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- Title
Updating Narcissus, the Ur-myth of Media, for Digital Gaming.
- Authors
Jenkins, Eric S.
- Abstract
This article illustrates that the Narcissus myth can and has been interpreted as fundamentally about media. Surveying previous interpretations from Mulvey and McLuhan reveals that these rely upon assumptions based in a literate (Mulvey) and electronic (McLuhan) media environment. These interpretations offer insights into the desires and dangers of media, but they do not capture the unique desires of gaming, which are more about the play between self and other than love of self or other. Thus I offer an updated version for digital gaming. This interpretation portrays Narcissus as becoming entranced by the play between self and image, immediacy and hypermediacy, or control and conditions, leading to a better understanding of digital gaming and virtual space as operating via an economy between these pairs rather than an opposition. This economy produces unique desires not encapsulated by previous interpretations of Narcissus, which are frequently applied to gaming.
- Publication
Games & Culture, 2016, Vol 11, Issue 7/8, p647
- ISSN
1555-4120
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/1555412015577734