It’s very late as I type this (and that may be a contributing factor), but I found this to be the funniest thing I’ve seen in a mess ‘o Sundays…. Er… Saturdays.
That’s from Marvel Comics Presents circa #48-50, written and illustrated by Erik Larsen. I’m not a huge fan of Larsen’s work, but seriously… Mess o’ Saturdays.
One of the emergent properties of the Internet that I’m truly enjoying here in the 21st century is the continual discovery of little artistic sub-cultures that (a) I was previously unaware of and (b) would probably never have come to exist without the Internet to propagate them.
In that spirit, allow me to share with you the journey I have taken over the past half hour. It began with this:
One of the emergent properties of the Internet that I’m truly enjoying here in the 21st century is the continual discovery of little artistic sub-cultures that (a) I was previously unaware of and (b) would probably never have come to exist without the Internet to propagate them.
In that spirit, allow me to share with you the journey I have taken over the past half hour. It began with this:
Which amused me a great deal, largely because of the clever ingenuity it shows on the part of Nintendo’s game designers.
(EDIT: It has been revealed to me that the tubes of the interweb have lied to me. This level was, itself, a hack. I’m still fairly confident that it’s the video that started the autoplay meme, but the truth — if it even exists — is to be found on Japanese websites that I can’t read.)
That video, in turn, led me to this one:
Which was interesting to me largely because it demonstrated that the original autoplay level had inspired a community of independent modders to duplicate the (non-)gameplay involved.
The video also demonstrated, through it’s own workman-like quality, just how clever the original Nintendo level designers had been: They had not only designed a level that could be completed both traditionally and through autoplay, but their autoplay had actually been quite intricate and complicated in the techniques it employed.
But then I found this video:
And that, frankly, is transcendant.
The initial genesis of the idea seems basic enough: “Hey, this autoplay Mario stuff would make for a pretty nifty musical instrument.”
What’s remarkable is the amount of time it would take to perfect the skills necessary to play that instrument well. And then, furthermore, to develop that skill to the degree necessary to orchestrate the instrument into a complex musical arrangement.
I mean, sure, on one level it’s perfectly trivial.
But on another level it gives me some sense of what it must have been like in Ancient Greece when somebody said, “These choral-told stories are pretty interesting. But you know what might be interesting? If one of us stepped out of the chorus and pretended to be one of the characters.”
Or that afternoon during Christmas Break in 1970 when Dave Arneson said, “Instead of playing Napoleonics today, let’s try this interesting variant of Chainmail I dreamed up. You’re going to be heading down into the dungeons beneath Castle Blackmoor.”
First Principle: Any story you can tell in any other genre can be told in speculative fiction.
Second Principle: … and a whole bunch more.
Let’s take Spider-Man, for example. You can probably find other ways to explore the central theme of “with great power comes great responsibility”, but it would be comparatively difficult to invest that great power into the hands of a teenage boy with whom your audience can so readily identify. (See, also, Ender’s Game.)
Similarly, love stories are ubiquitous… but it takes speculative fiction to create the specific type of dynamic that exists between a 17-year-old Vampire Slayer and a 400-year-old vampire (particularly when the vampire loses his soul as a direct result of experiencing true happiness with the Slayer). Which isn’t, of course, to say that there isn’t clear metaphoric content there that can be applied to mortal relationships.
Or take a look at the absolutely brilliant exploration of character in the new version of Battlestar Galactica. The clone-like, resurrecting cylons are a Pandora’s Box of sociological, cultural, and psychological problems that simply do not exist in the real world… and thus make possible compelling and powerful stories that you won’t find anywhere else.
Conceptually, look at a work like the original Foundation Trilogy. Or Vinge’s exploration of perverse ethical structures in A Deepness in the Sky.
None of which is to say that other forms of fiction need to pack up their bags and go home. There is clearly a power in the historical narrative of Roots, for example, that cannot be captured by any fantastical restructuring of slavery and racism. Contemporary romances can feature a closer identification between protagonist and reader than a novel starring someone from the 31st century. And so forth.
Nor is it to say that all SF is innately awesome. Sturgeon’s Law (“90% of everything is crap”) naturally still applies.
But it is to say that SF removes the walls.
Which brings us to our conclusion: SF is awesome because it has women wearing brass bras and spandex.
… wait, no. I seem to have gone astray somewhere.
I’ve got things set-up now so that I can do regular updates without breaking my mind or the website. Now all I need is the time to do it.
What have I been up to? Well, in addition to the new house that I mentioned awhile back (and which triggered the sporadic nature of recent updates), I’ve had several major projects on my platter.
THE SEAGULL
I did a proxy translation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull and have been directing it at South High School (my alma mater). The show opens next week with a preview on the 26th. It’s high school theater, but it’s very good high school theater.
THE FLICKERING WALL
I am also appearing in The Flickering Wall, an original play written specifically for the Illusion Theater. It’s a really fascinating installation piece in which the audience moves through the backstage spaces of what was once a Masonic temple and is now one of the premiere theaters of the Twin Cities.
Between these two projects, I’ve been doing back-to-back rehearsals for most of the past two months. It’s been exciting, but also exhausting.
PTOLUS – IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE
One of the perks of finishing the moving and renovation process is that we’ve been able to meet for more regular game sessions in the ongoing campaign I’ve been DMing. Before the disruption to the website, I’d been posting the early campaign journals. I’ll be getting more of those campaign journals up soon, along with various snippets of commentary and analysis.
DREAM MACHINE PRODUCTIONS
I have several 3rd Edition products in development.
Many people have been asking me about the current status of Legends & Labyrinths. Development is progressing, but the long and the short of it is that it will be done when it’s done. The truth is I’m probably being too much of a perfectionist with it.
Response to Spells of Light and Darkness and City Supplement 3: Anyoc have been strong. For now I’m taking that as an indication that the 3rd Edition market is still extant. It’ll be interesting to see how that progresses over the next several months, particularly with so many publishers pulling down their 3rd Edition material.
THE ALEXANDRIAN
I’ve actually been backlogging a lot of material for the website during this technological furlough. If you come back tomorrow, you’ll get to see some of it…
(I’m such a tease.)
Enjoy the holiday made for geeky gamers.
The site hasn’t been updated in about a week and probably will only update sporadically over the next few days. After that I’m hoping to be able to push more reliable content through the pipeline.
The short version of what’s going in is pretty simple: I bought a house. I expected to have my primary computer — the one I use ot update this site — set back up pretty rapidly after the move, but that hasn’t happened. So I’m kinda hacking together an update method.
During this interim period, new content may (or may not) appear on the front page, but the archives will not be getting updated.
