Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-083: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • ENGL 2116 sec. 083 Major Assignments (Summer 2020)
      • Final Portfolio Requirements
      • Oral Presentations
    • June 11th: Continue with I, Robot
    • June 15th: Ethics and Perspective Discussion
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Homework
      • Ethical Dilemmas to Ponder
      • Mapping Our Personal Ethics
    • June 16th: More on Ethics
    • June 1st: Effective Documents for Users
    • June 2nd: Final Project and Research Discussion
      • Epistemology and Other Fun Research Ideas
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters Better
      • Research
    • June 3rd: Technology in a Social Context
    • June 8th: Information Design and Visuals
    • June 9th: Proposals, Marketing, and Rhetoric
    • May 18th: Introduction to the course
    • May 19th: Critical Technological Awareness
    • May 20th: Audience, Purpose, and General Introduction
    • May 21st: Résumé Stuff
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • May 25th: More Resume Stuff
    • May 26th: Plain Language and Prose Revision
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • May 27th: More on Plain Language
    • May 28th: Review Prose Revision
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • February 3rd: I’m in Love with the Shape of You(r Sentences)
    • January 20th: Introduction to the Course
    • January 27th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Spring 2021)
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 4750-090 & ENGL 5050-092 Video Games & Culture
    • Assignments for Video Games & Culture
    • August 25th: Introduction to the Course
    • November 10th: Aggression & Addiction
    • November 3rd: Moral Panics and Health Risks
    • October 13th: Narrative, ludology, f(r)iction
    • October 20th: Serious Games
    • October 27: Risky Business?
    • October 6th: Hyperreality
    • September 1st: History of Video Games
    • September 22nd: Video Game Aesthetics
    • September 29th: (sub)Cultures and Video Games
    • September 8th: Defining Video Games and Critical Theory Introduction
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 13th: Umberto Eco & Jean Baudrillard
    • April 20th: Moving Forward on Theory
    • April 27th: Last Day of Class
    • April 6th: Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition
      • What is Postmodernism?
    • February 10th: St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
      • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • February 17th: Knoblauch on Magical and Ontological Rhetoric
    • February 24th: Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method
    • February 3rd: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 and 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • January 13th: Introduction to Class
    • January 27th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 16th: Friedrich Nietzsche
    • March 23rd: Mythologies and Meaning of Meaning (part 2)
    • March 30th: Derrida’s (refusal to have) Positions
    • March 9th: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213/HTAS 2100: Science, Technology, and Society
    • December 10th: Violence in Video Games
    • December 15th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • December 1st: COVID-19 facial covering rhetoric
    • December 3rd: COVID-19 Transmission and Pandemics
    • December 8th: 500-word Essay
    • November 10th: Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 12th: Frankenstein (1818) Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 17th: Frankenstein (1818) Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 19th: Frankenstein (1818) Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 3rd: Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 1-17
    • November 5th: Planet of the Apes (1964) Ch. 18-26
    • October 13th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • October 15th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • October 1st: The Golem at Large Introduction & Ch. 1
    • October 22nd: The Time Machine
    • October 29th: H.G. Wells and Adaptations
    • October 6th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology) Ch. 2
    • October 8th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 3 & 4
    • September 10th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • September 15th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • September 17th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • September 22nd: Collins & Pinch Ch. 5 & 6
    • September 24th: Collins & Pinch Ch. 7 & Conclusion
    • September 29th: Test 1
    • September 8th: Introduction to Class
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 280F
Phone: 704.687.0613
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020) » June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”

June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”

Overview

  • “Preface” and “Introduction” to Burning Chrome
  • Japanification of American Culture
  • “Johnny Mnemonic” Notes

“Preface” and “Introduction” to Burning Chrome

I want to explain a bias I have. Well, it’s not just my bias; it’s a contemporary English professor bias called the intentional fallacy. Basically, a text’s meaning does not come ONLY from the author’s (or director’s or creator’s) intended meaning. Therefore, the author is not the sole or final arbiter of what a text means. Even though I take a more cultural studies approach–texts are products of the culture from which they come–I don’t want to imply that an author’s intent is irrelevant to a text’s meaning. I just don’t want you to assume that it’s the last word or that no other interpretation is possible. Most (good) authors and artists will say in interviews that they hope their audience takes away from it their own interpretations. That being said…William Gibson is from Conway, SC, but grew up in Norfolk, VA. It’s safe to say he might base the idea of the sprawl on the growth of Myrtle Beach and Virginia Beach. There’s a paper in that!

