//
although the structures of this misery are external // material, each character is hollowed out by the way that they endlessly [re]perpetrate it upon themselves and onto others. the novice who slavishly clings to claggart's promise // "i'll protect you if you don't fail" [the most british sentiment i've ever heard] // selling out billy for the obtuse possibility of avoiding corporal punishment ... the pervasive sense of shame. they all doggedly carry their chains with them, thrown into sharp, absurd relief against the backdrop of the ocean [see also -- picnic at hanging rock by joan lindsay; the suffocating victorian boarding school persevering senselessly in the australian bush]. the british spirit is no more than a damp ember. billy, our representation of innocence + vitality, offers a blessing to his captain as he goes to his execution. the crew threaten to rise up in anger but all it takes is the order to return below decks to restore the status-quo. it's so fucking grim + it is genius.
* i've been reading a lot of freud lately, sorry.
- advanced magick for beginners [alan chapman, 2008, £10].
- reports on the small note currency: minutes of evidence on the circulation of promissory notes in scotland and ireland [1862, £30].
- tissue typing techniques [heather m. dick & w. barry crichton, 1972, £15].
- butterflies of oman [torben & kiki larsen, 1980, £5].
- jung and the quaker way [jack h. wallis, quaker classics, 1999, £15].
- a bumpy ride: one hundred and fifty years of haden manufacturing in the west midlands [donald haden, 2015, £5].
- medical problems in dentistry [c. sculls & r. a. carson, 2nd edition, 1987, £60].
- practical well planning and drilling manual [steve devereux, 1998, £8].
- legoland denmark guide and key map [1986, £8].
- morecambe bay: an assessment of present ecological knowledge [n. a. robinson & a. w. pringle [eds.], 1987, £10].
- i am starting to suspect that kiryu doesn't know how to drive.
- i do not care at all about the international-CIA-arms-dealer-syndicate-kazama-had-a-cop-brother-whatever, i just want to hang out at the orphanage and do low-stakes small-town stuff in okinawa.
- having said that, andre richardson is an iconic villain. the yakuza games often verge on camp but they went full-tilt albert wesker with this one. it's almost worth sitting through the exposition in chapter nine for "mine's taken him up to the roof".
- jail for whoever made the fishing mini game. promotion to CEO for whoever did the walking animation for the kids.
- the chase battle sequences are borderline game ruining until you can train with mack. after that, they're just tedious. the combat in general is not ~fun~ but that isn't new information.
- i am obsessed with the fact that kiryu canonically has a blog. not to get into kiwami 3 discourse* but it's outrageous that RGG have basically delisted this game and replaced it with one in which kiryu does not have a blog.
* for the sake of clarity, it is not cool or chill to hire unrepentant sex criminals to be in any video game, let alone one which purports to consistently condemn sexual harassment + assault.**
** except for one weird outlier where every so often the protagonist will be sexually assaulted but it's treated as funny and lighthearted [bc i guess it's fine when it happens to men ??] but i digress.
- i know that proving grounds 8 has no defenders [and rightly so] but i am not seeing enough vitriol for millionaire 2. mr. shakedown is already so tedious to fight without putting him in a tiny arena where rotating the camera is nearly impossible. god truly gives his toughest battles to his weakest majimas.
- i did nearly cry when i realised there was no save point between the car chase + the escort sequence in chapter 13 // legend. i hadn't invested into beast at all and basically just watched helplessly as ~15 guys descended on makoto.
- i have great sympathy for how frustrating the mahjong requirements must be if you hate mahjong but i love mahjong. i played to rank 1 just for fun. no one asked me to do that.
- the super gold rush batting challenge has no business being that difficult. fantasy zone [100,000 points] was probably the most difficult completion point to get but you expect an arcade game from 1986 to be bastard hard ... the batting challenge really comes at you out of nowhere.
- when i was doing JCC i was very annoyed about it but honestly now that i'm in the weeds with the climax battles i feel quite nostalgic about playing rigged rock-paper-scissors.
- i don't know how to explain to someone with a normal brain that i will know no peace until i finish this.
//
connected -- i don't think that majima was in love with makoto, i think that's a weird conclusion to draw. she's a reflection of majima who has the opportunity to overcome her abuse + trauma [doubled w/ the reflection of himself that he sees through her eyes]. he fights like hell to make that happen because she represents his hope that he could step into the light, or at least his hope that it is possible to make your way out of the darkness. the tragedy is that he sets that hope aside at the end of the game, that no one shows up for him in the way that he showed up for her. you can escape but you can't do it alone.
//
by the end of the game they both think that they are choosing to forge a new path + live for themselves but it rings hollow because it is. they're still just kids under the thumb of more powerful men ... they are still at the start of their journey. it's not a story that is shackled by the constraints of a prequel -- it takes the inevitable fate of these men and makes it the narrative core of the game.
- some stuff i didn't end up finding a place for-- adorno on forgetting // mark fisher on the slow cancellation of the future // the explicit link between the pull of genAI + new technologies of power // probably some other stuff that i've already forgotten. i didn't make the distinction that benjamin sort of makes between personal memory + collective // political memory, or the distinction between memory + remembrance. there is also an explicit connection between benjamin's idea of awakening + marx's work on consciousness which i wanted to flag but didn't end up getting into. i hope any benjamin scholars who stumble across this will forgive me.
-- also, if you want to read an extortionately pay-walled journal article you can just e-mail the person who wrote it and there is an above-average chance that they will send you a pdf.
//
is he an iconoclast or does he think that human cloning is real? would he be a more unbearable dinner guest than theodor adorno? hard to say. great read, would recommend.
hot:
- ambient music-- put on some hiroshi yoshimura + vibe.
- birdwatching-- self-explanatory, birds are good.
- following your curiosity-- learn something just because.
- hot yoga-- for best results go to a class with "foundations" / "basics" / etc. in the name. [do not go to a hot yoga class with the people who are good at hot yoga].
- clichés + aphorisms-- respect the essential truths of the world.
- rummaging-- if i can't find my keys, the universe is telling me i don't need them.
- rushing-- cartesian time is a tool of capitalism. live in abundance not scarcity.
- algorithms + digital media-- divest from the attention economy + own things.
- doomerism-- do not tolerate cynicism towards the possibility of change.
- chatGPT, generative AI-- stop it. seriously.