Romanticism and Second Life

In response to my digital civilization teachers' suggestion, I want to draw a few comparisons between this YouTube video highlighting Second Life and Romanticism.  What are Second Life and Romanticism?  Second Life is a digital world where you can do almost anything that you do here in the real world and then some.  Very much focused on the individual and creativity, Second Life has a lot of ties with Romanticism.  Romanticism was an artistic movement that arose out of Germany in the late-17th and 18 centuries.  Romanticism emphasized nature, the individual, creativity and imagination.  With Romanticism, the artist became the hero, feelings were exalted, and nature became a work of art.  Rules of poetry were broken for free expression.  William Wordsworth, a poet of this time said about poetry, "All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."

Second Life is a new form of romantic expression in our times.  The video showed the beauty of the "nature" inside Second Life.  It highlighted the imagination of the individuals who have artistically created the 3D world of Second Life.  On the Second Life website there are some videos about what Second Life is.  The emphasis of these videos is that you can create your own world and become your own new person.  Just like Romanticism, there is a large emphasis on imagination, creativity, the individual.  Just as Romanticism broke previous poetic rules, Second Life breaks many rules of the real world.  For example, in Second Life you can fly, go anywhere, and make anything.

Romanticism

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