What's your perceptiverse?
Perceptiverse(s): When comparing "A Short Course in Art Appreciation" with the short story "The Girl Who Was Plugged In, it is no suprise to the readers that the women involved in each of the stories are completely numbed by the outside world's natural offers. They choose to be in their altered perceptiverses. A perceptiverse is not as it sounds. Perception is at the root of the word, although it is not formally defined, except by the context clues(visual cues) in ASCIAA that define it as a certain type of space. In ASCIAA the perceptiverse encountered by Elena is a type of artist's acid trip. In P. Burke's world, if described via a perceptiverse(s), can mean many different things: The first perceptiverse is her "natural" perceptiverse, which is underground and connecting her to various tech that allows her brain to thrive elsewhere, as well as a perceptiverse in her second life of sorts. In P.Burke's perceptiverse(s), she is in a different body, living a cyborg's dream life. In the same way, Elena from ASCAA 's perceptiverse involves an array of artistic works that come to life. Like Elena, P. Burke wishes to stay in the perceptiverse aided by tech specs than imagine or cope in a world without.
Visualize Some words used to describe the altered perceptiverse(s) in ASCAA: A perceptiverse, in Di Filipo’s story is described as a “visual epiphany”(26). Is this vivid imagery present somehow already in our daily lives, and if so, how does the digital in life as of now overlap with that meaning? The vivid imagery creates a mirage just believable enough to keep the relationships going, but not necessarily growing.
Honey tinted light moving in through windows and melting down the sides.
Colors moving around.
Sheets as paint.
[What is not included in these visuals, is how much focus is involved in seeing each one of those details. All the worries of familial, financial and etc issues are far away from contemplation during the enhancement of a perceptiverse.] Thanks to the digital, we are now able to hear cacophonies of music, see visual vibrations of rhythm, and see visuals combine with music simultaneously. Thanks to pharmaceuticals in the story, the characters are enabled to envision these perceptions. At first the perceptions are more than welcome, but become inky over time.
A World Without For the other person(s) whom of which are involved in their perceptiverses for both Delphi and Elena, are their love interests. Both relationships are neither built on any solid foundation(s), but out of need for a transaction of aesthetic desire for physical company. For Delphi it's fake beauty that entraps her male and fuels her delusion, and for Elena it’s a companion in art when tripping, to the very end. Neither women are truly "loved" in these stories and instead enslave themselves to make believe and art to fill the void so much that even the closest people in their lives start to barely exist or matter in their own perceptiverses. Does that mean that a perceptiverse is an escapetiverse?
Analyze Technology and the drug industry in this story are placed in the (nearby) future. In a different time, but with the same issues and similar drugs. Technology is like a drug; only a warning of our imbalanced reliance of this growing phenomenon.
‘But these new artificial compounds--they can really screw up your neuropeptides.’
The metaphor is that technology, when abused, hits a dead fuse. With each pill between Elena and Robert, they transcend from seeing realistic to abstract painters perceptiverses, in one moment, Vermeer, the next, Picasso. That is wherein the ‘idyll(26)’ lies in the beauty of this story: with an imbalance of reliance on technology, it's no surprise that the women in both stories fall slave to it: they are not the only ones, and surely aren't the last, not lest in science fiction.