As you read Bruce Sterling‘s “Preface” and William Gibson’s “Introduction,” just remember that it’s not the final word, but they do help guide you on interpretations. One interesting point to ponder might be why Gibson claims he didn’t feel science fiction from Asimov and Heinlein “did it” for him; they weren’t loose enough with their take on the historical moment (p xvi).* I certainly have critiques of Asimov, and I think Gibson should be credited for taking science fiction into an more mature place, but even Gibson isn’t without critique…more on that later.

*I would argue that Asimov was questioning our assumptions of history, and he wasn’t writing from “fixed assumptions of history” (p. xvi). Gibson was just further into postmodernity–which questions all grand narratives–so he himself had a different reference point. Not better but different in context.

Sterling’s “Preface”

Sterling, who is a cyberpunk science fiction writer, sets readers up for Gibson’s works. Pay attention to the gloomy picture he portrays, affectionately, of Gibson’s short stories.

  • p. xii: “[Gibson’s] densely packed baroque stories….[evoke]…a credible future….that many scifi writers have been ducking for years.”
  • p. xxi: “[I]n the Sprawl stories we see a future that is recognizably and painstakingly drawn from the modern condition.”
    • Ponder this a second…Is this a world you believe we inhabit? Obviously, the Sprawl is an allusion to modern life, but are we that far gone?
    • What comes with sprawl and overpopulation? Pollution, disease, poverty, resource depletion.
  • p. xiii: “[Gibson’s] characters are a pirate’s crew of losers, hustlers, spin-offs, castoffs, and lunatics.”
    • “In Gibson’s work we find ourselves in the streets and alleys, in a realm of sweaty, white-knuckled survival.”
    • They sound like great people to me. Please notice the way men are portrayed versus how women are portrayed.
  • p. xiv: “[Gibson] is a devotee of…’invisible literature’: that permeating flow of scientific reports, government documents, and specialized advertising that shapes our culture below the level of recognition.”
    • There’s a lot of stuff packed into the above quote, but I want you to focus on “…that shapes our culture…” because Sterling is pointing to broad cultural communication that shapes our view of the world but we don’t recognize it. For instance:
      • Advertising…how else do they sell all that unnecessary stuff to us?
      • Science…who filters the new scientific information to us? Are we able to understand high-level science without advanced degrees?
      • Government…why do we continue to vote for the same politicians over and over again? The same people who dictate where our tax dollars go, what the rules are, and how we can voice our concerns.

William Gibson’s “Introduction”

  • p. xvi: “The writers who made science fiction do what for me was its most magic thing seemed to inhabit a more urban universe, a universe with more moving parts, one in which more questions could be asked (if far fewer definitively answered).”
  • p. xvii: On his four-year writing of “Johnny Mnemonic”–“I had paused to observe, as an age-designated noncombatant, the phenomenon of punk rock, which also has its place in the source code.”
    • If you aren’t sure what punk rock was (past tense…there hasn’t been punk rock–real punk rock–since 1986), it’s irreverent music (or noise) that attempts to give voice to the angst of a generation, but, being avant-garde, it’s doomed to fall out of vogue and die from its followers maturity.
    • It’s a gritty, in-your-face type of music that cares little for artistry and more about velocity and volume.

Japanification of American Culture in the 1980s

What you’ll need to take my word for (assuming you weren’t alive and viable from 1985-1995), is that Gibson was projecting a future where Asian culture infiltrated and overtook Western–American and European–traditions. Prior to 1980, the West (America, Western Europe, Australia, Canada) was king economically and politically, but the recessions of the 1970s (and early 1980s) left a void open for Asian manufacturers, who were already the outsource of choice for American companies wanting to make cheaper products (and pass the savings on to you…). Japanese culture was the big export to the United States during the 1980s. We–yes, I was viable during this time period–were provided with tons of movies, TV Shows, video games, and (beginning stages) food inspired by Japan. Nintendo is a Japanese Company, which blew Atari away when they introduced the NES in 1985! Concurrently, you have Ku Fu films giving way to ninja- and samurai-themed texts and characters: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G. I. Joe, Chuck Norris, and American Ninja. This was also the era where martial arts in general was major popular culture material: The Karate Kid.

