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      New Media Theory

      Series Editor, Byron Hawk

      The New Media Theory series investigates both media and new media as a complex ecological and rhetorical context. The merger of media and new media creates a global social sphere that is changing the ways we work, play, write, teach, think, and connect. Because this new context operates through evolving arrangements, theories of new media have yet to establish a rhetorical and theoretical paradigm that fully articulates this emerging digital life.

      The series includes books that combine social, cultural, political, textual, rhetorical, aesthetic, and material theories in order to understand moments in the lives that operate in these emerging contexts. Such works typically bring rhetorical and critical theories to bear on media and new media in a way that elaborates a burgeoning post-disciplinary “medial turn” as one further development of the rhetorical and visual turns that have already influenced scholarly work.

      Other Books in the Series

      Mics, Cameras, Symbolic Action: Audio-­Visual Rhetoric for Writing Teachers, by Bump Halbritter (2012)

      The Available Means of Persuasion: Mapping a Theory and Pedagogy of Multimodal Public Rhetoric, by David M. Sheridan, Jim Ridolfo, and Anthony J. Michel (2012)

      New Media/New Methods: The Academic Turn from Literacy to Electracy, edited by Jeff Rice and Marcel O’Gorman (2008)

      The Two Virtuals: New Media and Composition, by Alexander Reid (2007). Honorable Mention, W. Ross Winterowd/JAC Award for Best Book in Composition Theory, 2007.

      Avatar Emergency

      Gregory L. Ulmer

      Parlor Press

      Anderson, South Carolina

      www.parlorpress.com

      Parlor Press LLC, Anderson, South Carolina, USA

      © 2012 by Parlor Press

      All rights reserved.

      Printed in the United States of America

      S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Ulmer, Gregory L., 1944-

       Avatar emergency / Gregory L. Ulmer.

       p. cm. -- (New media theory)

       Includes bibliographical references and index.

       ISBN 978-1-60235-289-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-290-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-291-9 (ebook)

       1. Digital media--Philosophy. 2. Digital media--Technological innovations. 3. Image (Philosophy) 4. Virtual reality in art. 5. Aesthetics. I. Title.

       P90.U42 2012

       302.23’1--dc23

       2012004380

      1 2 3 4 5

      Cover design by David Blakesley.

      Cover images © 2012 by Gregory L. Ulmer.

      Printed on acid-free paper.

      Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paper, cloth and eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, South Carolina, 29621, or email [email protected].

      for Anjali Claire

      Contents

       Preface

       1 Prudence

       2 Concept

       3 Joke

       4 Descent

       5 Moment

       6 Memory

       7 Measure

       8 Enjoyment

       9 Letter

       10 Frog

       11 Hegemony

       12 Counsel

       13 Wisdom

       Afterword: Class Portrait With Daimon (A Remix)

       Works Cited

       Index to the Print Version

       About the Author