[Air-L] Jennifer Haley's The Nether / VR vs RLd

[Amanda Licastro]

Jill and Alison,

Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. This is the perfect
fit for a course I am teaching next Fall. I am teaching a writing course
that focuses on virtual reality, and hope to use Forester's "The Machine
Stops," Anderson's *FEED, *and Cline's "Ready Player One." Has anyone
taught a similar course? If you have suggestions on short readings about VR
I would really appreciate the recommendations.

I wonder - have either of you read R.U.R by Capek
<http://www.amazon.com/R-U-R-Rossums-Universal-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141182083>?
It is my understanding that this is the play that coined term "robot." I
also teach this text and would love to hear how others have approached it
in a classroom setting.

Thanks again,
Amanda

Amanda Licastro
Assistant Professor of Digital Rhetoric, Stevenson University
Doctoral Student, The Graduate Center, CUNY
http://digitocentrism.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
@amandalicastro



On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 6:50 AM, Alison Powell <a.powell at lse.ac.uk> wrote:

> Hi Jill,
>
> I watched it when it was first staged in London last year (or the year
> before??), and wanted my students to read the script as it was so
> nuanced and interesting. Thanks for sharing and for reminding me of how
> much I liked the play. The London staging was amazing as well, with a
> set of stages within stages that the actors moved in between.
>
> I found it moving, sad, but also extremely thought-provoking.
>
> Look forward to hearing your responses after you see it staged.
>
> best,
>
> alison.
>
> On 15/04/2016 11:47, Jill Walker Rettberg wrote:
> > Have any of you watched or read Jennifer Haley’s play The Nether?
> >
> > It’s being played all over the world (Washington, Philadelphia, Munich
> and Bergen right now, LA, NYC and London a few months ago, no doubt
> elsewhere too) and is about the relationship between virtual worlds and RL,
> set in a near future where the world is horrible (no trees etc) and a lot
> of people spend most of their time in a VR world.
> >
> > I found a PDF of the manuscript here. It’s a fast read.
> >
> http://www.playsandplayers.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/THE-NETHER-8.9.11.pdf
> >
> > Reading reviews and the blurb I first thought it was going to be just
> another “virtual worlds are sick pornographic dens of pedophilia and
> nothing else) but that as I read the manuscript I found really quite
> fascinating. The NY Times review emphasises “the dark side of the web” and
> certainly the pedophilia thing is strongly emphasised in the marketing of
> the play. Reading the manuscript through to the end I don’t have that
> takeaway. (
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/theater/review-jennifer-haleys-the-nether-explores-the-dark-side-of-the-web.html?_r=0
> )
> >
> > I’d love to hear what others think about it - it gets SO much more
> interesting towards the end but I’m a bit loathe to give spoilers.
> >
> > The reviews I’ve read all seem to fall into the “virtual is bad” trap,
> which is odd given the last third of the play. Of course, I haven’t yet
> seen it on stage. It’s premiering here in Bergen tomorrow and I’ve been
> invited to give a talk about VR at the theatre at noon tomorrow, and they
> gave me tickets to the dress rehearsal tonight - will be interesting to see
> how they slant it.
> >
> > Jill
> > _______________________________________________
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>
> --
> Dr Alison Powell
> Assistant Professor
> Director of MSc Media and Communication (Data & Society)
> London School of Economics
> Tower 3, 701.J, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE
> a.powell at lse.ac.uk
> Twitter: @a_b_powell
>
>
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