Before I begin, I'd just like to point out that last week's blog referenced an article that was actually supposed to have been read for this week instead of the week before. That article was LaFarge's Winside Out. To make up for this glaring oversight, I will use this week's blog entry to respond to the two readings I missed from last week which are Julian Dibbel's A Rape In Cyberspace and the Boellstorf excerpt The Subject and Scope of this Inquiry. I will also discuss an article meant to be read this week and that is Huizinga's Nature and Significance of Play.
Huizinga's article was very well written. The author really explained and established the concept of "play" well and provided some well chosen and vivid examples. Dibbel's piece was quite provocative, obviously, but it was an interesting personal narrative on MUDs and MMORPGs as well. I took it as a warning of things to come and as a look at how the anonymity of cyberspace and its possibility of a brand new identity for any user can seriously take its toll on the human psyche. Boellstorf's piece took on essentially the same subject matter, but it was obviously much less dark and surreal. Boellstorf took a more genuine almost journalistic approach to the effects of Second Life, essentially telling it like it is.
Again, rather than raise a whole new point from these readings I'd like to reiterate a point I made in the lecture. Different cultures are willing to except different things as real to different degrees. One thing all cultures can agree on is that they are willing to except anything, any character or creation, as real if they see that it represents something very much real or something they believe in. It could be a product being advertised or simply an abstract concept, as long as people see something real behind something they believe in, they will accept it as real.
I would've spent more time on this entry if I wasn't so incredibly busy this week. See you next week!
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