Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In its intimate joining of self and machine, video gaming works to extend the body into a fluid, dynamic, unstable, and discontinuous entity. While digital gaming and culture has become a popular field of academic study, there has been a lack of sustained philosophical analysis of this direct gaming experience. In Parables of the Posthuman: Digital Realities, Gaming, and the Player Experience, author Jonathan Boulter addresses this gap by analyzing video games and the player experience philosophically. Finding points of departure in phenomenology and psychoanalysis, Boulter argues that we need to think seriously about what it means to enter into a relationship with the game machine and to assume (or to have conferred upon you) a machinic, posthuman identity.

Parables of the Posthuman approaches the experience of gaming by asking: What does it mean for the player to enter the machinic "world" of the game? What forms of subjectivity does the game offer to the player? What happens to consciousness itself when one plays? To this end, Boulter analyzes the experience of particular role-playing video games, including Fallout 3, Half-Life 2, BioShock, Crysis 2, and Metal Gear Solid 4. These games both thematize the idea of the posthuman?the games are "about" subjects whose physical and intellectual capacities are extended through machine or other prosthetic means?and also enact an experience of the posthuman for the player, who becomes more than what he was as he plays the game. Boulter concludes by exploring how the game acts as a parable of what the human, or posthuman, may look like in times to come.

Academics with an interest in the intersection of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and popular culture forms and video gamers with an interest in thinking about the implications of gaming will enjoy this volume.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• Preamable: The Birth into the Posthuman (p. 17)
• Posthuman Subjects (p. 25)
• Posthuman Melancholy (p. 99)
• Postscript: Play and the Archive (p. 111)
• Conclusion (p. 123)
• Notes (p. 129)
• Works Cited (p. 139)
• Index (p. 145)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Posthuman discourse focuses on what being human means, particularly in light of technological advancements and the potential for the extension of human capabilities. Boulter (English, Western Univ., Canada) delves into the philosophical meaning of posthumanism, using both phenomenology and psychology in his analysis of posthumanist thought, and then applies his analysis to video game players as a case study of the posthuman experience. Selecting several story-driven video games to describe the posthuman experience, the author not only looks at science fiction story lines in which characters experience the augmentation of physical and/or mental capabilities but also questions whether gamers experience a temporary posthuman condition (be it actual or perceived) as the result of immersion in a fantasy while playing the game. The player-game relationship seems custom-built for the application of posthuman philosophy and makes for compelling illustrations--or parables--of the posthuman experience. Though Parables of the Posthuman will primarily interest scholars of philosophy and posthumanism, the book may also appeal to game designers who desire a deeper understanding of the player experience. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals. --Jonathan M. Smith, Sonoma State University