Abstract:
Post is an unfortunate affix that has found itself stuck to the front of a variety of words in the last few years: postindustrial, postsexual, posmodem and so on. So post-human’ has to be tried on, after which maybe the whole trend can safely become, so to speak, posthumous, or can be retired like the imitation humans, the androids, in Bladerunner, the first story I shall mention. After a look at Philip K. Dick’s black, almost despairing fiction of the 1960s, I shall quickly traverse the so-called cyberpunk SF of the 1980s, which initiates new versions of the post-human, but has been extensively discussed, and then mention more recent short stories by Terry Bisson, Pat Murphy and Dafydd ab Hugh, finding their treatment of the posthuman to be more humorous and less aggressive. Can it be that, as the ’60s was the time of black comedy at its best, and the ’80s were fuelled by glitzy selfishness, to which cyberpunk was an imaginative response, the ’90s will be tender and modest? We should be so lucky. I’m talking mostly about American writing; it may be that here in Australia we haven’t yet had our ’80s, due to arrive with Kennett and Hewson (as if destiny can only spare us two angels for our mingy apocalypse) in the coming months.
Details / PDF:
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