November 12th: Games Reality Plays Part 1

Plan for the Week and Beyond

We're going to finish Inception today and begin discussing it and Neuromancer. We'll continue discussing these texts on Thursday (11/14). We might get to Gibson's "Burning Chrome" (1982) on Thursday, but, if not, we'll get around to that and Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966) next Tuesday (11/19). We had two TBA days planned on Tuesday, 11/26 and Tuesday, 12/03--our last day of class. Because Inception took up two days, we'll just shift out readings. Therefore, keep up with the syllabus, but be aware that we'll discuss the works a week later. If you e-mail and ask what's due when, I'll just send you the link to here.

Yes, we will still cover all the readings. Yes, you will still have Moodle2 reflection posts. In fact, here's the one for this week (due--11/14):

Reflection on Inception and Neuromancer

We're going to be getting into some difficult discussion about these two texts. For now, you should, in at least 250 words, reflect on both Inception and Neuromancer. I'm not looking for a summary. Instead, reflect on what you think the themes, the messages, the subtext, or any of the non-surface features of the texts are. How is technology portrayed? What connections can be made to devices you use every day?

Next week, I'm going to ask you to reflect on reality games and stories we tell ourselves. For this week's post, just reflect on the texts by commenting on how you interpreted them.

Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010)

I'm going to show the last 10 min of the film. Then, we'll discuss the characters, the dreams, and the plot to get us on the same page if possible. I'm going to try to start with a surface reading and then move onto cultural meaning. As you watch the last bit of the film, consider the following questions:

• Does Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) have a handle on reality? What clues make you think he does? What clues make you think he doesn't?
• Cobb's wife, Moll, appears throughout the film and thwarts the team's progress. Does she represent guilt? If so, whose guilt and what is the guilt?
• Dreams allow our imaginations to run wild. Our dream space, our subconscious, has been considered the reckless part of our psyche, the uncontrollable part. The characters in the film seem to be able to control dreams but only to a point. If our subconscious is uncontrollable, how are they able to control as much as they can? Who is the actual subject of the "inception"?

More on Inception

We'll talk about reality games in Inception on Thursday (11/14) most likely. Let's move onto Neuromancer and try to clear up the characters, the matrix runs, and the plot. Inception has a message that's parallel to understanding Neuromancer and Gibson's "Burning Chrome."

William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984)

This book was ahead of its time and not because it's a science fiction novel set in a near future. You can read the 1980s technologies that seem out of place in a futuristic novel. After all, why are they using cassettes in the novel? Some people get bogged down on items like out-of-place technologies or questions on whether or not such-and-such technology is possible. Unfortunately, those concerns limit one's appreciation of the complexity of social science fiction (or of any text). Try your best to interpret the novel from a critical thinking perspective that reads between the lines for what the story comments on socially.

Main Characters

• Case
• Molly
• The Finn
• Armitage/Corto
• Maelcolm
• Riviera
• 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool
• Marie France Tessier-Ashpool
• Dixie "Flatline"
• Wintermute...Neuromancer

Plot

• Case broken and wasting away on skid row--Chiba City.
• Deal to renew himself and be whole again.
• Break into the bizarre corporate headquarters on Tessier-Ashpool, SA.
• Free the AI Wintermute+Neuromancer to become something bigger.

See, it's a pretty simple plot...well, there's just a few concerns about how all this is going to get done. Case is a cowboy, and it's on data that he rides. He's a thief of a kind, so he's wanted--wanted, dead or alive. The book is from the 1980s, so a Bon Jovi references is germane to the discussion.

Cyberspace, the matrix: It's what we call the Internet, but Gibson envisioned a global network computer system that could be accessed through a GUI (graphic user interface) before the World Wide Web was invented. Yes, the Internet has been around since the 1960s. It's personal consumer evolution didn't occur until the early 1990s with GUIs that allowed users to surf in non-text-based environments. In the 1980s, home users with personal computers and very slow modems accessed bulletin board systems to transfer information. If they had graphics, they were very limited. Gibson has Case "jacking into" this system, so his body is outside the matrix, but his mind enters the matrix and can move around.

Next Class (11/14)

Keep up with your reading. Finish Neuromancer if you haven't already, and read William Gibson's "Burning Chrome" (1982) and Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" (1966).

See the note above about the plan for the readings.

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