Transhumanism, Utopia, and the Problem of the Real in Ready Player One

Ann Taves's argument about "special things" permits religion scholars to analyze secular texts fruitfully. Notably, Ernest Cline's Ready Player One speculates about humanity's possible future and how technological advancement could reshape it. Although the narrative assumes...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Monteith, Andrew (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: University of Saskatchewan 2022
In: Journal of religion and popular culture
Jahr: 2022, Band: 34, Heft: 1, Seiten: 1-15
weitere Schlagwörter:B utopias
B Transhumanism
B speculative fiction
B Shamanism
B Secularism
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Zusammenfassung:Ann Taves's argument about "special things" permits religion scholars to analyze secular texts fruitfully. Notably, Ernest Cline's Ready Player One speculates about humanity's possible future and how technological advancement could reshape it. Although the narrative assumes an atheistic stance, its central, conceptual tensions are categorically religious. Cline's imagined cyberworld sensorily immerses users into an alternative kind of space and allows them to inhabit bodies of their own choosing; this represents a kind of transhumanist, utopian impulse similar to shamanism. However, Ready Player One problematizes this created world ontologically and questions whether relationships formed in such a place can be authentically meaningful. Contrasting the book, the film adaptation, and fan fiction illustrates the controversial stakes at play.
ISSN:1703-289X
Enthält:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and popular culture