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This book looks at American crime fiction as an artform that expresses and reflects the social and aesthetic values of its authors and readers. As such it documents the manifold ways in which such authorship and readership are a matter of informed literary choice and not of cultural brainwashing or declining literary standards. Asking, in effect, a series of questions about the nature of genre fiction as art, successive chapters look at American crime writers whose careers throw light on the hazards and rewards of nobrow traffic between popular forms and highbrow aesthetics: Dashiell Hammett, John Grisham, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, Ed McBain, Nelson DeMille, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Literature. --- Literature, Modern --- America --- Twentieth-Century Literature. --- North American Literature. --- Contemporary Literature. --- 20th century. --- 21st century. --- Literatures. --- American fiction --- Detective and mystery stories, American --- Criminals in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Literature --- Belles-lettres --- Western literature (Western countries) --- World literature --- Philology --- Authors --- Authorship --- Literature, Modern-20th century. --- America-Literatures. --- Literature, Modern—20th century. --- America—Literatures. --- Literature, Modern—21st century.

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Through close analysis of Eureka and The Purloined Letter, Swirski evaluates Poe's epistemological theses in the light of contemporary philosophy of science and presents literary interpretation as a cooperative game played by the author and reader, thereby illuminating how we read fiction. The analysis of Poe's little-studied Eureka provides the basis for his discussion of Lem's critique of scientific reductionism and futurological forecasts. Drawing on his own interviews with Lem as well as analysis of his works, Swirski considers the author's scenarios involving computers capable of creative acts and discusses their socio-cultural implications. His analysis leads to bold arguments about the nature of literature and its relation to a broad range of other disciplines.

Literature and science. --- Aesthetics, American. --- Cognitive science. --- Littérature et sciences --- Esthétique américaine --- Sciences cognitives --- Poe, Edgar Allan, --- Lem, Stanisław --- Knowledge --- Science. --- Poetry and science --- Science and literature --- Science and poetry --- Science and the humanities --- Lem, Stanisław, --- Po, Edgar, --- Boy, Ētkar, --- Poe, E. A. --- Poë, Edgard, --- Pui, ʼAggā ʼAyʻlaṅʻ, --- Pō, Eḍgār Ālen, --- Po, Edhar, --- Poe, Edgar Allen, --- Perry, Edgar A., --- По, Эдгар Аллан, --- По, Эдгар, --- פאו, עדגאר עלען --- פאו, עדגאר עלען, --- פא, אדגאר אלאן --- פא, עדגאר --- פא, עדגאר עלען, --- פו, אדגר --- פו, אדגר אלן --- פו, אדגר אלן, --- アランポオ, --- 愛倫坡, --- Po, Ailun, --- Quarles, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Pau, Aiḍgar Elan, --- پو، ايڈگر ايلن --- Lem, Stanisaw

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Swirski begins with a series of groundbreaking questions about the nature of popular fiction, vindicating it as an artform that expresses and reflects the aesthetic and social values of its readers. He follows his insightful introduction to the socio-aesthetics of genre literature with a synthesis of the century long debate on the merits of popular fiction and a study of genre informed by analytic aesthetics and game theory. Swirski then turns to three "nobrow" novels that have been largely ignored by critics. Examining the aesthetics of "artertainment" in Karel Capek's War with the Newts, Raymond Chandler's Playback, and Stanislaw Lem's Chain of Chance, crossover tours de force, From Lowbrow to Nobrow throws new light on the hazards and rewards of nobrow traffic between popular forms and highbrow aesthetics.

Popular literature --- Fiction --- History and criticism. --- History and criticism --- Čapek, Karel, --- Chandler, Raymond, --- Lem, Stanisław. --- Capek, Karel, --- Lem, Stanisaw.

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From Literature to Biterature is based on the premise that in the foreseeable future computers will become capable of creating works of literature. Among hundreds of other questions, it considers: Under which conditions would machines become capable of creative writing? Given that computer evolution will exceed the pace of natural evolution a million-fold, what will such a state of affairs entail in terms of art, culture, social life, and even nonhuman rights? Drawing a map of impending literary, cultural, social, and technological revolutions, Peter Swirski boldly assumes that computers will leap from mere syntax-driven processing to semantically rich understanding. He argues that acknowledging biterature as a species of literature will involve adopting the same range of attitudes to computer authors (computhors) as to human ones and that it will be necessary to approach them as agents with internal states and creative intentions. Ranging from the metafiction of Stanislaw Lem to the "Turing test" (familiar to scientists working in Artificial Intelligence and the philosophers of mind) to the evolutionary trends of culture and machines, Swirski's scenarios lay the groundwork for a new area of study on the cusp of literary futurology, evolutionary cognition, and philosophy of the future.

Computers and civilization. --- Artificial intelligence. --- Social evolution. --- Literature --- Philosophy of mind. --- Language and languages --- Mind, Philosophy of --- Mind, Theory of --- Theory of mind --- Philosophy --- Cognitive science --- Metaphysics --- Philosophical anthropology --- Literature and philosophy --- Philosophy and literature --- Cultural evolution --- Cultural transformation --- Culture, Evolution of --- Culture --- Evolution --- Social change --- AI (Artificial intelligence) --- Artificial thinking --- Electronic brains --- Intellectronics --- Intelligence, Artificial --- Intelligent machines --- Machine intelligence --- Thinking, Artificial --- Bionics --- Digital computer simulation --- Electronic data processing --- Logic machines --- Machine theory --- Self-organizing systems --- Simulation methods --- Fifth generation computers --- Neural computers --- Civilization and computers --- Civilization --- Philosophy. --- Theory

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American fiction --- Exceptionalism --- Literature and society --- National characteristics, American, in literature. --- Political culture --- Political fiction, American --- Politics and literature --- Politics in literature. --- Social control in literature. --- Social engineering --- Utopias in literature. --- History and criticism. --- History --- History --- History and criticism. --- History --- History