Update

These are Peter Wessel Zapffe's four methods whereby mankind minimizes its consciousness in order to deal with the day to day terrifying banality of existence.

Now, normally I'm someone who abides by the Sublimation method of dealing with my stance and views on existence. I tend to work this in with (tedious) frequency in my posts on books with themes that lend themselves well to it: Barker's Weaveworld, Bakker's Apocalypse, Lao's Circus, and so on and so forth, there's no shortage of them; the books that touch on life's meta-aspects, either those who gaze at it with fleeting vapidity or grace them with a more sustained, unflinching look. In my opinion, most authors need and should focus on this aspect. This is a new development for me; I used to be good with pretty much anything I would read and as such this gaze constitutes a radical department from my earlier non-judgment attitude towards fiction. I think the age of my escapism is wholly over, at least in regards to the fiction that I read.

It's a little troubling.

The blog is to blame for it, of course.

The second you read more in and behind your fiction you tend to demand more of what you read, And what once sufficed doesn't anymore... He says with a Warhammer post fresh under his belt...

Either way, whether this is a sustained alteration or not, I find that recently I've been focusing more on the Distraction method. In a way, Sublimation is Distraction as well, of course. And Anchoring becomes Sublimation in a way, or at least, it has for me: lose one 'what', and a 'why, how and what else' falls in its place. These ideas are shades of one another. Imbued with meaning only where we allow them to be gifted with such. It might not be conscious.

No. It definitely isn't: you latch on to something else, or you drown.

So.

Sublimation has had to budge itself aside a bit so Distraction can come in its place. In a way because, even though I've dealt with most of the separate themes here on the blog, they're still very much present in my life. As such, I can't very well bang on and on about them, right?

So, here's where it gets easy.

As I've already established that this won't be about books:

Gaming and Television.

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In the Television department, for the past 2 days, in between exercise and gaming, I've been filling my time watching Orphan Black as if its the much sought after answer to existence. Up 'till now it's been a re-watch. I had previously seen the first 2 seasons, some years back, when 2 seasons was all that there was. I've somehow let the 3 remaining season pass me by. Mostly because I unreservedly loved the show when I first saw it, but, as season 2 ended on such a heartbreakingly ominous note, and together with the hesitant idea that it might have jumped the shark, I made the resolution I'd just wait until the vision in its entirety was available. So, this week, kind of spur of the moment, unplanned and without too much thinking, coupled with a little drinking, I revisited a show I once thought was pretty much perfect.

Immediate verdict, having seen all I'd pretty much seen before:

It still is pretty much perfect.

Tatiana Maslany is fucking amazing. So beautiful and so incredibly talented.

You can't really talk about it without spoiling it though.

But it's hard to envision any other established actress pulling this kind of thing off. She didn't do it alone, of course, and there are maybe three moments where I was aware of the manipulation going on. Excuse me, I should say; where I saw the manipulation going on... One tends to forget after a while what's being done right before your eyes. She sucks you in, selling it so well.

For the rest:

The editing as a whole is pretty much perfect, and beautifully done, coupled with music, both established tracks and those created for the show.

As for story... I don't know, man. I shouldn't like this show. It's in my opinion the worst kind of contemporary tripe. The idea, the concepts, the conspiracy bullshit... And yet, I love it, it's brought so well, so intelligent, or at least; so convincing. If I were to tell you the central premise, you'd scoff and refuse to even watch the show. But stick with it for 5 episodes and you're hooked.

Now I'm at the point where previously I estimated that the show might have jumped the shark, but even though rationally I still think this might be the case, it certainly does not feel that way; everything still felt very confidently under control. I'll see when I continue watching tomorrow. New material at last.

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As for gaming:

Since finishing up the Surge, which was cool but definitely more memorable for its engrossing, visceral combat than for its subpar story and minimalist storytelling mechanic, I've been taking a deep-dive into Final Fantasy 12 again. I'm determined to get it done this time, and I'm well underway.

It's still the same save file, but since the game is so large and so intricately built-up one can spend a hundred hours easily without even having the great lines done. In my case I'm still going for the Espers, the main story line, the hunting missions and I guess; the Rare Game, which means I think I'll have to just complete the Bestiary as a whole.

I had played the game as a child, though I doubt I understood all of it very well. I certainly didn't kill any Espers outside of the main storyline. Said storyline is convoluted but pretty rewarding.

Here's some footage that gives you a glimpse behind the scenes, and pretty much the most expository scene in the whole game. I would have liked to have given it in one go, and slightly more of it but as it runs on to like 7 minutes, and Blogger only allows for 100 mb uploads, and that's only about 2 min of ps4 footage You'll have to make do with two clips instead.

Fun fact; apparently the Occuria in this clip speak in iambic tetrameter, whereas the The Rogue Occuria Venat, later in the game, speaks in iambic pentameter. What does that mean you ask?

I don't know man, I'm just relating the fact. Look it up, it's what the internet is for.

Also, if there's one thing I wish the game'd let you do, is alter clothes.

Staring at the same half-naked people all day can get very tedious, not to mention just how utterly ridiculous they look.

The gameplay is intricate and reasonably rewarding but not one of those types that's much fun to watch, especially if you're not the one doing the playing.

I'm here mostly for the mythology anyway. Or rather the hints to all the various mythologies that the game liberally steals, pays homage, or lip-service to: From Gilgamesh to Don Quixote, from Biblical mythology, Hindu mythology, Jewish scrolls, and on; there's pretty much nowhere the game hasn't gotten its inspiration from.

I remember being intensely intrigued by it way back when, but not having the tools to follow up on it.

Now I do, and it's quite a lot of fun to delve into the background of some name or character whenever the game serves up something new.

It also has a pleasant sense of humour sometimes. Maybe to counteract all the melodramatic ponderousness that it frequently indulges in.

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Alright then. I'll talk about it quick.

Reading is taking a backseat, as the main read; Gormenghast is mainly being read for the beauty of it. It's not like there's a real sense of desire, or pressure to know what'll happen if one knows that the story's overall vision is pretty much unfinished. It's still being read, but in stops and starts rather than anything sustained. It's in any case not a work that should be read with a desire to finish it as quickly as possible, so I won't press the issue, and rather let it happen in its own time. There's enough going on outside of it anyway.

For the blog, the big focus is, or should be, the Time and the Gods write-up.

It'll be two posts, one focusing on the overall book, and with the other I'll focus on the intriguing Pegana mythology. But both of those are getting sidetracked because of a few reasons. For one, I'm getting the impressions that Dunsany was a bit slipshod when it came to establishing his mythological framework, which makes it kind of a crap-shoot to connect his Gods of Pegana to anything outside of his Time and the Gods (the novel, not the Masterworks collection book).

Another reason is that the Time and the Gods novel has been read some years ago now, and I'm rather hazy on the details, so connecting that to the Pegana story cycle, which I've read last month, is rather a difficult task. Honestly, I should just pour any efforts in re-reading the Time and the Gods novel first, but I'm just very, very unwilling to do that.

I'll get round to it. But I just need to shuffle something, somewhere up first.