Lifecasters? WTF???

A while ago, I read a short story about actors who have a recording device attached to them All day long. I think this story was by Bradbury, but it might also have been Gordon Dickson. Essentially it was a story about what we now call reality TV.

I don't have my books here to check right now, but I remember that one thing they mentioned were life loops, which was what these shows were called. Today, the Apple Blog mentioned Justine Ezaric as part of a posting. Apparently, this woman is a lifecaster, i.e., a person who walks around with a camera and other gadgets blogging everything that happens to her.

I guess reality is stranger than fiction, after all...

Reader Comments: (RSS Feed)

frozendevil writes: I think the short story was "Lifeloop" by Orson Scott Card, from The Worthing Saga.

Uli Kusterer replies: ★ @frozendevil: Ah! That could be it! I was reading a whole bunch of anthologies at that time (Card, Bradbury, Dickson, and Pierre Boulle). Thanks for clearing that up.

Ruth Less writes: Hmm... Sounds familiar...? Wasn't the book called "Capitol"? A whole series of short stories set in the same universe, where they invented a life-prolonging method of skipping years by sleeping and waking in turns? And if the lifeloop actress stayed in character during one whole waking shift, then they'd release her and she could go on lead a normal life again. So for a month or so she wasn on air and wasn't able to have a real conversation with anyone, and her potential boyfriend eventually gave up and killed himself. :( Don't remember why he didn't realize she was on air and couldn't talk. Otherwise, pretty interesting setting!

Uli Kusterer replies: ★ They were both actors, and she thought this was part of the show and he was playing a mean improv trick on her, while he was trying to get her to quit the whole lifeloop thing. So when she played indifferent, he thought she didn't like him. The title being 'Capitol' might explain why I didn't find it, sounds more like a novel than an anthology, which was what I was hurriedly searching for when last I tried to locate that book.

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