Many of you have heard that Second Life is going to figure into our common book project at PSTCC this year. I noticed right after the close of the SLPSTCC Balloon Festival that amazing builder Infiniti Mirihi had started on creating the reproduction in SL of Bleak House, also known as Confederate Memorial Hall.
For folks who don’t know about any of this, our college has begun choosing a common book to use as the basis for a number of academic activities across disciplines in order to provide an intellectual “hanger” for students to tie disparate courses together. This year, we are using David Madden’s Sharpshooter: A Novel of the Civil War
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The action takes place in various places around the nation as it existed during the Civil War, but a lot of it centers around Knoxville, specifically the Battle of Fort Sanders. Though it is a novel, it is based in history. It is a fact that Union General William P. Sanders was a notable casualty of this battle, felled by a sharpshooter’s round at a distance of several hundred yards. According to the Bleak House Web page, “The Confederate sharpshooters were using British Whitworth rifles that cost 12 – 15 hundred dollars each at the time. The rifles were known to be used with telescopic sights; and, with their hexagonal bores, were accurate at over 1,000 yards.”
Reportedly the house has seen extensive renovations and additions over the years since the Civil War. Infiniti’s work in Second Life is based on blueprints of the original 15-room mansion and photographs taken during the Civil War period, with the intention of providing a view of the house that has not been seen in real life for over 100 years.
You can see the progress on the build by checking in from time to time at the PSTCC Sandbox, where the work goes on. Come to WindingRiver Campus 1 (116, 81, 27) or following this SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/WindingRiver%20Campus1/116/81/27.
