Is literature next in line for virtual-reality treatment?
One morning you might wake up to find you have been transformed into Gregor Samsa
STEPPING through the gauzy curtains, Michael Syrovatka screams and lurches backwards. In the real world, he is on the first floor of the Goethe-Institut (GI) in Prague. In the virtual one created by his headset, he has just looked into a mirror to find he has turned into a giant insect. “I jumped when I saw myself,” Mr Syrovatka says, as other pupils from Prague’s Austrian Grammar School take turns in the installation. They had arrived sullenly, expecting a lecture. Soon they are chattering about how it feels to be Gregor Samsa.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “A metamorphosis of one’s own”
From the March 10th 2018 edition
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