Proposal

Question: How do the sharply delineated spaces of SF reflect real spaces in our world? How are spaces integral to SF?

Media sources: Samuel R. Delany, Nova

Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

Literary Sources: Michel Foucault, "Of Other Spaces," Diacretics 16:1

Frederic Jameson, "Cognitive Mapping," Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture.

Thesis: In both Nova and Snow Crash, we see our world broken into many unique and strong factions. Although separated in setting by time, the essential quality of spaces as 3rd dimensional constructs remains. Both the factions of Nova and the enclaves of Snow Crash show a postmodern view of spaces. Despite the vast gulf of time between Nova and Snow Crash and Snow Crash and ourselves, both books demonstrate contemporary spaces. Competing industries, countries, or brands. These ideas are easy for us to comprehend because they exist all around us. The SF examples merely displace them through time.