I agree, Eugene. The Gee book is interesting in just the ways you indicate.
It is symptomatic that such interactive gaming is surpassing movies as THE
medium of entertainment in this country.
One of the issues Gee raises is what it means to engage in games that
have content one finds dangerous and hateful. Rascist, sexist, violent
games, for example. He reminds me here of an essay by Kenneth Burke
called "Literature as equipment for living" which we use in teaching
in my department. Burke, too, worries about the choice of media of
interaction and their affordances.
In my state people voted a movie star who embodies self righteous, violent,
action as a mode of being. He is literally proposing policies which will
directly harm the poor and disenfranchised. 40% of the Latino voters in the
state voted for him. On average, Latinos in California are a disenfrancised,
relatively poor social group with highets dropout rate of any ethnic
group in the state, presaging lower incomes in the coming generation. In
fact, well being of immigrant families DECREASES in the secone and third
generation. I don't pretend to know all the dynamics here, but it is difficult
not to think that people have confused medium and message, and in fact
are displaying false consciousness, a term I deeply distrust.
What do others on the list think?
mike
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