186 ACCESSING AND GENERATING DATA
- The following is from Weldes (1999b, 119).
- “Uptake” refers to what Althusser (1971, 174) called “interpellation,” the “hailing” of individuals
into discursively constituted subject positions such that they speak the discourse “naturally” (e.g., Weldes
1999a, 103–7). One might easily understand—that is, comprehend—a discourse without taking it up as
natural, as common sense, as one’s own position. - A useful approach to different reading positions can be found in Stuart Hall’s (1994) conceptions of
encoding and decoding, and of three contrasting reading positions, the dominant/hegemonic, the negotiated,
and the oppositional. - The relationship between discourse and ideology is neither simple nor settled, but it is useful to see
discourse as enabling processes of meaning making and ideology as an effect of that process (Purvis and
Hunt 1993, 496). A discourse thus has ideological effects in that it, for instance, privileges certain groups
and interests over others. - This discussion draws on Weldes (2003a, 13–16). On intertextuality see Kristeva (1980); N. Fox
(1995); and S. Hall (1997b, 233–34). - Thanks to Iver Neumann for this lovely quotation.
- Investigating the meaning of parallels between two discourses is, of course, a different enterprise than
explaining the reasons for the similarities. This latter project would open up a host of questions—such as the
extent of changes and continuities in American culture between the 1950s and the 1990s, for instance, or the
influence of the U.S. state on popular culture in these periods. - For one explanation of the media’s tendency to reproduce state discourses, even in societies where it
is privately rather than state owned, see Herman and Chomsky (1988). - This discussion draws on Weldes (2001, 658–62).
- This discussion draws on Weldes (2001, 662–66).
- This is not to say that Asimov’s SF writings do not tell us a lot about 1950s America. But it is
precisely to say that once such images and narratives have entered the “cultural image bank,” other texts are
read in relation to them. - The Sprawl series—which refers to “BAMA, the Sprawl, the Boston-Atlanta metropolitan axis”
(Gibson, 1984, 57)—includes the novels Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986b), and Mona Lisa Over-
drive (1988), as well as related stories such as “Johnny Mnemonic,” “New Rose Hotel,” and “Burning
Chrome” (in Burning Chrome and Other Stories, 1986a). - This discussion draws on Weldes (1999b). For a fascinating analysis of the NASA/Trek intertext, see
Penley (1997). - This particular advertising campaign has spawned an intellectual cottage industry (e.g., Back and
Quaade 1993; Giroux 1994; Kraidy and Goeddertz 2003; M. Shapiro 1994). - In the email received by the authors, this poem, dated September 13, 2001, was attributed to one Rob
Suggs.