1. “Historical Future” as Semiotic Ghosts William Gibson’s “The Gernsback Continuum” As a Meta-fictional Sci-fi

2. Outline Gibson on history and sci-fi;history and sci-fi Questions Re-Visiting the “Futuristic” Past as Exotic and Simulatedthe “Futuristic” Past as Exotic and Simulated Meanings of the 30’s & 40’s –30’s & 40’s Interpretation of the Photographer’s VisionInterpretation The way out. Metafictional Messages Gibson on the Post-Humanthe Post-Human

3. William Gibson on History “...history,...is the ultimate in speculative narrative, subject to ongoing revision. Science fiction tends to behave like a species of history pointing in the opposite direction, up the timeline rather than back.” “Gernsback Continuum” turns backward to a future that didn’t exist physically, but exists as ‘semiotic ghost.’

4. Starting Questions How has history been discussed by postmodern texts? What makes the appearance of “the future of the past” in this story possible? What does the past (and its future) as semiotic ghost mean? What does it reflect on sci-fi itself? How does the narrator get out of his vision of the past?

5. The Past Exoticized & Simulated Architecture – layers of history around us, re- interpreted in daily lives, but fetishized in photos. Dialta Downes– a pop-art historian p. 25; “This way lies madness.” British mania for a uniquely American form of architecture (“American Streamlined Moderne” = Barris-Watford project) p. 25 The past recycled first in the 50’s—as time fillers. Photographer “They decide, I shoot” 24; p. 27 photograph what isn’t there.

6. The 30’s & 40’s—meanings? P, 26 – beginning of industrial design Traces left in the present  Segments of a dream world ignored in the present time p. 26 Populist 27; Totalitarian 27 & tacky -- carries with it "a kind of totalitarian dignity, like the stadiums Albert Speer built for Hitler.

7. Traces of Futurism Dime store 出售廉價品的商店 Fluted aluminum p. 25 Movie marquee this Coca Cola Bottling Plant p. 28Bottling Plant

8. Johnson Wax Building & FRANK R. PAUL's Image source: 1; 212

9. Futurist Vision (2) Jules Verne’s airship Futurist -- Jules Verne – a French 19th-c sci-fi writer Slip-stream chrome p. 28

10. Traces in the present—Gas Stations Ming the Merciless is a fictional character appearing in the Flash Gordon comic strip. The capital of his empire is named Mongo in his honour. p. 28

11. From Traces to Vision The way he shoots architecture p. 27  p. 29 penetrated a fine membrane of probability A journalist’s interpretation: people see things = (1) drug and hallucination p. 29 (2) contactee stories – framed in sci-fi imagery (e.g. a woman who gets assaulted by a bear head); (3) semiotic ghost 31; fragments of the Mass Dream

12. Vision of a City p. 33 Spire on spire ziggurat (pyramidal structure)  Blade Runner Wing-liner 輪船 Gyrocopter a perfect, blond, blue- eyed young couple materialize in the Arizona desert 34 -- "all the sinister fruitiness of Hitler Youth propaganda."

13. His Way out of it Exorcising with bad media 35 Watches a movie with eyes shut Leaves Los Angeles News about nuclear energy crisis p. 36 TV helps a lot p. 24; beginning as ending– vision dismissed to ”the corner of the eye” What does all this mean?

14. Sci-fi presents A possible future world As signs, it becomes part of people’s collective unconscious Some people may ‘live’ in this world. Whatever happens, the present world— presented thru’ media--is still better. Gernsback Continuum—not temporal continuum, but spatial or semiotic continuum (“a conceptual space, an alternative universe that exists alongside our own - and occasionally intersects with our 'real' world” (source).source

15. Gibson on the Post-Human From No Maps for These Territories Humans – so mixed with and influenced by technologies that we are not aware of it. They change our concept of time and geography. No humans nowadays are not mediated.