Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-082: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • ENGL 2116 sec. 082 Major Assignments (Summer 2021)
      • Final Portfolio Requirements
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
      • Oral Presentations
      • Research
    • June 14th: Information Design
    • June 15th: Proposals, Marketing, and Rhetoric
    • June 17th: More I, Robot and Science Fiction in a Technical Communication context Discussion
    • June 1st: Plain Language and Prose Revision
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • June 21st: Ethics and Perspective Discussion
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Homework
      • Ethical Dilemmas to Ponder
      • Mapping Our Personal Ethics
    • June 22nd: More on Ethics
    • June 2nd: More on Plain Language
    • June 3rd: Review Prose Revision
    • June 7th: Effective Documents for Users
    • June 8th: Final Project and Research Discussion
      • Epistemology and Other Fun Research Ideas
    • June 9th: Technology in a Social Context
    • May 24th: Introduction to the course
    • May 25th: Critical Technological Awareness
    • May 26th: Audience, Purpose, and General Introduction
    • May 27th: Résumé Stuff
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • May 31st: More Resume Stuff
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 26th: Introduction to the Class
    • December 2nd: Last Day of “Class”
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2021)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 11th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • November 18th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • November 4th: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • October 14th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 21st: Choosing Nominals
    • October 28th: Stylistic Variations
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
    • October 7th: Midterm Exam
    • September 16th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 23rd: Coordination and Subordination
      • A Practical Editing Situation
    • September 2nd: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • September 30th: Form and Function
    • September 9th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 12th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 19th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • April 26th:  Feminisms and Rhetorics
    • April 5th: Knoblauch. Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • February 15th: Isocrates (Part 2)
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 8th: Isocrates (Part 1)-2nd Half of Class
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 15th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • March 1st: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • March 22nd: Mary Wollstonecraft
    • March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric
    • May 3rd: Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 24th: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 26th: More Introduction
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • December 2nd: Violence in Video Games
    • December 7th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 11th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 18-26
    • November 16th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 18th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 23rd: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 2nd: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • November 30th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
      • Dayna’s Frankenstein Class Notes
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 1-17
    • October 14th: Lies Economists Tell
    • October 19th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen readings
    • October 21st: Politicization of Science
    • October 26th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 28th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 5th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 14th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 16th: Test 1
    • September 21st: The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 2nd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • September 30th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • September 9th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 13th: Virtually ‘Real’ Environments
    • April 20th: Rhetoric/Composition Defines New Media
    • April 27th: Sub/Cultural Politics, Hegemony, and Agency
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
    • May 4th: Wrapping Up The Semester
      • Jodi Dean “The The Illusion of Democracy” & “Communicative Capitalism”
      • Social Construction of Sexuality
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Video Games and Violent Behavior: The Specious Link
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 280F
Phone: 704.687.0613
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020) » May 27th: Hackers and Slackers

May 27th: Hackers and Slackers

Overview

  • Approaching Hackers and Film in General
  • Hackers Notes
  • Possible Paper Topics

Film Studies

Films are texts just as novels, poems, and plays are texts. Head over to this page on Cultural Studies for more information on how to think about film through a cultural studies lens. It isn’t directly related to Hackers, but it might be useful to understand how one can look at texts from a cultural studies perspective. Even though it mentions Marxist theory, I promise it isn’t propaganda for a Marxist revolution. I have a more general discussion of film below.

Film often falls under popular culture studies, but there are entire programs devoted to film that cover production, screen writing, acting, etc. Although you’re open to that type of analysis of film, we’ll take a cultural studies approach and ask what does the film say about the culture from which it comes. It might be difficult to understand Hackers from a historical perspective if you weren’t around in 1995. I’ll provide some brief context about the time period below, but we’ll try to compare the issues raised to contemporary situations.

Again, I want you to reflect on films as products of American culture. What values or ideologies signal that the films are uniquely American (even though they may appeal to a variety of different cultures)?

