perhaps come as no surprise that one of the few in depth discussions of their work by Larry Wachowski is a featured dialogue with Ken Wilber on the Integral Institute’s subscription-based multimedia portal “Integral Naked” (integralnaked. in which the writer/director obliquely discusses the trilogy’s mystical and metaphysical subplots. therefore. As a text can be seen to originate with the “expression of [an author’s] feelings and intentions. for the sake of brevity. a documentary accompanying the Ultimate Matrix Collection DVD box set. and technospirituality within The Matrix trilogy with a view to suggesting the parameters of transmodern textual critique. The Wachowski’s are notoriously silent about their authorial intentions. 251 .org). the integral process alters the process of criticism from a fragmented application of a particular theoretical perspective to a broader. So I think. And. Wilber is also quick to establish that his own analysis of the films is almost identical to the directors’: We spent hours discussing what I think the films mean… your own interpretation of the film. I mean.. Incidentally. the way that the Matrix kinda is in a lot of ways about that. observationbased. And I'm kind of hoping that these two dialogues that'll be juxtaposed will be kind of about an exterior and an interior. Larry Wachowski explicitly describes the trilogy as a journey of self-development as well as an exploration of consciousness. whoa. Integral style. very surface-based. there's certain areas of this… overall production that you and I certainly see eye to eye on. The scene resolves into a police raid on an abandoned building where a woman – Trinity 252 . and the exterior tends to remain very obvious. [which] offer kind of a reflection of what each movie is about. you know. As a series of computer codes spiral across the screen we hear two voices. We have an understanding that I'm not gonna discuss your interpretation of the film with anybody… I find myself every now and then… having to kinda bite my lip and say. the little tiny introductions to each film. I happen to know that Larry agrees with me on this part. He constructs the Matrix as an expression of AQAL’s right and left quadrants. one male and one female. discussing the emergence of ‘the One’ over the telephone.81 Wachowski further explains that the key to understanding The Matrix trilogy lies in each film’s “beginnings. we kind of tell the audience where we are in the journey of development.. you and I both are.”82 Taking the writer/director’s words at face value. The Matrix begins as a resolutely Gnostic tale in the classic cyberpunk tradition. and further suggests that this duality explains the multiple ways the films can be read: … you describe things as having an interior and an exterior. and philosophers will be interested in interiors. without giving any of the thing away. And we. then. in those little tiny prefaces to each film. you know.In his interviews with Wilber. we share a passion for that sort of integral approach. and the critics will be essentially interested in surfaces. we're integrally informed. the section that Neo has removed is Baudrillard’s final chapter on postmodern nihilism. which emphasises the absence of god and meaning in the face of constantly appearing and disappearing media images that supersaturate the conscience with sensual meaning. a reading further consolidated by the cyberpunk Troy’s immediate exclamation that Neo is his. In the trilogy.” The first ten minutes into The Matrix has already provided ample theoretical incentive for both subjective and interobjective perspectives. During the chase that ensues both Trinity and the agents perform extraordinary physical feats – as one of the policeman confirms for us. “saviour. An anxious call to Morpheus. “It’s impossible” – this world is not what it seems. Federal agents appear. Critics often credit reference to this key postmodern text as evidence that the Wachowskis’ films offer a pop culture rehash of postmodern theories. They have come to kill her as she easily despatches policeman with seemingly superhuman strength. Already within the first five minutes we have the suggestion that the film’s mise en scene represents a simulation of reality from which the characters must flee. gives Trinity a secure phone line through which she will “get out. that the Matrix is a postmodern simulacrum. drawing the subject into the inertia of image-overdose.(Carrie-Ann Moss) – sits at a computer. and furthermore. which he hides in a hollowed out copy of Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation – what Neo thinks is Real is just a simulation produced for and by an invisible sentient technology. and yet from an integral perspective that sets itself up as a transcendence of postmodern theory. while theologists contend that the film’s religious references offer a reconstruction of spiritual narratives for a new millennium. My personal Jesus Christ. In the final minutes of Larry Wachowski’s “tiny introduction. A knock at the door reveals a group of cyberpunks seeking to buy one of Neo’s illicit hacking programs.” but she must focus her mind to reach it before the agents catch up with her. quite correctly. where postmodern theorists assert. a combination of controlled mind power and communication technologies are the means of that escape. speaking and walking like automatons in identical suits and sunglasses. god may not quite be absent without a trace. The next scene shows Neo woken at his desk by cryptic messages conveyed via his computer – the Gnostic initiate must make sense of obscure communications in order to “wake up” to the Real.” we see Trinity 253 . this scene can also be read as the Wachowskis’ wry suggestion that Baudrillard’s theories are themselves hollow in the face of Neo’s continued ontological questioning. However. Larry and Andy Wachowski further confirm this authorial intention when they claim: We are interested in mythology. Neo must navigate a steady stream of dialectical positions – including what it means to be human/ machine. You know the question. too. “the answer’s… looking for you and it will find you. having faith/disbelief. When Trinity explains that. determining what is real/ illusion. It’s the question that brought us here. just as I did. you should concern yourselves with those issues. The films suggest such integration can only be achieved via a systematic project of self-enlightenment. themselves. To discover what the Matrix is. Matrix audiences are therefore exhorted to employ the films’ philosophical arguments to decide for themselves about the fundamental nature of being. to make their own existential choice between red and blue pills. Similarly. being awake/asleep.83 This “Big Question” is clearly an articulation of the One and the Many in an Integral sense or. In the process. They know he suspects that the Matrix may be accessible if he can assemble the knowledge required to unlock the door between worlds: “It’s the question that drives us. privileging matter/mind. as the Socratic “temet nosce” above the Oracle’s kitchen door attests. can elect to 254 . Neo. as well as The Big Question. If you’re going to do epic stories. It is no coincidence that Neo’s given name is Thomas (literally meaning twin) – he is simultaneously the doubting Thomas that remains in two minds about his existential purpose and the ‘new’ man that must become ‘one’ via a radical integration of self. and to a lesser extent. taking us through a complete quadrivial analysis of what it means to be self-integrated. put another way. the only line to be repeated in each movie is “make up your own damn mind” – a phrase also repeated in the directors’ introduction to the Ultimate Matrix Collection DVD box set.” she also intimates that ultimate knowledge is only available to those who are able to think for. and who fully understand. obtaining enlightenment/ignorance. higher-level mathematics… all are ways human beings try to answer bigger questions. theology.approach Neo in a nightclub with a warning that the agents are watching him. the problem of being versus becoming. and the various possibilities inherent in assimilation/dissolution.” The question is “What is the Matrix?” but this knowledge only sparks further ontological questions. They. if you want it to. Neo therefore takes the audience on a Socratic journey through key philosophical debates from both Eastern and Western traditions in search of ways to become one or whole. the sentient control program and embodiment of machine tyranny in the trilogy. even though he has yet to realise his transcendent power in the Real. in Reloaded Neo must fully inhabit his new corporeality in the Real. as many critics have supposed. where the inhabitants are preparing for a final battle against the machines. signifying a link between their “Big Question” and the ones and zeroes 255 . easily defeating a group of agents who come looking for a fight. stated in the first film as a desire to destroy the Matrix and thus both human and machine worlds. Although Neo appears to still question his role as the One. pursuing his own agenda. he voyages outside the machine-induced dream to Zion. Interestingly. This is borne out by Link’s claim soon after that Neo is “doing his superman thing. or remain comfortably numb to the possibilities of an integral reading. Smith claims he has been set free from his subservience to the machine mainframe by his contact with Neo. If. they describe Neo as “the anomaly” and comment that he is “still only human” in a way that suggests he has the potential to become other than human. his self-fashioned appearance in the Matrix confidently expresses the One as Zion’s Messiah – his attire has morphed from cyberpunk leather to priestly soutane and he wields his power over the Matrix assuredly. in the Matrix he is now an ubermensch. Matrix Revolutions begins with a visual representation of being and becoming for the Wachowskis’ – a Big Bang bathed in golden light that ultimately resolves into Matrix code. now his lover. The Matrix represents Neo’s escape from a digitized Plato’s cave into new awareness and selfagency. One further sequence of note is the return of a replicated Agent Smith. In the first fifteen minutes of The Matrix Reloaded Neo dreams of a future in which Trinity.84 Having established his power to manipulate the illusory world in the final moments of The Matrix by overwhelming his virtual nemesis.seek a greater awareness of the films’ interest in being and becoming. Agent Smith. To do so. the last free human city hidden far below the Earth’s surface. Through the first film we have come to know that the dream world and the real world are interchangeable and this sequence suggests there may be other worlds in which Neo must travel to reach a holarchic understanding of reality. the Wachowski’s relatively unpopular sequels more clearly tease out the philosophical problem of the One and the Many. before they attack.” in other words. transformed into a computer virus he has become the Many to Neo’s One – and proceeds as a free agent. dies at the hands of agents. Rebooted. . 