#97: Bioshock Infinite: Mind in Revolt
Video game novella could just as easily have been in the manual
This review was originally posted to Twitter on April 29, 2019.
Initial release: 2013
Author: Joe Fielder (with Ken Levine)
Here’s another one for the “Who Is This For?” file: this is a small ebook — really, an e-short story — written as a brief prequel for Bioshock Infinite, ‘cuz stuff like that was all the rage for a while. Given that it’s not even a pre-order bonus like a lot of little digital “feelies,” I’m not sure of the point.
Now, full disclosure, I’ve got Opinions about Bioshock Infinite, but I’ll save them for when I review the actual game. As for Mind in Revolt, billed as a prequel, it’s awfully anemic and doesn’t expand on the game’s plot much.
In short, it’s transcribed interviews and journal entries centering around a Dr. Pinchot and Daisy Fitzroy, the left-wing rebellious firebrand who’s a central figure — the only interesting one, actually — in the main game.
In the world of Bioshock Infinite, things like rebellion (unless it’s against the United States government for not being racist enough), worker’s rights, anti-classism, etc. are all seen as mental illness, something to be cured, and Daisy Fitzroy is considered to be quite the serious patient, a classic case study.
Over the next few pages or so — really, it’ll take you all of fifteen minutes — Pinchot conducts interviews with Fitzroy in which she repeatedly tears down his preconceptions. She’s charming and smart, both of which have Pinchot off his guard. At the end, he decides to help her escape, though as fascinating as he finds her, she finds him contemptible in equal measure, and rewards his patronizing fawning with a bullet before leaving with the revolutionaries who busted in to rescue her. The end.
There, I just told you the whole story so you don’t have to read it. It touches on a lot of the themes the game does — classism, racism, oppression — but much like the game, it’s superficial, ham-fisted. In fact, there’s very little material here at all. I’d considered not even reviewing it because, well… other than its connection to the game, its only real reason to exist is to shed a little more light on Daisy Fitzroy’s character, which it sorely needs given how rudely she gets thrown under the bus midway through the game. All in all, don’t bother reading it for its own sake. It’s supplementary material for a game that isn’t even very good. read it before you play, or better yet, don’t read it at all.
