The Late Nobel Laureate José Saramago on Second Life: Desire to be in a Virtual World Represents "Human Restlessness" and Yearning for Someplace Else

A few years before he passed away this month, Portuguese Nobel laureate José de Sousa Saramago spoke about Second Life. Ana Alves, a metaverse developer known in SL as Irah Anatine, generously gave me a rough English translation of this video interview (below):

In the beginning, Saramago cites Rimbaud, who once said, "Real life is in another place". Meaning that Rimbaud feels that "real life" is not enough. Saramago says the poet thinks that the authentic life, the true life, is someplace else.

Then Saramago goes on: "The problem is we don't know what Rimbaud considered real life -- so I suppose the only thing that made him write that was the feeling that the life he was living was not real enough."

"Here", Saramago says, referring to our modern times, "we live in a real world and we can represent [ourselves], if we want, in this virtual world. But only the name, Second Life, is per se very similar to the Rimbaud feeling and all this is related to the human restlessness - 'What we have is not enough'. Men always think there's something else - and I'm sure there is. I think the problem is sometimes we don't know how to search for it. Or sometimes we just find and and can't recognize it.

"I don't think Second Life is the way -- because if we must create something distinct from this life of ours (and we can't even say ours is bad at all because we are very lucky after all) then we'll have to change lots of things. And what I think is that -- I suppose a million people are involved (in Second Life) -- this becomes an addiction, which encloses a person inside herself. And not only in herself, but in her character. And we might end up having doubts about what is more real -- if the person who delegates in the character all his/her frustrations, delusions, illusions, dreams, fears, and all the complex interior life or the character itself.

"And one can find himself in a situation of pure schizophrenia. Supposing that the entire world population would engage in this game, I fear that life would end up being far worse than the one we have right now. This scares me, I must say."

Ana adds, speaking for herself: "I do understand Saramago's idea, but I defend a different position." (She speaks for me too.) Still, he is probably the most renowned figure in world arts and letters to offer an opinion on Second Life, so it's worth noting here. I don't get the impression Saramago spent much time if any exploring SL himself. If he did, I suspect he'd find it to be a perfect complement to the fanciful magic realism of his fiction. (Anyone up for turning his writing into Second Life machinima?)

Hat tip: the cool Brazilian SL blog Mundo Linden.

Comments

[Nahasa Singh]

It's interesting to learn that Saramago took some time away from his lifelong dictatorships coddling and his vitriolic, medieval antisemitic rants, to discuss Second Life.

[Hamlet Au]

Yeah, I considered mentioning his extreme politics, but they're not why he won the Nobel, and his take on SL seems unrelated to them too.

[Scarp Godenot]

READING represents "human restlessness" and a Yearning for somplace else....... just sayin'.....

What intellectual pursuit DOESN'T do that?

Luddites ALWAYS use the same arguments: moral defectiveness of the new technology...

Sorry, not buying it.

[Nahasa Singh]

Hamlet, are you sure his left-wing politics had nothing to do in getting him the Nobel prize ?

Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges deserved the Nobel a thousand times more than Saramago, by literary merits. However, a few kind words towards the Pinochet dictatorship were enough to bar Borges forever from consideration.

Anyway, I see your point. I wouldn't have used the word "great" in the post title, that's all :)

I wonder what Borges would have thought of the virtual worlds... A place where you could build the Babel Library, or a 1:1 map of the world...

[Hamlet Au]

I hear you on Borges, I love his stuff. As I recall, he didn't really praise the Pinochet regime, but got dinged for not being sufficiently critical of it. But you know what, I took out "great" from the title, people can make up their own mind about Saramago the writer and/or the political firebrand.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

It's a common theme in science fiction. If virtuality becomes perfectly immersive, and can deliver your heart's desire at minimal cost and effort (be it love, fortune, fame, or hedonistic indulgence), then what motivation remains to strive in the real world?

The stock answer is that even perfect immersion is hollow, and the human soul will cry out for that which is REAL. But we're the first to assert that virtual IS real, sometimes hyperreal.

I don't have the answers, but I don't think Saramago's fears are entirely unfounded. Society is shifting rapidly, and I think we're seeing a good amount of populist backlash against science and education in large part because this shift is being led by the best and the brightest, not by overfed suits that are institutionally allergic to change.

[Swannjie]

Each person has specific realities and context in real life, Secondlife is an augmented part of the real life. One thing for sure, if you dont like certain things in real life, its unlikely that you will be putting in still more time doing it in a virtual world without a very good reason. :) Rimbaud needed something more than "real life", just like everybody else.