Monstrosity in Bioshock: monsters, modernity and strategies of containment
Kirkland, Ewan (2025) Monstrosity in Bioshock: monsters, modernity and strategies of containment. In: Videogame monsters: a compendium. Bloomsbury, London. (Submitted)
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This chapter examines the ways monsters in the videogame Bioshock are managed, controlled, captured and contained. A key theme is the tension between monsters and modernity. Monsters exist outside modernity. Associated with ancient beliefs, they have no place in the terrestrial zoology. The first and most brutal method of containment games employ involves the monster’s eradication, disposing of that which cannot be accommodated by contemporary epistemology. Another more complex method of containment brings monsters into the fold of scientific rationality, providing logical reasons for their existence through evolutionary or pharmaceutical explanations. The game also conscripts players themselves as scientific researcher, photographing monsters as a further means of furthering their eradication through modern technologies. Yet despite these strategies this process is never entirely effective. The monster by nature cannot be entirely contained and controlled. Moreover, the line between monster and human becomes increasingly strained as the adversaries eradicated accumulate, as the playable character develops increasing semi-supernatural abilities, and as they assume the guise of the very creatures they battle.
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