85 The suggestion is that the machine world is a part of the natural laws of creation. In this non-space. you go to black and then you have to have a moment of Big Bang and that's the origin of everything. both Matrix and Real to usher in a new state of being. and that Zion’s war against the machines or Agent Smith’s war against the Matrix may not constitute the only options open to the One. the origin of thought. His uncertainty preempts his potential to transcend and include (to use Wilber’s terminology). in which he is spiritually immolated on a pyre of machines in exchange for the humanity’s freedom from both Matrix and real world oppression by technology. suggesting that he is beginning to realise a dialogue might indeed be possible between the corporeal and the incorporeal. Neo is a consciousness between worlds. She asks him if he is from the Matrix. Physically unplugged from the Matrix. “Yes. who lures the god from ascetic isolation into creative participation in the world. to which he replies. the spiritual realm of transition between life and death that.that constitute the binary code of the computer. a reading further borne out by the next image showing Neo in a coma as a result of Reloaded’s final sequence in which he first begins to display mastery of the Real as well as the illusory. when 256 . asymbolic premonition of Neo’s own sacrifice in Revolutions.” Like the limbo hello/farewell simulacrum in which he finds himself. Sati is also remembered for immolating herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. In his interview with Wilber. exists between the machine and human worlds. who is bathed in a similar golden light to the introductory image of the Big Bang. No. a Matrix program visually projected as a child called Sati (Pali for ‘mindfulness’). but first he must find his way out of limbo.’ he develops a newfound empathy for the machines. belonging to both/neither.’ or hello/farewell). Larry Wachowski highlights this imagery is key for the final Matrix installment: How do we start the third movie? Which is gonna talk about the things that are so hard to talk about?” It's like: Ok. in the film. To further highlight Neo’s transformative realisation. Sati also represents the Hindu goddess and first consort of Shiva (‘Destroyer of Worlds’). he is greeted by a new anomaly. Befriending Sati and her ‘family. the origin of consciousness. Neo nevertheless appears to be mentally jacked in to a machine mainframe version of limbo (alluded to by a sign reading ‘Mobil’ – an anagram of limbo – combined with the Latin ‘Ave. whatever it is—in that moment it's like 'from that nothing to everything' is everything.. but (3) if some intentions are unconscious and leave only symbolic traces in the artwork. his ego is unable to provide its executive function. The art critic. a psychoanalytic reading of The Matrix trilogy might see in Neo’s journey to enlightenment parallels to that taken by an analysand in a therapeutic journey towards an integrated.87 Knowing that something is not quite right with his world. Beresin. wishes. then (4) an important part of the correct interpretation of an artwork is the unearthing and interpreting of these unconscious drives. but something new. Neo’s problem stems from a conflict between his belief and the perception of his senses. one that represents the zero point of a quadrivial analysis. is a holon made up of smaller holons. intentions. he returns mysteriously altered – to the Zionist machines that track the human projections through the Matrix he appears neither human nor machine.Trinity and Morpheus eventually save him. must also be a psychoanalyst. which is to 257 . and (2) if the correct interpretation of art is therefore the reconstruction of this intention. That is. If a part of the text’s meaning can be found in the author’s stated intentions then. and that these can also be traced within the written text. a state of otherness that is represented here as all/neither – being/no-thingness or one/zero. in an analytic framework. Since the world is not what it appears to be. Although the primal holon cannot be ignored in the search for a text’s signification. the ‘Big Bang’ of an idea that both offers the potentiality of the new at the same time it suggests the void from which all potentialities emerge. to be a true critic. too. desires. Neo is dissatisfied with his life.86 For instance. The introductory sequences of Revolutions therefore alert us to the emergence of a new perspective. it follows that some of the author’s intentions will be unconscious. According to David Mischoulon and Eugene V. Revolutions will culminate in the moment of Neo’s vertical transcendence. neither can the text be “confined or limited” to it. As Wilber has written: (1) if the meaning of art is in the original intention expressed in the work. well Self. because meaning is contextdependent and the author. Neo has successfully completed his therapeutic journey and is well equipped to confront his inner conflict – represented by the Agents.” through his scepticism of Morpheus’ construction of him as the One. Freud suggested that the capacity for love is a crucial factor in the achievement of good mental health. he sends Trinity to wake him up to the possibilities of a life in which inner self does not mean inner conflict. or “take the red pill” (the more difficult option of psychoanalysis) to pull back the illusory veil of inner conflict and reveal the Real. are an attempt to bolster his faith in his own potential.”89 Similarly.” Neo. as analyst. but is brought back to life by Trinity’s confession of love. values and ideals. Morpheus offers Neo a choice. His repeated trips to the Oracle. or it may reflect the fantasies subjects project about their place in the world.90 Rather than telling him he is the One. Neo is killed by the agents. determines Neo is ready for therapy. they are seated in comfortable lounge chairs for an introductory chat about the possibilities of therapy. from which they must be freed in order to live contentedly in the Real. the sum of society’s beliefs. reflecting “Neo’s true self back to him. in a psychoanalytic context. When Neo and Morpheus first meet.91 In acknowledging his love for Trinity. as the duality of his inner conflict (embodied by the agents) slowly synthesises into unity of purpose. the Oracle once again lets Neo make up his own mind – again only when Neo is ready can the analyst introduce new frames of reference to the analysand. Neo also demonstrates therapeutic resistance. Because he now 258 . which may or may not be healthy for individual development. with Morpheus’ expert guidance. the personification of a mysterious independent computer program that dispenses mystical wisdom.mediate the satisfaction of his instinctual needs (both libidinal and aggressive) and those of the external world and superego. He can “take the blue pill” (a symbol of psychotherapeutic drugs?) and willingly maintain his delusion. defined by Freud as “whatever interrupts the progress of analytic work. The Matrix therefore represents. must make up his own damn mind. At the end of The Matrix. nothing more… No one can be told what the Matrix is.88 When Morpheus. the recurrence of mirrors throughout the three films tracks the progress of Neo’s ability to see this true self. You have to see it for yourself. Morpheus as analyst also outlines the parameters of analysis – he is not there to tell Neo what he needs to know to thrive but can simply show him a possible way forward: “All I’m offering is truth. Morpheus’ mirrored glasses can therefore be read as serving a mirroring function for Neo. Similarly. and critic exist. An intersubjective reading of a text (lower left quadrant) will quickly point out that as well as unconscious interior influences on an author’s intention there are also larger structures of signification that work to produce a text. Our integral analysis. within a collective web of signification. for example. Neo’s repeated battles with Smith can therefore be seen as a struggle for mental integration.” His revolt against the Matrix is an evolution. The text as intersubjective holon will therefore give rise to a number of ‘symptomatic’ readings. That is. text. as the Oracle tells him in Revolutions. finally comprehending that one cannot exist without the other. however. “[t]he virtual world of the Matrix… a world of racism and sexism. human and machine before his ultimate transformation can take place.believes in himself he can effortlessly stop bullets and destroy Agent Smith. However. Rather than align with Zion in its efforts to eradicate the machines its ancestors once made. “Smith is you. all of which will bring their considerable (yet partial) scholarship to bear on the work. