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SURFPUNK Technical Journal 029
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 21:53:07 PST
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From: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (Rpbyr Abeznyr Fhcrevrher)
To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (SURFPUNK Technical Journal)
Subject: [surfpunk-0029] DIGEST: L'ISLE DE GILLIGAN, CP/SP lists
Keywords: surfpunk, gilligans island, cyberpunk, steampunk, future sex
| I have spent the majority of my 36 years in
| orphanages, reformatories, prisons, and mental
| institutions. I had four oboe teachers and each
| one fell into an irrigation sluice and drowned.
| I'd tried explaining to my social workers that I
| hated double-reed mouthpieces. I pleaded with
| them not to make me take lessons on any
| instrument in the oboe family, which also
| includes the English horn, the bassoon, and the
| double bassoon. But nobody listened.
|
| -- mark leyner
| et tu, babe
|________________________________________________
Ever struggling to keep up with culture, this issue we start with an
amazing essay on Gilligan's Island. Then three FutureCulture postings
from this dude verge@cyberden.sf.ca.us which includes a couple of
checklists and a zine rant. No, i haven't seen the zine, even though
this is the second time I let a plug for it trickle thru the surf...
--strick
Subject: L'ISLE DE GILLIGAN
Subject: "The Best/Worst CP"
Subject: FYI: "Steampunk"
Subject: FUTURE SEX
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Source: YUCKS
Date: Wed, 13 May 92 21:54:36 -0400
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
Subject: L'ISLE DE GILLIGAN
To: eniac
Cut from little fragments of desconstruction paper and glued together
with a perturbing semi-idiotic elegance, no Aaron Spelling flames
please...(this was sent to me in the mail for no doubt important
reasons):
L'ISLE DE GILLIGAN
Brian Morton
The hegemonic discourse of postmodernity valorizes modes of
expressive and "aesthetic" praxis which preclude any dialogic
articulation (in, of course, the Bakhtinian sense) of the
antinomies of consumer capitalism. But some emergent forms of
discourse inscribed in popular fictions contain, as a
constitutive element, metanarratives wherein the characteristic
tropes of consumer capitalism are subverted even as they are
apparently affirmed. A paradigmatic text in this regard is the
television series _Gilligan's Island_, whose seventy-two episodes
constitute a master-narrative of imprisonment, escape, and
reimprisonment which eerily encodes a Lacanian construct of
compulsive reenactment within a Foucaultian scenario of a
panoptic social order in which resistance to power is merely one
of the forms assumed by power itself. [1]
The "island" of the title is a pastoral dystopia, but a
dystopia with a difference--or, rather, a dystopia with a
_differance_ (in, of course, the Derridean sense), for this is a
dystopia characterized by the free play of signifier
and signified. The key figure of "Gilligan" enacts a dialect of
absence and presence. In his relations with the Skipper, the
Millionaire, and the Professor, Gilligan is the repressed, the
excluded. The Other: He is the id to the Skipper's Ego, the
proletariat to the Millionaire's bourgeoisie, Caliban to the
Professor's Prospero. [2] But the binarism of this duality is
deconstructed by Gilligan's relations with Ginger the movie star.
Here Gilligan himself is the oppressor: Under the male gaze of
Gilligan, Ginger becomes the Feminine-as-Other, the
interiorization of a "self" that is wholly constituted by the
linguistic conventions of phallocratic desire (keeping in mind,
of course, Saussure's _langue/parole_ distinction). That Ginger is
identified as a "movie star" even in the technologically barren
confines of the desert island foreshadows Debord's concept of the
"society of the spectacle," wherein events and "individuals" are
reduced to simulacra. [3] Indeed, we find a stunningly prescient
example of what Baudrillard as called the "depthlessness" of
American in the apparent "stupidity" of Gilligan and, indeed, of
the entire series. [4]
The eclipse of linearity effectuated by postmodernity, then,
necessitates a new approach to the creation of modes of
liberatory/expressive praxis. The monologic and repressive
dominance of traditional "texts" (i.e., books) has been
decentered by a dialogic discourse in which the "texts" of
popular culture have assumed their rightful place. This has
enormous implications for cultural and social theory. A journal
like _Dissent_, instead of exploring the question of whether
socialism is really dead, would make a greater contribution
to postmodern discourse by exploring the question of whether
Elvis is really dead. This I hope to demonstrate in a future
study.
---------
FOOTNOTES
1. Gilligan himself represents the transgressive potentialities
of the decentered ego. See Georges Thibault, _Jouissance et
Jalousie dans L'Isle de Gilligan_, unpublished dissertation on
file at the Ecole Normale Superieure (St. Cloud).
2. _Gilligan's Island_ may be periodized into an early, Barthean
phase, in which most episodes ended with an exhibition of
Gilliganian _jouissance_, and a second phase whose main
inspiration is apparently that of Nietzsche, via Lyotard. The
absence of any influence of Habermas is itself a testimony to the
all-pervasiveness of Habermas's thought.
