FACULTY OF LIFE & SOCIAL SCIENCES

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET NAME: STUDENT NUMBER: SUBJECT AND DISCIPLINE: PHONE NUMBER: EMAIL ADDRESS: DUE DATE: WORD COUNT: TUTORS NAME: TUTORIAL TIME: TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT: Daniel Byron 7342543 HACM104: MEDIA LITERATURE FILM: TEXTS & CONTEXTS 2013 0417281191 daniel@interaction.org.au 31/5/2013 1850 Jon Dale Wednesday 4.30pm BioShock:Infinite: Narrative and Intersectionality YES OR NO I have read feedback on my previous assignments and have tried to take that into account in writing this assignment. Staff in the faculty may wish to use your assignment for benchmarking. If this assignment is highly rated, we might want to use it as an example for other students. Do you give your permission for your assignment to be copied for these purposes? Assignments used for benchmarking is anonymous. If, however, your work is selected as an example of excellent work for other students to read, may we use it under your name? Yes Yes

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This assignment must be your own work, and must be original research that has not been submitted anywhere else, by you or someone else, for assessment. All work that is not your own original research must be cited. Plagiarism is the appropriation of the ideas, writings or work of someone else and passing that off as ones own, and/or including uncited work that has been submitted elsewhere for assessment. I have not plagiarised this assignment in whole or in part. SIGNED : DATED: FOR HARD COPY ASSIGNMENTS, PLEASE STAPLE YOUR ASSIGNMENT IN THE TOP LEFTHAND CORNER. FOR ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION: SUBMISSION OF YOUR ESSAY WITH THIS DOCUMENT VIA YOUR STUDENT BLACKBOARD LOGIN CONSTITUTES YOUR CONFIRMATION OF ALL OF THE ABOVE.

The term Homo Ludens or Playful Man introduces the notion that culture may be shaped by our play. Dutch theorist Johan Huizinga submits that play is more than a simple progenitor of culture; it may be understood rather as a practice of both a political nature and of a representative one (1938, p.8). For this reason, Dean Chan urges developers of contemporary Video games to remain critically engaged in the representation and implications within their texts (2005, p30). When authors such as Carr highlight the limitations and thresholds of the narratives of modern games, criticism often falls to the pre-written, if not predetermined narrative structure (2006). The text of analysis, Irrational Games BioShock: Infinite (2013) embodies the political nature Huizinga suggests, rich in undertones from its socio-political, racially segregated setting. Its complex narrative structure interrupts the linear that Carr critiques by presenting an interwoven and cyclic one, absent of genuine player choice in the narratives physical outcomes. This piece aims to indentify the influence such a narrative holds over the representation of race, such a narrative that presents choice as purposeless in an Intersectional revolution of race, gender and oppression (Collins, 2000). Bioshock: Infinite introduces its interactive audience to a semi-fictive world set in 1912 where the player takes the first-person perspective of the constructed role of male protagonist Booker DeWitt. The player finds themselves entering a cryptic isolated island lighthouse as DeWitt somewhat unwillingly straps himself into a mechanical shuttle device, a design well beyond the capacity of its historical era and our own, and is propelled into a cloud-city that portrays a quasi-futuristic, turn of the century nationalistic Americanesque utopia known as Columbia. The audience, through the character of DeWitt have no context or direction to this mystified and almost abstract introduction, are baptised by partial drowning at a Church alter as a welcoming, urged on by a Theistic minister and born-again baptists and are aware only of a debt that can be repaid by rescuing a girl from this city. The audience is promptly placed to explore the public fun-fair style streets and interact with the citizens of the self-proclaimed utopia thats social identity arises from their devotion to the founding fathers of the United States, and in direct opposition to the Vox Populi, a revolutionary movement of the subjugated and mostly unseen working class, primarily consisting of people of colour. The political structure present appears centred around a contemporary Ambrahamic prophet Zachary Comstock, who acts as a both political ruler of this technologically apt floating nation and as a worshiped religious father-figure within the seemingly Puritanic population of Columbia, all of whom allowed into the public sphere are white American adherents to a localized theological pre-determinism of national salvation. Using the framework of terminology of narrative as presented by Stadler & McWilliam in their 2009 work, Screen Narratives: Traditions and Trends, BioShock: Infinite presents a multiform narrative, one that is a fragmentation of dreams, shifts between five similar yet alternative realities in which slight sequences of events have altered and have changed aspects of people and the city of Columbia (p.171). Furthermore, in the conclusion of the BioShock: Infinite,

