When, in a moment of uncertainty, Ted Pikul (Jude Law) tells Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) that he feels like he's just stumbling around, unsure of the motivations of anyone else and not sure of even himself. After raising this as an objection to being in the game and saying that he can't believe anyone would really want to play a game like this, Allegra responds, "But it's a game everybody's already playing." This really hit me, because in a game like eXistenZ, or online where Case "jacked in", or when using AR technology or SNSs, we're "playing the game" the way we live our lives. In all these cases, the participants can't be completely sure of the motives of players we interact with. Our lives are so intertwined with the game and with the lives of the other players that our fate depends on them, even if we can never figure out whether they're trustworthy or how much they really know.
This comparison that Allegra makes is one that is well taken, whether or not our nervous systems are actually connected to the interface. In a way, me, the real me, the Jenna that people believe they know, is the one that can be found online on my Twitter and Facebook accounts. Online, on these sites and others, I am the character, and my life outside the "game" could be forever affected by my actions online. I never thought of myself as actually "in" Banjo-Kazooie or Sarge's Heroes (yes, my video game knowledge is small and not too up-to-date), and I was never too invested in the characters. I got multiple chances at life, and if I decided to, I could reset the world and start over. eXistenZ seems so real because it offers players a chance to feel that their actions truly have some consequence. In eXistenZ, the game has become so real that Pikul and Allegra end up having a hard time deciding whether or not they're actually in the game, and the audience, it turns out, has been tricked into its own dilemma about whether or not the game is still going. In a way, Pikul makes a great point, whether you're in eXistenZ, "jacked in", or posting on Twitter. You need to be worried about your body, your real body, because it might be in danger.
Do you think that the film is saying that it is technological mediation that the film points to as the culprit in people's forgetfulness in relation to their bodies? It seems that the film indicates that we have an even more real or exaggerated conception of the bodily in the virtual realm. In the factory for example visceral images of animals and blood are much more intense than in the 'real world.' Do you think this is pointing to the ways that our conceptions of the body are altered when we go online? That our exposure to so many idealized forms makes us hate the bodies we possess?
ReplyDeleteOr furthermore, it seems to indicate that our relationship to the visceral is caused by two larger factors. First, industrialize modes of production in which each worker doesn't have time to think about their lifestyle choices or eating habits, they all eat at the same restaurant. And second, that our relationship to animals and the natural world is perverted by industrial production, each worker can slaughter hundreds of animals a day without even thinking about it. Neither of these two forces seem to be rooted in our inability to determine between reality or artifice, they are rather just blatantly obvious examples of alienated experience that remain mystified to us by larger forces of ideology. Or do you think that the film is critical of the attempt to be able to demystify reality in the first place?
I think that the film illustrates how the definition of reality has shifted. This shift has caused reality to evolve and become something that includes both our "real lives" and our "vitrual lives." Today it is impossible to define "reality" without including the actual or the virtual.
ReplyDeleteThe final scenes of the film, particularly when Pikul and Allegra are confused if they're still in the game, reminds me of times when I wake up to a dream. I don't know if this happens to others, but I actually wake up having to think "ok, that was a dream." It's strange how sometimes our "reality" makes us think about these situations, even when a virtual reality game is not involved.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to have that same realization of the ambiguity between being "jacked in" and living out reality, especially with regards to the online community I've been exploring. Discussions I have on my site are based on information I've attained in my real life, but I could never have the discussions I have online with most other people that I know offline. This is especially interesting because I feel like the stuff I discuss on the site really defines me to a certain extent – I'm able to express my interests completely, yet I can't translate that to my everyday life. It's a really strange experience to have, but it completely represents the fragmentation of our lives so well.
ReplyDeleteI think you make some really interesting points regarding our investment in the "game" or the Internet vs. our investment in reality. I do agree that is seems like we are putting as much if not more of ourselves into our online, or "game," personas than we are into our real-life personas. I think it's a little frightening, though, that our virtual reality interactions have more consequences in the outside world than the virtual actions in eXistenZ do in whatever their reality is. I'm not sure how comfortable I am in a world where you can't have some definite separation when you want to escape "reality" for awhile.
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