FROM MIT-SEIN TO BIT-SEIN

Abstract

It is argued that a cultural and sociological understanding of information society benefits from the unique perspective provided by fiction and a sociological impressionism that is sensitive to literary insights. Aesthetic theory is shown to provide a highly useful resource with which to conceptualize the complex relationship between the material world and abstract information. In particular, the work of William Gaddis and William Gibson are used to illustrate negative and dis-empowering aspects of a heavily informationalized culture. Such writers are shown to depict its lived experience in a manner unachievable and unrecognized by various uncritical theorists.

Keywords:

• Gibson
• Gaddis
• Sartre
• Heidegger
• fiction
• cyberpunk

Notes

The Rose is without an explanation; She blooms, because She blooms…” Angelus Silesius (1624–1677).