Why Neo flies, and why he shouldn’t: The critique of cyberpunk in Gwyneth Jones’s Escape Plans and M. John Harrison’s Signs of Life

Bould, Mark

Abstract

This essay argues that the fantasies of disembodied flight evident in sf since the genre's inception become an explicit, and largely uncritical, metaphor for supposedly 'friction-free' capital-in-circulation in cyberpunk fiction of the 1980s and 1990s. Jones's Escape Plans and Harrison's Signs of Life offer critical visions of this ubiquitous metaphor.

• Publication Date: May 17, 2010
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 116-134
• Series Title: Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature
• Book Title: Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives
• ISBN: 9780415876872
• Keywords: cyberpunk, capitalism, globalisation, Marxism, science fiction
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/978983
• Publisher URL: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415876872/