peccable.bsky.social

Wonderful. Happy to be of help!

If I had to put it in D&D 5E terms, the Vampire character is probably more like an Eldritch Knight, which is a sub-class of Fighter that can use spells. The Summoner might be implemented as a Warlock who takes the Pact of the Chain, but that class requires a “patron” which might not fit the concept.

And this to say nothing of DFW’s other works.

I love how his non-fiction takes me in directions I’d never planned. Consider the Lobster’s central question of morality and pleasure in food, for example.

And his speech “This is Water” is such a beautiful grappling with life, pain, empathy & truth.

There are other “difficult” books I deeply despise.

Gravity’s Rainbow was an unmitigated and painful slog with no point. I think Finnigan’s Wake is a ridiculous and pretentious flex.

I know folks who hated this book and I totally understand their perspective.

But for me, it is a seminal work.

I know it is not for everyone.

I admit that it found me at the right time and place - a supposedly ‘gifted’ young man in my early twenties.

I allow that it IS a lot and asks a lot.

I also love this book the way I love many things: deeply, unconditionally, and with a full awareness of its faults.

A Wrinkle in Time changed me. I saw so much of myself in Charles Wallace and Meg. Apparently I showed up in my grade-school library afterwards asking if they had anything on tesseracts. I loved some of the sequels as well but none of them touched me the way the original did.

s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/u...

I hung out with Quentin Crisp before he died. He was hosting an event in Philadelphia and held court in a bar afterward.

My 22 year old gay ass got to hang on his every word. I told him I wanted to be him when I grew up.

“You will be, dear,” he replied with absolute certainty. “You will be.”

Oh I’m not saying ALL of TNG managed it. Nor that it managed to be good when it tried. Code of Honor? Up the Long Ladder? The Child? There’s some truly miserable (and weird) stuff in there!

Then TNG jettisoned the pulp and just did the morality play.

I’ve always described it as as two-fisted pulp adventure crossed with a morality play. Yes, it got intellectual and would confront its protagonists with moral quandaries, but they were usually solved by punching the right guy and sweeping the right girl off her feet, then discussing it and laughing.

“I’m in this photo and I don’t like it.”

HBO’s Carnivale felt like it was literally written for me. The period, it’s view of magic, the writing, the acting. The opening speech gave me chills:

“And so it was until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity, and man forever traded away wonder for reason…”

Shame we never saw the end.

Do we just need better spells? Maps that match the territory of the real as well as the emotional landscape that led these people so astray? Ignorance can be cured but stupidity is a death sentence. The forebrain is never going to defeat the hindbrain in a fair fight. So again: what’s to be done?

So where does that leave us? When people fervent believe objectively wrong things about reality in a way that literally harms all of us (for example, parents refusing to vaccinate their children) what’s to be done? A magic spell (read: story) got them there. Logic is not going to get them out.

That last part resonates with me particularly these days. Alan Moore’s book on magic has made me re-examine my own thinking on human belief, magic, imagination and stories. People don’t think their way into their beliefs and they’re not going to think their way out of them.

“Someone believes God exists because a book tells them he does; they believe the book is true because lots of people have told them that it’s the word of God. Plus they like what the book says—that’s the most important thing. If they didn’t like it, they wouldn’t believe it.” - Thomas Ligotti

Six pence none the richer? In this economy?

I love LeGuin. Reading her is the intellectual and psychological equivalent of touching grass: centering, grounding, and something one should probably do at least once a week.

The irony is that, some 45+ hours on, FFXVI might be my favorite in the series since XII. Gameplay- and story-wise it’s solid “What if Gams of Thrones but FF?” with all the good and bad that entails. Love how grounded it is even as insane stuff is going on. It’s just the opening hours were terrible…

going to fight some goblins. I can’t remember playing a game with as poor an opening as this one in a long time. I only just got to the world map and it’s got have been nearly an hour.

Every time I think I can play it’s another f’ing cutscene. The story is there are Crystals and Blight and War is Coming. The bishonen is clearly the older guy we played earlier but with An Important Mark that indicates he is One of the Downtrodden. Exhausting cutscenes explaining you’re…

Jesus god. More cutscenes. More humping. To say this game has a problem with women is putting it mildly… One maiden and two whores so far. And the maiden in question is the “bubbly girl next door who’s also a shrine maiden.” This, by your lights, are nuanced, interesting characters?

And then…just when the game gets a little interesting…more cutscenes. :(

The sheer amount of money spent on making this non-game so far is mind boggling. If you want to make a movie, make a movie. But please don’t pretend any of this is “gameplay”.

Finally after a half hour of this is we cut to COMPLETELY DIFFERENT characters and our, of course, young bishonen protagonist finally starts the Combat Tutorial. I have done nothing so far but yawn and press “up” on the controller. (Oh, I shot fireballs and dodged somewhere during a cutscene.)

I know nothing about doing things I don’t care about nor have the context to see why they’re “epic.” A war is on. A sexist stereotype of a woman humps a stereotypical tough guy after “deeply important” things are said in a war council I have no chance of understanding. Nonsense place names abound.

Finally got around to playing Final Fantasy 16. Its opening is everything wrong with video games. If we use “what the player does” as judgement of what’s actually happening — as Jordan Mechner does — it’s 20 minutes of barely interactive cutscenes, hallway walking and watching characters…

Any suggestions on panels, etc? I keep staring at the website and planning, unplanning, and replanning. :)

I did not try one. I am glad I did not.