From: bluefire@well.com (Bob Jacobson)
Subject: EVENT: "This American Life," NPR: "Simulated Worlds," this week
Date: 12 Oct 1996 03:52:55 GMT
Message-ID: <53n4mn$2cu@filth.well.com>
Organization: The Well, San Francisco, CA


If it hasn't been broadcast yet in your neighborhood (of the USA),
listen for this week's edition of "This American Life," produced by
Ira Glazer.  It's a wonderful examination of the British and
derivative American disposition to create and recreate places and
things out of time and space: wax museums, Civil War recreations, the
Madonna Inn, dinosaurs, medieval tournaments, and the Last Supper.

The show draws heavily on Umberto Eco's TRAVELS IN HYPERREALITY but is
made thoroughly endearing and amusing through first-person accounts by
individuals involved in all of these magical experiences.

A tape of this show is available from NPR.  Check out

	http://www.npr.com 

for details.

Glazer's sound essay may tell us a lot why VR is so pronounced in the
UK and USA, as an extension of already strong escapist tendencies; and
why it takes on a more practical character in other cultural settings.
(What would he say about Japan, where the fantastic and the practical
are so closely intermingled?)  It may also explain why some
individuals instantly turn on to VR and others just never seem to get
it: a sense of wonder.

Speaking of which, I wonder: how come I never knew that Tyrannosaurus
rex was a pathetic carrion eater?  Why wasn't I told?  Learn the
answer on "This American Life: Simulated Worlds."

Bob Jacobson
bluefire@well.com (Bob Jacobson)