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. in that his quest is to evolve into another kind of being that is at one with both human and machine identity. including feminist. Both Zion and Agent Smith represent the toxic effects of denying the Other. and Neo must resist the promise of both to achieve his own and his world’s transformation. they are each holons within holons. in Reloaded he discovers a new dimension to this power by manipulating the Real. Marxist. may see in. In Revolutions he must incorporate illusory and real. “I didn’t come here to tell you how it’s going to end. completing analysis does not suggest an end but a beginning. Neo instead chooses the path of integration. a mother that is not a mother. or facilitate the Architect’s plans to destroy humanity to renew the technological system. by virtue of 259 .”92 where natural reproduction is replaced by a machine matrix that is “a kind of parthenogenic – which is to say autochthonous – mother. as the final scene of The Matrix and its sequels show. who will then have the power to expose and nullify the dialectic for the rest of humanity. cannot end with readings from the subjective quadrant. each of which must be transcended and included for his Self-education to continue. In The Matrix Neo becomes the One because he learns to manipulate the illusory world at will. and so Neo tells the machine mainframe.” Each installment of the trilogy therefore offers Neo a different kind of enlightening experience. consciously or unconsciously. the author. A feminist reading. and cultural theories. ” with the Matrix offering a thinly veiled metaphor for a capitalist system in which we. are kept in an opiate state while industry (the machines). However. tied to chairs. as window dressing symptomatic of a post-apocalyptic pastiche of cultures… the viewer can tell that the apocalypse has come and gone because there are so many minorities running around. combined. in the position of humans in the Matrix. in fact. it often renders meaningless both upper or lower left quadrivial analyses.94 Neo’s quest to wake up from his machine-induced sleep therefore becomes a metaphor for our own oppression by the capitalist machine: The miserable position of the humans as the self-reflective allegory of the very position of the cinema viewer: Are we all not. or the linguistic structures in which the film emerges. particularly Asians. The Matrix is yet another example of how cyberpunk narratives depict “minority characters. when we sit in the cinema.”97 Such a reading stems from the upper right quadrant. immersed in the spectacle run by a machine?95 Moreover. each of these readings must be given equal weight as partial truths that. or techno-economic influences. if this analysis were to extend to the author. rather than authorial intent emphasis would perhaps be placed on the brain structure that promotes creativity. feed off our ‘energy’ (alienated labour). box office statistics. film stock. cultural. directorial style. special effects and photographic technologies. as the proletariat.”96 Again. which concerns itself only with the epistemologically quantifiable aspects of the text – for a film text. structuralists.being able to produce new life without the role of the male. for instance. this would include (but not be limited to) the production values. and. A typical poststructuralist reading might therefore see The Matrix trilogy as a 260 . This kind of reading – evident in the work of the Russian formalists. and so a critic can objectively find meaning “in the formal relationships between elements of the work itself. the materiality of a text is also a holon. and any original intention dies with them – the meaning of the text resides only in the text itself. The author is dead. construct an interwoven picture of The Matrix trilogy’s meaning.”93 A Marxist reading might view the trilogy as representing a new form of a “heroic Marxism. from a postcolonial perspective. and post-structuralists – aggressively rejects any possibility of finding meaning within the author’s intent or their social. Dick. each new reading produces new meaning creating a sliding structure of signification. then. some of which can be employed both to subjectively dominate and control or seek lines of flight from such oppression. the films must also gesture towards an integration 261 . This lower right (interobjective) way of approaching a text places it within a system of signification that is constantly shifting or evolving – that is. the evolution of the machine in an information age – work to popularise postmodernism’s critique of humanism made obsolete by a reality that is autonomous from subjectivity. without reference to the author’s intended meaning. for a postmodern reading. as an integral text. and a text is simultaneously symbolic of a particular reading in time and means nothing at all.dystopian vision of the future dominated by technological production – an interconnected virtual/Real where “technology and technicity… reinforce domination. Thus the critic’s interpretation of a text is placed front and centre. Where the artwork exists in and of itself. Yet.100 This integral analysis of the trilogy reveals the multiplicity of meaning that emerges from contexts within contexts – the Wachowskis’ have wittingly created a substantially integral text resulting in a rich tapestry of equally valid yet partial readings.”98 Nevertheless. cyberpunk’s artificial intelligences. The postmodern theorist. The metaphors and themes of the trilogy therefore demonstrate to the audience that its own late capitalist system is always socially and culturally constructed and. A number of postmodern critics have therefore argued that the trilogy is “an allegory representing the distinct and contrasting modes of discourse that have come to define both culture and aesthetic production in late capitalist society… a comprehensive reflection of postmodern culture. it follows that the text’s audience is also a holon. is always in a state of flux. subject to a multiplicity of meanings. Finally.”99 The films’ pastiche of both poststructuralist theory and science fiction themes – technology out of control. becomes solely responsible for the perpetual production of meaning and its concurrent perpetual deconstruction. The Matrix trilogy. phantasmagoric dreamscapes a la Phillip K. there remains the possibility for subaltern groups to use Matrix technologies to contest the hegemonic order. signification can also be found in the reader’s response to it. therefore represents a powerful new cultural myth that facilitates humanity’s embrace of its own posthumanist future. as such. with critical theory actively producing meaning rather than simply discovering it within the work. This is the Wachowski’s depiction of the final stages of Wilber’s SDi continuum – clear light or pure transcendence – with the golden light emanating from the machines representing spirit/ transcendence/ transmodernism. as an individuated Self. When Neo speaks to the machine’s central organizing consciousness. it puts everything together. offers us yet another perspective on The Matrix trilogy.of these multiple critical readings. matter. The convergence of these quadrivial readings. Wachowski’s ‘zero’ point comes in the final minutes of Revolutions. he transcends the one and the many in order to create a new paradigm – all/neither – a purely transmodern self. They’re made of light. therefore. as Neo approaches the Machine City. and one that. when Neo describes the machines as “all light. illustrating his radical integration with the incorporeal. then. ceases to exist – the One is reduced to Zero – but as the integrated Neo/Smith he also becomes all – the creative potentiality of the new that lies between being and becoming. Neo. that omega point. and furthermore this gesture must also highlight the trans.” Here he articulates transcendence as the key interest of the trilogy. that centre of the x-y axis… there’s not four Big Bangs. he too is bathed in light. all is bathed in an ephemeral golden light as a reflection of the image of the Big Bang in the very first moments of the film. there’s only one. Neo’s travels into Zion are tinged blue. and it sits exactly in the centre… that point is the only point worth talking about in some regards. in other words. from a zero point. with a nod towards Wilber’s SDi stages. an evolution that encompasses mind. In his interview with Wilber. it unites all four quadrants. or transmodern perspective. a vertical transcendence into otherness. The Matrix trilogy. Larry Wachowski makes mention of the point of significatory convergence that: … holds the quadrants together… that zero. integral. is 262 . representing body/ the Real/ modernism. Where the green post-production hue of The Matrix denotes the characters’ immersion in mind/ simulacrum/ postmodernism. approaches a transmodern methodology. and spirit. in returning to the transcendent moment. the Deus ex Machina. In the final moments of Revolutions the Wachowskis introduce a radically monist transcendence of the Cartesian dialectic by having Neo choose integration rather than disintegration or. ‘cause it’s the beginning of it all. However. Spinoza developed his slogan partially in answer to Descartes. meaning God or nature. being or becoming. for such dualities are to be overcome. And. it also expresses his idea that god and nature were of a single infinite substance with mind and matter being two incommensurable ways of conceiving the one reality. and have only imprisoned themselves in a futuristic version of Plato’s cave. The final moments of Revolutions are subsumed by Neo’s revelation that if humanity is to climb out of its caves of ignorance and ‘return to the light. And this is the kind of notion that is increasingly being represented in science fiction 263 . What they have neglected to understand is that technology is integral to their humanity – the machines are the necessary means of their evolution.finally an extended enquiry into the parallel evolution of human and machine. The Matrix trilogy offers us a move away from transhuman narratives that divest the Self of its meat. the subjective and the objective – each of which cannot exist without the other. The Matrix trilogy as transmodern text suggests instead Spinoza’s deus sive natura. to herald a total renewal of the human/machine system. Dissolution of either human or machine would therefore mean holarchic systems failure. By waging war on its other. Although the context in which he used the term ultimately validates for Spinoza the existence of god and our relationship to such a being philosophically. and their eventual convergence into a new way of being. In terms of an integral analysis. Rather than deus ex machina. as our ‘derivative gods.’ in Kevin Kelly’s terms. or both from vertical transcendence and. organic or inorganic. the machine transcends and includes the human – comprising the necessary part to their whole.’ the co-dependence of mind and matter. He therefore subsumes his one-self into Smith’s manymachines and becomes one/zero. all/neither. machine and human. created a model for the valorisation of cognitive thought over the fleshy disappointments of human matter that remains a recurrent metaphor in technophilic philosophy and fiction today. or that creator and created are as one. Furthermore. it characterises this convergence as a spiritual evolution. then. the inhabitants of Zion have fallen prey to a perspectival imbalance resulting from the privileging of corporeality over incorporeality. positing that humans and machines represent two sides of the same coin. must be transcended and included. and so must be integrated to create a significatory whole. in doing so. who in positing a separation of mind and body. presents us with a popular transmodern motif that re-signfies the human/machine debate by arguing that it is not a question of man or machine. humanity in the trilogy has simply effected its own evolutionary decline. And yet. resulting in an extreme rigidity where all that does not fit into any particular scheme tends to be marginalized. from Plato to Rousseau. Descartes to Husserl have been contaminated by the yearning for a non-existent ‘fixed centre of meaning. what Spinoza’s deus sive natura comes to signify is our ultimate desire to view the machines we create as simultaneously extensions of ourselves. In positing a permanent centre of timeless truth and meaning – a ‘transcendental signified’ or ‘metaphysics of presence’ – Derrida argued that all metaphysicians.”102 Rather than pursuing the Western philosophical tradition of rupturing Plato’s discrete yet connected ascending (transcendent) and descending (immanent) movements and choosing a favourite – the One or the Many – Wilber argues for the primacy of an open-ended methodology of the kind Slavov Žižek describes: 264 .narratives over the last century. so as to uncover an authenticity of the ‘gospel. If we take a broader view of the creator and created in Spinozan philosophy to represent our role as the creators of new technologies. we see the transference of the desire for transcendence from a profound dialogue with an Other that is extraneous to our Selves.’ manifested in either a hierarchical axiology. self-evident. Integral also wants to inhabit a post-metaphysical space of the kind that Derrida claimed should “liberate theology from what has been grafted onto it. suppressed or rendered unconscious. where metaphysical determinations spawn binary oppositions and subordinate these opposing values to each other (subject/object. presence/ absence. or the enterprise of returning to an origin held to be simple. and that metaphysics has always depended upon a hierarchical privileging or a clear-cut opposition between binary pairs that is fixed in place. or the much heralded and yet to be perfected virtual realities. project upon them our desires for the transcendence of our normative bodies into a new state. towards the creation of a more material certainty of transcendence achieved in tandem with the figure of the machine. and pure.’ of the evangelical message. Derrida argued that we are always already situated within the effects of différance. material/ideal).101 In this way. and in doing so. to free it from its metaphysico-philosophical super-ego. If we further apply Spinoza’s concept of god or nature to our interaction with new writing technologies such as the internet. All aspects of becoming – subjectivity and objectivity. or in other words. it does not attempt to abolish “the dark spot” of science but rather hopes to integrate it into a new understanding that can accommodate both. It follows that in a healthy system of becoming. The universe of modern science. or change (technology) begets changelessness (transcendence). parts merge to become wholes. transcending them. If it may indeed be possible to open a space for a new secular theological language. the complex must “transcend and include” the less complex in an endless process of vertical transcendence. And this process of growth from parts to wholes must be hierarchical because it occurs in stages – parts naturally integrate and unify in a logical and chronicle order – letters become words become sentences become paragraphs. That which is becoming strives towards being.’ involves the gesture of ‘traversing the fantasy. In doing so. if the complex devolves into the less 265 .104 In summation. the very least of which is maintaining the dynamic momentum of inclusionary tactics as the project continues to expand. The drive for selftranscendence is thus built into the very fabric of the universe. to theorize the gateway to the ‘indefinite Beyond’ and reclaim ultimate meaning for existence. a dynamic secular transcendent project to institutionalised static religion. in its very ‘meaninglessness. at the same time. in Bergsonian terms. 103 By attempting to transcend the dialectic between religious and scientific (spiritual and technological) modes of thinking. a language rooted in the mystical traditions and. we get the meaningless mechanism. as Integral itself evolves into a larger movement this possibility is predicated on whether it resists a transformation from. organic and inorganic – naturally flow towards being. integral theory posits that out of the many emerges the one. it allows for no Beyond. Wilber’s Integral theory seeks to inhabit Žižek’s open-ended universe. the domain of the Unexplained which harbours fantasies and thus guarantees Meaning: instead.[The] traditional closed universe is thus in a sense more ‘open’ than the universe of science: it implies the gateway into the indefinite Beyond. The “meaningless mechanism” of technology is thus imbued with spiritual meaning and integrated into the “domain of the Unexplained. or absolute ground of being. while the direct global model of modern science is effectively ‘closed’ – that is to say.’ of abolishing the dark spot.” Such an ambitious project is not without its pitfalls. ”106 Integral theory is an attempt to foster a new dialogue between contemporary dualistic thought. Thus the importance of subjective and cultural meanings are brought to the fore. reducing transcendent experiences to combinations of simpler experiences. the appropriate epistemology transforms. Rather. 266 . physiological. their meaning may be understood by unveiling their interconnections with other meaningful experiences. technology/spirituality. Looking down the holarchy. complex then order cannot be upheld.Figure 19. From Matrix Revolutions (Warner Bros.105 Within this logic. religion/science. 2001). organic/ inorganic. however. properly so-called. Bergson also once spoke of the “muchdesired union of science and metaphysics” that would “lead the positive sciences. where understanding comes not from detachment with the holons being examined. Wilber can claim diametrically opposed perspectives – for example. as Ken Wilber the mystic does. to become conscious of their true scope. often far greater than they imagine. symbolising spirit. we nevertheless are programmed to desire their synthesis. or biochemical events will not explain them away. a realisation that the theorist’s perspective is itself a holon engaged in a complex interplay with the holons it critiques – a transmodern application of the problem of Schroedinger’s cat. but cooperation and partnership. From this holistic epistemology. Neo views the Machine City as filled with pure light. including those experiences of vertical transcendence that in their ineffability are particularly rich in meaning. Looking up the holarchy. the theoristholon engages in a participative epistemology. transmodernism further offers the realisation that though such goals may only ever be partially achieved. or postmodernism/ transmodernism – as part truths that can be mapped onto a continuum of increasing wholeness that represents his AQAL theory of everything. into a holistic perspective in which the parts are understood through the whole. 2 Hans-George Gadamer. and machine – in irrevocably isolating creator from creation – both Zion and the Machine City are negating necessary parts of themselves. 6 Ken Wilber. but offers a transformation into a new way of perceiving the Self’s relation to the world of meaning that it autocreates. The Holographic Paradigm and other Paradoxes: Exploring the Leading Edge of Science (Boston: Shambhala. xii-xiii. Ecology. 