BioShock and Philosophy: Irrational Game, Rational Book (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series)

My friend liked this for her BDAY, but the book was just thrown in a package with my other stuff and no receipts. The front cover was super bent and crinkled but it was too late to reorder. Would have been a good gift but Amazon needs to fix some shipping things.

Favorite game ever. Outstanding story telling

This is some very subjective opinion. I find about slightly more than half of the chapters exploring topics I'm interested in and find it fruitful and inspiring after reading those. While for other topics, either I find the topic boring or I think the author has been too far fetch and trying to hard to interpret what's behind the game. Anyway since this book covers a wide variety of topic, it's not possible to know how much of the book you will find interesting. But would certainly recommend for anyone bioshock fans and who wants to take a game to a whole new level.

Another great book in the Philosophy and Pop Culture series. A must read for Bioshock fans; it will add another dimension to your gaming enjoyment.

Great book! Very enjoyable read if u luv anything to do with bioshock!

As described.

It may be a little surprising to learn that a book titled BioShock and Philosophy isn't cover-to-cover Ayn Rand. Instead, editor Luke Cuddy presents 16 essays that use the BioShock games for a variety of philosophical entrances, from Oliver Laas's exploration of the characters' free will to Simon Ledder's introduction to transhumanism through plasmids and vigors. In fact the closest we get to an Objectivist tour of Rapture occurs via Rand's aesthetics on art, whereby author Jason Rose concludes that Objectivists — who generally don't like the game — should feel redeemed by it because Andrew Ryan is a bad Objectivist (to be fair, Cuddy may have approached hardline Objectivists for contributions but was probably rebuked with insults, accusations of irrationalism, and demands to sleep with Cuddy's wife).For me the strongest appeal of the BioShock games was their theme of utopianism, and because of that I have to thank Rick Elmore for my introduction to Carl Schmitt's theory of political foundation. Schmitt believed that nations or political communities are founded in opposition to some other assemblage, that group identity coalesces through hostility to another group — it's us versus them. It's sort of like Nixon's quip, only writ large, that voters vote against the candidates they hate, not for those they like. Elmore uses Schmitt's theory to explain the utopian experiments of Andrew Ryan and Zachary Comstock. Both create new societies that are antagonistic to others: for Ryan, it is parasites and socialism, while for Comstock it's sinfulness and a disturbing lack of faith in white supremacy. This idea is relevant today and explains a great deal why nations inflate threats (America's fear of Muslim terrorism) or constantly vilify other countries (the pathological obsession the Iranian and North Korean governments have with the US). The flames must be stoked long after the inciting spark has burned out, and defining group identity as being at war with another does exactly that. Schmitt also happened to be an unrepentant Nazi who used his theory to substantiate the Third Reich — which is again appropriate here, considering Hitler's dream of utopia collapsed as surely and completely as Ryan's and Comstock's.BioShock and Philosophy is not without some misses. A repetitive, vapid essay on Marxism and the Vox Populi revolution rehashes the game to make no-sh*t-Sherlock conclusions; the ink would have been better spilled on, say, analyzing Columbia through the lens of Edward Bellamy's utopian socialism, or a Marxist/leftish critique of the Fraternal Order of the Raven and real-world Lincoln demonization (particularly by paleolibertarians). Absence of a thing is not a valid criticism of that thing, but along those lines I was surprised that neither BioShock 2 nor the Burial at Sea DLCs are mentioned much; BioShock 2 reimagines Rand's feud with BF Skinner, while Burial at Sea apparently negates the ending of Infinite (something that would undoubtedly intrigue Scott Squires and James McBain, who didn't care for Infinite's deterministic universe). Including that content would have provided richer interpretations to some of the essays.It's been almost three years since the final BioShock game was released. If after that time the games are still under your skin like a syringe full of EVE, then read this book.

Happy to get the book but Amazon decided to toss it in the box without wrapping it or anything.

I really liked the way this book is unfolding several topics concerning the Bioshock backgrounds and philosophies. But as a german, I must speak out a clear warining to everyone who's english is not very good. It is quite tough to read at times and I've had trouble following the writers.

Excelente libro, si eres afín del juego o no te llevará en el senderismo de la filosofía

awsome book and an awsome story, revolving around the best gaming franchise ever made, a nice read, bioshocks story telling is something special, and this book accompanies the franchise beautifully, would highly recommend

Great book for fans of the world of Rapture who want to delve further into the twisted world created by Andrew Ryan and its progressive self-destruction. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and would even recommend it to friends of mine who haven't played the games.

Un excelente libro para los fanáticos del videojuego. Llegó en tiempo con buena calidad en las hojas y pasta.