Book-It 'o14! Book #53
Nov. 16th, 2014 04:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alivemagdoleneThe Fifty Books Challenge, year five! (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013) This was a library request.
Title: In Real Life written by Cory Doctorow and illustrated by Jen Wang
Details: Copyright 2014, First Second Publishing
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap):
"Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It's a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It's a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. Gaming is, for Anda, entirely a good thing.
But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer -- a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person's real livelihood is at stake.
From acclaimed teen author Cory Doctorow and rising star cartoonist Jen Wang, In Real Life is a sensitive, thoughtful look at adolescence, gaming, poverty, and culture-clash. "
Why I Wanted to Read It: A bit of backstory of my own: if you're reading this, it's likely you know me at least a little already. Since I was about fifteen, I've self-identified as a feminist and activist, and have viewed media (and continue to view media) through a critical lens, as I think we all should. That doesn't mean you can't like things nor people that are in some way problematic, it means you should acknowledge that something is problematic in your consideration of it.
Of the forms I've media I've sampled, however, one hot-button topic I've been lax in exploring, for both financial and personal interests reasons: gaming. I grew up with gaming systems, and have had (very, very basic) ones of my own, but there are entire subcultures to which I know little to nothing about and generally experience through those who have actually experienced them. I do my best not to give commentary in areas where I don't have experience, and defer to the writings/words of others that do.
This book deals heavily with themes in role-playing (in which I have a little experience), role-playing video games, specifically MMRPG. It also deals a little more in an area I am experienced in, the intersection of "real life" and "cyberspace."
How I Liked It: The book attempts to cover a lot of ground in a short time, with varying degrees of success. I'm not familiar with the author, who is a tech activist, but reading up I had my usual prejudices: people not from the Millennial generation, even if they are well-versed in tech, tend to have an outdated and flatly unfair vision of "social media" which can harken back to every stereotype about technology and the waywardness of youth since the beginning of time. Seeing a book titled "In Real Life" and with a cover that looks like an anti-social, slovenly character finds escape through an active avatar already has my eyes rolling. But in the introduction, the author talks about the difference technology has made to activism, and doesn't use any asinine ableist terms like "slacktivism" or talk about how it's not "really" activism.
Once we get into the story, which is fast-paced and a quick read, we meet the main character who finds her way into a new game via a school project of sorts, and art, while cartoony, is still impressive. I had trepidations as well about a male author writing for a female character, particularly a teenage one, but Anda's writing is relatively without incident.
The book enters problematic territory (and also some other murkiness) when Anda encounters a Chinese boy her own age who plays the game and is currently in a dire economic situation. Anda's advice gets him fired, and the conclusion we're left to draw is hazy ("See how good things are in places like the United States where you can strike like Anda's dad and not be fired like Anda's friend?"). The time of reckoning for Anda's character to step up to task is a bit deus ex machina and easily achieved. Suggested racist/imperialist overtones also overwhelm the message (the fact that Chinese labor is responsible for most American products goes untouched; by the way, the book is printed in China) from the message it perhaps could be, which is suggested in the last seven pages or so of the book.
In the last seven pages or so, Anda puzzles over her overwhelming concern for her new friend. She marvels
"It's weird. You're just a collection of pixels, but I worried."
Her new friend chides her
"This life is real too. We're communicating aren't we?"
And thus the connection she made, and any connection made online, is proven to have a real person, a real human being behind it, rather than just "a collection of pixels."
Had this been the target message (as suggested by the title, really) the book would've fared much better. It's not entirely dismissible and it is an enjoyable, if brief, read. But had the author chosen and sharpened one of the book's messages (as well as redid/rethought some of the others) it would've been so much better.
Title: In Real Life written by Cory Doctorow and illustrated by Jen Wang
Details: Copyright 2014, First Second Publishing
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap):
"Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It's a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It's a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. Gaming is, for Anda, entirely a good thing.
But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer -- a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person's real livelihood is at stake.
From acclaimed teen author Cory Doctorow and rising star cartoonist Jen Wang, In Real Life is a sensitive, thoughtful look at adolescence, gaming, poverty, and culture-clash. "
Why I Wanted to Read It: A bit of backstory of my own: if you're reading this, it's likely you know me at least a little already. Since I was about fifteen, I've self-identified as a feminist and activist, and have viewed media (and continue to view media) through a critical lens, as I think we all should. That doesn't mean you can't like things nor people that are in some way problematic, it means you should acknowledge that something is problematic in your consideration of it.
Of the forms I've media I've sampled, however, one hot-button topic I've been lax in exploring, for both financial and personal interests reasons: gaming. I grew up with gaming systems, and have had (very, very basic) ones of my own, but there are entire subcultures to which I know little to nothing about and generally experience through those who have actually experienced them. I do my best not to give commentary in areas where I don't have experience, and defer to the writings/words of others that do.
This book deals heavily with themes in role-playing (in which I have a little experience), role-playing video games, specifically MMRPG. It also deals a little more in an area I am experienced in, the intersection of "real life" and "cyberspace."
How I Liked It: The book attempts to cover a lot of ground in a short time, with varying degrees of success. I'm not familiar with the author, who is a tech activist, but reading up I had my usual prejudices: people not from the Millennial generation, even if they are well-versed in tech, tend to have an outdated and flatly unfair vision of "social media" which can harken back to every stereotype about technology and the waywardness of youth since the beginning of time. Seeing a book titled "In Real Life" and with a cover that looks like an anti-social, slovenly character finds escape through an active avatar already has my eyes rolling. But in the introduction, the author talks about the difference technology has made to activism, and doesn't use any asinine ableist terms like "slacktivism" or talk about how it's not "really" activism.
Once we get into the story, which is fast-paced and a quick read, we meet the main character who finds her way into a new game via a school project of sorts, and art, while cartoony, is still impressive. I had trepidations as well about a male author writing for a female character, particularly a teenage one, but Anda's writing is relatively without incident.
The book enters problematic territory (and also some other murkiness) when Anda encounters a Chinese boy her own age who plays the game and is currently in a dire economic situation. Anda's advice gets him fired, and the conclusion we're left to draw is hazy ("See how good things are in places like the United States where you can strike like Anda's dad and not be fired like Anda's friend?"). The time of reckoning for Anda's character to step up to task is a bit deus ex machina and easily achieved. Suggested racist/imperialist overtones also overwhelm the message (the fact that Chinese labor is responsible for most American products goes untouched; by the way, the book is printed in China) from the message it perhaps could be, which is suggested in the last seven pages or so of the book.
In the last seven pages or so, Anda puzzles over her overwhelming concern for her new friend. She marvels
"It's weird. You're just a collection of pixels, but I worried."
Her new friend chides her
"This life is real too. We're communicating aren't we?"
And thus the connection she made, and any connection made online, is proven to have a real person, a real human being behind it, rather than just "a collection of pixels."
Had this been the target message (as suggested by the title, really) the book would've fared much better. It's not entirely dismissible and it is an enjoyable, if brief, read. But had the author chosen and sharpened one of the book's messages (as well as redid/rethought some of the others) it would've been so much better.
