Book Review: Narrative as Virtual Reality 2
This lucidly written updated book by independent literary scholar Marie-Laure Ryanaddresses virtual reality (VR) not as a medium associated with specific hardware, but more loosely as a form of storytelling primarily concerned with immersion and interactivity. Noting "we may still have to wait a few years to see whether the promises and threats associated with VR will materialize," Ryan focuses on the dominant narrative form of the 20th century: text. This approach is remarkably helpful in placing VR in a continuum of storytelling and media (visual art, conventional and digital literature especially hypertext, and computer games) and pre-digital immersive experiences like Baroque architecture, children's make-believe, ritual, and some forms of theater such as Artaud's Theater of Cruelty. Moreover, in adopting a looser definition of virtuality, Ryan mostly avoids making definitive or "how-to" statements about this still emerging art form. Instead, by elucidating key elements such as gesture, spatiality, temporal and emotional immersion and important dynamics such as interactivity vs. immersion, game vs. world, and signification vs. simulation, Narrative as Virtual Reality 2 provides a framework for asking the right questions about storytelling in VR.
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