Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Interpreting the myths of the digital age- why we believed in the power of cyberspace to open up a new world.

The digital era promises, as did many other technological developments before it, the transformation of society- with the computer, we can transcend time, space, and politics-as-usual. In The Digital Sublime , Vincent Mosco goes beyond the usual stories of technological breakthrough and economic meltdown to explore the myths constructed around the new digital technology and why we feel compelled to believe in them. He tells us that what kept enthusiastic investors in the dotcom era bidding up stocks even after the crash had begun was not willful ignorance of the laws of economics but belief in the myth that cyberspace was opening up a new world.

Myths are not just falsehoods that can be disproved, Mosco points out, but stories that lift us out of the banality of everyday life into the possibility of the sublime. He argues that if we take what we know about cyberspace and situate it within what we know about culture-specifically the central post-Cold War myths of the end of history, geography, and politics-we will add to our knowledge about the digital world; we need to see it "with both eyes"-that is, to understand it both culturally and materially.After examining the myths of cyberspace and going back in history to look at the similar mythic pronouncements prompted by past technological advances-the telephone, the radio, and television, among others-Mosco takes us to Ground Zero. In the final chapter he considers the twin towers of the World Trade Center-our icons of communication, information, and trade-and their part in the politics, economics, and myths of cyberspace.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. vii)
• 1 The Secret of Life (p. 1)
• 2 Myth and Cyberspace (p. 17)
• 3 Cyberspace and the End of History (p. 55)
• 4 Loose Ends: The Death of Distance, the End of Politics (p. 85)
• 5 When Old Myths Were New: The Ever-Ending Story (p. 117)
• 6 From Ground Zero to Cyberspace and Back Again (p. 141)
• Notes (p. 185)
• References (p. 197)
• Index (p. 213)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Mosco (Canada Research Chair in Communications & Society, Queen's Univ., Ont.) aims "to deepen and extend what we know about cyberspace by situating it within what we know about culture, and specifically about mythology, about central myths of our time, about the history of communication media, and about the political economy of computer communication." Drawing on extensive references, he argues that cyberspace is a "mythic space," transcending ordinary worlds of time, space, and politics. More specifically, he observes that cyberspace has given rise to three central myths of our time: the end of history, the end of geography, and the end of politics. Mosco provides a basis for understanding these myths that, in turn, gives way to developing a greater appreciation of both the powers and the limitations of digital communication. This treatise will find an audience primarily among scholars and philosophers; recommended for academic collections.-Joe J. Accardi, William Rainey Harper Coll. Lib., Palatine, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Mosco (sociology, Queen's Univ.) combines interesting fact with a healthy dose of conjecture, forecasting, and what he refers to as myth. Essentially he attempts to relate "what happened" after the 9/11 event and why it happened. Mosco calls up the definition of myth that refers to a purely fictitious narrative--an untrue tale peopled by imaginary objects and persons. The term "digital sublime" draws on the work of Edmund Burke, who remarked that "the sublime so fills the mind with its object that it cannot entertain any other or apply reason to it." He relates the digital sublime associated with past technological advances and communication media such as the telephone and radio. He contends that cyberspace, offering cheaper, faster, and better communications, has become the latest icon of the digital sublime, and relates this to myths surrounding the World Trade Center. It is difficult to tell where fact ends and myth begins; Mosco weaves the two together in an easy manner that some will criticize as blurring the main argument. This nontechnical look at the rise of cyberspace and its relation to previous "earth shattering" technology is suitable for anyone interested in technology and society. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Public and academic library collections, lower-division undergraduate and up. B. P. Keating University of Notre Dame