VIRTUALLY TRUE – BY PAUL

STEWARTMADE BY

MRINAL DWIVEDIX-A

Born 1955

Occupation WriterLanguage EnglishNationality British

GenreChildren's, young-adult, and adult novels

Notable worksThe Edge Chronicles

(with Chris Riddell)Notable awards Smarties Prize

2004

About the author

Name Paul Stewart

Paul Stewart was born in London in 1955. His family lived first in Mussel Hill North London and later in Mordent South London, where he went to school. His favorite subject at school was English and he hated Mathematics. When Paul left school, he went travelling, spending several months in Greece, where he took various jobs, including picking oranges and grapes, and whitewashing hotels.

From 1974-1977, Paul studied at the University of Lancaster, majoring in English, (which included a Creative Writing unit) with a minor in Religious Education.[On graduation, he went travelling again, before enrolling in 1978 to do an M.A. in Creative Writing with Angela Carter and Malcolm Bradbury at the University of East Anglia. He went to Heidelberg, Germany in 1979 for three years, both as a teacher of English and as a student at Heidelberg University, learning German.

About the author

Paul Stewart’s first book to be published was The Thought Domain (1988) which was then followed by a number of other children’s and young adult novels, chiefly in the thriller, horror and SF/Fantasy genres. Paul Stewart’s only adult book to date, Trek, was published in 1991.

Paul Stewart's favorite books when a child were The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Jester, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Rupert Bear Annuals, and the works of Alan Garner, especially Elidor. He also read a lot of science fiction.

Paul Stewart started writing at a very young age. At the age of seven he was writing a series about a snail called Oliver and he started a sequel to The Phantom Tollbooth at ten. Some of the ideas from this early work were later developed and became the basis of The Thought Domain which was published in 1988.

1. The story starts with a boy named Michael who reads an article in the newspaper about a "Miracle Recovery." A boy whose condition was critical but stable had been recovered from coma. 2. Micheal recollects that the boy who was mentioned in the newspaper was in fact SEBASTIAN SHULTZ who he had met weeks ago while playing. 3. This all started in the Computer Fair, when Michael's father who was Nutty about computers, bought him a new computer preloaded with games. 4. When he plays the game WILD WEST, he becomes a Sheriff and is challenged by "Black eyed Jed" to a duel. He meets a Second Sheriff whom he was asked to go with. Unfortunately, the Second Sheriff gets shot by the villains and the game ends. Later on, he gets a printout which read "I 'm Sebastian Shultz try playing Dragon Quest". 5. In Dragon Quest his task was to save the Princess Aurora from the wicked dragon and collect the wicked creature's treasure along the way. He had the help of the second knight who was revealed to be Sebastian. Later on in the game, Sebastian was killed. The game ended with the printer displaying a message asking him not to give up and to try playing "Jailbreak."

SUMMARY OF THE STORY

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Michael with his father. Michael playing wild west.

6. In Jail Break, his mission was to escape with the prisoner, and he knew it was Sebastian again. They broke out of jail, ran to the roof as doors shut behind them. The helicopter arrived as they reached the roof. They got into the helicopter. As they took off, Sebastian fell off the helicopter and the game ends. 7. Later on, he plays the game many times but the print out does not come. 8. Then one day, the printer shows a message telling him that the helicopter was a better choice, try playing "War Zone", Sebastian had also promised not to trouble him again if this did not work out. 9. He jumped right into the game. He found himself in some kind of a city scarred by battle wounds. He knew he had to save Sebastian. They ran together to a abandoned jeep they found amidst the rubble. They went towards a helicopter as a tank chased them. As soon as it came to their view, Sebastian stopped the car. The jeep went into a spin and Michael leapt into the helicopter. Sebastian does not enter the helicopter at this point. Michael waits and yells at him to come into helicopter but Sebastian does not move.

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Michael in wild west. Michael in dragon quest.

10. Moments later, the tank collides with the jeep and Sebastian is thrown into the helicopter. They fly into clouds and the game ends, saving him. When he removes his visor he comes to know that he has got the High Score. When he reads the article about Sebastian he knows that the games were stolen from him while they were coming to the hospital. And his memory has been saved in the computer. 11. When he checks his mail he finds a message from Sebastian stating that he was hit when he was playing that's why it had been saved and also asks him to keep the games for himself.

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Michael in jail break. Michael in warzone.

Virtual means something which does not really exists but only seems to exist. It does not be in the real time and space but only lives in cyberspace. The piece written by Paul Stewart relates the story of Michael Dawson, a school boy who plays psycho-drive and interactive games and discovers in the process of a certain "Sebastian Shultz" who constantly requires saving. Throughout the game Dawson believes that he is just attempting to crack the game while in reality it appears that the real Sebastian suffered from some kind of an accident and his memory was stored in the game.

Irony of the story……..

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Michael hits a high score.. Sebastian comes out of coma.

When Sebastian wins the jackpot in the game, the real Sebastian gains his memory and is revived from coma. So the irony in virtually true can be highlighted as the regular attempts made by Dawson while he is playing the game while actually his trials brought a real boy back to consciousness. In the end of the chapter the protagonist Michael asks whether everything was real or virtual because it seems that both of them are so thoroughly intermingled that it seems difficult to distinguish between the two.

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