Super Mario Brothers Karamazov: literature begins to take gaming seriously

From Gabrielle Zevin's new novel to Stephen Sexton's poetry, more writers are using gaming in literature and not before time

Early on in Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, one of the trio of lead characters gives a fictional interview to a very real video games publication. The troubled but passionate Samson Mazur tells the interviewer, There is no more intimate act than play, even sex." This is an explosive statement, but a perfect one in the context of a novel that treasures the act of play and holds it sacred. In some ways, this is a thesis statement for Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow itself: the novel opening its heart, and showing you what it is truly about.

Video games are seldom treated in literature as a site of emotion, but in Zevin's work they are the very landscape that the full spectrum of relationships, grief, and love play out in. The world of video games is a surprisingly uncommon location for the modern commercial or literary novel, despite the fact that they have long since evolved from children's toy or tech curio into a form of entertainment that is so mainstream as to be ordinary.