BioShock – A postmortem literary examination

(Yes, more original content that nobody will read, but oh well. For the record I cannot see the views of each thread, like Blackwalt originally told me. Can only admins see it?)

To my knowledge, there is only one person on here that has actually played BioShock, which is unfortunate. I am not here to necessarily promote BioShock (buy it) or even it's upcoming sequel BioShock 2 (tentatively scheduled for a 2009 holiday release), even though its spiritual successor System Shock 2 (my favorite game of all time) is better, but just to examine certain aspects of the story.

It's rare that the story of a video game is so chalk full of literary allusions, ones that the average gamer is sadly likely to miss. What are these allusions? Well as you may or may not know, this game is largely inspired by Ayn Rand's last novel 'Atlas Shrugged' (I recommend this book by the way). To quickly summarize the plot: several 'men of the mind' go on strike and retreat to a secluded valley while the rest of the world turns into a welfare state. The primary themes of this book are based on a philosophy called Objectivism. While I won't get into the details of this philosophy, it consists of the following ideals; selfishness, 'laissez-faire' capitalism, and in terms of metaphysics, a purely objective reality.

In Bioshock, a man named Andrew Ryan builds a vast underwater city dubbed 'Rapture', where all sorts of artists and industrialists can live their lives free of men from Washington (who want to tax them, contrary to a 'lassiez-faire' economy), or Moscow (where you life belongs to everyone, against selfishness), or the Church (against an objective reality). In Atlas Shrugged, the city of Rapture is more or less a copy of John Galt's Colorado valley retreat, where he collects 'the best of the best' of all professions to live with him in seclusion (and under his objectivist values).

Also, various banners in the game say things such as “What is the difference between a man and a parasite? A man builds. A parasite asks 'Where is my share?'” or even “A man creates. A parasite says, 'What will the neighbors think?', and “A man invents. A parasite says, 'Watch out, or you might tread on the toes of God...'. Again, this is all out of Atlas Shrugged. I believe that there is even a sculpture of the greek god Atlas in the game. Sometimes when the weight of the world sits upon you shoulders, like Atlas himself, and your work or life goes under-appreciated, one can only shrug.

Near the end of the game, Andrew Ryan, "A man...chooses...a slave...obeys."

One could also argue that Andrew Ryan is a proxy for the protagonist Raskolnikov in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (another one people should read). Essentially, Raskolnikov believes that there are certain people that are extraordinary beings (he gives the example of Napoleon) who are morally above others, if their actions are in puirsuit of a higher purpose or value.

It's best to read either of these books before playing the game, you will have a much deeper appreciation for it. You sure won't see me writing up an article like this for Halo 3, which was a great lesson in first person shooter mediocrity.

Anyway, enough nonsensical ramblings...