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November Link Roundup
Nov. 16th, 2021 09:58 pmYou may have noticed that there was no October Link Roundup. That's because I forgor 💀
I'm also considering getting these out of my blag and into my newsletter, since they're most in English anyway. This might be the last one.
Mystery Flesh Pit National Park
This think hits so many notes so well for me. For starters, the story is fantastic weird. One day, some prospectors were digging around in Texas and found a living creature, so gigantic that they literally couldn't find the end of it. A company decides to 'mine' its effluvia, and in order to make the operation more profitable, turns it into a tourist attraction. That's later made into a US National Park. That's wild.
Now, just to make me like things even more, the story is told entirely through ephemera. Leaflets, park signage, articles, government reports; the story is not told as much as it is inferred. (Okay, there's a novel underway, but that really feels like a sideshow. The tumblr is the main dish.)
Either of those would make me fall in love with the idea, but both of those together just make me want to marry it and have its children. They'd be very large.
Why So Few Violent Games?
I saw on Twitter that this month (...or maybe last month?) is the tenth anniversary of this watershed article on gaming. We've always assumed that so many games are based on violence (or, broadly, on physical phenomena, which also includes platformers, piloting, sports, etc) is because those are things that are easily simulated through data. Is it really, though? Or is it that we are more used to violence, and therefore are more ready to abstract it, in a way that conversation doesn't? (It's funny to see that even in the alternate world conjured up by that article, Doom still exists. If only you could talk to the monsters indeed.)
Feels Dumb Man: I Really, Really Hated The Pepe The Frog Documentary
I haven't seen the documentary 'reviewed' in this piece, but it's brilliant in its analysis of the Pepe memes and its sociocultural significance, as well as bringing to light (to me, at least) unsavory facts about Pepe's creator Matt Furie. However, the ending of the article (which discusses the ending of the documentary) has such a hard twist that, while I want to talk about it, I somehow don't want to spoil a nonfiction piece. Read it to the end.
Peanut Diplomacy
We know crows are smart. We know crows can hold grudges. If you are wise, you want to make friends with crows, but you don't want to be responsible for the entire wellbeing of crows, nor be dragged into the petty politics of crows. This is a person that knows how to deal with crows, and these secrets are now in the open.
Something You Have to Explain
I don't know who needs to read a fan comic shipping Aunt May and Doctor Olivia Octavius from Spiderverse, but I'm sure someone does.
Music this month is Zeal and Ardor's Come on Down.
As a bonus for my absentee month, have also the clip for Jynkx's Cartoons and Vodka.
I'm also considering getting these out of my blag and into my newsletter, since they're most in English anyway. This might be the last one.
Mystery Flesh Pit National Park
This think hits so many notes so well for me. For starters, the story is fantastic weird. One day, some prospectors were digging around in Texas and found a living creature, so gigantic that they literally couldn't find the end of it. A company decides to 'mine' its effluvia, and in order to make the operation more profitable, turns it into a tourist attraction. That's later made into a US National Park. That's wild.
Now, just to make me like things even more, the story is told entirely through ephemera. Leaflets, park signage, articles, government reports; the story is not told as much as it is inferred. (Okay, there's a novel underway, but that really feels like a sideshow. The tumblr is the main dish.)
Either of those would make me fall in love with the idea, but both of those together just make me want to marry it and have its children. They'd be very large.
Why So Few Violent Games?
I saw on Twitter that this month (...or maybe last month?) is the tenth anniversary of this watershed article on gaming. We've always assumed that so many games are based on violence (or, broadly, on physical phenomena, which also includes platformers, piloting, sports, etc) is because those are things that are easily simulated through data. Is it really, though? Or is it that we are more used to violence, and therefore are more ready to abstract it, in a way that conversation doesn't? (It's funny to see that even in the alternate world conjured up by that article, Doom still exists. If only you could talk to the monsters indeed.)
Feels Dumb Man: I Really, Really Hated The Pepe The Frog Documentary
I haven't seen the documentary 'reviewed' in this piece, but it's brilliant in its analysis of the Pepe memes and its sociocultural significance, as well as bringing to light (to me, at least) unsavory facts about Pepe's creator Matt Furie. However, the ending of the article (which discusses the ending of the documentary) has such a hard twist that, while I want to talk about it, I somehow don't want to spoil a nonfiction piece. Read it to the end.
Peanut Diplomacy
We know crows are smart. We know crows can hold grudges. If you are wise, you want to make friends with crows, but you don't want to be responsible for the entire wellbeing of crows, nor be dragged into the petty politics of crows. This is a person that knows how to deal with crows, and these secrets are now in the open.
Something You Have to Explain
I don't know who needs to read a fan comic shipping Aunt May and Doctor Olivia Octavius from Spiderverse, but I'm sure someone does.
Music this month is Zeal and Ardor's Come on Down.
As a bonus for my absentee month, have also the clip for Jynkx's Cartoons and Vodka.
