July 2024 - Imaginary Engines, Long Takes, and Self-Appraisal
Woof everyone. It has been a while huh? I’ve been a little out of commission the past few weeks due to both personal and public matters. So, this newsletter will be a bit sprawling. Without further ado…
The Imaginary Engine Review
The first and biggest order of news is that I launched a website! It’s called The Imaginary Engine Review or TIER. I co-edit it with critic Phoenix Simms (who writes a column in internet mag Unwinnable). Our logo was designed by my incredible brother Matthew Benfell. We cover obscure, lesser-known indie games and retro titles. We want to be a build critical space for games outside the mainstream that may not get any space at all in major outlets or, if they do, it is only a few paragraphs in a column. TIER commissions in-depth criticism on games that may never get the attention anywhere else. You can support the site by subscribing directly on our website or on Patreon (I no longer have a personal account).
Our first issue was on the work of developer Etherane. I wrote a brief introduction to the website. Phoenix wrote a wonderful essay on Mr. Rainer’s Solve-It Service and its “making strange” of our neoliberal order. Guest charlotte lindsay wrote a dense and evocative examination of Mr. Rainer’s, comparing it to, among other things, Susan Sontag’s Illness As Metaphor. We have one more essay pending for this issue and we’ll also be launching our second issue later this month. Exciting stuff.
Writing
On the writing front, things have been a little quieter as I have been hard at work on the Killing Our Gods book. Gina and I are meeting later this month and we’ll post an update to the Kickstarter page soon after that (which of course I’ll pass on here). The short version is the book is developing, I’m getting closer and closer to finishing it, but hit a couple setbacks.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of things to plug! I wrote a review of Critical Hits, a “literary” essay anthology on video games. I found something really close to where games writing already is, flaws and all.
I also wrote about Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II for Bulletpoints. It’s about the game’s use of essentially one continuous take, why video games are obsessed with this cinematographic method, and the diverse elements of film that games could borrow from, but often don’t.
Podcasts
The Safe Room has been on a bit of a hiatus because of both our life circumstances. We recorded an episode on the visual novel The Silver Case in April. We’ll be talking the game’s sort-of survival horror follow up Killer 7 later this month.
In the meantime, we did cover a lot of movies on our paywalled show Found Footage. First up, we watched the absolutely dreadful Men! The film is a slog, but we have a very funny and enthusiastic conversation about it. Next we watched the horror classic THE RING, and talked in depth about messed up women looking at you. Finally we talked the feature film work of director Jane Schoenbrun: We’re All Going To The World’s Fair and I Saw The TV Glow. I’m decidedly mixed on both these films to varying degrees, but we have a really wide-ranging convo about them.
Finally, Sophie and I reconvened to discuss Susan Sontag’s essay Against Interpretation on Closet Crit. This is a really fun episode in which Soph and I have a boisterous discussion on what the hell criticism even means. We also now have amazing artwork!
The Remainder
I’ve been reading a history of autism (titled In A Different Key, I would tentatively recommend it with some serious caveats). It has me thinking about the things we collectively or individually ignore because of their inconvenience or discomfort. A lot of the history of autism is a history of scapegoats. Distant mothers and vaccines have been blamed for what is, at is heart, a neurological difference. Then, a history of autism is prone to reveal the things that are unsaid, what must be true to structure power. COVID-19 is among the most present version of this. It is something we can all see is happening and yet that so many of our institutions are choosing to ignore it. I read a couple things this week that were a comfort and helped me think through this ongoing crisis.
First this op-ed from the Nation on Mask bans. Masks, and the ensuing conversation about public health, are one of the major ways we can see the connections between our various struggles. This is a good read on why the humble mask has become a political contentious symbol and why we should continue to wear them.
Additionally, Yasmin Nair wrote a brief essay on COVID and its aftereffects. I really appreciate Nair’s clarity and lack of fearmongering. She points at exactly the things we are not saying out loud and which many of us are not thinking and, vitally, offers a way out. She is clear-minded, but nevertheless optimistic about our ability to make change. Many of things that would make the post-covid world safer for everyone are simply common sense reforms (a nation-wide standard for air circulation and filtration, mask mandates on public transit and other public spaces, more regular vaccine rollouts etc.) I can be in despair about the possibility of even these things often, but if there is anything the last few years have proven, it is that a lot can change very quickly.
I wish you all a safe and happy July. I hope you stay cool, stay well, and get in good trouble.
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