Dynamic Subspace

D. Harlan Wilson is really making me look bad by recently releasing not one, but two books in the past few months. Here are the details on his most recent non-fiction release, Technologized Desire: Selfhood and the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction (I have a sneaking suspicion that I should look at this before my PhD exams next Spring):

TITLE: Technologized Desire: Selfhood & the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction

AUTHOR: D. Harlan Wilson

PUBLISHER: Guide Dog Books

DATE OF PUBLICATION: June 2009

ISBN (PB): 978-1-933293-73-8

ISBN (HC): 978-1-933293-72-1

PAGES: 208

GENRE: Literary Criticism & Cultural Theory

In Technologized Desire, D. Harlan Wilson measures the evolution of the human condition as it has been represented by postcapitalist science fiction, which has consistently represented the body and subjectivity as ultraviolent pathological phenomena. Operating under the assumption that selfhood is a technology, Wilson studies the emergence of selfhood in philosophy (Deleuze & Guattari), fiction (William S. Burroughs’ cut-up novels and Max Barry’s Jennifer Government), and cinema (Army of Darkness, Vanilla Sky, and the Matrix trilogy) in an attempt to portray the schizophrenic rigor of twenty-first century mediatized life. We are obligated by the pathological unconscious to always choose to be enslaved by capital and its hi-tech arsenal. The universe of consumer-capitalism, Wilson argues, is an illusory prison from which there is no escape—despite the fact that it is illusory.

“Postmodern analysis of science fiction doesn’t get any better than this. Jump in and see how far down the rabbit hole goes.” WILLIAM IRWIN, editor of The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real and More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded

In Technologized Desire, the cultural pathologies that mark the panic ecstasy and terminal doom of the posthuman condition are powerfully rehearsed in the language of science fiction. Here, images of prosthetic subjects, zombies, cut-ups and armies of the medieval dead actually slip off the pages of literature to become the terminal hauntology of these technologized times. Technologized Desire is nothing less than a brilliant data screen of future memories. Read it well: it’s a survival guide for bodies flatlined by the speed of accelerating technology.” Arthur Kroker, author of The Postmodern Scene and Panic Encyclopedia

“Describing an impressively wide arc from high-toned cultural theory to cyberpunk fiction to techno-centered cinema, Wilson advances his theory that ‘the only choice available to the postmodern subject … is rooted in a dependency on … the ultraviolent schizophrenic production of the commodity-self.’ Technologized Desire is a bright, brazen, evocative reading of technology, the body, and the art that is inaccurately labeled science ‘fiction’.” Harold Jaffe, author of Straight Razor, 15 Serial Killers and Beyond the Techno-Cave: A Guerilla Writer’s Guide to Post-Milennial Culture

“D. Harlan Wilson’s Technologized Desire: Selfhood and the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction is a fantastic book. One of the finest theoretical examinations in the field, it is also eminently readable and highly incisive. With this, Wilson has written a major work, one that will stand out (and above) in science fiction studies. Both great fun and wonderfully intelligent, how could you go wrong? Highly recommended.” Gary Hoppenstand, editor of The Journal of Popular Culture