The Spam Book: On Viruses, Porn, and Other Anomalies from the Dark Side of Digital Culture (The Hampton Press Communication Series: Communication Alternatives) [Paperback]

Jussi Parikka (Author), Tony D. Sampson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1572739169 | ISBN-13: 978-1572739161

For those of us increasingly reliant on email networks in our everyday social interactions, spam can be a pain; it can annoy; it can deceive; it can overlaod. Yet spam can also entertain and perplex us. This book is an aberration into the dark side of network culture. Instead of regurgitating stories of technological progress or over celebrating creative social media on the internet, it filters contemporary culture through its anomalies.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Parikka and Sampson present the latest insights from the humanities into software studies. This compendium is for all you digital Freudians. Electronic deviances no longer originate in Californian cyber fringes but are hardwired into planetary normalcy. Bugs breed inside our mobile devices. The virtual mainstream turns out to be rotten. The Spam book is for anyone interested in new media theory."
--Geert Lovink, Dutch/Australian media theorist
"What if all those things we most hate about the Internet--the spam, the viruses, the phishing sites, the flame wars, the latency and lag and interruptions of service, and the glitches that crash our computers--what if all these are not bugs, but features? What if they constitute, in fact, the way the system functions? The Spam Book explores this disquieting possibility."
--Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University

Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: Hampton Press (NJ) (August 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572739169
• ISBN-13: 978-1572739161
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,412,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)