Free Mechademia 3: Limits Of The Human Ebooks Online
Dramatic advances in genetics, cloning, robotics, and nanotechnology have given rise to both hopes and fears about how technology might transform humanity. As the possibility of a posthuman future becomes increasingly likely, debates about how to interpret or shape this future abound. In Japan, anime and manga artists have for decades been imagining the contours of posthumanity, creating dazzling and sometimes disturbing works of art that envision a variety of human/nonhuman hybrids: biological/mechanical, human/animal, and human/monster. Anime and manga offer a constellation of posthuman prototypes whose hybrid natures require a shift in our perception of what it means to be human.Limits of the Human—the third volume in the Mechademia series—maps the terrain of posthumanity using manga and anime as guides and signposts to understand how to think about humanity’s new potentialities and limits. Through a wide range of texts—the folklore-inspired monsters that populate Mizuki Shigeru’s manga; Japan’s Gothic Lolita subculture; Tezuka Osamu’s original cyborg hero, Atom, and his manga version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (along with Ôtomo Katsuhiro’s 2001 anime film adaptation); the robot anime, Gundam; and the notion of the uncanny in Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, among others—the essays in this volume reject simple human/nonhuman dichotomies and instead encourage a provocative rethinking of the definitions of humanity along entirely unexpected frontiers. Contributors: William L. Benzon, Lawrence Bird, Christopher Bolton, Steven T. Brown, Joshua Paul Dale, Michael Dylan Foster, Crispin Freeman, Marc Hairston, Paul Jackson, Thomas LaMarre, Antonia Levi, Margherita Long, Laura Miller, Hajime Nakatani, Susan Napier, Natsume Fusanosuke, Sharalyn Orbaugh, Ôtsuka Eiji, Adèle-Elise Prévost and MUSEbasement; Teri Silvio, Takayuki Tatsumi, Mark C. Taylor, Theresa Winge, Cary Wolfe, Wendy Siuyi Wong, and Yomota Inuhiko.
Paperback: 296 pages
Publisher: University Of Minnesota Press (November 5, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0816654824
ISBN-13: 978-0816654826
Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.7 x 10 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Though I have enjoyed both of the previous Mechademia volumes, I must say that this most recent excursion is the most thorough, exciting, and well-presented of them all. Though previous volumes were slightly uneven, Mechademia 3, after an opening salvo by Mark Taylor I will charitably call abstruse (sample sentence: 'Always articulated between a condition of undifferentiation and indifferent differentiation, information emerges along the two-sided edge of chaos,' p. 5), it is a tremendously satisfying and stimulating work, appropriately scholarly without often veering into the sort of convoluted scholarese that limits intelligent discourse to a very privileged few. Laura Miller's 'Extreme Makeover of a Heian-Era Wizard' is a consummate examination of the reincarnation of a historical-mythological Japanese figure into an icon of otaku adulation. She makes compelling points about the capacity for fringe cultures to make the female voice--so often neglected by dominant cultural/historical discourse--a viable one, and she explores how seemingly trivializing activities can in fact reaffirm traditional Japanese culture. Theresa Winge provides a competent and useful overview of one of Japan's strangest fashion cliques: the Lolita, in all her myriad forms. She makes intriguing points about the ritualistic nature of the adoption of a Lolita identity (points that could, in fact, probably be applied to incorporation into any subculture), and aims to examine the trend from the position of an insider.
Mechademia 3: Limits of the Human Nursing: Human Science And Human Care (Watson, Nursing: Human Science and Human Care) Human Caring Science: A Theory of Nursing (Watson, Nursing: Human Science and Human Care) No Limits: Zao Wou-Ki Extreme Climbing (Extreme Sports No Limits!) Extreme BMX (Extreme Sports No Limits!) Extreme Mountain Biking (Extreme Sports No Limits!) Formal Logic: Its Scope and Limits Setting Limits with Your Strong-Willed Child, Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition: Eliminating Conflict by Establishing CLEAR, Firm, and Respectful Boundaries Kids Beyond Limits: The Anat Baniel Method for Awakening the Brain and Transforming the Life of Your Child With Special Needs Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry (Johns Hopkins Paperbacks) Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (American Empire Project) Living within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games How to Have an Out-of-Body Experience: Transcend the Limits of Physical Form and Accelerate Your Spiritual Evolution The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (Newly Expanded Paperback Edition) The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art, and Architecture Take Me On: Pushing the Limits, Book 4 The Grind: Living a 'God-life' in the Real World (No Limits Discipleship Series)
