[A Pleasurable Headache]
Apologies for another curtailed edition this week. I'm typing the last parts of this out entirely on my phone as I am sans computer whilst visiting family. Anyway, enjoy!
Links
Video Games
Acronym casts a long shadow over cyberpunk fashion
https://www.polygon.com/23403057/acronym-cyberpunk-fashion
A great piece by Alexis Ong over at Polygon over the synergy between cyberpunk/tech wear and video games. The article mostly concentratones the (extremely expensive) brand Acronym, but also discusses the concept of who these clothes are for in relation to the depiction of video game protagonists:
"It sounds good on paper, but as someone who has fluctuated between a US10-18 over the years, lived in bitterly cold places, and enjoyed snowboarding until my early 30s, I know from experience that Uniqlo’s 3XL pants are not cut to the same standards as regular U.S. sizing. The extended sizing for Nike still skews slim, as do Columbia’s extended size technical jackets. Acronym, which adheres to the same size standards as the rest of the industry, has “regular” sizes that go up to a men’s XL (comparing pant sizes, this is the tight end of a Burton XXL), albeit with some jackets in a “wide” cut. Still, I cannot imagine myself fitting snugly into Acronym’s SAC-J6010, a unisex hooded trench dress made in collaboration with legendary Japanese brand Sacai. The techwear aesthetic is simply not designed for people who fall slightly outside the usual off-the-rack sizes, much less fat people, in the same way you’ll never see a fat action protagonist in a game; again, linked to the idea of performance."
Gouranga
https://unwinnable.com/2022/10/11/gouranga/
Edward Smith at Unwinnable on the original Grand Theft Auto and the concept of the open world. Smith argues that games have perhaps lost something by refusing to limit the scope of their worlds.
"I saw this YouTube video about the first Spyro the Dragon and this section of beach you can stand on and look over the water and the skybox has all these hills and a building or something on it, and the guy was talking about how it made it seem like you could maybe just get there and again this whole other world existed, and the thing is that’s actually what games do now, which is provide you these massive worlds and all these characters and things to see, and you actually can go there and actually can do it all but it’s made me feel like actually now I’d rather it was all smaller and dialed back and implied and off-screen, because I hate this idea that games have gotten so big they basically replace your life – and tell you you’re not getting the most out of them and doing everything unless you let them replace your life."
Why Games Criticism Never Went Mainstream
https://clivethompson.medium.com/why-games-criticism-never-went-mainstream-d95ea346d423
Clive Thompson offers several reasons for the titular statement. The most interesting to me is that video game criticism itself is often thought of in the wrong category entirely:
"Or consider travel writing: You go to a country or city, immerse yourself, and talk about what it’s like being there. This is eerily close to the task of describing what it’s like being inside an open-world game. Or think about sports journalism: It, too, is a weird sister of video-game writing — you’re describing the existential joys and pains of humans struggling to excel inside a system tightly constrained by arcane rules. (The difference is that with games criticism, the journalism is written by the athletes themselves.)"
Hellworld
The wasteland of British politics
https://www.indianpunchline.com/the-wasteland-of-british-politics/
A pretty good summation of where are in the UK right now. Even now though the post is woefully out of date as we now have our 456th Prime Minister since the last edition of this newsletter went out. The most pertinent part is now already prologue:
"“Around ‘20 to 30’ former ministers and senior backbenchers are attempting to find a way for a ‘council of elders’ to tell Truss to quit.” The coup is executed almost openly by the world’s banks and asset managers with the rising expectation that the new team might restore confidence in the UK economy — while, in reality, would satisfy the interests of the financial oligarchy. "
Bill Gates Should Stop Telling Africans What Kind of Agriculture Africans Need
This Scientific American piece is from last year, but I only just read it in the last week or so. The article discusses the insidous ways in which Gates (mostly through his eponmyous foundation) influence agricultural policy in Africa, despite calls from those on the ground he is going about it all wrong.
For an excellent overview of this problem give this episode of the always excellent Citations Needed podcast a listen.
Writing
Storyville: How Various Media Can Change You as a Writer
https://litreactor.com/columns/storyville-how-various-media-can-change-you-as-a-writer
Richard Thomas on how various bits of media have influence and contributed to his outlook, development and identity as a writer. If there is no fuel, you're running on empty. Always be absorbing.
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I'm off to bed. It's two in the morning. See you in two!