Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Comics writer Gerard Jones makes some interesting points about the general failure to differentiate between types of violence in our fiction and fantasies. It makes me wonder whether heavy consumers of violent entertainment – such as the people who might read this blog – would make the best censors of the kind of violence their offspring end up being exposed to. After all, we know it inside out, and can instantly evaluate its merit, or horror quotient…

University of Connecticut Associate Professor of classical studies Roger Travis has started a blog comparing videogames to the classic tales of the ancient world. His latest post, “The profundity of Halo and Bioshock (and the Iliad)”, puts our favourite first person shooters up there with the greats of Ancient Greece.

Am I saying, a critic of video games might ask, that Halo and Bioshock are capable of the depth of artistic-philosophical expression reached by the Iliad in the Choice of Achilles? After all, when the Homeric bard has Achilles say that maybe the undying glory isn’t really worth it if you lose your life, he’s doing an artistic thing that we’re not used to thinking video games can do.

Here’s the answer: Yes, I am saying that.

Duke Nukem is more like Odysseus, you see. (Or is that Serious Sam?)

This talk is a couple of years old now, being a seminar organised by The Long Now Foundation in June 2006, but I had only had the MP3 previously. Today I discovered that it is also available in full as a video via the excellent Fora.tv. If you’ve not already seen or heard this, then you must.