Homo Zapiens An Analysis Of The Control Of The Human...

Homo Zapiens: An Analysis of the Control of the Human Mind by the Media Virtual reality is the new reality. Everyday, millions of people turn on their televisions and computers to be sucked into an unreal world controlled by a simulated reality. Instead, people lose control of their minds, allowing the media and money to infiltrate their consciousness. This loss of control to technology is explored in the novel Homo Zapiens by Viktor Pelevin. The story follows Babylen Tatarsky, one of the many displaced citizens of Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Originally a scholar at a literary institute, Tatarsky finds himself in the advertising industry as a copywriter attempting to cater Western products to the Russian people. In this process, it becomes apparent that the aim of Tatarsky and his advertising concepts is solely to bring in more money and increase the influence of certain companies without regard for morals and ethics. Even the consumers in the general population experi ence this absence of humanity as they become subject to the media; they enter a whole new world once the television or computer is turned on. Essentially, Pelevin uses the medium of the technology to create a virtual reality. Through this simulated world, he demonstrates the loss of conscious control of one’s mind and thoughts to the media and money. Pelevin first introduces the idea of the mind falling to the media and money through Tatarsky’s shift in work from print to the computer. Soon