3. The 1981 television movie _Escape from Gilligan's Island_
represents a reactionary attempt to totalize what had been
theorized in the series as an untotalizable herteroglossia, a
_bricolage_. The late 1970s influence of the Kristevan semiotic
needs no further comment here.
4. Why do the early episodes privilege a discourse of metonymy?
And what of the title--_Gilligan's Island_? In what sense is the
island "his"? I do not have the space to pursue these questions
here, but I hope to do so in a forthcoming book.
________________________________________________________________________
Source: FutureCulture
Subject: "The Best/Worst CP"
From: verge@cyberden.sf.ca.us
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 19:45:08 PST
Hawkeye, Steve & The Gang:
Do you pester the magician to reveal the secrets of his tricks? Do you
read the last page of a mystery first? Whatever happened to the wonder of
life? One of favorite quotes, from the domain of the theatre: "Don't Let
The Wheels Show". Alas & Alack, this is, afterall, the Age of
Information, so I guess simple statement without the "road to--" won't
do. So under several hundred (or, at least one) peers of pressure, here's
the wheels to my mystery, "The Best/Worst CP":
--so there. Feh!
Best Nonfiction: _The Hacker Crackdown_ by B. Sterling
--not only raw data, but a damned good writer's slant. Who else to write
about the cyberpunks but one of the guys who made us up in the first
place?
Worst Nonfiction: _Mondo's Guide to the New Edge_
--Stylish zammin' and zippin', coastin' and speedin' bod but no brains
(Rudy--sob--how could you?). Besides, man, hey got the number to the
Cyberden--see below--WRONG!)
Best Fiction: _Bad Voltage_ by Jonathan Littell
--The coolest (far better than _Mona Lisa_)! Kids out for naught but
kicks, bi-sexuality, skyrocket wargames in the sewers of Paris, the corp
comes crashing at the end, but it ain't "Let's save the world" but "Fuck
you, rich kid!". Recommended!
Worst Fiction: _Johnny Zed_ by John Gregory Betancourt
--Naught but cover-to-cover line noise with cute cover art. Bleh!
Best Invention: Mac Powerbooks
--Portable, user-friendly, CD-ROM, 8/80, fax/modem in your briefcase.
Worst Invention: Mac Powerbooks
--LCD screen. Ever try to do anything serious?
Best Flick: _WAX - or The Discovery of Television Among the Bees_ & _The
Falls_
--I love trips through other folk's disturbed psyches. More Dick that CP,
both are better than Hollywood's "acceptable" view of a CP century (save
_Blade_ but everyone puts THAT one on their lists!).
Worst Flick: _The Lawnmower Man_
--Do you _have_ to ask why?
Best 'zine: bOING-bOING, 2600 (tie)
--BB for the creative, 2600 for the anal pros
Worst 'zine: MONDO 2000
--body of death, brains of a road-kill. Whoever thought CP could be
stupid?
Best Drug: The new Acid
--You can fuck and come on it.
Worst Drug: X
--You can't fuck and come on it.
Best Tune: "Even Better Than The Real Thing" U2 & "Free Your Mind" En
Vogue
--ZOO TV. They, dudes, I think they might be getting it. Black plastic,
cornball VR, give 'em a few years and they might just be hip enough to be
CP cool. En Vogue: I like 'em black ladies, dey make me so horny--
Worst Tune: Anything by U2 after the Negitiveland suit
--the lawyers and suits for the The Rock n' Roll Ethnic Rebels( (Irish
line) thought they might loose candy money over the haha's of our local
boys. Brought out the big guns and squashed de little guys flat. Somebody
crash those fucker's accounting records--
Best Corporate Moment: Desert Storm
--Brought to you buy General Electric. We make great refrigerators, too.
Worst Corporate Moment: Donald Trump & Ivan Bosky (tie)
--"PAY NO ATTENTION TO THOSE MEN BEHIND THE LOGOS!"
Best Punk Moment: The LA Revolution
--"Three meals, one day without power, and a moment captured on
tape--away from Revolution!
Worst Punk Moment: The Negitiveland suit
--ibid
Best Hack Moment: Decrypting AGRIPPA
--Okay, an over-the-counter (the real best is the stuff you don't see
except for the scalp waving in the air). But cool, none-the-less. Bummer
was that it took so damned long--
Worst Hack Moment: Snitching during "Operation Sun Devil"
--Guys in suits. Knock, knock--and will do anything not to share a cell
with a Hells Angel.
Best Program: "Beyond Cyperpunk"
--Major suck-up. Me wanna work on the sequel stack!
Worst Program: Windows
--Go buy a fuckin' Mac!
Best Event: The Ministry at Lalapaloosa
--Full of sound, fury, lights, tech, signifying something (I guess). But
still soooo cool.
Worst Event: Gay-bashing at Lalapaloosa
--I have seen the future and it is mean, nasty, and stupid.
Best Sex: The new S/M
--there was this sweet little Mistress, and what we didn't have was quite
sex, but, still, quite, quite QUITE HOT!
Worst Sex: Hep A, B, & C*
--*Easier to catch than the red ribbon, no remedy, kills faster.
Best Future Culture Discussion: Is it or isn't it W. Gibson? And who
cares?
