Fittingly, given the essay below, there’s a great submarine, if not quite a bathysphere, in Thomas Pynchon’s new novel. It cruises under the ice and it turns up where it shouldn’t. Welcome back to another descent!

The Bathysphere crew
Christian Donlan
Florence Smith Nicholls
Keith Stuart

Contact us at bathyspherecrew@gmail.com

Delightful games

I mentioned Secret Maps at the British Library a few weeks back, I think, and I got to go visit the other day. It’s a fantastic thing, filled with opportunities to push your nose right up against the glass and enjoy tiny details.

Since then, as a full-blown map sicko, I’ve been replaying Carto, which is an ingenious spin on exploring and map-making, and features at least one building that magically expands each time you return to it. CD

Last week I managed to find and rescue my old Nintendo DS while tidying my son’s room so I have been rediscovering some classic titles. Among them is KORG DS-10, a music creation app that simulates a range of classic Korg synths, allowing you to use the stylus and touchscreen in interesting, tactile ways. I love the way it turns electronic music into an audio toy and I’m sure it paved the way for Korg’s beloved Volca mini-synths. Anyway, I am enjoying making an unlistenable racket with it once again, and if you fancy a go, you can pick up a copy for around £25 on eBay. KS

Interesting things

I recently learnt about the practice of making rag rugs out of scraps of old fabric during a visit to the Hub National Centre of Craft and Design in Sleaford. They have an exhibition on, fittingly called Cumbrian Rag Rugs that showcases 25 rugs made by the artist Winifred Nicholson, as well as other members of the farming community around Bankshead. I particularly liked the rug above which was designed by an unknown school child who was apparently told by his art teacher he had to draw an image unrelated to football. He drew a magpie, which is the emblem of Newcastle United FC. The teacher didn’t realise and his design was eventually realised by a woman called Florence Williams.

Rag rugs, much like mosaics, sort of remind me of pixel art in terms of their abstract designs and limited palettes. FSN

Unfortunately Roguelike Celebration 2025 has already passed. It’s an online event with talks about roguelikes and related topics. You’re in luck, though, because there’s a wonderful backlog of recordings on their YouTube channel. If you want a recommendation, check out Everest Pipkin’s talk “The Fortunate Isles-Fragment Worlds, Walled Gardens & the games that are played there.” FSN

Essay: Stalking Lot 49

First up, forgive me: I’ve reached that point in life where every time I write something there’s a vaporous worry that I’m properly repeating myself, that I’ve had this thought before and then written it up before, and I’m leaving a trail of self-plagiarism in my wake. I can at least promise that I did have this thought I’m about to talk about this week, so the thought itself is fresh, even if it’s also been fresh before.