Wednesday, February 23rd

So instead of a final exam, we now have to write a 3-page paper comparing the Maltese Falcon to a dark, 50s based video game that's due on the Wednesday following Spring Break. We're writing for the New York Review of Books, so we should cater our argument and writing style to fit that audience. We could also take a literary critics voice when we write the paper, or even a historian's tone (she directs this at me = brownie points). It should be very blog-like, personal, 1st person, with vernacular language. Basically, the bottom line is we can write however we want as long as we compare and contrast the movie with the video game experience.

1. Games can't do what films do as well.
2. Games are [not] in the same state as was film in the 40s. What state was film in the 40s? Was it still great art?
3. Like film, games were not taken seriously as art when in fact they are meant to be art
4. The reason that The Maltese Falcon is so much better than Bioshock is because of its narrative or because of its narrative structure.

Laura just mistook the wall for a blackboard. Stay tuned for a picture.

What Bissell says about Grand Theft Auto


He justifies playing the game, even though it's completely awful morally. Even though he was doing all these terrible things, he knew that the character was a bad guy, so he went along. He didn't care because they're bad people. He also talks a lot about cocaine. The cities are actually designed after real cities, and it's designed by people who aren't Americans, so it's kind of cool to see an outsider's perspective. You never really have to do the missions, and in some ways they kind of limit what you can do. A lot of people like to just run around and shoot people, performing drive-by shootings, robbing strangers on the street, stealing cars, and killing cops. He also took a lot of coke while playing the game, which makes a lot of people disrespect him a lot more. Maybe he just has an addictive personality. By the 4th game, he was able to have sympathy towards the character, which made him feel bad if he got in trouble. He was playing the game vicariously.

Haha Laura just made me take a picture of her posing in front of the spot she accidentally drew on the wall. I cannot wait until I have cell reception so that I can post this...

We spent the rest of the class discussing the various chapters of Bissell's book, but unfortunately I did not have my computer with me when we were discussing, so I don't really have much that I can say about it.

One thing I do remember, though, is Laura's story about trying to parasail for 3 days, when on the third day something just snapped and she was suddenly able to do it. Apparently it had something to do with the fact that sometimes you're not necessarily "learning" to play a video game, per se, and that motor skills develop on their own without conscious effort by the user.

Catharsis- You feel emotions very intensely while you're engaged in art if the art itself is one of high culture. This has a purging effect, allowing you to go out and live your life in a better way.

Vicarious- Similar to Catharsis, in that the consumer actually feels the pain, happiness, sadness, etc. of the characters depicted in a story, movie, video game, or even other people.