I would like to begin this blog with a very short discussion of the nature of postmodern. For
Jameson (1991) the postmodern signals the end of the bourgeois ego; it brings with it the end of the ‘unique’ and ‘personal’. In this context liberation of the centred subject may mean liberation from anxiety as well as liberation from feelings of any sort, ‘since there is no longer a self present to do the feeling’ (p. 193). Here postmodern examines issues that are at the centre of the western philosophical tradition. This questioning of the western tradition of the self lends itself to the concept of the ‘cyborg’ and the ‘android’. The term ‘cyborg’ is a diminutive of cybernetic organism. It denotes the merging of machine with organism, this can be anything from a human having a prosthetic arm to a microchip inserted (Mann, 2001, p. 477). The term ‘android’ on the other hand is used to refer to a humanoid robot which is a ‘synthetically created human, usually of organic or biological origin’ (Mann, 2001, p. 465). Both concepts discussed here are popular manifestations in science fiction writing. They are both quite distinct from one another, however, they have a unifying characteristic that is they are not human in the traditional sense. Similarly the three
seminal pieces and the novel that this blog will discuss have a common thread. They, all four, discuss what it is to be post human and human and how the human can be distinguished from the post human. They supply the tools to deconstruct traditional ontological thought and they cross the boundaries of ‘fiction’ and ‘reality’.
Jameson (1991) the postmodern signals the end of the bourgeois ego; it brings with it the end of the ‘unique’ and ‘personal’. In this context liberation of the centred subject may mean liberation from anxiety as well as liberation from feelings of any sort, ‘since there is no longer a self present to do the feeling’ (p. 193). Here postmodern examines issues that are at the centre of the western philosophical tradition. This questioning of the western tradition of the self lends itself to the concept of the ‘cyborg’ and the ‘android’. The term ‘cyborg’ is a diminutive of cybernetic organism. It denotes the merging of machine with organism, this can be anything from a human having a prosthetic arm to a microchip inserted (Mann, 2001, p. 477). The term ‘android’ on the other hand is used to refer to a humanoid robot which is a ‘synthetically created human, usually of organic or biological origin’ (Mann, 2001, p. 465). Both concepts discussed here are popular manifestations in science fiction writing. They are both quite distinct from one another, however, they have a unifying characteristic that is they are not human in the traditional sense. Similarly the three
seminal pieces and the novel that this blog will discuss have a common thread. They, all four, discuss what it is to be post human and human and how the human can be distinguished from the post human. They supply the tools to deconstruct traditional ontological thought and they cross the boundaries of ‘fiction’ and ‘reality’.
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