Bunbury Me Alive

Being an English geek...

An interesting midground between the virutal and the real is best represented by an idea in Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest". In this play the two characters Algernon and Jack have created separate alter-egoes to escape the social rigidity of 19th Century London. Critics have readily claimed that Wilde's homosexuality and personal double-life was the muse for the inclusion of 'Bunburying' in the text. Algernon and Jack show a nonchalance and almost normality to what would be considered schizophrenic behaviour.

My argument is that in Turkle's postmodern computer age, all users of the internet who engage in social interaction are 'Bunburying'. The ability to create multiple selves allows for the individual to escape the constraints of responsibility. The real world comes with real world trappings - job, family, finances etc. 'Bunburying' on the web allows the individual to momentarily (define moment!) escape from these aspects of their real lives. 'Bunburying' allows the individual the ability to fool others - a dirty pleasure (master-slave dichotomy perhaps?)

Reality itself is at the centre of the 'Bunbury' dilemma. If web-based escapism proves better, then we can slowly forget the real. Conversely, if 'Bunburying' proves too much, well, it wasn't real anyway. This is the problem we face.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunburying


Lucas Cooney
www.myspace.com/kooneyman