[A Pleasureable Headache] KSR; Violence and Watch Dogs; the lowly Kettlebell; House of Fear
This weeks links:
- Kim Stanley Robinson and socialist sci-fi
- Owning your computer
- Watch Dog Legion and depictions of violence
- The Kettlebell
- House of Fear
Kim Stanley Robinson Is One of Our Greatest Ever Socialist Novelists
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/kim-stanley-robinson-socialist-novelist/
I’ve just finished up KSR’s Ministry of the Future, a thick tome that deals with efforts of the titular ministry to deal with climate change after a catastrophic heat wave sweeps India. Large sections of the book are almost ‘info-dump’ in their presentation, throwing concepts and theories at the reader thick and fast.
The book is obviously laced with doom and a feeling of a world teetering on the brink. But KSR also floats the possibility of hope, showing us that if we all pull together, if we can look beyond our usual selfishness (and smash capitalism in the process) there may yet be hope. It only seems natural then that Jacobin should drop this nice overview of his work in the wake of his latest release.
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Your Computer Isn’t Yours
https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/
“On modern versions of macOS, you simply can’t power on your computer, launch a text editor or eBook reader, and write or read, without a log of your activity being transmitted and stored.”
This is why, when faced with the expensive choice of having to upgrade my Mac, I went with Linux instead. That said, I have been using an iPhone for the last few years, so the ‘unrelated’ news at the bottom of the above post fills me with a little bit of dread.
“In other news, Apple has quietly backdoored the end-to-end cryptography of iMessage. Presently, modern iOS will prompt you for your Apple ID during setup, and will automatically enable iCloud and iCloud Backup.”
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Watch Dogs: Legion Is Completely Detached from Reality
https://www.pastemagazine.com/games/watch-dogs-legion/watch-dogs-legion-review/
Jackson Tyler at Paste digs beneath the surface of the latest Watch Dogs game and finds little depth.
“Legion conceives of protest entirely as texture and background noise. They aren’t carefully coordinated demonstrations of collective power, or even loosely coordinated alliances of politically disparate groups brought together by common interest, they are abstract representations of the city’s collective id. They’re never imbued with any sense of purpose, or of community. They simply are.”
The piece argues that the protests the player sees on street corners and other areas are little more than window dressing with no real function beyond showing the world as dystopian. With the latest game being marketed as a game where you “can be anyone” and emphasising the collective nature of political movements it’s a shame.
“Dedsec does not stand for anything. That is not to say they are apolitical, but that they are an entirely reactionary organisation. As your proc-gen protagonist actually says out loud, they are Watch Dogs. The enemies they oppose are evil, but their evil is safe and obvious. Aberrant. We can probably all agree it’s good to oppose a tech company who has teamed up with the British Mafia to implant microchips in people’s brains and auction them as human slaves.”
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Killing
https://colewriteswords.medium.com/killing-1b900e046494
Somewhat connected is Cole Henry’s piece on the same game. Here, Henry, argues that the game’s violent options (gunplay, explosions, etc.) feels much more earned than the first game’s outbreaks of violence. That said, Henry, also seems to miss the more open aspects of the second game, which allowed for a completely non-violent approach and almost seemed to encourage it with its design and mission structure.
“The first game saw nihilism and harsh acts of violence as cool, normal even. The second game pushed back against that and showed that GTA-like open-world games can be made even more fun without ever touching a gun, and just how important ludonarrative dissonance is to making games like this work (Watch Dogs 2 understands how jarring it is to see Marcus shoot up the whole city so the game, at almost every point, pushes players to not do that…Naughty Dog could never). The most recent game in the series, Watch Dogs: Legion, shows how the choice to take or spare a life, to play lethally or nonlethally, is once again underpinned and fueled by thematics, and how the series can work where both options are readily available and meaningful.”
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Kettlebell
https://reallifemag.com/kettlebell/
Real Life magazine’s ode to what should be the staple of every home’s exercise regime. The piece is a nice overview of their introduction into the Western health scene and their Russian origins.
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And finally, something I’m involved in.
House of Fear: The Quckstarter
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/642151601/house-of-fear-the-quickstarter
When this newsletter drops there will be approximately one day for you to get in on this short Kickstarter campagin.
House of Fear is a fantasy-adventure/horror series, aimed at introducing younger readers to horror comics. The project is penned by James Powell, with art by Jethro Morales and James Hislope, inks by Mike Erandio, colours by Joshua Jensen and design and letters by Matt Krotzer. This entry in the series, The Infestation of Mr. Skinny Legs, is one I had the great pleasure of editing and helping to fruition. With a low pledge level of $5 for the digital edition, this is a no brainer, especially if you’re a fan of that classic E.C-style comic.
For the process-fiends among you, if the project reaches 100 backers then you will also get an additional ‘Behind the Scenes’ look, billed as part-memoir, part writer’s class and part director’s cut. As I write this, the campaign is at 81 backers, so we only need a fraction more to push it over that target. Get to it!
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I’m off to self-isolate the for the last remaining two days. Thanks Covid! See you in two.