Ron Burgundy, Zizek

The excerpt from Zizek's “Welcome to the Desert of the Real” that was a reading this week was extremely interesting and thought provoking. This particular passage coincided greatly with the previous piece by Baudrillard about the spectacle of terrorism and the “real”. Zizek brings up the interesting observation about the current market that exists today that promotes a series of products “deprived of their malignant properties; coffee without caffeine, cream without fat, beer without alcohol” (231). He attempts to show the irony in having such products but still how they are popular commodities in our culture today. He goes on to make the point that this concept translates into the realm of reality versus pseudo reality with things such as “virtual reality”. He states that “Virtual Reality is experienced as reality without being so” (231). In other words Zizek is explaining that “virtual reality” is giving one the ability to experience something that they could experience in real life but without it being real. Zizek's fascination for the occurrence and popularity of virtual reality in today's culture is one I share with him. To me, the fascination of being able to do something through a computer or gaming system instead of experiencing it in real life is odd and is telling about the type of society that we live in today. I recently was shown a youtube video by a friend that demonstrated the newest and most technological gaming system that would be available to consumers soon known as XBOX Natal. The video explained the great strides that our technological development in gaming has taken, so much so that you can now do basically anything you would in “real life” while sitting in front of a television screen with a system that can replicate every movement you make in front of it. One of their greatest achievements with this system was a small boy character who was able to recognize not only movements of the individual in front of the gaming system but also emotions. This character could hold a conversation with you as you ask him how his day was and what he is up to and responds specifically to your answers and the emotions with which you answer them. As the video continued it showed the demonstrator interacting with the small boy walking to a lake with him and “moving” the water around with her hands. The demonstrator also helped with boy with a school assignment of drawing a fish that he had to complete by drawing it on real paper and then holding it up to him at the screen. All of this was clearly impressive as it showed how advanced our current technology is, and at first I was extremely intrigued by the idea of this gaming system. At the same time though I recognized a bit of irony in the pleasure and fascination that my friend who showed me the video had with the ability to play with the water in the game by just moving your hands around as you would in “real life”. I also wondered what kind of individual would prefer sitting in front of a television talking to an imaginary boy, helping him with homework, and playing in the water when you could do all of this in real life and actually help someone who really needs help. The reality is that most people would love to have this type of virtual reality experience, which in my opinion is scary as we transition to a culture that embraces a life like that seen in “The Truman Show” instead of experiencing and recognizing the real.