The girls did a very good presentation on Second Life - the latest and arguably most successful attempt at an 'immersive' virtual 3D world. It's easy to sneer at people getting 'hooked' into this sort of deep fantasy projection but as our 'real world' seems day by day to be disintegrating - our 'free markets' have gone into free fall and if you believe the latest environmental disaster on our doorstep : due to global warming trapped sub sea methane will be released via a gigantic marine 'belch' that will pretty much wipe us all out like the dinosaurs before us, then escape into 'Second Life' doesn't seem so weird or ridiculous... and you also realise how prescient Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and George Orwell's "1984" really were.
I actually saw the SBS documentary they sampled in their 'Second Life' presentation and I have to confess I did sneer at the people involved which was quite dishonest of me cos I've had an 'on-line' relationship that became a real relationship. Through an on-line trivia quiz network, I met an American woman which culminated in me visiting her in America for a couple of months and she came to Australia for about a year.
I could reasonably argue that there were vast differences between us and them: for a start we didn't pretend to be extravagantly disproportioned warrior/poet/sex machines. We also didn't sit at a screen 14 hours a day neglecting our spouse and kids. (The husband in that doco: I still can't work out if he was a hero or a doormat. On the one hand he was heroically there for his kids: on the other, why was he allowing his wife's behavior to go on unchallenged.) We talked about the whole issue of fantasy/role play in relationships : we all play roles: some more successfully than others. Thank God we didn't get into 'what liars men are': women also lie in all sorts of ways: make-up is a lie, perfume is a lie, hair dye is a lie. And trust me - until you've divorced one, you've got no idea how dishonest a woman can be. Sorry, I just wandered off into 'bitter and twisted old fart' territory.
We also did some work on essay writing which I dread. It' s not that I can't write - I know I can write. I just don't have much faith in my ability to write an 'academic' essay. Much of it stems from the D I got last year for a Politics essay. I argued against the conventional wisdom of the Australian-American alliance - correctly predicting by a year the beginning of the end of the American Empire. I've had a fear and loathing of 'academic' essays ever since. I don't really understand how we're supposed to read/cite widely yet make our own arguments without plagiarism.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
"And trust me - until you've divorced one, you've got no idea how dishonest a woman can be." - you are awesome craig! i believe that warrants a LOL.
it's true though, people lie, flirt and mislead all the time. I flirt with the girl who makes my coffee, and with the girl who made it before that. Surely all women know the power of flirtation, i'm not accusing you... but women can do it better than men. I wouldn't mind if someone i was seeing flirted with people on second life. But that woman's situation was ridiculous, neglecting her family and her husband is bullshit. and craig you are right, he was heroic with his kids but a total pussy to his wife. I would have kicked that bitch to the curb ages ago.
people need to be aware of the difference, and there should be different laws rules and expectations for both worlds as they both become more defined from each other.
Brave New World & 1984 - Respect.
Post a Comment