Joel Gould, EDRL 524, Fall 2016, In Real Life

“In Real Life”, a graphic novel, written by Cory Doctorow and illustrated by Jen Wang (2014), tells the story of an American teenager, Anda, who joins a fictional online game, Coarse Gold. In the fantasy role-playing game, mild Anda plays a fierce, crimson-haired, sword-swinging warrior. Through her gutsy playing-style, she connects with a risk-taking mentor and goes on paid missions (real money), to hunt down and kill “gold farmers”.  She soon finds herself in over her head:  Her intended target is played by a real and exploited teenager in China, working many hours for little money. He is experiencing severe back pain and can not afford to visit a doctor.  Doctorow based the gold farmer characters on a real world phenomena: kids who work in high-tech sweatshops, where they level up characters and sell them to wealthier players in other countries.  The practice is considered unethical because it changes the game dynamics.

For a 3rd - 7th grade class that is looking for an engrossing novel that will spark substantive conversations about digital citizenship, this book is just the ticket.  “In Real Life” paints a vivid picture of the complicated online lives of today’s adolescent girls. It confronts issues of gender and economics straight-on and argues convincingly that activism in the real world can begin in the online world.  Jen Wang’s illustrations are by turns hilariously, realistically unglamorous (offline) and seductively magical (the game world).  Doctorow is the co-founder of boingboing.net and he effortlessly weaves his sophisticated understanding of online culture into compelling a story that honors and reflects todays digital kids.