Stuff What I'm Thinkin' `bout
Braid
I just finished the indie-game "Braid". This is one of the finest artistic expressions of the past 20 years I've ever seen (and I've seen plenty of modern "art"). It is... exquisite. The game play is interesting, the graphics are minimal but evocative, the music is haunting, and the story is proFOUNDly moving. A LOT of people may be unable to understand the plot, but, to me, it seemed tailor-made for my psyche. I grasped... instinctively what the author was attempting. It is a... poem, written in the language of-- time and sequence-- that deftly explores the psyche of of a male engineer with an unusual relationship with chronology. Some may object to my engendering of the authorial voice, but it is disTINCTly masculine. It is one of the Perfect Refutations of the Ebert Contention (that games cannot be Art! EVARRRR!). This game made me cry. That hasn't happened since Red Dead Redemption (which, though, recently experienced, is equally rare). And you really need to see ALL the Epilogue to REALLY get it. THEN you need to play it again.
Being Human
The UK version. The US version is shaping up to be pretty decent, but it's still a few years and an infinite amount of swearing (and werewolf-boobs!) ahead of the SyFy version (and I think I need to take a shower now that I've actually typed 'SyFy'.) But I just hit the current point of the UK version and... Jaysus Bloody Christ! Talk about hitting home! Sure, on the surface, it's 'just' a supernatural melodrama, but there's a ton of real insight and contemplation behind the stories. What IS human? What does it mean to be "human"? How does one be a good human and how does one fail at that genetically assigned responsibility? How do you atone for such a failure, or is 'atonement' a meaningless concept? And if SO what does it mean to strive for such an impossible end?
And a ton of other stuff that LJ just ate. Sigh.
UFO's, radiation, crazy people, Republicans, Women's Health, and The Great Economy Robbery, are all up there.
Emotionally, I'm at a complete nadir. Life collapsing around me, entirely my own fault, and my character flaws stick into me like glass. Soooo... yeah. How's you?
I just finished the indie-game "Braid". This is one of the finest artistic expressions of the past 20 years I've ever seen (and I've seen plenty of modern "art"). It is... exquisite. The game play is interesting, the graphics are minimal but evocative, the music is haunting, and the story is proFOUNDly moving. A LOT of people may be unable to understand the plot, but, to me, it seemed tailor-made for my psyche. I grasped... instinctively what the author was attempting. It is a... poem, written in the language of-- time and sequence-- that deftly explores the psyche of of a male engineer with an unusual relationship with chronology. Some may object to my engendering of the authorial voice, but it is disTINCTly masculine. It is one of the Perfect Refutations of the Ebert Contention (that games cannot be Art! EVARRRR!). This game made me cry. That hasn't happened since Red Dead Redemption (which, though, recently experienced, is equally rare). And you really need to see ALL the Epilogue to REALLY get it. THEN you need to play it again.
Being Human
The UK version. The US version is shaping up to be pretty decent, but it's still a few years and an infinite amount of swearing (and werewolf-boobs!) ahead of the SyFy version (and I think I need to take a shower now that I've actually typed 'SyFy'.) But I just hit the current point of the UK version and... Jaysus Bloody Christ! Talk about hitting home! Sure, on the surface, it's 'just' a supernatural melodrama, but there's a ton of real insight and contemplation behind the stories. What IS human? What does it mean to be "human"? How does one be a good human and how does one fail at that genetically assigned responsibility? How do you atone for such a failure, or is 'atonement' a meaningless concept? And if SO what does it mean to strive for such an impossible end?
And a ton of other stuff that LJ just ate. Sigh.
UFO's, radiation, crazy people, Republicans, Women's Health, and The Great Economy Robbery, are all up there.
Emotionally, I'm at a complete nadir. Life collapsing around me, entirely my own fault, and my character flaws stick into me like glass. Soooo... yeah. How's you?