Coming of Age in Second Life: Chapter 1

Today I began reading Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human by Tom Boellstorff (2008). As I dove into the first chapter, I was reminded of how inspirational Boellstorff is to me personally. With his prior ethnographic research centering on sexuality in Indonesia, I could think of no other expert whose perspectives would be more inline with my interests. Boellstorff’s added ethnographic research in Second Life to his repratoire in 2004 and in Chapter 1: The Subject and Scope of this Inquiry, he not only introduces the work but also himself. With extremely descriptive terminology, Boellstorff relates motivation for writing, intended audience, difficulty of addressing all of his hoped for audiences, focus and an explanation of his choice of terms. With convincing rhetoric, Boellstorff argues that Second Life culture is far from “posthuman” and in fact that it is in, “…being virual that we are human: since it is human “nature” to experience life through the prism of culture, human being has always been virtual being. Culture is our “killer app”: we are virtually human.” (p. 5). After reading this passage I was widely grinning as the meaning in his words seemed multiple, defining the human experience as culturally molded and at the same time reflecting, to me, Boellstorff’s own philosophical lens.

 

Although Chapter 1 was merely introductory, I found myself completely engaged in the words. And words are of particular note to Boellstorff. Originally a linguist, he takes great care in choosing the terms that he uses to describe Second Life. He is careful to avoid references to this virtual world that would indicate that it is artificial, fabricated or in any way unreal (p. 17). Clearly describing not only word meaning but also history and root, he makes apparent to the reader, his motivation for choice of rhetoric. And while he is careful to avoid binaries as they relate to underlying ontology, he makes it clear that there is a distinction between the virtual and the real world. Many, he says, would relate a blurring of the boundaries between these worlds, he argues that while virtual worlds have increasing “real” world ramifications etc…, “Such ramifications take advantage of the gap between virtual and actual. They do not blur or close that gap…” (p. 21). He further notes that crossing of the boundary between the two may actually strengthen the distinction (p. 23).

 

Taken not only with Boellsorff’s attention to detail but also with his careful attention to situating himself within the research, as I became increasingly engaged in his writing, I also became more certain of the possibility for my own narrative research within Second Life. At the same time, as I followed Boellstorff’s effort to set the stage for a full-book ethnography of the culture of Second Life I became overwhelmed by how much I still have to learn within my own Second Life.

 

Boellstorff, Tom. (2008). Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press.