Navigating the Castells’ Network Society: Metaverse and Telepresence in Ready Player Two and The Metaverse

Abstract

This article uses Soner Aydoğan’s The Metaverse and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player Two to explore the applicability of Manuel Castells’ Network Society framework to contemporary dystopian literature. It examines how the metaverse and telepresence technologies are represented in these novels as ingredients in a digital social order characterized by decentralized digital communication and transformed social relationships. The paper adopts a comparative literary approach to analyze virtual reality and networked space, focusing on their impact on social structures, power dynamics, and notions of subjectivity. The study shows how Castells’ theory of The Network Society is implicit in both novels. The findings demonstrate how digital networks can be both a resource for connection and a wellspring of alienation. The study says that dystopian fiction offers a critical reflection of the social consequences of new technologies, and explores how tech, community and identity are changing in the internet age.