Book Launch and Guest Talk: Beyond the Sea

University of Toronto (St. Michael's College), Shook Common Room, PIMS Building 59 Queen's Park Cr. East, Toronto, ON M5S 2C4
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Join Felan Parker and Jessica Aldred in Toronto for the launch of their new book, Beyond the Sea: Navigating Bioshock. The launch will be followed by a guest talk by Matthew Thomas Payne of Notre Dame.

The event will be held in the Shook Common Room, (PIMS Building) at St. Michael's College.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Bioshock series looms large in the industry and culture of video games for its ambitious incorporation of high-minded philosophical questions and retro-futuristic aesthetics into the ultraviolent first-person shooter genre. Beyond the Sea marks ten years since the release of the original game with an interdisciplinary collection of essays on Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and Bioshock Infinite.

Simultaneously lauded as landmarks in the artistic growth of the medium and criticized for their compromised vision and politics, the Bioshock games have been the subject of significant scholarly and critical discussion. Moving past well-trodden debates, Beyond the Sea broadens the conversation by putting video games in dialogue with a diverse range of other disciplines and cultural forms, from parenting psychology to post-humanism, from Thomas Pynchon to German expressionist cinema. 

Offering bold new perspectives on a canonical series, Beyond the Sea is a timely contribution to our understanding of the aesthetics, the industry, and the culture of video games.