Is this a subject?

Pay attention to the new psychological realities of the man on the Clapham omnibus, a/k/a the man in the street, a/k/a the man on the net: Ric Hoogestraat, for example, who sits for hours at his computer with the blinds drawn, smoking cigarettes, and chatting with his second wife on Second Life: a digital lala land with more than eight million registered “residents”. Ric and his Second Life wife own two dogs, have a mortgage, and shop at the mall. Which is dire testimony to the fact that human beings, when given a second chance, will reconstruct the same universe of persecutions, and manage to fuck it up all over again, in the same exact way.

“Is this man cheating on his wife?” asks a Wall Street Journal article by Alexandria Alter which chronicles Rics movements, on line and off, and the relationships these movements imply. What emerges is a fantasm: not the object but the scene of desire, which is pinned down by a series of dummies: Ric, his wife, his dummy, and its lover, each holding down a particular place or role. While his wife works, cleans the house, and brings him food, he designs outfits for virtual strippers and labels for virtual coffee cups. “You try to talk to someone or bring them a drink, and they’ll be having sex with a cartoon,” she says.

This is probably because Ric has upgraded his dummy, buying defined stomach muscles, a furry chest and special hair that sways when it walks. Extra anatomy, also available for purchase, probably explains the sex.

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