Scanned Clean: (Re)Reading the Work of Michael Marshall Smith in the Digital Age
Sweeney, David (2019) Scanned Clean: (Re)Reading the Work of Michael Marshall Smith in the Digital Age. Subterranean Press, USA. ISBN 1645240754
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Creators/Authors: | Sweeney, David |
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Abstract: | Remarkable at the time of their original publication in the 1990s for their representation of contemporary anxieties and desires over emerging technology - particularly networked digital communications, surveillance and archiving systems - the novels and short stories of Michael Marshall Smith remain so today in their prescience. In the '90s, Marshall Smith's publisher, HarperCollins, used the strap-line 'MMS: Where do you want to go tomorrow?' – a play on Microsoft's second corporate branding campaign, launched in 1994 with the slogan 'Where do you want to go today?' - on paperback editions of his books, emphasising both their speculative and prophetic aspects. In many ways, the 'tomorrows' envisioned by Marshall Smith have arrived in the 21st century, with the rise of what media theorist Henry Jenkins has called 'convergence culture', the 'collision' of old and new media (2008), and the emergence of 'communicative capitalism', the political philosopher Jodi Dean's term for the neoliberal use of networked communication technologies to create the fantasy of 'participation' for users – 'materialized through technological fetishism' (51) – while simultaneously 'depolitizing' them (2006). Works Cited Jenkins, Henry, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press, 2008. Marshall Smith, Michael, The Servants. Northborough, MA, US: Earthling Publications, 2007. |
Official URL: | https://subterraneanpress.com/ |
Output Type: | Book or Monograph |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Michael Marshall Smith; 1990s; internet; science fiction; horror; digital culture |
Schools and Departments: | School of Design > Design History and Theory |
Dates: | Date Date Type 6 May 2019 Accepted |
Status: | In Press |
Funders: | Subterranean Press |
Related URLs: | |
Output ID: | 6897 |
Deposited By: | David Sweeney |
Deposited On: | 07 May 2019 13:22 |
Last Modified: | 15 Mar 2023 14:08 |