Alan N. Shapiro, Hypermodernism, Hyperreality, Posthumanism

Blog and project archive about media theory, science fiction theory, and creative coding

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Fiktion ist der Schlüssel zu kreativen Lösungen, von Alan N. Shapiro

June 25th, 2019 in the categories: Fiction, Future Design

Der Triumph Donald Trumps als US-Präsidentschaftskandidat der Republikaner im Jahr 2016 veranschaulicht die wachsende und allgegenwärtige Konfusion zwischen dem ,Realen‘ und dem Virtuellen in der zeitgenössischen Geschichtssituation der Hypermoderne.
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Homage to Bernie Sanders’ Democratic Socialism and George Orwell’s 1984, by Alan N. Shapiro

February 17th, 2016 in the categories: English Literature, Presidential Politics

On April 4th of a year he presumes to be 1984, Winston Smith positions himself in a small recessed space in his apartment, the only spot from which he cannot be observed by the telescreen. He begins to tranfer his “interminable restless monologue” onto the pages of a clandestinely procured hardbound writing tablet.
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Beginner’s Luck (a Casino Gambling story)

February 14th, 2012 in the categories: Casino Gambling, Creative Writing, Photography

There was a famous and elegant casino at the Venice Lido called the Casinò Municipale di Venezia. My friends knew about the casino but had never been inside. To my surprise, Tony expressed his belief that I was destined to win a lot of money at blackjack. He announced that he intended to "stake me" money to play.
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Radical skepticism and the logic of Shakespeare’s artistry, by Robert Schneider

February 12th, 2012 in the categories: English Literature

Robert Schneider is the author of a book-length reinterpretation of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" called "Shylock, The Roman" (Pulpless.com, 2001). I find this book to be the basis for investigating the relationship between Shakespeare and Star Trek as twin canonical texts of "Western Civ."
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The Identity and Anxiety of Colonial Dublin in Joyce’s Dubliners, by James Shapiro

March 20th, 2011 in the categories: Irish Literature

Anxiety and self-consciousness are particularly modern maladies, intensified by mechanized technology.
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Journal Entry: The Void, by Mary Fox

July 28th, 2010 in the categories: Creative Writing, Fiction, Martin Heidegger, P.D. Ouspensky

What follows is neither philosophical, nor academic. It is both self-indulgent and self-referential, as a journal can only be. It presents no “truths” and it is peppered with inconsistencies and flaws, because I am. I began my journal in May of this year in an attempt to retrieve myself from a guilt-ridden existential “tailspin.”
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Around the Town (a Sports Gambling story), part 1 of 4

July 22nd, 2010 in the categories: American Slang, Creative Writing, Sports Gambling

As they went inside Grand Central Station, Moe and Siggy saw more hurried commuters moving ahead with tunnel vision. Nobody wanted to look at the homeless. The bag ladies and street people would just put a damper on one’s day.
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Nature: A Fragment, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe

April 15th, 2010 in the categories: German Literature, The Technological Herbarium

Rereading the reflections in which, at the end of the 17th century, Goethe voices his hymn to Nature, one acquires the sense of just how advanced is contemporary man in adding those 'secrets', in gaining access to that 'forge', in procuring those 'powers' which Goethe credits exclusively to the great artist Nature.