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"The Gernsback Continuum" (Score:4, Insightful) by goliard (goliard at weasel dot terc dot edu) on Wednesday November 17, @10:10AM EST (#38) (User Info) |
Is anyone else here reminded of "The Gernsback Continuum" by William Gibson (shortstory in Mirrorshades)? I think Katz' argument is interesting - that there's something noble and tragic in the story of Disney. However, a very different argument has already been made by Gibson. Katz writes: One of Disney's many quirks was that even though he wrapped himself in Americanism and the flag, he was dubious about representative democracy and non-conformist individual expression. His plan was that Epcot would be run by Imagineers and Disney executives, not elected representatives. He probably feared that the all-too-human inhabitants would ruin his technology. Gibson proposes fascism is inherent in that view of technology - in that romance of technology. He wasn't looking at Disney, but at Hugo Gernsback and contemporaries. Gibson wrote, through late 20th century eyes, of what the idealized future of "The Gernsback Continuum" looked like, and it was wholesome, squeeky-clean and fascist to the core. This story is also an explanation of why Cyberpunk happened to science fiction. (That's why it's in the front of the anthology.) That utopian view of the future was so politically naive and inhumane, that younger writers were loathe to embrace it. Dystopia was an antitode to the sugared poison of a "utopia" of an efficient tyranny. Katz is advised to take this under consideration. ---------------------------------------------- Any technology indistinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. |