Cyberbolic Techno-Raptures (review of book on Cyberculture)

Leonard, Andrew. "Cyberbolic Techno-Raptures." Rev. Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century, by Mark Dery (New York: Grove, 1996). The Nation 262.22 (3 June 1996): 36-38.

Stresses Dery's sensible balancing of arguments for and against computers and "that the first thing one must grasp about computers is that they are not, in fact, binary . . . . Cyberculture is not black and white, one or zero, this or that. What it is, actually, is a mess" (AL's words, 36). See for AL's contention that "The posthumanists are a weak straw person to counterpoint Dery's frequent allusions to the greater societal problems being submerged by the digital deluge. Dery would have done better to lead more fully into his sights [sic] the real target — Wired-style techno-positivity. It isn't as sexy, and it long ago lost its subcultural cachet, but as far as social reality is concerned, Wired's aestheticizing of techno-politics is the real 'Mechagodzilla'" (38).

RDE, Title, 28Aug19