Comments on: Dystopian Society http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/anabeld/2013/01/23/dystopian-society/ part of the MSc in E-learning at the University of Edinburgh Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:48:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Anabel Drought http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/anabeld/2013/01/23/dystopian-society/#comment-2728 Anabel Drought Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:48:30 +0000 http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/anabeld/?p=78#comment-2728 The Hunger Games shows the fine line between life and death for the players, the technology as destruction and yet salvation Johnston (2009) of " engines of promise and threat in a global information culture" Hand (2008). What I find the most disturbing is the difference between the haves and have nots and the unfairness of the power they hold. The way they change the game plan when the characters have overcome the initial hurdles set for them. I hate that it is important for the characters to be easy on the eye for the game - that ability and skill are not enough - the players also need to be attractive and socially appealing - something they cannot have any control over. I thought this was a great image of a World I would not like to be part of! The Hunger Games shows the fine line between life and death for the players, the technology as destruction and yet salvation Johnston (2009) of ” engines of promise and threat in a global information culture” Hand (2008).

What I find the most disturbing is the difference between the haves and have nots and the unfairness of the power they hold. The way they change the game plan when the characters have overcome the initial hurdles set for them. I hate that it is important for the characters to be easy on the eye for the game – that ability and skill are not enough – the players also need to be attractive and socially appealing – something they cannot have any control over.

I thought this was a great image of a World I would not like to be part of!

]]> By: sbayne http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/anabeld/2013/01/23/dystopian-society/#comment-41 sbayne Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:18:38 +0000 http://edc13.education.ed.ac.uk/anabeld/?p=78#comment-41 Anabel, I wonder what it is in the Hunger Games that disturbs you so much - or at least, whether you can say more about it in terms of the reading and thinking you've been doing on utopia/dystopia? I guess there's a clear vision here of 'the grafting of the digital onto global capitalism' as Hand says (p15), with the question of economic divide played out in a deeply dystopian way. For me, this was disturbing but not that new. I thought that more interesting in the film was the way in which digital phantoms were used to manipulate players, and the things that said about the interplay of 'reality' and 'game', and the power relations embedded within that. Great example of dystopia you've introduced here : ) Anabel, I wonder what it is in the Hunger Games that disturbs you so much – or at least, whether you can say more about it in terms of the reading and thinking you’ve been doing on utopia/dystopia? I guess there’s a clear vision here of ‘the grafting of the digital onto global capitalism’ as Hand says (p15), with the question of economic divide played out in a deeply dystopian way. For me, this was disturbing but not that new. I thought that more interesting in the film was the way in which digital phantoms were used to manipulate players, and the things that said about the interplay of ‘reality’ and ‘game’, and the power relations embedded within that. Great example of dystopia you’ve introduced here : )

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