1982). “Foreword” in Frank Visser. Ken Wilber.107 The film intimates that machines have already mastered the ability to assimilate others to create a seamless whole. Joel Weinsheimer & Donald G. 1989). A Brief History of Everything (Boston: Shambhala Press. trans. Eye to Eye: The Quest for a New Paradigm (Boston: Shambhala. 1996). the message of Spinoza’s deus sive natura. which is nevertheless made up of separate but necessary parts. Ken Wilber. Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution (Boston: Shambhala. The Spectrum of Consciousness (Wheaton: Quest Books. and of Wilber’s integral movement.616. This is the lesson inherent in the experience of transcendence. 7 8 9 Ken Wilber. The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development (Boston: Shambhala. “Angel(LINK) of Harlem: Techno-spirituality in the Cyberpunk Tradition. Ken Wilber. 291. theory. the Deus Ex Machina is constructed from hundreds of smaller machines that fly together to create a seething mass of metal in the form of a huge childlike face mirroring Neo’s humanity.When Neo confronts his machinic Other at the end of Revolutions. Kindle edition: location 5. Sex. A history. 1995). 1983). matter. and experience of transcendence in culture places big moral questions firmly back on the theoretical agenda by opening up the possibility of a positive integration with the Other that does not result in a death of the Self or the resurgence of grand logocentrisms. organic or inorganic – all is connected. It is not a question of man or machine. Truth and Method. Creator and creation are as one.org/?q=node/1 Accessed 4 June 2009.integralinstitute. Marshall (New York: Crossroad. See http://www. parts that are needed to create a well-balanced and functional whole. 10 267 . And this is what Neo learns in the final moments of the film – that in separating mind. 2000). Notes 1 Ken Wilber. 1993). being or non-being. Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (2003).” in Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives. 4 5 3 Ken Wilber. by no mere latent fitness but by the ineffable Act.640.aspx?sn=17195. 268 21 . Plotinus. God. The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life. Porphyry. he achieved this Term. 297-308). 1973). Pragmatism (New York: Dover Publications. “On the Life of Plotinus and the Arrangement of his Work. of his life was to become Uniate. and. Perhaps unsurprisingly. See James Atlas. Swinburne University. to approach to the God over all: and four times. Armstrong (Harvard University Press. 17 18 19 20 Friedrich Schelling. www. Plotinus’ biographer.” See Porphyry. William James.com Ken Wilber. Isenberg. Plotinus’ theorised a mystical union with the One (or henosis) as the highest goal of the contemplative Intellect inspired.” in The Nag Hammadi Library in English. Sociologist and CulturoPolitical Scientist at the University of Santa Barbara and Stanford University.H. Universities running courses and degrees in Integral theory include John F Kennedy University. 2002). California. Ennead VI. the University of Western Australia. “Erudite and Groovy.” in Plotinus: The Enneads. James M. 1988).kenwilber. Accessed 25 March. 1998). A. “Gospel of Philip. RMIT and President of the World Futures Studies Federation. Michael E. California Institute of Integral Studies. The Ethics (Middlesex: The Echo Library.%202000&st=cse. like Schelling. “A Philosopher of Everything. Melbourne. Michel Saloff Coste — artist and professor at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales. eds. August 7. Boulder. §23. Phipps. Wilber’s work has often been dismissed as obscurantist or lacking in methodology. Robinson and Marvin W. Jennifer Gidley. Management and Organisations. 2011.unit. claimed he witnessed the philosopher achieve henosis four times during their acquaintance using a system of no-thought similar to a species of zen meditation: “There was shown to Plotinus the Term ever near': for the Term. Paris. University of Colorado. Baruch Spinoza.com/2000/08/17/opinion/l-who-s-the-disciple-707023. Deepak Chopra refers to himself as Ken Wilber’s disciple in The New York Times. 2006). Accessed 25 March. 1978). apparently.” The New York Times.html?scp=1&sq=james %20atlas%20August%207.nytimes.nytimes.” 14 15 16 Wesley W. the one end. Henri Bergson. 1977). Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World (Boston: Shambhala. A webcast featuring Bill Clinton commenting on Ken Wilber’s Integral theories (“This guy is brilliant”) at the World Economic Forum in 2006. http:// www. Swinburne University.com/2000/08/07/opinion/erudite-and-groovy. Australian Foresight Institute. Pleasant Hill & Berkeley. 67. Research Fellow in the Global Cities Research Institute. Interestingly. Mark Edwards. 2011. 211.net/wef/ worldeconomicforum_annualmeeting2006/default. http://www. the Universe. can be found at http://gaia. 5. trans. 49. Boomeritis: A Novel that Will Set You Free (Boston: Shambhala.” What is Enlightenment? June/August 2006. trans. trans. Meyer (San Franscisco: Harper & Row. 1995). by his own transcendent experience. In 2000. 2007). Peter Hayward and Joe Voros. Peter Heath (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. Roland Benedikter. 12 13 Academics currently working with Integral theory include: Robert Kegan. 2000). Zimmerman. and Everything (Boston: Shambhala Press. Books 1-5. Australian Foresight Institute. Creative Evolution. San Francisco. Wilber rates Schelling as one of two philosophers who “after Plato. System of Transcendental Idealism.11 These include One Taste: The Journals of Ken Wilber (Boston: Shambhala Press. had the broadest impact on the Western mind” (A Brief History of Everything.00 results. Carter Phipps. “A Philosopher of Everything. during the period I passed with him. Melbourne. 2000. 2006). is one of his favourite new intellectual touchstones. Stephen MacKenna (London: Faber & Faber. Professor in Adult Learning and Professional Development at Harvard University. Al Gore cited Wilber’s The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion (Boston: Shambhala. A search for “Integral theory” on Google returns 4.html?src=pm. Copenhaver (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 38 39 As well as an expression of the modern Gnostic project. A Theory of Everything. The Essential Aurobindo. Atman Project. 35 Ken Wilber. 49. Science and Spirituality (Boston. 38. See Keith Ansell-Pearson and John Mullarkey. 1998). Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. trans. 48. 64. 2001). 269 . trans. Corpus Hermetica. 2003). Although Wilber has now disavowed The Atman Project as an earlier evocation of his theories. Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution (St. 1992).22 Henri Bergson. 48. An Introduction to Metaphysics. 176. Human Phenomenon. eds. Steve McIntosh notes that this is because Integral theory is a “self-organising dynamic system of values that is arising within the internal universe of consciousness and culture. The Human Phenomenon. Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications. Teilhard de Chardin. 29 30 31 Arthur Koestler. Koestler. 173. 2001). The Ghost in the Machine (Sydney: Macmillan. so too will the integral worldview eventually define an entire era of human history encompassing more knowledge and wisdom than even integral philosophy can contain. “An Integral Theory of Consciousness. Please see Figure 3 for more details. trans. 28 Wilber. and physical health to create an integrated individual primed for transcending developmental stages. The Eye of the Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad (Boston. Massachusetts: Shambhala. Ghost in the Machine. social compassion. but for simplicity of argument I have not included a description of each of these stages. 2001). See Ken Wilber. 23 24 25 26 27Aurobindo Ghose. Minnesota: Paragon House. Marriage. 1967). 41.. Sarah Appleton-Weber (Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press. 1999). emotional intelligence. 1997). 2002). TE Hume (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. we can still see the impact of Aurobindo’s thought on contemporary Integral practices that seek to simultaneously expand the intellect. Henri Bergson: Key Writings (London: Continuum Press. Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead (Boston: David R. xvii.” and any attempt to obtain an objective view of this emergent philosophy must be seen as merely a contributing element of the system itself: “Just as the modernist worldview now extends far beyond the confines of Enlightenment philosophy. 33 34 Wilber. 3. Brian P. 66. Alfred North Whitehead and Lucien Price. 153. 2007). Politics. McDermott (Massachusetts: Steiner Books. Wilber. Robert A. by constantly revising his theories Wilber makes it difficult to definitively situate his work for academic analysis. 40. 37 Ken Wilber. 32 Ken Wilber. 13. A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business. ed.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 4 (1) (February 1997): 71-92. Paul. 36 Wilber also divides each quadrant into nine stages of development.” Steve McIntosh. Godine Publisher. The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion (Melbourne: Hill of Content Publishing. 131. Wilber. 98. Wilber. 25. “What is Spiral Dynamics Integral?” 2003. 54. 1985). 58 59 Don Beck. Ken Wilber.org Wilber. In 2007. Leadership and Change (New Jersey: Blackwell. 62 63 Wilber. Boomeritis. 1996). 131. Integral Vision. Gebser. 219-20. See Terry Eagleton. Wilber. Boomeritis. Boomeritis.integralnaked. Graves. 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 44 Graves. 2010. Wilber. 9. The Ever-Present Origin (Ohio University Press.au. The Illusions of Postmodernism (London: Wiley-Blackwell. 2006. Integral Vision. That We See. 26. “What We Are. Wilber.org Wilber. See Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. 25. Integral Spirituality.40 41 42 43 Jean Gebser. Wilber.integralnaked. Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values. PDF Accessed May 3.kenwilber. Cowan. Never Ending Quest. Part II: What Is the Real Meaning of This?” Blog post at www. Clare W. June 11. and colour coding each level or “vMeme” for easy reference. Graves on Human Nature A Treatise on an emergent cyclical conception of adult behavioral systems and their development (Santa Barbara: Eclet. 270 64 . 2005). 2009). Gebser. Beck and Cowen have expanded and simplified Graves theories to make them more accessible for a broader audience (particularly for the lucrative business management market). Boomeritis. transpersonal awareness in which horizontal and vertical transcendence are indistinguishable from spiritual attainment. 42. The Never Ending Quest: Dr. http:// www. 2009. Integral Naked website. 35. Wilber and Beck began adding a third-tier of consciousness to account for mystical. 24.com. Wilber. replacing the original “values” system with “value memes” to indicate the viral nature of shifts in consciousness. Wilber. but for the purposes of this argument an analysis of these nascent stages is unnecessary. Boomeritis. http:// www. Wilber. Wilber. Eye to Eye. Ever-Present Origin. Eye to Eye. 28-29. 58. Boomeritis. 35. 19:16 (accessed June 10. Boomeritis. 1996). Ever-Present Origin. Boomeritis. 29. 60 61Wilber. 30. Clare W. 36. Ken Wilber. Accessed June 15. Eye to Eye. The evolutionary end of humanity. tells Neo he “scared the bejesus out of him.com 72 73 Ken Wilber. For an excellent analysis of The Matrix trilogy’s relationship with Buddhism. Alfassa. 2003). The Collected Works of the Mother. 247. 240. 2004). representing Judas. The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. 101-110. Wilber has been quick to subscribe this lack of acceptance to the dominance of postmodernism in late capitalist Boomer culture. William Irwin (Chicago: Open Court Publishing. http://www. 1991).kenwilber. 12:94. 28. The Two Sides of Perversion.” in The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real. see Stephen Faller. The Matrix Reloaded. Directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski.” Online video. Cypher. http://integrallife. 2004). 156. Directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. (2001. Directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. DVD. trans. would effect the refashioning of corporeality and nature at will. Allan David Bloom (New York: Basic Books. “The Markers of Second–Tier Consciousness. Louis: Chalice Press. “What We Are. essentially transforming the Real into the virtual. and Neo’s sacrifice and apparent crucifixion in the final moments of Matrix Revolutions. Part II: What Is the Real Meaning of This?” 19:16. 77 There are numerous other instances in the films constructing Neo as a Christ figure – for instance the character. The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix (Pinon Press: Colorado Springs. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books. http:www. 115. 105 Wilber. mirroring the 72 hours or 3 days of Jesus’ rising again. Accessed June 08. and for a comprehensive reading of the films’ Gnostic themes. then. ed. 1999. Jeff Salzman. 1974). it takes Neo 72 seconds to reanimate after Agent Smith shoots him. 2009. 66 Mirra Alfassa. Accessed 4 June 2009. ed.com/learn/deep-end/markers-second-tier-consciousness 70 71 69 Ibid. 67 68 Alfassa. 2002). That We See. (Twin Lakes: Lotus Press. Accessed June 10. Sydney: Silver Productions) DVD. (2001. see Chris Sealy & Greg Garrett. a stance he has moved away from in recent years. 2006. Sydney: Silver Productions) DVD. Collected Works. 74 75 76 See Friedrich Nietzsche. Brief Theory of Everything. Alfassa also maintained that this ‘supramentalisation’ of the physical body would engender the discovery of a deep but physical level of consciousness capable of radically restructuring the body and the laws of nature in a very radical way. The Republic of Plato. “The Matrix: Or. or virtually emergent. 15:27. Collected Works. In the past.” The Matrix and Philosophy. For a full description of the links between The Matrix trilogy and Christianity. Sydney: Silver Productions. Matrix Revolutions. Eye of Spirit. 78 79 80 Wilber. Ken Wilber blog.kenwilber. Beyond the Matrix: Revolutions and Revelations (St.65 See for example. See Slavoj Zizek. “There is No Spoon: A Buddhist Mirror. Vol 5. see Michael Brannigan.com The Matrix. 271 . §108. “The Matrix and Plato’s Cave: Why the Sequels Failed. The Production of Space (London: Wiley-Blackwell. Larry Wachowski. Sigmund Freud. Myriam Diaz-Diocaretz and Stefan Herbrechter (New York: Rodopi. 85 86 87 This psychoanalytic reading still resides within the upper left quadrant as it makes an exterior reading of an author’s interiority during the creation of the text. 69. April 19 (1999). Maria Fernandez. “The Matrix.com/apply/art-entertainment/manymeanings-matrix-transcript.” Journal of Popular Culture 35 (2001): 191-192. Accessed June 12.” Richard Corliss. “Many Meanings of the Matrix. eds.” in Matrix and Philosophy. Sexual Reproduction. “Popular Metaphysics. and Michelle M.” Online interview featuring Larry Wachowski and Ken Wilber. Wilber. 97 98 99 100 272 . Joshua Clover.” in Matrix in Theory. The Interpretation of Dreams (London: Hogarth Press. 2006). Larry Wachowski. Eye of Spirit.226. Matt Lawrence. Zizek. See Denisa Kera. “Not Begetting the Future: Technological Autochtony.81 See “The Many Meanings of the Matrix. “Technofantasies and Embodiment. Beresin. Faith Wilding.” Time. 88 See David Mischoulon and Eugene V. and the Mythic Structure of The Matrix. Henri Lefebrvre. 109. 82 83 84 For commentary on Plato’s cave allegory and The Matrix see Lou Marinoff. Simulation and The Matrix. William Irwin (Open Court Publishing: 2006). The Matrix (London: BFI Modern Classics. “’The Matrix:’ An Allegory of the Psychoanalytic Journey. ed. Sven Lutzka. 85. Samuel Kimball. 127. 1953). Eye of Spirit. “’The Matrix.” Academic Psychiatry 28:1(Spring 2004). and Don Idhe. 72. 2007. Wright (Brooklyn: Autonomedia. A.” in More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded.” The Matrix in Theory. http://integrallife. “Race in the Construct. 2004). Mischoulon and Beresin. “Simulacra. 32. 517. 2004).” Wilber. in Matrix in Theory. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (New York: Perseus Books.” Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices. 92 93 94 95 96 Lisa Nakamura. 65. 107. eds. 2003). 211. 1991). 89 90 91 Sigmund Freud. or the Construction of Race: New Media and Old Identities in The Matrix. 392. “Many Meanings of the Matrix. 2000). 264.” 72. Like a Splinter in Your Mind: The Philosophy of The Matrix (London: Wiley-Blackwell. Jacques Derrida.” Writing and Difference (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. It could be shown that all names related to fundamentals. or to the centre have always designated an invariable presence – eidos. transcendentality. 279. and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences. 1997). and Dissemination (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. The Plague of Fantasies (Verso: London.101 According to Derrida. energia. 19-20. “Deconstruction in America: an Interview with Jacques Derrida. God.” Critical Exchange 17 (1985): 12. 1981)..” See Jacques Derrida in “Structure. 1978). aletheia. Harman with Jane Clark.” 273 . Metaphysics. the ‘transcendental signified’ is an imagined fixed point outside the system of signification. He makes it quite clear that God is a paradigm of the transcendental signified: “The history of metaphysics … is the determination of Being as presence in all senses of this word. Slavoj Žižek.New Metaphysics of Modern Science (Sausalito. man. ousia. and so forth. consciousness. 1994). to principles. 54. 160. arche. eds. CA: Institute of Noetic Sciences. 102 103 104 This process is currently being played out across Integral’s online forums and web communities as Wilber’s transcendent project morphs from theoretical reflection to secular spiritual enterprise. the machine Neo speaks to at the conclusion of Revolutions is called the “Deus Ex Machina. 105 See Willis W. 106 107 In the original script. Bergson. telos. Sign. CONCLUSION HACKING THE ABYSS: Across and Between Modernism. Postmodernism. and Transmodernism 274 . Passing from hardware to software. making us faster and smarter. we imagine the machines we create in turn recreate us. – Michael Serres 2 We are part of something much larger. Wait. megalopolises of language exchanges. the incompletion is the ordinary state of affairs. the celestial Jerusalem or a classless society. that we are centres who receive and transmit. not simply for societies but also for individuals. the material to the logic. – Michael Marshall Smith3 Since the industrial revolution ruptured the feudal lives of workers and propelled them into a new world where the logic of the machine would dominate the majority of their waking hours. – Umberto Boccioni1 Our Jerusalem is made up of software. that it is indeed an underlying condition of continued technological progress. so that we are indissolubly connected to everything. Such a desire for transcendence via technological means also taps into longstanding 275 . the tower of Babel turns over. cities of God. We are making ready for the kingdom of the spirit.Don’t forget that life resides in the unity of energy. the place of god. and with it the point of its text. allowing us to transcend our normative selves and achieve a future state of perfection. synthesis and unity finding themselves asymptomatically. In the old days. The technological imaginary suggests that this usurpation of figurative perfection is always imminent. The progress of technology in late capitalist culture is increasingly linked metaphorically to a profound transformation. Caught up in a collective first world fascination with machine progress. This ideology of technological