Nikolay Genov

The paper compares the debut novel of author Ernest Cline and its film adaptation by director Steven Spielberg in terms of the way they construct and utilize an alternative canon, closely related to the video game culture. Of main interest to this study is the critical reception of both works and its possible implications.

The current paper aims to put one of William Gibson’s latest novels – “The Peripheral“ – in the position of comparison, the boundaries of which are set by Stanislaw Lem’s phantomology. Its main goal is to determine how much of Gibson’s work fits into the traditional notion of phantomatics. The parallel is built on the motif of remaking which is considered crucial for the analysis of the chosen works.