Digital Violence
After reading The Machine Stops I was interested in the final portion of the story when the machine stops and how Vashti reacts to this on page 37.
"She whirled around, praying to be saved from this, at any rate, kissing the Book, pressing button after button...The uproar outside was increasing...The brilliancy of her cell was dimmed...Vashti continued to whirl, like devotees of an earlier religion, screaming, praying, striking at the buttons with bleeding hands"
I love how the theme of senses are played with in this paragraph. Vashti who has lived in physical isolation for so long finds that all the mechanical stimuli have become "dimmed" while the physical uproar from outside has become stronger. Furthermore Vashti seems to also engage more physically with her world through her whirling, and screaming. The paragraph physically describes what is happening in contrast to the mechanical and nondescript nature of the machine. Its interesting to think of this in terms of whether digital narratives are more physically descriptive or less than old media.
Furthermore Vashti's bleeding hands emphasize the violence which I believe underlies every society. Also remember that Bush worked to create technological ideas for the military. Right now, in the room right beside me there's a group of students playing a military simulation game, although they are unwittingly interacting in a digital narrative. I think violence underwrites New Media more than we think.
-Ross
"She whirled around, praying to be saved from this, at any rate, kissing the Book, pressing button after button...The uproar outside was increasing...The brilliancy of her cell was dimmed...Vashti continued to whirl, like devotees of an earlier religion, screaming, praying, striking at the buttons with bleeding hands"
I love how the theme of senses are played with in this paragraph. Vashti who has lived in physical isolation for so long finds that all the mechanical stimuli have become "dimmed" while the physical uproar from outside has become stronger. Furthermore Vashti seems to also engage more physically with her world through her whirling, and screaming. The paragraph physically describes what is happening in contrast to the mechanical and nondescript nature of the machine. Its interesting to think of this in terms of whether digital narratives are more physically descriptive or less than old media.
Furthermore Vashti's bleeding hands emphasize the violence which I believe underlies every society. Also remember that Bush worked to create technological ideas for the military. Right now, in the room right beside me there's a group of students playing a military simulation game, although they are unwittingly interacting in a digital narrative. I think violence underwrites New Media more than we think.
-Ross