Date: Mon, 18 Jan 93 21:53:07 PST Reply-To: Return-Path: Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain 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 , subscription requests to . MIME encouraged. Xanalogical archive access soon. Thanks, babe. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ -( )+-(1)--(1) \-( )+-(2)--( )+-( )+-(2)+-(2) | | | \-( )+-( )+-(2) | | | | \-(2) | | | \-(2)--(2)+-(2) | | | \-( )--(2) | | \-(2)--(2)--( )--( )+-(2)--(2)+-(2) | | | |-(2) | | | \-( )--( )--(3) | | \-( )--(2) | \-( )--(2) \-( )+-(1)+-( )+-(1) | | \-( )--(1) | \-( )--(1) \-(1) -( )--(2) -( )+-(2)--(2) \-( )--(2) -( )--(2) -( )--(2) -(2)+-( )+-(2)--(2) | \-( )--(2) \-(2)+-(2) \-(4) -( )--(2) -( )+-(2) |-( )--[2] \-( )--[2]--( )--[2]--[2] -( )--[2] -( )--[2] -( )--[2] -( )--[2]--( )--[2] -( )--[2]--( )--[2] -( )--[2]--[2]--[2]