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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay that contrasts and compares 2 sci-fi short stories. Bruce Sterling in his short story "Flowers of Edo" and Pat Cadigan in "Pretty Boy Crossover" picture characters trying to adjust to change in a postmodern world. While these stories are very different in style and content, they both picture characters having to adjust their conceptualization of reality to new technology and to paradigm shifts that "change everything." In "Flowers of Edo," the artist Yoshitoshi adjusts to the coming of the Westerners and their technology by adopting the new paradigm and making friends with the demon that lives in the telegraph wires. Pretty Boy in Cadigan's story keeps his individuality by choosing to resist the technological enslavement inherent in "crossing over." In both stories, the postmodern approach to these narratives causes the reader to consider and question the nature of reality, as experienced by the characters. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_kh2scifi.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
stories are very different in style and content, they both picture characters having to adjust their conceptualization of reality to new technology and to paradigm shifts that "change everything." In
"Flowers of Edo," the artist Yoshitoshi adjusts to the coming of the Westerners and their technology by adopting the new paradigm and making friends with the demon that lives in
the telegraph wires. Pretty Boy in Cadigans story keeps his individuality by choosing to resist the technological enslavement inherent in "crossing over." In both stories, the postmodern approach to these
narratives causes the reader to consider and question the nature of reality, as experienced by the characters. In the "Flowers of Edo," Sterling, first of all, establishes the cultural
mindset of nineteenth century Japan and how the coming of Western societys influence destabilized traditional cultural patterns. The fight that Onogowa, the ex-samurai warrior, has with the demon that lives
in the telegraph wires outside Yoshitoshis window is set within this previously established framework for reality. Sterling demonstrates that this new framework, while accepting the technological marvels of steam locomotives
and telegraph communication, has been incorporated by the storys characters into a distinctly Japanese mindset, which tends to see the world in symbolic terms that are alien to the Western
mind. For example, the "flowers" of Edo is a term that refers to the citys tendency to have many fires. Within this reality framework, Sterling contrasts the belligerence of Onogowa
towards change with the acceptance and adaptation demonstrated by Yoshitoshi. Onogowa battles the demon and causes it to retreat. Yoshitoshi knows how dangerous the demon can be and that the
change that Onogowa fights is inevitable and unavoidable. Yoshitoshi tried to remain true to the old ways at first. He continued to produce the images of carnage that had previously
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