the audience through DeWitt are informed that the entirety of the time spent within Columbia is a cyclic narrative, repetitious and infinite (2009, p.169). Imperative to this pieces analytical exploration is the understanding that regardless of the players choices, or those of the citizens and revolutionaries within the narrative, the outcome is inevitably identical. As this text will submit, when the inevitable is the failing and corruption of an Intersectional revolution of race and gender oppression this may be a problematic narrative to present. While Aarseth (1997) proposes that games are a different cut from other narratives as they offer us choice in the outcomes, BioShock: Infinite does not presents us linear consequences arising from our choices, rather choices that are known only to player, and reflect or mirror a social consciousness for those actions. In the causality of the games narrative, they hold no impact however. To demonstrate this absence of actual choice, an example may be found that in the early opening of the text. Booker DeWitt has found himself in the midst of the city folk during a celebratory fair, and the audience has the opportunity to investigate further the seemingly political propaganda the governance has created for its people. Xenophobic white-supremacy propaganda posters depicting a variety of messages from pro-eugenics, radical if not religious patriotism, anti-immigration and anti-anarchism are widely displayed throughout the city, with the player perhaps noting the absolute absence of any non-white Columbian citizen [app#1]. In the midst of this fair, DeWitt finds himself winning a raffle prize at a stage performance. His reward is the first throw of a baseball as an act of publicly shaming a couple of mixed ethnicity, a black woman and a white man, who due to their union are subsequently bound to a stage backdrop depicting gollywog lookalikes [app#2]. At this point, the player is forced to make a choice of two options within the space of a few seconds; to throw the ball at the couple as the presenter and Columbian crowd call for, or to throw the baseball back at the presenter. By the player reaming inactive or to choose neither produces a verbal response from DeWitt that he will not throw the ball. Regardless of the players choice or abstinence from said choice, DeWitts hand is caught by a nearby Police Officer, is examined for a mark that determines him as a social Anti-Christ figure and is then about to be instantaneously executed, subsequently resulting in a violent response from DeWitt to escape alive. Due to Booker DeWitt making occasional reactive commentary, often justifying his (and potentially the players) acts of violence as necessary for survival, this situates the audience to sympathise with this position, violence born out of selfdefence, with no options available for peaceful dialogue. Siapera argues that games plots and storylines end up naturalizing war and justifying violence, therefore submitting that the analysis of games and their content can offer insights into dominant and powerful cultural narratives (2012, p. 215). The question begged is if violence is the dominant narrative, and as later portrayed in the text, the inevitable failure of transcending racial inequality by retorting to outright racial war, is a controvertible choice by the texts designers.

The pre-determinism of events that exists within scenarios such as the baseball throwing scene and the violence that is necessary to continue within the narrative itself is reflected throughout the entirety of the BioShock: Infinite and due to its cyclic and complex narrative nature, the question must be asked, how does this bare upon the interpretation of political undertones in the text. Stadler & McWilliam propose that such convoluted narratives may offer and suggest differing ideologies than those of classical narratives (2009, p.171-2). As there are no divergent consequences from player choices, BioShock: Infinite forces us to be limited to violence, even if unwilling. At this stage, such a statement may be dismissed as unproblematic by the existing literature on violence within interactive media (Hartman & Vorderer, 2010, p.95). However, when we introduce the complexity of events of the rising revolutionary Daisy Fitzroy, and DeWitts commentary upon her actions, we begin to see the intricacy and difficulties of these positions. There exists within the text radical binary oppositions, those of dualistic, irreconcilable, or sublatable dialectical) oppositions and are embodied by the oppositional white male Zachary Comstock ruling a patriarchal religious totalitarian nation Columbia and Daisy Fitzroy, the intelligent black female leader of the Vox Populi, anarchist revolutionary insurgence, whom Booker DeWitt initially supports in their rebellion against the racial and labor oppression of the common people (De Beauvoir, 1949) [app#3 & #4]. Fitzroy who may be an ideal contemporary media embodiment of Intersectionality, a Third-Wave Black Feminist notion centered around the examination, exploration and liberation of both race and gender equally; that a Black womens collective standpoint does exist, one characterized by the tensions that accrue to different responses to common challenges (Collins, 2000, p. 28). The apparently strong narrative dualisms of binary oppositions that were present at the beginning of BioShock: Infinite; obvious oppression, indentured labor, outright xenophobia and so forth becomes uncertain if not completely dissolved by the acts of extreme violence committed by Daisy Fitzroy and the Vox Populi against the white ruling class and their government, witnessed in the later part of the text. Initially Irrational Games may be hailed for creating a powerful and intelligent black female revolutionary as an essential crux to the narrative. It may also be applauded for addressing common dominant ideals of white hegemony, the natural assumptions made of the social (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003, p. 166) and for showing an opposition against manipulating ideology which manufactures consent, both internal to the text and to the social consciousness of the texts interpreter and consumer (Gramsci, 1971). Nevertheless, the way in which Fitzroy later represents the antithesis of equality and a failed emissary of justice is challenging, and results in an almost Orwellian evaluation of the futility of revolution as depicted in Homage to Catalonia (1952). Out of appearing fanaticism and determination to uproot Columbian society, Fitzroy begins to execute innocent citizens and children who she suggest are co-oppressors and contends they are the next generation of the totalitarian ruling class [app#5].

