Vonnegut & Video Games

["Geoff Sirc" <sirc@xxxxxxx>]

Kathy,

I really hate to clog up discussion lists with my own little problem, but
since you asked, I'll give you an answer as to why I am haunted: that
teacher who made the comment is a great teacher, one who embodies everything
I want in a person schooling my child.  So I am struck when she has such
serious reservations about something I support.  And she's not ignorant
about what cyber-tech can do regarding critical thinking, literacy,
creativity, etc.  She's very smart.

Plus this weighs on my mind: not sure if you've had the true buzz of
catching any of Kurt Vonnegut's lectures the past couple years, but I've
seen 2 in the past year and a half (one a symposium in NYC, one a book promo
here in town), and I bring him up cause if you have caught him you know that
he devotes a significant amount of attention to why he hates computers,
internet, etc.  I mean, like he just about begs you to take an oath before
you leave; it gets under your skin, you know?  They're isolating us, he
rants, focusing us away from the real, like having slot machines in
everyone's living rooms, this phony extended on-line family we think we
have.  He urges people to join the Hell's Angels instead if they feel the
need for an extended family.  He, too, is an incredibly wise teacher, one I
want schooling my children (he's my college student son's favorite author,
which I'm glad about).  So again, I have to pause, you know?  I know you've
heard the rant before, but this time (and with that teacher at the party)
it's coming from a very intelligent, passionate person.  So I have a harder
time pulling my collar up against it, right?

It's like, every time I hear about a project where someone links their class
up to Afghanistan or something, I always feel, I guess that's cool, sure,
why not, but maybe linking kids up in the same class or same building is a
good thing, too.  Maybe a better thing.  At my son's school there's huge
pockets of Somalian immigrants, Bosnians, Hmong, and the largest Tibetan
community of any school in town (so many the Dalai Lama's even gonna visit
the school when he comes).  And my son, and the other little white boys in
school, don't really know these kids very well.  Of course there are
indvidual exceptions, but on the whole, pretty spiritually segregated.  They
take class together but don't really know each other.  It was the same way
with my first son when he went through the school.  Maybe a curriculum that
would start with kids getting to know each other?  A little email or web
flurry back and forth with a class in Afghanistan is fine, but this other
thing is life.

The video game stuff, too: yeah, I know what it can do with narratives.  I
read this interesting piece on how the games are becoming like movies, the
movies like the games.  I don't think that's such a good thing, though.  I
think programing limitations make the game narratives extremely trivial,
conventional, and then you give a kid something like Wind in the Willows and
they can't process the Piper at the Gates of Dawn chapter, cause it's
narratively very unusual.  I so often have heard my two sons, at various
stages of their video game careers, mess up on a game that doesn't let you
save.  They were, maybe, so close to the resolution, and now, "Oh no, I have
to go all the way back to the beginning!"  They seek out tip books or
articles, the Cliff's Notes to the game, so they can short-cicruit past dull
repetition right to the star or princess or whatever.  You know, I never
find myself crying out, "Oh no, I have to read Cat's Cradle all over again!"

The screen-fixation of kids goes on apace.  I have a couple first-year
students who would love nothing more than surfing the web 24/7.  They can't
understand why I think it's important they listen to the other students talk
about things.  Yes, my little boy loves playing outside, of course.  His
best "play" moment this winter was the snow sculptures he made.  What a day.
Meanwhile, it takes every little ounce of what charm and guile I have left
to get my son to play, say, board games.  But when he does, he loves them.
The board game scene seems so different than the video game scene.  The dice
rolling, the figure-moving, card-taking.  The lulls in the action, the
longeur, the conversation, the looking at each other.  As I watched my first
son and now this little guy play vids with their friends, it's just a
different rhythm.  I don't want to be a cranky luddite.  And I don't think
Vonnegut is.  It's good to go into all this with shaken faith, I think.
Prevents taste from stabilizing.

G

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