Iain Softley’s Hackers (1995)

This film came out in the mid-1990s, which was a very wonderful time. Seriously, there really can’t be another great decade like the 1990s. TV is better and the Internet is faster, but, culturally, it was amazing. Here are some important things to consider about the time period:

  • Gen-Xers as slackers
    • There was a huge prevailing view that those of us coming of age in the early to mid-1990s were slackers with no ambition. Reality Bites (1994) is an example of this lifestyle, but many films reflected it.
    • Here’s a 90-second video that will catch you up to speed on this attitude
    • Here’s an article comparing Gen-Xers to Millennials…(yes, that picture represents the white middle class youths of the mid-1990s)
  • Anti-establishment
    • Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails, and many other bands tapped into the sense of alienation 1990s youths had (yet we would gather by the thousands together at rock festivals…)
  • Third Wave Feminism

As you watch Hackers, consider how the characters and plot reflect the above aspects of the 1990s. Also, consider contemporary issues that this film could parallel:

  • Online surveillance
  • Online pirating (aka file sharing…stealing)
  • Identity theft
  • Wikileaks
  • Cyber attacks
  • Rave Culture–roller blades and rolling (refers to using the drug ecstasy, which was common at 1990s raves and other parties from what people have told me…see the film Go (1999) for more dramatization)

Gender Issues

The film might be innocuous, but there are some complicated aspects regarding gender, specifically, a women’s role in hi-tech fields. Of course, these characters don’t have jobs per se, but, metaphorically, we should be able to follow a thread about who can access this field.

Computer Hackers

Hackers (1995) is an exaggeration of the life of computer hackers, or, more accurately for the time period, computer aficionados. You need to understand that, by the mid-1990s, computers were almost universal household items, but they weren’t all hooked up to the Internet, and, if they were, it was dial-up, so you’d be on intermittently (yes, you’d have to choose to be on the phone or on the computer because you accessed the Internet through a phone line). In the 1980s, only serious geeks had computers. Hackers elevates the computer user from a loner in his* parents’ basement to a stylish, sexy cutting edge hipster. Below are 2 versions of computer aficionados:
*I use “his” because the stereotype was that mostly men programmed or tinkered with computers in the 1980s.

  • 1990s Hollywood version of hackers
  • 1980s real computer geeks

Paper Topics

Well, I realize this isn’t a great film. It isn’t even good in terms of story. However, as a period piece and representation of American culture during the mid-1990s, it’s pretty accurate. We were in the beginning of the World Wide Web revolution. Some thought the Internet would liberate us, and everyone would have equal access to information and an equal voice…not sure what happen (if you have the time and want to read a perspective, check out the notes from another class of mine–this is purely FYI and not required).

  • What’s uniquely American about these hackers wanting to bring down the “tyranny of corporations”?
    • The montage in the beginning where Acid Burn and Crash Override fight over which movie to play can be interpreted as a fight over who can control the airwaves.
  • Did you catch that Crash Override wanted to turn off the “America First” episode that was playing? Any parallel to today?
  • Why do you think there’s such a dramatization about being on the ‘net in this film? Those special fx were quite impressive in 1990. There seems to be a need for filmmaker’s to visualize being online as being among huge skyscraper-like structures that represent data storage.
  • Dade Murphy (aka Crash Override) is the new comer who beats Kate Libby’s score (aka Acid Burn) on the game at the raver club. What comment (perhaps unintended and sexist) might his scene be making about women in the computer field?
    • Sure, it’s a video game, but your goal is to read between the lines; make an interpretation.
  • What’s the (sexual, perhaps) undertone of this scene in the film where the guys are talking about hacking major organizations (it makes more sense if you watch the entire 2-minute scene, but I could only find this 45 second bit online).

Future Stuff

Keep watching and reading! Don’t forget your Essay #1 draft is due Monday, 6/1, so review the requirements on Canvas or on the Assignments page.

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