Reviews
of My Tiny Life
Publisher's
Weekly (starred review)
"It is a world that inhabitants dub 'tiny,' but its
role in their lives is large. In the online community of
LambdaMOO, Netizens occupy virtual living rooms and hot
tubs, form close friendships and make mortal enemies,
trade witticisms and discuss their lives for as many as
70 hours per week. Dibbell's account of this group is
similarly large and ambitious. He eschews cliché and, in
rich and active prose, frames a world that raises new
questions by blurring the line not only between
cyberspace and real space but between speech and action,
intimacy and distance. ... Dibbell has written a
sprawling, dazzling book, accessible to the least
initiated and full of insights for the most wizened.
... Dibbell's insight, intelligence, and emotional depth
make his interpretation one to behold and savor."
Anthony
Brandt, Men's Journal
"A brilliantly original
collection of cyber-stories. ... Dibbell
followed up on a rape that didn't 'really' happen because
it took place in an MUD, a computerized multi-user
dimension meant to simulate and alternate society. This
particular MUD, LambdaMOO, had for its users all the
force of reality, and the virtual crime threw their
visible but imaginary world into emotional chaos. The
book is well worth seeking out: It's a
fascinating read, wonderfully compelling and rather
scary."
Hillary
Rosner, The Village Voice
"Dibbell ... spins a fascinating tale about
love and hate, collusion and disenfranchisement,
democracy and morality out of relationships
rendered in words and bytes."
Andrew
Ross
Author
of Strange Weather: Culture, Science, and Technology
in the Age of Limits
"This is a classic
travelogue of virtual life, written with a
blue-sky honesty that guides neophytes and old hands
through the treacherous geography of cyberspace. In that
Fifth Element between words and deeds, Dibbell explores a
realm where the rules of intercourse and governance can
never be taken for granted, and where the ghostly
characters that inhabit MOO rooms are fleshed out with
the difficult passion of online chat."
Lawrence
Lessig
Harvard
Law School
"Dibbell's story is why I
teach cyberlaw."
Kit
Reed
Author
of Weird Women, Wired Women
"Brilliant, exciting,
and funny ... the inside story of a sprawling
online community and the remarkable things people do when
they think nobody can see them. Dibbell is an elegant
writer -- our hot link to the intricacies of
cyberlife."
Sherry
Turkle
Author
of The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit
and Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the
Internet
"Dibbell takes the evocative nature of online life
as a provocation to reflect on the many psychological,
philosophical, and political issues that are raised ...
we owe our appreciation to Dibbell for sharing his honest
and intelligent reflections with us. A must-read."
Stacy
Horn
Author
of Cyberville: Clicks, Culture, and the Creation of
an Online Town
"My Tiny Life is the
first book I've read that truly conveys the reality and
heart of a virtual society. Dibbell takes one
period in time in the evolution of online society, looks
at it hard, then brings it to striking, illuminating
life."
Mark
Dery
Author
of Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the
Century
"With easy eloquence
and self-deprecating wit ... My Tiny Life
establishes Julian Dibbell as the matchless master of
that emerging genre, the cyberspace memoir."
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