--IT'S REALLY HIM. IT'S REALLY HIM. Okay, okay, it MIGHT REALLY BE HIM!
Worst Future Culture Discussion: AUtopia -- will there be punks in
paradise?
--Utopias make me nervous. Who makes the rules? Barely-surviving &
being-independant makes for some hard-edge choices/decisions. I perfer to
live in the cracks, in my own weird world, than start to act like a
Heinlein hero.
Best Personality: P'Orridge
--"Wanna see my modified genitalia?"
Worst Personality: Sandra Bernhardt
--Is she or isn't she gay/straight/bi? Who cares? For certain: SHE'S A
PRICK!
tha-tha-that's all folks!
Verge
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pere Ubu sez:
"Surrealism au service de la revolution!"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Verge sez:
"Got me if it's right or not. Looks cool. You get the gist, and I stole
it from Kadrey"
________________________________________________________________________
Source: FutureCulture
Subject: FYI: "Steampunk"
From: verge@cyberden.sf.ca.us
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 19:57:00 PST
Hawkeye & The Gang:
Whoa, son, I say, whoa--what's all this (line) noise from Dave about the
punks being disbanded--DISBANDED, I SAY (WHERE THE HELL'S THE VOLUME ON
THIS-HERE THANG??!)
(Ahem) anyway, if my name isn't Raul Duke (and it isn't) CP's about as
dead as one of Dr. Adder's patients with a live wire up her--anyway. CP
continues to be written, hacked out, hacked with, lived by (been to SF,
NY, LA lately?). We still got the S's (Shirley, Shiner, Shepard,
Sterling), the R's (Russo, Rucker), Gibson, Farren, Williams, et all.
RE/Search is still out there, Semiotext(e) is still plugging away,
Autodesk hasn't folded (but--agast--so hasn't MONDO), Future Sex is still
(ahem) plugging away. "Bob" is still in his
heaven--BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH--
Yeah, but I didn't come to praise Ceasar. FYI: "Steampunk", cute twist of
coinage to mean fantasies (usually) set in either alternia or hidden past
Victorian (or somesuch) world. Right now, Sterling/Gibson's BLEH!
_Difference Engine_ is being banded around. Poor example. Check out,
instead:
Jeter's _Infernal Devices_
Powers's _The Anubis Gates_
Blaylock _Homoculous_ (Powers/Blaylock are masters of this)
Powers's _On Stranger Tides_
H. Harrison's _A Transatlantic Tunnel "Hurrah!"_ (slipstream Steampunk)
Lupoff's _Circumpolar_ (has written others like, sort-of slipstream).
--BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH--
as for "slipstream" hope more enlightened cybersea surfers will
enlighten. Me? The boss is walking this way--
Verge
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pere Ubu sez:
"Surrealism au service de la revolution!"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
________________________________________________________________________
Source: FutureCulture
Subject: FUTURE SEX
From: verge@cyberden.sf.ca.us
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 19:56:14 PST
Hawkeye & The Gang:
In response to Murali's (?) of FUTURE SEX, here's a little ramble down
ascii lane about that certain 'zine. Music please--
"--there was this little 'zine, not at all wonderful to see. A brilliant
little spark, but boring through and through. The first issue was a bust
(and Natillie certainly has those), but Kadrey on VR sex, fairly hot
cybersex tales, Shirley stoking the fires of feminism with his "from the
edge" postcards of Tai prostitues and their "almost seem to enjoy it".
Lisa Palac is the ediatrix, of noble birth and grand qualifications:
having taken the helm of the outrageous and Nobel-prize winning lesbo
'zine _On Our Backs_. After that, we come to learn, she got dumped on
this project. Knowing this, the first issue (being Natillie's bust) is
excusable.
"--now issue two just hit the stands, and while it ain't right before me,
I can report to the committee it's kinky attitude, it's crotch shots,
good photos, Saenz doin' the MacPlaymate/Valerie thang (with his VR sex
gizmo gatefold that's cool to beheld. A lady who had bad words for FC,
has her time in the sun-guns, naked and soft she basks, in the 'zine she
lambasts. The one and only Carol Queen does a review, and the 'zine is
better than before, though never better than the real thang--"
One change, though, get out your pen and pencils folks, you got the suite
wrong:
FUTURE
SEX
1095 Market Street
Suite *809*
SF, CA 94103
--I have their office number, so give 'em a call (it's printed in the
'zine, so it ain't a big score):
(415) 621-5496
It's recommended, can't wait for number three, or four. Ah, but I may
have reason to be predjudiced about number four--
Verge
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pere Ubu sez:
"Surrealism au service de la revolution!"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
The SURFPUNK Technical Journal is a dangerous multinational hacker zine
originating near BARRNET in the fashionable western arm of the northern
California matrix. Quantum Californians appear in one of two states,
spin surf or spin punk. Undetected, we are both, or might be neither.
________________________________________________________________________
Send postings to <surfpunk@osc.versant.com>, subscription requests
to <surfpunk-request@osc.versant.com>. MIME encouraged.
Xanalogical archive access soon. Thanks, babe.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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