The archive incarnate : the embodiment and transmission of knowledge in science fiction - Hurtgen, Joseph, 1981- (Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2018)
"We live in an information economy, data ever at our fingertips. In the pages of science fiction, powerful entities--governments and corporations--seek to use this archive to control society, enforcing conformity or turning citizens into passive consumers. Opposing them are protagonists fighting to liberate the collective mind from those who would enforce top-down control"--
Fahrenheit 451 and the archive -- Rejecting archival embodiment in The handmaid's tale -- Disembodied embodiment of the archive in Gibson's Neuromancer and "Johnny Mnemonic" -- Genetic and technological embodiment of the archive in Bruce Sterling's Distraction -- Education through the digital archive in Neal Stephenson's Snow crash and The diamond age, or, a young lady's illustrated primer -- Epilogue: archival embodiment in Cory Doctorow's Down and out in the magic kingdom and Ernest Cline's Ready player one.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-197) and index.
Keywords: Archives in literature; Science fiction -- History and criticism; Archives in literature; Science fiction; Criticism, interpretation, etc