Renovating Roderick

Edgar Allen Poe presents a horrible death in his story The Fall of the House of Usher. In this short story, Roderick, a mad man, buries his sick sister while she is still alive though he thinks she is dead. Though this death is unimaginable, the house is set up in a way that allows this and perhaps even encourages such an act. For this reason, if I were to change an aspect of The Fall of The House of Usher, I would change many of the physical properties of the house.

The house is referred too multiple times as dreary and dark. This dreariness and darkness encourages depression, which can cause people to act irrationally. This story should be presented in a newly built house, with no cracks or inconsistencies in the foundation and with light or bright colored walls. This would certainly put a "pep" in Roderick's step and would surely not encourage any time of depression.

Multiple studies show that many physical characteristics of the house in which one lives play a role in the demeanor of those who live within its walls. The cracks of the house suggest that it is old beyond hope and can not be fixed. This hopelessness is passed on to Roderick, who is hopelessly insane. This insanity is perpetuated by the darkness in every corner of every room. When I imagine what the house of Usher would actually look like, I see no need for Windows whatsoever. It seems like even if there was light the house would somehow manage to keep it out.

I would also change the floor plan of the house a bit. I would not include the crypts in the bottom of the house where Madeline was buried. The fact that these are present encourages a death so that they may be used. Without these crypts, there would be no place for Madeline to be buried alive and Roderick therefore would not have done so.

Problems with SL....

The biggest problem with communicating with Second Life is its isolation. Second Life is a very large and vast virtual world which has more areas than most people could think to visit. All of this virtual real estate, however, is surrounded by impenetrable brick walls. By this I mean that Second Life does not agree with other virtual worlds that embrace "open source" software. In other words, it is not possible to take one's avatar from Second Life in to any other virtual worlds and communicate with others who spend little to no time in Second Life.

Not only does this limit communication abilities but also educational ones. If one is an avid Second-Lifer, be it for personal or educational reasons, and he or she wants to go explore the virtual excavation site of King Tut in Heritage Key, it is not possible to do so. He or she must create an entirely different avatar in the new virtual world and start a new virtual personality. Many of these open source virtual worlds are friendly with each other. By this I mean that it is not uncommon to be able to use the same avatar in multiple virtual worlds.

For these reasons I feel that Second Life surely needs to make some serious changes or they will have some very serious competition in the very near future that may slowly force them out of the market place. Second Life seems to be getting harsher and harsher on the user, while other virtual worlds are getting more and more accommodating. These virtual worlds going in opposite directions are creating a gap which will force the user to decide which road to take, and I think that they will go in the more accommodating direction. Interconnectivity will easily push isolation out of its way and take over the market place.