Open Sky

By Paul Virilio

Book Overview

"One day the day will come when the day will not come." Bleak, but passionately political in its analysis of the social destruction wrought by modern technologies of communication and surveillance,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1859841813
• ISBN13: 9781859841815
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Verso
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Classically cybertheory, Classically French

This book was recommended by a couple of artist/art critic friends who found it engrossing, but difficult to work through. (They do not have an extensive Internet/technology background, but eat French theory for breakfast.j A few years of online work and an interest in the implications of the increasing importance of tech. mediation of our environment/communication were rewarded (in my case) by Virilio's intriguing discourses--essays, really-- on how we perceive and relate to the world. The one section on the globalization of the economy, though, was so off-base, I can only attribute it to the French academic community's expertise in theory and absolute cluelessness with real life (see: French economy). -greg allen

His fears are our hopes...

This is mostly a book on cyberculture. Its French title is _La Vitesse de libération_, which translates as "Escape Velocity". Hard luck: Mark Dery independently chose the same title for _his_ essay on cyberculture, so even though Virilio's opus predates Dery's, its translation must come out with a different title. I read it in French when it was published. As an avid reader of cyberculture, I found _Open Sky_ very well informed indeed. Paul Virilio, however, is no fan of computers: He feels sheer panic in front of the virtualization of society. This is what makes his book so exhilarating to read: I suppose I felt the same as an amateur of military history craving for Waterloos from Napoleon's point of view or Little Big Horns through Custer's eyes.