Cartoon books in a cartoon world

Here’s the kind of raucous good times you can have in Second Life: nothing like a few cartoon marionettes spazzing out on a pixelated dance floor that looks like it was rendered in Microsoft Paint sometime in 1995. Nice title, too (see link). They have virtual dances in Second Life, but they don’t have virtual classes in remedial spelling.

Evidently they do have virtual bookstores, though. Booktwo.org mentions one run by somebody named Coelacanth Seurat (that’s another thing to hate about Second Life; everybody has names like Coelacanth Seurat. Why? If you can’t spell “dancing,” the word “Coelacanth” is not going to roll effortlessly off the keyboard either, is it?) Anyway, here’s Coelacanth’s take on selling virtual books in a virtual world:

“In RL a bookstore is a place to browse and buy books & magazines. But in SL I think the definition has to be expanded a bit: compensating authors as they desire, but focusing on aggregating SL text-based content and providing a portal to information on books in general. This bookstore is an ongoing “thought experiment,” and I welcome all comments.”

Here’s a comment: What the hell did you just say? Beyond that truly profound first sentence, I mean. Upon further analysis, maybe it’s a tacit admission that nobody’s going to be stupid enough to actually read virtual books in a virtual world, but if they ever grow weary of virtual dancing they can check out some text-based content. Very short excerpts from The Secret might be a good start for the Second Life “community.” That’s all bullshit too.