The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace

by Vincent Mosco

Book Overview

Winner of the 2005 Gary A. Olson Book Award presented by the Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition and JAC: Journal of Advanced Composition The digital era promises, as did many other technological developments before it, the transformation of society: with the computer, we can transcend time, space, and politics-as-usual. In The Digital Sublime, Vincent Mosco goes beyond the usual stories of technological breakthrough and economic meltdown...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 026213439X
• ISBN13: 9780262134392
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Mythic/Power

The poignancy of Vincent Mosco's Digital Sublime is its in-depth knowledge of the power of myth in investing our everyday lives & technologies with certain cultural meanings and aura. According to Mosco, it is myth, i.e. the aura of myths, which both enthralls and beckons enthusiasts and consumers alike towards new technologies and economies with utopian dreams; that in the end, time and time again, eternally return back to the mundane and the banality of everyday life. For Mosco, it is when these mythic cycles manifest and dissipate, both literally and figuratively, that we as humans begin to realize and understand the power of myth in enshrining our everyday lives and technologies with sacredness. This sacredness is distinctively the product of our human desire to transcend and is an intimate feature of human existence. Enjoy.

Prometheus Fired

In 'The Digital Sublime', Vincent Mosco presents a delightfully written and wide-ranging look at the rise of cyberspace and the Internet. As a native New Yorker, he brings a unique and informed perspective to the task. Drawing on the power of 'myth' to both explain the world as it is and create a vision for the future, Mosco provides an engaging historical look at the mythical language of technological progress. Whether the telegraph, electricity, radio, t.v., cable, or of course the Internet; all were said usher in the 'end' of history, politics, or geography. The rhetoric of promise for each of these developments was heralded in terms that today we find quaint, even amusing. But Mosco shows how all of these echo in the modern myths of cyberspace.Mosco points out how quickly promises like these collapse into banality; into the routine of everyday "so what?" Only in doing so however, is their social impact the greatest. Electricity may have been hailed with rapturous and magical wonder at first; but it literally had to disappear into the woodwork before it mattered at all. I won't ruin the last chapter, except to say it makes the previous five indispensable, and vice versa. Thought-provoking, and laugh out loud funny at times ["you call that jumpy little picture on my desktop a video?"], readers will find it hard to put down.A treat for those at all familiar with Mosco's academic work, and a wonderful point of entry for those who aren't.