Procedural Rhetorics of Immediacy, Transcendentalism and Life in Walden (1854) and Walden, a game (2017)

Abstract

Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854) is a potent philosophical work and an interesting choice for video game adaptation. In this article, I analyze how Walden, a game (2017), an adaptation of Walden, procedurally generates the core philosophies of its source text. By way of the theory of procedural rhetoric, I examine how Walden, a game through gameplay elements procedurally authors arguments of deliberate living, an ethic of simple living and inspiration as a resource of nature. This mirrors the arguments put forth by Thoreau in his original work while also exposing what the two mediums, i.e. the book and the video game, afford in terms of media-specificity. Finally, I discuss how the experiential bond between the player and the Thoreau character in the game furthers central transcendentalist tenets, while also exposing a (productive) paradox in mediating a philosophy of immediacy.