In:
PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Modern Language Association (MLA), Vol. 119, No. 3 ( 2004-05), p. 482-499
Abstract:
Whereas first-generation theorists of virtual reality tended to regard simulated worlds as separate from real life, current trends in miniaturization, implants, wearable computers, and embedded sensors have shifted the emphasis to “mixed realities” mingling computationally intensive simulations with input from the real world. Contemporary films and novels have mirrored this trend, creating a blend of simulations mixed with everyday reality that Bruce Sterling has called “slipstream fiction.” To explore this phenomenon, we analyze three films that mix simulation with reality: The Thirteenth Floor, Dark City , and Mulholland Drive. These films present themselves initially as murder mysteries, but this pose quickly gives way to even more serious concerns, about the ontological status of the represented worlds. The narrative configurations suggest that when death is no longer the plots' logical end point, storytelling techniques undergo significant transformation, subverting usual assumptions about chronology, subjectivity, and topology and requiring new interpretive techniques.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0030-8129
,
1938-1530
DOI:
10.1632/003081204X20541
Language:
English
Publisher:
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Publication Date:
2004
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2439580-8
detail.hit.zdb_id:
209526-9
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2066864-8
SSG:
7,11
SSG:
7,24
SSG:
7,12
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