Would Hegel Have Played Pac-Man?
from the does-it-really-matter? dept
Salon is running a review and an excerpt from a book called Lucky Wander Boy, about a guy who writes ridiculously "deep" reviews of video games, bringing up how the games relate to various well-known philosophers. In the excerpt is a review of the ever-popular game Frogger that includes the following: "It draws its power from our shared memories of powerlessness. Wherever we are now, at one time or another we have all felt the poor frog's anxiety in the face of the world's intransigence, its blind and callous disregard for our happiness or well-being." I have no idea how good the actual book is, but it sounds like it was fun to write.
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What about old school condemnation
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If movies are an art form...
The truth is, all it takes to raise the level of something to "intellectual" is some deeper thinking on the matter.
Without the critics, scads of authors would have remained forever unknown... didn't people consider Shakespeare as over-the-top dreck for the masses at the time?
Not saying that Frogger = Shakespeare! We're likely too early in the age of gaming for that.
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Re: If movies are an art form...
It wasn't until the late 19th century that the notion of "Muscular Christianity" came in, the notion that all classes should aspire for good physical fitness in order to improve the nation's military strength. Even then, engineers or other non-athlete college students were discouraged from physical fitness until the mid-20th century. In the 1970s, Princess Diana got a tan and worked out, much to the chagrin of Britain's aristocracy at the time.
At the moment, the ideal person is supposed to have a tan and 4% body fat, which is in fact unhealthy also. Millions of Westerners will undergo a skin cancer holocaust in coming decades, all because people wanted to be perceived as belonging to the luxury classes. We could have a reversion to a healthier ideal of staying cloistered indoors to avoid harmful UV rays from the depleted ozone layer. We seem to be at the peak of the anorexic look; even actors from the 1980s seem chubby by today's standards. We could also have the pendulum swing back towards heavier ideals.
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