{"product_id":"rocket-states-atomic-weaponry-and-the-cultural-imagination-9781501317651","title":"Rocket States Atomic Weaponry and the Cultural Imagination","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFabienne Collignon\u003c\/b\u003e is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature at the University of Sheffield, UK. She has published articles on American techno-culture and machine aesthetics in journals such as\u003ci\u003e C-Theory, Configurations\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eTextual Practice.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[A] feat of solid scholarship ... and a rewarding read ... There are many ideas here that open new perspectives and point at very interesting lines of scholarly research ... It is what lies beyond \u003ci\u003eRocket States\u003c\/i\u003e, the trails that start from its pages, which is absolutely relevant to any Pynchon scholar, making this book a must-read for all of us. * Orbit: Writing Around Pynchon *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eRocket States \u003c\/i\u003eis a fascinating study of how cultural fantasy shaped—and continues to shape—the U.S. security state.  Fabienne Collignon reads the technological infrastructure of the Cold War as the product of a national dream-work, deeply influenced by collective desires and anxieties.  With careful attention to military artifacts—from radar and weapons systems to rockets, satellites, lasers, and information networks—she reveals the lines of force running through an impressive array of narratives, theories, films, and cultural icons. The result is a compelling vision of the bizarre psychodynamics of a deadly serious episode in U.S. history. * Timothy Melley, Professor of English, Miami University, USA, and author of  The Covert Sphere: Secrecy, Fiction, and the National Security State *\u003cbr\u003eCompellingly written and hauntingly imagined, \u003ci\u003eRocket States\u003c\/i\u003e maps Thomas Pynchon’s \u003ci\u003eGravity’s Rainbow\u003c\/i\u003e onto the post-nuclear winter that slowly unfolds now across the traumatized cultural landscape of the twenty-first century. Here, missile technologies in the empty deserts of the American mind are viewed as talisman of the planet’s actual  disappearance into increasingly phantasmatic dream-states, accumulating violence, and suicidal fantasies of mass exterminism. In effect, \u003ci\u003eRocket States\u003c\/i\u003e is what happens when the death-drive wears the mask of virulent technologies of nuclear warfare. * Arthur Kroker, Canada Research Chair in Technology, Culture and Theory, the University of Victoria, Canada, and author of Exits to the Posthuman Future *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction   Rise of the Machines    (Nuclear) Enclosures   Chapter 1: Excavation    Colorado    Masks     Batteries in the Earth    Gold, Dust   Chapter 2: Preservation    Kansas    Bright\/EMPTINESS    The 98th Meridian   Feed Lots    ICBM, The Beginning    The Cult of Future Death   Chapter 3: Evacuation    Cape Canaveral    Report from An Obscure Planet    Vorrichtung für die Isolierung   Terminal Designs   Chapter 4: Transmission    New York    Steel Machines    Twins   Our Own Little Deterrent    Death-Rays   Bibliography  Index","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51770210320727,"sku":"9781501317651","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781501317651.jpg?v=1758724739","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/rocket-states-atomic-weaponry-and-the-cultural-imagination-9781501317651","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}