The above you can be sure I’m accurate about the way Japanese and Asian culture weaved into American pop culture. As far as food goes, I’m providing you a loose, subjective prospective. Japanese steakhouses* (like Benihana) had been around since the 1960s, but they didn’t gain pop culture popularity (seen in film and TV) until the 1980s. Sushi…that delicious cuisine…was also not ubiquitous as it is today, but, in the 1980s, we started to recognize it on TV and in films. Granted, it was often satirized and made out to be unpalatable in some films and TV shows, but we became conscious of the cuisine during the 1980s. Even William Gibson has a sushi bar scene in “New Rose Hotel,” our next reading (p. 118). I mention all this because Gibson is writing during a time when Asian economic influences inspired him (and the other writers and creators at the time) to think about future worlds where Western and Eastern cultures collide. He’s not being xenophobic; instead, he’s articulating a future where “if this continues…” American culture–the nation, in fact–will look different, and America won’t be the biggest entity around. Also, although they had been growing for decades, the 1980s was the time pop culture got a look at multinational corporations: Back to the Future II and RoboCop.

Even if I’m wrong about the extent of Japanification we had in the 1980s, please recognize that is was significant even if it wasn’t dominant or dominated all aspects of American culture. By the way, I never once mentioned Sony…Let your imaginations go there!

*I didn’t eat sushi until 1999, and I didn’t eat at a Japanese Steakhouse until 2001. My future ex-wife and her family loved those steakhouses, and I did too. Now, I go to Nakato for sushi…I sit at the bar so as not to risk the chance of being seated at the same grill.

“Johnny Mnemonic”

I’m just going to admit right now that I’ve never seen this film (from 1996…even I wasn’t legal to drink in that year).

I think there’s a love story here (and in the next two short stories), but I want to direct our attention to the following parts:

  • p. 2: Notice that new technologies–throughout Gibson’s work–augment human abilities. In the 1980s (especially the early 1980s), cosmetic surgery was for the ABSOLUTELY rich and not the middle class. Gibson projects into a future where humans augment their senses with implanted technologies, thus, becoming cyborgs.
  • p. 3: If you read Neuromancer, you’ll see how Gibson is a fan of Reggae, but I’m not sure why he brings up “Christian White of the Aryan Reggae Band, Sony Mao…final champion of race rock.”
    • Fortunately, good science fiction isn’t about predicting the future; otherwise, there would be a resurgence of white nationalism in this country today.
  • p. 6: Molly Millions’s “mirrored lenses were surgical inlays.”
  • p. 9: “The Yakuza is a true multinational, like ITT and Ono-Sendai. Fifty years before I was born the Yakuza had already absorbed the Triads, the Mafia, the Union Corse.”
  • p. 13: The military gets a dolphin addicted to heroine in order to make it work for them.
    • What kind of people porpoise-ly (that’s a joke, btw) get a dolphin addicted to drugs?
  • p. 17: “We’re an information economy….it’s impossible to move, to live, to operate at any level without leaving traces, bits, seemingly meaningless fragments of personal information. Fragments that can be retrieved.”
    • Good thing none of those concerns exist today…
    • When issues of privacy come up in classes I teach, I like to mention that when I was in college (mid-1990s), professors would post our grades on their doors and list us by…our social security numbers. Both my driver’s license number and student ID were my social security number. Times have changed.
  • p. 18: “The Yakuza….[steal] from Ono-Sendai as a matter of course and politely [hold] their data for ransom.”
    • See ransonmware
  • p. 19: Johnny claims to have “spent most of [his] life as a blind receptacle to be filled with other people’s knowledge.”
    • Perhaps this is a metaphor for the way we absorb/consume information and pass it along without understanding or scrutinizing the source.

Future Stuff

Keep on reading! Tomorrow I have us scheduled for “New Rose Hotel.” These Gibson short stories–“Johnny Mnemonic,” “New Rose Hotel,” and “Burning Chrome”–are part of his Sprawl Trilogy, and he has three novels in the series also–Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986), and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988). I’m stunned at how much The Matrix is inspired by Neuromancer, but I don’t think the The Wachowskis ever gave Gibson credit. Oh well, it isn’t the first time. Enjoy!

This past semester, I taught Neuromancer (1984) and Count Zero (1986) in ENGL 4275 “Rhetorical Theory.” They were scheduled for after Spring Break, so we didn’t get to have face-to-face discussions on the novels. If you’re interested in learning more about Gibson’s novels (be aware there are spoilers), go to that class’s webpage (linked above), and scroll down to March 16th’s page.

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