Hamlet on the Holodeck
I gotta say—I hate this title. Hate it. Dreadful. It almost made me put the book down instead of reading it, which is naturally the worst thing a title can possibly do.
Especially since I would have missed out on a highly cool book.
I gulped this book down rather than nibbling at it, which is a pity as I’m not sure I’ll have a chance to read it more thoroughly before it goes back to the library. (One of those times when books I ask for over a couple of months descend on me in a body. I have four waiting for me and one on the way, according to the online catalog.)
It’s not about Shakespeare; barely mentions the guy. Let us all breathe a sigh of relief that Janet Murray isn’t cataloguing tricked-out sci-fi-esque stage shows.
It’s about what art forms today point the way forward to tomorrow’s digital art forms. And for their participatory, open-ended style, role-playing games are one of her preferred exempla.
I wish she’d taken the time and effort to get more acquainted with tabletop role-playing; LARPs are all very well, but they’re different. Even so—this is the kind of book I’m talking about when I say I want to see serious discussions of how gaming works.
This is a mildly lit-critty book; I doubt any CavLec reader would find it inaccessible. (Dr. Murray actually comes at lit-crit from much the same angle I do, which I found no little bit amusing.) I do recommend it. I hope to have more coherent thoughts on it should I find time to reread it.
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