A Reader’s Beheading: Nabokov’s Invitation and Authorial Utopia

The Gnostic Journey of Cincinnatus in Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading

This paper explores and analyzes the Gnostic themes that are present throughout Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, Invitation to a Beheading. Although other scholars have recognized the Gnostic elements in the novel, previous analyses present a limited understanding of the Gnostic religion, and, therefore, have narrow interpretations of the extent to which Nabokov includes Gnostic ideas. This paper prov...

A High and Hostile Utopia

Jill Craigie's controversial BBC documentary, Who ?re the vandals?, brought into focus many of the inherent shortcomings of so much of new mass houslng in the last twenty years. Miss Craigie pinpointed a number of doubts about housing policy which have lurked just beneath the surface in the minds of many of the architects and I. Planners working within its present framework. 'Build up, not out'...

Dialogue--A New Utopia?

Ambient Utopia

This chapter presents an analysis of the ambitions that lie behind the concept of Ambient Intelligence as it is presented by the advocates and researchers working in the field. In particular it looks at the ideas regarding the forms of natural and intuitive forms of interaction that are envisaged including agents and robots from a philosophical perspective. The views on interaction are analysed...

Editorial Power/Authorial Suffering°

In this article, I analyse the “publish or perish” enterprise and in particular the origins of editorial power/knowledge. My actor-network analysis shows how tenure, promotion, and salary decisions apparently unrelated to editorial decisions are important elements that accrue power/knowledge to editors of particular journals. What my actor-network analysis does not show, and which I therefore a...