Re: [xmca] latour

Dear Luiz,

Latour has quite strong views about reality, especially in his book
'Reassembling the Social.' Put simply, he argues that researchers need to
pay attention to metaphysical/ontological issues and be ready to "swim in
these waters." His use of Greimas (he describes his position as half
Greimas, half Garfinkel) is primarily to emphasize the varieties of complex
ontologies that can exist in social assemblies. Researchers need to study
these ontologies and avoid insisting in advance that one specific ontology
is how things 'really' are. These ontologies are not individual but social,
so here his position is different from Dick's, but I think he would agree
completely that writing convincing ficton is about constructing a reality -
inviting the reader to see a new world, or see their world in a new way.

On your point that online games continue even when one is not online - this
is true of books too, no? It's still on my desk whether I'm interacting with
it or not. That's not to say that they are the same kind of artifact, but to
suggest that reader-response theory might be helpful to you (I prefer Iser
to Greimas, but perhaps the later is more appropriate for gaming). And that
perhaps there is a rhetoric of online involvement that underlies each games
specific ontology.

Martin

On 3/8/08 10:19 AM, "Luiz Carlos Baptista" <lucabaptista@fcsh.unl.pt> wrote:

> Dear Kevin,
>
> Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. I have another quote that I find
> very useful when thinking about reality. This is from Philip K. Dick:
>
> "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
>
> ("How to build a universe that doesn't fall apart two days later", available
> in http://deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm).
>
> So reality is that which persists independently of our thoughts. This of
> course has huge implications for the metaphysical status of online games,
> particularly MMORPG.
>
> As for Borges, I think this has to do with our involvement (or even
> engrossment) with fiction, play, etc. William James had something to say
> about it in his Principles of Psychology, as well as Alfred Schutz and
> Erving Goffman (particularly in Frame Analysis).
>
> Finally, regarding money and the "gamification" (sorry) of economy, I
> strongly recommend an amazing book by Julian Dibbell, "Play Money".
>
> Best,
> Luiz
>
> **********
> "The brain is a wonderful thing. Everybody should have one."
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
> Behalf Of kevin.rocap@liu.edu
> Sent: sábado, 8 de Março de 2008 3:14
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Cc: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Re: [xmca] latour
>
> Dear Luiz,
>
> Another quick thought:
>
> I always liked this Jorge Luis Borges quotation, if I recall correctly:
>
> "The real world is the world we pretend to be real when we read"
>
> By extension, perhaps the real world is the world we pretend to be
> real when we're online gaming. ;-)
>
> In Peace,
> K.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
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Received on Sat Mar 8 09:48 PST 2008