innovation offers subjects the fantasy of ‘taking the perfect father’s place’ that is. being has been mediated by technology. lack of completion used to come in whenever all was said and done… nowadays. bailiwicks of the Word. for the end of history to see the realization of the promise rise up at last. then. The icon of the machine has therefore become a catalyst for thinking about an always-incipient transformation of the Self towards perfection. the Internet. to better describe the subjective effects of incessant technological change. This thesis has demonstrated that the artists. If. evident in texts ranging from the Upanishads to Scientology. as Sartre supposed. remains. and virtual realities. the desire for transcendence. Where encounters with new technologies instigate a breakdown in translatability – that is. The literature of technological change is suffused with the language of transcendence in both its horizontal and vertical forms. we have seen that contemporary culture’s fascination with the transcendent heart of modern technology can be traced back to the early years of the twentieth century in Italian Futurism’s avant-garde incursions into the logic of technological speed. updating them for a new technological milieu in which the logic of perpetual change effects instantaneous transformations in culture. and if thanks to the auspices of postmodern theory. to exceed the boundaries of knowledge and consciousness. In a secular society that has killed off god. in the case of The Matrix trilogy secular spiritual movements. film texts. increasingly separating the material from the spiritual in its quest to become a creator in its own right. By inserting the language of vertical transcendence into its 276 . T R A N S C E N D I N G PA R A D I G M S : W H E R E T H E V E R T I C A L M E E T S T H E H O R I Z O N TA L Throughout this thesis. when normative similes can no longer adequately describe a technological experience – the idiom of vertical transcendence is employed to cover the gap in signification. of yearning to be Other than we are.notions of mystical transcendence. and placed the human Self at the centre of creation. there is now also a subject-shaped hole at the heart of culture. The conflation of horizontal transcendence (as a marker of social change) and vertical transcendence (as a means of becoming god) further compounds this interconnectivity between technology and spirituality. writers. and reveals the dialectical play between concepts of change and changelessness inherent in narratives of progress and evolution. and science fiction television it has examined convert traditional mystical metaphors of transcendence from Gnostic gospels to Buddhist scripture and. there is a god-shaped hole at the heart of the subject. where does the Self as creator look to assuage its desire for the Other? 4 Into the heart of its new creations – the computer. decisively ensuring spiritual and technological metaphors are inextricably entwined in western culture. 5 Guided by the philosophies of Bergson and Nietzsche. Italian Futurism remained open to the logic of the trans. where heterogeneity. difference. the movement firmly established an aesthetic link between technology and mysticism. providing a blueprint for both mass culture and subsequent technospiritual literature. that is. in also positing a postmodern beyond. including cyberpunk and cyberfeminism. Marinetti’s theories of technological progress foreshadowed the elaboration of a postmodern moment in late capitalist culture. each technological advance was always fuelled by a concomitant desire to transcend into otherness. and the possibility of transmodernism remained emergent rather than realised in Futurist theories of technoculture. and information technologies have decisively shrunk the earth by speed. And yet. like nature and the body. particularly in the genre of science fiction. His dream of the multiplied man’s becoming reached fruition in the multiplied body of cyberspace. For the Futurists. returning to images of the sacred to articulate the transformations that occur when its characters exchange their 277 . Futurist metaphors for technological change are therefore entirely confluent with contemporary technoculture. realised in the apotheosis of their machine dreams – the “multiplied man” who would be better equipped to exist in “a world of ceaseless shocks” of the new. ensuring in the process the continuation of a modern avant-garde project of rupture and revolution ad infinitum. theoretical anarchy. cyberpunk continued this technological flight from the body that is simultaneously a flight from the feminine. the Futurists’ construction of technological transformation simultaneously marked the twentieth-century’s tradition of purging the feminine from technoculture. At the opposite end of the twentieth century. writing her off as either a machine to be assimilated by man or a force. However.” and therefore beyond language. They imagined that the coupling of their bodies with machines might allow them to directly tap this source of creative renewal.accounts of rapid technological revolution. it prepared the way for the transmodern. As such. demonstrating that a modernist transcendence of the self still ceaselessly informed subjective technological constructions in the postmodern era. his desire to replace space with speed is absolutely realised in the instantaneity of data flow across the world wide web. cyberpunk’s matrix hinted at a disembodied “illuminated landscape beyond textuality. In yearning for an integration with otherness. that would posit a resistance to transcendence in favour of more material concerns. it was unable to fully acknowledge the feminine as Futurism’s Other. the Futurists rewrote the logic of changelessness as a perpetually dynamic and creative drive that gave rise to eternal flux. and subjective chaos would be the inevitable precursor to the transcendence of the multiplied man. refiguring Marinetti’s multiplied man as a multiplied body that synthesizes projected subjectivities in cyberspace with the visceral body that anchors them outside the machine.6 Cyberpunk texts were also supplemented by a mystical language of immediate vertical transcendence into Otherness. reimagining the insertion of the subject’s mind into data technologies as an opportunity to resurrect the Gnostic quest to know everything and therefore become god. consuming. displacing traditional yearnings for transcendence onto the computer drive. Woman therefore became a passive. stripped of its ability to manufacture meaning within this paradigm. In transmodernism what was once obscured is again revealed and celebrated as part of a complex tapestry of signification. on. Further. to be possessed/mutilated/colonised by a technology controlled predominantly by men. avant-garde cyberfeminism moved to redress the problem of disembodiment in narratives of technophilia since the Futurists. refused access to technological transcendence by her inscription as machine.meat for a pure mind space in. to perpetuate an illusion of self-control. at the historical moment in which it would seem religious myths and metaphors would be definitively erased by the secular promise of machine innovation. Just as metaphysics resurfaces in technocultural literature. instituting an intimate relationship between man as divine. and between information machines. becomes the space onto which (auto)erotic fantasies about technological power are played out. Transmodernism represents the potential to bring our disavowed others back into the light of investigation. and consumed body onto which technological experiments could be carried out. so too did Italian Futurism and cyberpunk’s neat disavowal of the feminine as agential reproductive force set the conditions for a cyberfeminist reversal of technospiritual metaphors that claimed virtual technologies as irrevocably masculine. as in Futurism’s celebration of the automobile. Early avant-garde cyberfeminism viewed the mystical symbolism rampant in technocultural fictions as “a self-narrating story of the drive to resist the inexplicable. Such relationships can also be read as unconditionally bypassing biological modes of reproduction and thus consigning the feminine to the position of sexual signifier.”7 The technophile’s manipulation of technology could therefore be exposed as a dream of ultimate power. The multiplied body of 278 . technology as his divine creation and. The feminine body. the marginal. the Movement sought to reinscribe data machines as gods. and in doing so reclaim their subversive power to revitalize cultural discourse. the feminine as artificial construction simply provides a mirror for the technophile’s dreams of self-divination. of standing god-like on the threshold of a completely man-made system. By reconstructing information technologies as metaphorically female. that is. Ken Wilber’s secular mystical project. Flawed as its practical applications may sometimes be. transfeminist approach would. synthesises the threads of change and changelessness. the project intimates what transmodernity might look like in the future. a divergence that may indeed revitalise theory. such as emphasising the importance of feminist difference online. and practice.8 A transmodern. it maps the process of accumulating all forms of knowledge – spiritual and technological. In highlighting the transcendent drive that underlies all representations of culture. theorising. Wilber’s integral project seeks a real world application of vertical transcendence on a grand scale. and reinserting the net’s disavowed others – those without easy access to online media effectively silenced by the world wide web’s chatter – with “tactical texts. At the turn of millennium. artwords. cancelling out Cartesian longing. It marks the successful opening up of a