...a second look into *The Telephone Book*...

Matthew Levy

LEVY: "T E C H N O L O G I E S.... p r o v i d e.... t h e.... s t r u c t u r e s.... w i t h i n.... w h i c h.... h u m a n s... s i g n i f y......... N O.... t h o u g h t.... o c c u r s.... o u t s i d e.... t e c h n o l o g i c a l.... s p a c e........ T H E S E.... q u o t a t i o n s.... n a r r a t e.... o u r.... d e p a r t u r e.... f r o m.... e a r t h........ T H E R E.... r e m a i n s.... n o.... u n c l a i m e d.... t e r r i t o r y.... o n.... e a r t h........ T H A T.... m a p.... i s.... c l o s e d........ B U T.... h u m a n s.... l i v e.... i n.... t i m e........ A N D.... f o r.... s o m e.... r e a s o n,,,, m o v e m e n t.... w i t h i n.... p o s s e s s e d.... s p a c e.... d o e s.... n o t.... q u a l i f y.... a s.... m o v e m e n t.... a t.... a l l........ U N V A R I E D.... i n f o r m a t i o n.... i s n ' t........ W I T H O U T.... m o v e m e n t.... t h e r e.... i s.... n o.... t i m e.... a n d.... w i t h o u t.... t i m e.... t h e r e.... i s.... n o.... h u m a n.... s u b j e c t........ C Y B E R S P A C E.... o p e n s.... a s.... a n.... u n p o s s e s s e d.... s p a c e,,,, a.... T e m p o r a r y.... A u t o n o m o u s.... Z o n e,,,, w h o s e.... c o ns u m p t i o n.... a n d.... d i s s a p p e a r a n c e.... c*a*l*l*s.... t h e.... h u m a n.... s u b j e c t........ T H E.... c o l o n i z a t i o n.... o f.... c y b e r s p a c e.... r e p r e s e n t s.... a....w a r.... o v e r.... t h e.... s t a t u s.... o f.... h u m a n.... su b j e c t i v i t y........ W I N N E R.... l o s e s.... a l l........"

HEIDEGGER: "Man has already been uprooted from the earth. What's left are purely technical relations. Where man lives today is no longer an earth"

RONELL: "Technology is no tool and it no longer has anything to do with tools, but it provides an uncanny deracinating grid whose locality is a literalization of the Unheimlich, two ocular shapes spying on one another, the earth seeing itself from the moon, ripped out of its socket, axially dislodged, bleeding...." (40-1).

GIBSON: "'The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games,' said the voice-over, 'in early graphics programs and military experimentation with cranial jacks.' On the Sony, a two-dimensional space war faded behind a forest of mathematically generated ferns, demonstrating the spacial possibilities of logarithmic spirals; cold blue military footage burned through, lab animals wired into test systems, helmets feeding into fire control circuits of tanks and war planes. 'Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts.... A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding. . . '" (*Neuromancer* 51)

BEY: "Psychic nomadism as a _tactic_, what Deleuze & Guattarimetaphorically call "the war machine," shifts the paradox from a passive to an active and perhaps even "violent" mode."God"'s last throes and deathbed rattles have been going on for such a long time--in the form of Capitalism, Fascism, and Communism, for example--that there's still a lot of "creative destruction" to be carried out by post-Bakuninist post-Nietzschean commandos or _apaches_ (literally "enemies") of the old Consensus. These nomads practice the _razzia_, they are corsairs, they are viruses; they have both need and desire for TAZs, camps of black tents under the desert stars, interzones, hidden fortified oases along secret caravan routes, "liberated" bits of jungle and bad-land, no-go areas, black markets, and underground bazaars.
"These nomads chart their courses by strange stars, which might be luminous clusters of data in cyberspace, or perhaps hallucinations. Lay down a map of the land; over that, set a map of political change; over that, a map of the Net, especially the counter-Net with its emphasis on clandestine information-flow and logistics--and finally, over all, the 1:1 map of the creative imagination, aesthetics, values. The resultant grid comes to life, animated by unexpected eddies and surges of energy, coagulations of light, secret tunnels, surprises." (*Temporary Autonomous Zones* 11)

LEVY: "W H A T.... b e c o m e s.... e a s i e r.... t o.... u n d e r s t a n d.... a f t e r.... r e a d i n g.... *T A Z*,,,, e s p e c i a l l y,,,, i s.... t h a t.... f r e e d o m,,,, l i k e.... C o n s u m p t i v e.... W r i t i n g,,,, i s.... a.... r e a d i n g.... s t r a t e g y........ T H I S.... i s.... n o t.... t o.... d e n y.... m a t e r i a l.... p o w e r.... r e l a t i o n s... b u t.... t o.... r e c o g n i z e.... a l s o.... t h e.... r o l e.... p l a y e d.... b y.... s i g n i f i c a t i o n.... i n.... t h e.... d e t e r m i n a t i o n.... o f.... m a t e r i a l,,,, a n d.... o f.... c o u r s e.... t h e.... c r u c i a l.... r o l e.... p l a y e d... b y.... t e c h n o l o g y........ T O.... t h i s.... u n d e r s t a n d i n g,,,, a d d.... t h e.... m o s t.... s i m p l e.... t r u t h.... o f.... i n f o r m a t i o n.... t h e o r y,.... t h a t.... r e c e p t i o n.... f o r m s.... m e a n i n g.... e v e r y.... b i t.... a s.... m u c h.... as.... p r o d u c t i o n,,,, a n d.... y o u.... a r e.... r e a d y.... t o.... s e e (XXX: though not visually).... t h a t.... f r e e d o m.... c a n.... n e v e r.... b e.... p r o d u c e d,,,, b u t.... c a n.... u s u a l l y.... b e.... c o n s u m e d.... (h o w e v e r.... b r i e f l y)......... ................................................... ................^^^^^click####

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