Bonnie Ruberg
is a comparative literature PhD student at UC Berkeley and a freelance journalist specializing in sexuality, surrealism, video games, and new media.
You can reach her at [her first name and last name, all one big word] at gmail.
Author Archives: Bonnie
Planking as Performance Art
The following is a post I wrote recently for my “Understanding New Media” class blog in response to Shannon Jackson’s book Social Works. I’m personally tickled by, and not entirely unserious about, planking as body-based performance art: A group of … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Art, Internet culture, New Media
Leave a comment
“Reading Video Games like Literature”
I’m headed back to Sweden in just a few days to deliver the opening keynote at the Gotland Game Conference, “Reading Video Games like Literature.” Here’s the gist: Whole books have been written about Hamlet’s famous six words, “To be … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
“Sex as Game: Playing with the Erotic Body in Virtual Worlds”
I published my first academic essay! It’s like being a nascent, nineteen-year-old freelance journalist all over again. “Sex as Game: Playing with the Erotic Body in Virtual Worlds” came out in Rhizomes 21: Hives and Tribes this past week. Rhizomes … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, I made a thing!, Publication, Sex, Video games
Leave a comment
“100 Works of Impossible Art”
At the Louvre last January, I saw a temporary exhibit on the art of the list, curated by Umberto Eco. The exhibit itself was underwhelming, but one piece — a large list written on one of the gallery walls — … Continue reading
Posted in Art, I made a thing!, Poetry
3 Comments
Sleep, you tease, I will figure you out
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been half-heartedly monitoring my sleep cycle using, you know, Sleep Cycle. In theory it’s useful for waking you up when you’re already most awake, circumventing that WTF-how-is-it-morning feeling. Normal charts come out looking like … Continue reading
Posted in I made a thing!, State of the Bonnie
Leave a comment
“Aeneas (But Never on the Tide)”
Continuing the proud tradition of bad automatic poetry generated in the rich creative environment that is the BART, here’s a piece seeded with the word “Aeneas.” Why yes, I am sensing a trend. This is what happens when you spend … Continue reading
Posted in I made a thing!, Poetry
1 Comment
What happens when art students follow instructions literally
The lecture and workshop on homosexuality in video games that I gave a week or two back at The University of Gotland’s GAME department seemed to go over quite well. Incidentally, during the workshop portion–which involved breaking students into groups … Continue reading
Posted in Awesomeness of others, Gay gay-ity gay, Video games
1 Comment
“Re-Writing Lolita: Nabokov Fan Fiction and the Reader as Literary Rebel”
The structured procrastination, she continues. In the midst of writing seminar papers and preparing to fly to Visby, I cobbled together an abstract for another grad student conference from an essay I wrote last year on Lolita and fan fiction. … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Analysis, I made a thing!, Literature, Speaking engagements
Leave a comment
Bonnie goes to Sweden, talks about everything ever
There appears to be a decently high chance that I will be up and flying to Visby this Sunday to speak at the University of Gotland. Gotland, as I, a member of the geographically largely uneducated, have only recently learned, … Continue reading
Posted in Gay gay-ity gay, Speaking engagements, Travel, Video games
2 Comments
I am Captain James T. Hook
Yes, I am oddly pleased with this year’s Halloween costume. Hook is, surprise surprise, one of my childhood favorites, and when the idea of building Ursula’s tentacles out of stockings fell through, a felt mustache, a pair of fishnets, and … Continue reading
Posted in State of the Bonnie
Leave a comment