transmodern perspective on technoculture that would seek to integrate masculine and feminine technological transcendence as connected elements of a single narrative about technocultural desire. subjective and objective. and bringing into being a synthesis that is both/ neither. It indicates an escape from postmodernity’s termination of hermeneutics.9 The task. early avant-garde cyberfeminism had already begun to be criticised for its a-political stance on real women’s bodies. however. integral theory.cyberspace establishes the interconnectivity of transcendence and immanence as surely as it reunites mind and body. Wilber’s holarchic analytic model expands our understanding of the locus and meaning of culture at a time when the culmination of postmodern despair about the future had almost been reached. seek a balance between ‘old’ cyberfeminism’s revolutionary fervour for using online media to imagine a radically transgender future for bodies multiplied by the machine with ‘new’ cyberfeminism’s important activism and inclusionary tactics for all corporeality in the here/now. showing how necessary each is for the continued transmodern evolution of thought. replaced by a ‘new’ form of cyberfeminism that sought to counteract utopian zeal about new online technologies and transcendence with more practical feminist concerns. mystic and scientific. therefore. interior and exterior – onto a continuum that lightly weighs each body of information according to its strengths and then asks how these might also be transcended in the future. 279 . however. and contestational projects” to create an engaged feminist net theory politics. for a transgender transfeminism is to short circuit (or “hack the abyss” between) the traditional antithesis between masculine and feminine by envisioning. but particularly in the creative forces that compel us to transcend. integral theory portents a revaluing of ontology and a metaphysics of presence while remaining wise to their tendency to homogenise. Wilber sees the trace of what was once called ‘god’ everywhere. It is persistent renewal and eternal return. we need to work a little wonder into our lives. but because they form part of a mosaic of meaning that constitutes what it means to be 280 . but with a witting nod to the process of culture’s perpetual becoming. Meaning is therefore reconstructed as inclusive. transmodernism transforms the modern and also transcends it. interconnected. beauty. As Paul C. the placing of knowledge systems side by side to see where they connect and better understand why some systems do not. Integral theory preserves the basic lesson of postmodernism – that meaning is context-dependent. reinserting the ‘Big Questions’ back into the fields of discourse – morality. the disavowed other of a postmodern milieu. sometimes. and contexts are boundless – but takes the message one-step further. and always open to the infinite play of interpretation. It is forthright about its celebration of transcendence. it transforms itself into transmodernity. A TRANSMODERN END TO POSTMODERNISM? Transmodernism seeks to revisit these questions not because they are inherently true. At its best. an understanding that our mythologies. still have thaumaturgical power over us and that. Wilber’s work also reminds us that technological transcendence is just one of many contradictory threads transmodernism seeks to reveal in contemporary culture. It welcomes the long overdue rebalancing of postmodernism’s dance of meaninglessness with the return of signification and purpose. Transmodernity is interconnectivity laid bare. seeing it as part of the perpetually creative force that impels revolution by embodying both change and changelessness simultaneously. spiritual or otherwise.imbuing late capitalist culture with a sense of the sacred. truth. both vertical and horizontal. fuelled by a growing sense of the interconnectivity that occurs with the multiplicity and diversity of information.10 As modernity undergoes a process of exponential change. Vitz has noted. ethics. Yet. It further reveals the ubiquitous hold of the metaphysical on metaphors of progress and evolution and suggests that the next stage in philosophical thought may indeed require an ironic re-evaluation of the role metaphysics plays in constructing our attitudes to being-in-the-world. spirit – while remaining wary of their potential to generalise. by suggesting that the whole is as dependent on its parts as they are on the whole. On the one hand. it is as Michael Marshall Smith has written: … there is some fundamental need in humanity which requires the inexplicable to be at the heart of our lives. On the other. the “gnoseological vigour” of grand narratives has waned but not our “logical and social need for them. unnecessary. if only as a way of maintaining an illusion of totality. Kevin Kelly’s derivative gods.12 This work is testament to the emerging desire for synthesis and re-construction in western culture.11 This re-examination of grand narratives has begun in the creative industries. 281 . the attraction of places without paths that is the requisite ground of creativity. all is an expression of a very human desire to know and transform. and therefore require review and resignification. The task for an emerging transmodern criticism is not easy – it will require a light balancing of opposing dichotomies in order to ensure the value of each is retained. and their work constitutes a search for completeness in the face of previous theoretical assuredness that such wholeness can never exist. one. In championing the always new. as Magda has suggested. Contemporary artists and writers have started to re-signify rather than re-appropriate the motifs and tropes of the past.human. an evolution that wants to both transcend and include. creating the constant destabilisation of meaning that in turn fuels cultural and critical enquiry. not the return of God. It is cognisant of the incipient threat of Fascism that lies within the desire for constant transcendence but also acknowledges that to disavow this threat is to bestow upon it unnecessary power. Ultimately transmodernism represents the evolution of cultural beliefs. transcendence – that dynamic force that makes connections and reveals deus sive natura – all is. In shedding investigative light on all such possibilities it seeks to hold them in check.” and thus we must pragmatically re-examine them to understand their place on a continuum of knowledge. it understands it may some day be overcome like Marinetti’s huddled Futurists. The transmodern impulse wants to be transparent about all processes of becoming and being as all/neither. but of godhead – that is. which requires that our destiny be shaped by intangible forces. and so the need to throw the baby out with the bathwater is negated – disavowed discourses are simply part of a holarchy of signification that once offered something of value to human enquiry. In doing so it will reveal that exploring the margins of culture and thus privileging marginal discourse has the potential to displace old centralising arguments themselves to the outskirts of criticism. as Vermeulen and van den Akker have already noted. retaining and revealing that which was once thought lost. or Wilber’s Wyatt Earpy. What was once renounced returns. Spirituality is also back on the prospectus. on some level. Maybe we need places with no paths to them. or misplaced. 1992). R. 1992). 1997). What will be important to remember is that transmodernism is always marked by a constant state of transformation. and David Brin (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. This thesis has endeavoured to map out a number of ways by which this open-ended analysis can be undertaken. Genevieve James & James Nielson (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.” Variant 14 (1993): 17. Being and Nothingness: a phenomenological essay on ontology. through paradigms. Sadie Plant. 125. Bruce Sterling. Barnes (New York: Washington Square Press. ed. 2 1 Michel Serres. 1973). and transforms the closed universe of theory into a more open and inclusive critical enterprise that better reflects the hopes of a new millennium. H.Thus transmodernism begins the work of confronting both modernism and postmodernism with their own simulations of theoretical totality. 1998). “Situating Cyberfeminism.T. an aware internet. Fernandez and Wilding. Marinetti. antithesis. oscillating between the positive momentum of modernism and postmodern emptiness to usher in a new sense of interconnectivity that renews itself at the speed of information. and synthesis while always remaining receptive to the revelations of the new.” in Futurist Manifestoes. but as the field of transmodernism continues to develop it is clear that other comparative perspectives will emerge to deepen and diversify our understanding of theory’s direction after the waning of postmodernism. 135. 5 F. As its dictionary definition suggests. The task for future transmodernists is. across. 92. “Futurist Painting Sculpture: Plastic Dynamism. Notes Umberto Boccioni. Michael Marshall Smith. 282 . ed. 82.” 24. thoroughly changing all our carefully constructed theoretical labels in the process. the trans necessarily functions beyond limits. Umbro Appollonio (New York: Viking Press. The World’s Only Hygiene. “Beyond the Screens: Film. 6 7 8 9 The italicised ‘transgender’ (beyond. trans. trans. David Porush. and cyberpunk librarians: the 1992 LITA president's program: presentations by Hans Moravec. Genesis. “Multiplied Man and the Reign of the Machine” in War. across boundaries. Cyberpunk and Cyberfeminism. 3 4 Jean-Paul Sartre. and thoroughly changing gender) is employed here as a way to differentiate it from ‘transgender’ (real human bodies living across gender). 523. Thinking robots. 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