Once the victim of oppression, Daisy Fitzroy has begun using violent measures, DeWitt declares that Zachary Comstock and Daisy Fitzroy are identical in character: "When it comes down to it, the only difference between Comstock and Fitzroy is how you spell the name" Booker DeWitt, BioShock: Infinite (2009) With the texts conclusion of an infinite cycle of an inevitable yet multiform narrative, Daisy Fitzroy and the Vox Populi insurgency are seen to commit the identical atrocities each time through, while failing to achieve their revolution of Columbia. This raises the question; does this not disempower the Intersectional character of Fitzroy and her reasoning for retaliation? The resulting conclusion that choice was ineffectual throughout the narrative, the choice of both the player as DeWitt and those of the other characters, and the discovery that Fitzroy always will resort to violence in the revolution removes the morality from this text, equaling out both the oppressor, the white, racist, patriarchal nation and the primarily black egalitarian oppressed. If adopting Huizingas notion that our culture is shaped by our play, what type of culture does this game perpetuate? Might BioShock: Infinite then present a metanarrative of the meaningless nature of personal choice and social or political change? When the significance of the individual, their social position, choices and experiences are the centre of analysis for Black Feminism, BioShock: Infinite comes into direct discord with it. Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association citied is in Chans 2005 text as suggesting that games are unconsciously created in reflection of the position and opinions of their designers (p.25). If this indeed the case, then what message does BioShock: Infinite hold when choice is simply a personal moral reflection known only to the player and of no physical consequence to the narrative, especially when it is a narrative that is politically situated around racial and power struggles. Inferences that may be drawn from the texts conclusion is that regardless of position, all are capable of violence, that violence is integral to social revolution and concludes that choice is inevitably meaningless and redundant. Perhaps most importantly, it unsettlingly depicts a failure of an Intersectional transcendence over patriarchy, totalitarianism, and racial oppression; that violence is inevitable, and equality is unachievable.

Appendix:
#1:

Political propaganda found in the streets of Columbia, in the opening scene of the text. < http//images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100916203446/bioshock/images/b/b6/WASHINGTON_FI NAL.jpg>, viewed, 26th May 2013

#2:

The player making a choice as Booker DeWitt holding the prize of the first baseball throw at the fun fair during the opening scenes of the text. < http-//guides.gamepressure.com/bioshockinfinite/gfx/word/625488859.jpg>, viewed 26 th May 2013

#3

Posters of Zachary Comstock found on the main streets of Columbia <http-//images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/8/80/Fcomstock.jpg, viewed 28th May 2013

#4

Daisy Fitzroy < http-//sorryari.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/daisy1.jpg>, viewed 21st May 2013>

#5

Daisy Fitzroy before attempting to execute a young Anglo-Saxon boy during the Vox Populi revolt < http-//sorryari.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/daisy1.jpg>, viewed 21st May 2013>

Reference: Aarseth, E, 1997, Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore Carr, D, 2006, Games and Narrative, in Carr, D, Buckingham, Burn, A & Schott, G, Computer Games: Text, Narrative and Play, Polity Press, Cambridge, p. 30-44 Chan, D, 2005, Playing with Race: The Ethics of Reacialized Representations in E-Games, in International Review of Information Ethics, Vol. 4, No. 12, pp.24-30). Collins, P. H, 2000, Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment, 2nd ed, Routledge, New York Croteau, D., & Hoynes, W, 2003, Media society: Industries, images, and audiences, (3rd ed.),Thousand Oaks, Pine Forge De Beauvoir, S, 1949, The Second Sex, Random House Gramsci, A, 1971, Selections from the prison notebooks, International Publishers, New York Hartman & Vorderer, 2010, It's Okay to Shoot a Character: Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games, in Journal of Communication, Vol. 60, No.1 Huizinga, J, 1938, Homo Ludens: A Student of Play-Element in Culture, Routledge, London Orwell, G, 1952, Homage to Catalonia, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Siapera, E, 2012, Understanding New Media, Sage, London Stadler, J & McWilliam, K, 2008, Screen Narratives: Traditions and Trends in Screen Media: Analysing Film and Television, Allex & Unwin, Crows Nest, pp.155182