The Kekulé Problem
Cormac McCarthy passed away this month and although I'm unfamiliar with a lot of his fiction (I've only read The Road) I have long been interested in the man as a scholar and an essayist. In this video, McCarthy talks with David Krakauer about a myriad of interesting topics, reflecting on mathematics, storytelling and the nature of the unconscious mind. It's certainly worth a watch.
And in this essay published by Nautilus in 2017, Cormac further critiques the role of the unconscious mind and its challenging relationship with language, and explores his own frustrations with the obtuse nature of dreams.
I came across the article shortly after reading this essay on the Public Domain review regarding the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, ornate woodcuts from the 15th detailing the 'dream within a dream' tale of a young man seeking refuge in the unconscious world of dreaming. Several of the carvings remind me of the oneiric and surreal panels of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland, particularly in the delicate yet confused architectural and ornamental objects that feel at once familiar and incompatible with reality.
Sandman
On the topic of dreams, I recently finished reading the original ten volumes of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic and now rank it as one my favourites. I'm interested in exploring more of Gaiman's work after this, the worldbuilding and mythology of the Sandman universe hooked me immediately and was immensely rewarding the more I invested in the micro details and smaller stories. I have already seen the influence Sandman has made on my own work; I recently finished a short Hamlet prequel for Comic Creatives UK and a two page story following Saint Margaret of Antioch, both I feel are my attempts at capturing that weird misty magic that permeates these stories.
Kaijune 2023
Curated a small mini-season of Kaiju and Giant Monster films for myself this month, to catch up on some I've missed and some I've always wanted to watch. The three-episode arc Monster Wars from the '99 Godzilla: The Series was a surprise highlight as was Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) which has become one of my new favourites. Dogora (1964) had one of the most visually stunning creatures from any film, with the fluorescent tendrils of a sublime an ethereal lightning squid eerily swimming through a biblically-grand storm. Warning From Space (1956), though it turned out not to include any giant creatures did offer a strangely nihilistic take on the 50's B-Movie Sci-Fi genre with several images that I'll remember for a long while. Similarly, Atragon (1963), had a very staunch and explicit distaste for patriotism that felt refreshing and fascinating. You can see the full list of films I watched for Kaijune through my letterboxd here.
Death of Batman's Parents
A supercut collating all the instances of Thomas & Martha Wayne's murder from various films and series.
The Immersive Sim & The New Weird
Recently played through The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (Unity Edition), now officially the first game I've played to completion of PC. Strangely immersive and unique even amongst the Elder Scrolls series. I also completed Thief: Deadly Shadows at the beginning of the year and I've started Thief: The Dark Project, the first in the franchise, as a follow up, another game I intend to play on PC. In a similar vein, I recently completed the first Deus Ex and only after reading up on the game did I come across the concept of 'Immersive Sim' as a genre. It's a tag that can be applied to many of my favourite videogames like Hitman, Morrowind, and even (to a lesser extent) Breath of the Wild. This video essay by Strat-Edgy Productions perfectly explains the term, and captures the history and evolution of the genre and its influence on games beyond Looking Glass Studios or Arkane.
Exploring further, I noticed repeated references to the New Weird literary genre as a movement rising to prominence alongside many Immersive Sim-style games, noticeably Thief, System Shock and Ultima Underworld. The New Weird is something I've been similarly interested in lately (I read China Melville's City & The City only a few months ago, and picked up Jeff VanderMeer's City of Saints & Madmen several weeks ago) so it was striking to see both these topics discussed regularly in such close terms. This article from The Escapist highlights Thief's importance in the pioneering of The New Weird. And this one from Kill Screen explores New Weird's influence on several games beyond the Immersive sim like Disco Elysium and ANATOMY by Kitty Horrorshow (which is available for download via their itch.io page here).
I also came across a new game, Dread Delusion, set to release some time next year. It appears to be heavily inspired by The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind but with a PSX inspired art style. It also appears to have doubled down on the New Weird influences of the original game and I look forward to seeing how it will develop. You can visit the Steam page for the game here.
Playlist
Here is a handful of albums I've had on repeat this past month.
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