The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy_ I Link Therefore I Am - Luke Cuddy [11]
Determining whether something is real or a representation is what Grodal calls a global appraisal. Global appraisals are contrasted with local appraisals, which are lower-level unconscious judgments such as whether something is blue or green or whether something is moving or still. Local appraisals are inputs to global appraisals but more limited in the types of information they evaluate. The distinction between global and local appraisals is not black-and-white; these categories describe a spectrum of mental activity. However, they are useful for understanding why we respond to artworks as we do.
When we evaluate whether something is real or a representation, we’re making a global appraisal based on a wide variety of information, including information initially processed by local appraisals. We might call the final judgment a determination of the object’s reality-status. When we see a GameCube controller, we process a lot of information about it at a local level. What color is it? Is it three-dimensional? Is it moving? How does it feel if we touch it? We make a judgment about its reality-status: it is a real GameCube controller. When we see The King of Red Lions onscreen when we play Wind Waker, we also process a lot of information about it at a local level. What shape is it? Does it cast a shadow? If I move my head to the side, can I see more of it? We can also bring in other types of general knowledge. Can boats talk? Can boats move themselves? We make a judgment that The King of Red Lions is not real. We’re looking at a representation of a boat, not an actual boat.
Since reality-status is a global appraisal, it makes no sense to ask whether objects are locally appraised as real or not. In terms of local appraisal, there is simply no evaluation of reality. Consider the local process of detecting motion. The motion, at a local level, is not seen as real or unreal. The system that detects motion does not see a real thing moving or an image moving or a fictional object moving—it simply sees motion.
Evaluating Zelda
This same process applies to artworks. When we look at the fire-breathing scorpion Gohma, we note (perhaps unconsciously) that he appears to be two-dimensional, that he emits light rather than simply reflecting it, and that he moves in a strangely repetitive manner. These local appraisals feed into a global appraisal that Gohma is not a real monster but just a representation of one, and that we are not in danger. However, our various appraisals are not necessarily unified. When Gohma breathes fire towards us, we might reflexively lean backwards. On one level of our minds, we see fire coming towards us, and we move to avoid it. But we don’t run out of the room, because at a higher global level, we realize that we are not in any real danger.
Why are we sad when Link leaves his grandmother, or touched when Aryll gives Link her telescope? Because we have these feelings in real life when witnessing similar scenes. Although at one level we understand that we are just watching computer-generated images, parts of our minds still process these human interactions as if we were watching real people.
This understanding of our emotional response explains something that was not addressed by the thought theory offered earlier. Why does the thought of winning the grand prize at a videogame convention not excite us as much as actually winning? Because the thought of winning may activate some local appraisals that lead to happy feelings, but actually winning activates many more appraisals, both local and global, and the feelings are thus much more intense. The reality-status of an event is an important determinant of how much and what kind of emotion it generates. Similarly, if you were actually faced with a huge, fire-breathing scorpion in real life, you would be much more scared than you are when facing Gohma