Thoughts on -Immersion VS Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory- by Marie-Laurie Ryan. Ryan’s analysis dictates the ways in which both Virtual Reality (as defined within the realms of all possible technologies) and Literature (ranging from classical narrative to postmodern) are means of accessing ”immersive” experiences. Even though Virtual reality boasts to be capable of stimulating all the senses, Ryan purports that literature (especially those which acknowledge the reader’s presence) is capable of affecting sense perception through attachment to plot/message, characters, and descriptive language. If the plot and characters of a story have a reader fully immersed, then language can be used to make a reader practically smell, see, taste, hear and feel. VR and literature are currently equal as immersive media.In regards to religion, this affectation of sense perception can be drawn parallel to religious prayer induced through the reading/recitation of of textural scripture; namely the Qur’an, Bible, Vedic and Buddhist texts. Yet doesn’t immersion through recitation refute the perception that it is the reader’s connection to the plot or characters of story that causes immersion in literature. No, because the story/meaning is what provides the frame of reference from which the experience is accessed. Without virturally expiriencing the message of God via Muhammad and the Qur’an, how can one feel holy when reciting particular Surras? What this apparnet refutation revals though is the most basic foundation of ritual recitation, structure. A structured meaning that logically makes sense has become the foundation of immersive literature, since understanding between the reader and the meaning is precedent for any connection to be made between the two. A structured answer to life is what many (if not all) religious texts claim to be their meaning, and the immersive experience that the reader/reciter seeks to access is seemingly real affirmation of that meaning. Even in mystic and agnostic texts, the meaning/answer/true reality/God that humans could never fully access or understand do exist somewhere, just not for people. It’s an affirmation that there is something rather than nothing for a potentially unknowable reason, and thus there is more than chaos in the universe. What the texts do is provide that answer (or lack there of) via an immersive virtural expirience, which the reader then ingests, and applies to reality. Reading a religious text is like running a simulation to the answer of life; if it feels good, go for it in reality.The connection that Ryan purports between literature immersion and VR immersion can be applied to religion via the “immersive” experiences accessed through religious texts. But immersion was only half of the answer in regards to full virtural expirience, and new VR technology can provide “interactivity”, which parallels choice and logic. By giving the player certain choices, and requiring them to chose the “correct” one, then logically there must be a reason for said choice to be correct, and thus there must be a structure that dictates why that reason works. This additional structure of choice and logic that VR holds over literature can too be applied to religion, an area never before possible with words alone.In a virtual simulation, where a person is only immersed, they take the structure of the world they are viewing to be valid, but have no means of testing or controlling said system for flaws. With immersion and interactivity, the person engaged in the Virtual Reality both comprehends this larger system, and is able to test the within the range of the choices given. If the person can find no flaws with the system, then wouldn’t their trust in the soundness of that system be heightened?Now, if we were to replace the structure of the system for the true meaning of the Bible, and Virtual Reality for religious experience; then with Virtual Reality we could not only grasp the true meaning of the Bible, but (with the choices provided in the stories) test it’s soundness, and thus artificially enhance religious understanding. For example, imagine a fully immersive and interactive program through which a person virtually becomes a member of the tribe of the Qur’aysh during the times of Muhammad. If all choice within the simulation were programmed from information from history, the Qur’an and Hadith; the person could fully imagine themselves being involved in the story. If that person then chooses to follow Muhammad in the virtual reality (especially if a former sense of self could be forgotten) wouldn’t that reaffirm their faith tremendously, knowing that given the opportunity they too would have chosen the “righteous path”? Or if someone were to chose not to follow Muhammad, then they could experience the logical consequences of their chosen actions (perhaps being killed in the battle of Badr?). With the added structural element of choice, Virtual Reality can enhance the religious message being sent.In short, being that the goal of religion is to provide answers that give structure to the universe, it makes sense that a logically structured message would be used to explain said answer. Literature was once used as a tool to spread religious messages, because according to Ryan literature had the largest potential for immersion: understanding gained through the reader’s willingness to relate to, or imagine the message being sent. Now that Virtual reality (according to Ryan) possesses the capability for both immersion and interactivity: understanding gained through the player’s ability to chose the correct answer, it has become the ultimate structured medium through which to transmit religious messages. Messages will consequently be enhanced by their new “super-structured” explanations. Ask yourself, what seems more real, and answer you infer, or an answer you experience (even virtually)?
