Customer Reviews

Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics

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This theoretically-savvy but nonetheless highly readable book makes a provocative and vital intervention in the field of internet studies. In an engaging romp through topics as diverse as cyberporn, cyberpunk, wecams, globalization, race, TV commercials, TCP/IP, and Schreber's turn-of-the-century delusions, the author argues compellingly that our freedom depends on moving beyond rhetorics of the internet as democratic and/or dangerous. It's a sharp and often stunning analysis that lays bare the ideological stakes of such notions as user-friendliness, protecting children, and techno-Orientalism -- a must-read for anyone interested in media archaeology or cyber-politics.

"Control and Freedom" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Chun's book interview ran here as cover feature on March 17, 2009.

Wendy Hui Kyong Chun presents a compelling look at cyber-culture and the discipline of the control-freedom dynamic. She looks primarily at pornography and cyberpunk literature for her analysis, integrating the views of Foucault, Deleuze, Debord, and others.
Excepts from this text appear in The Visual Culture Reader, edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff.