Ben Thompson Reminds Us How Badass History and Mythology Are

I love to read about history and mythology.  Heck, I love to read just about anything.  This is true despite the efforts of several teachers who assigned meaningless "coming of age" stories like A Separate Peace and history texts that were as dull as spoons.  To be fair, the history texts were likely the fault of administrators but I also had teachers who did little to make the words in those dull history texts come alive.

There were wonderful exceptions to be sure.  I had a Nevada History teacher who would lavishly illustrate the chalkboard with a glimpse into the past -- in colored chalk no less.  I can only imagine the hours of effort it took for her to create images that were overlooked by most of the students in the class.  She was a hard grader, but an engaging teacher.  She made John Fremont and the Donner Party vividly real for me.

Excepting this teacher -- and a couple of others -- I was lucky to come out of my early education with a love of reading.  Seriously...have you read A Separate Peace?


Lucky...except for one thing.  Role playing games existed and they fueled my reading passion.  Thanks to the many creators of the role playing games of my youth, my interest in the exciting playground that is world history was kindled.  I can thank people like Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Graeme Morris, and Greg Stafford for reminding me that the stories are what make history so exciting.

Today's young readers don't have something I didn't have.  They have the internet and Ben Thompson's excellent Badass of the Week website.

At the site -- and in his two books -- Thompson does the world a huge favor.  He makes history more than fun.  He makes it hard core.  His books and website are the DragonForce of history/mythology books.  They are "metal."  In short, he rocks.

Over the past few years Thompson has become my favorite historian.  Will his work be lauded ages from now as the quintessential history texts?  Will they become the text books of University Core Curriculum programs?  No.

They will inspire readers -- at that most cynical and needed age...the teen years -- to become interested in history.

Thompson recently gave a Google Talk where he did a reading from each of his two books.  He's unnecessarily nervous and self-deprecating.

Do yourself a couple of favors.  Buy his books on Amazon and visit his website weekly.
 

His biographical sketches -- like this one about Wolf the Quarrelsome whom Ben mentions in the Talk --  are engaging.  They also make for wonderful inspirational fare for D&D campaigns.

Here's hoping that Ben is able to get a TV deal out of this.

[Cinerati Cartoons] -- Nicnup: Exciting Employment Opportunity

Jody uploaded this strip today. Though she did it years ago, it still seems topical.

[Cinerati Cartoons] -- Nicnup: Gesundheit

My wife Jody has a wonderful and visual sense of humor. In this Nicnup strip, she manages to capture how I have felt almost every time I've had a loud sneeze. They do sometimes feel earth shattering.

Romance: Cinerati Style

My wife and I have a very comfortable romance.  We love date nights as much as any other couple, but we also enjoy a cozy night enjoying our favorite past times.  A couple of years ago, before the twins were born, my wife drew this image of what one of our typical evenings might look like.  The picture was a nice snapshot of our home at the time.  Jody is there, I'm there, tons of books are there, our two cats (Goose and Pumpkin) are there, and so is our dog Oreo. 

The image is of our home a few years ago, so if she were to draw it today Oreo and Pumpkin would be absent from the picture.  Both were quite old when she drew the image and neither are still with us today.  There would also be two tremendously energetic twin daughters in the image, and Jody and I would look a little more exhausted.  We would still look just as comfortable.  We have a comfortable romance.  There is no one I would rather spend every day of my life with.

Since my wife is a cartoonist, I'll put it in cartoon terms.  Linus has his blanket, and I have Jody.  I feel just as lost without her as Linus did without his blanket.  There is an emptiness in the small moments I am away from her, and her smile is all that can fill it.

Phoenix Wright, from Nintendo DS to the Big Screen

Those of you who have been reading this sight for a couple of years, know that I am a huge Phoenix Wright fan.  The game series is a splendid addition to the procedural/detective game genre.  A genre that includes many great video games, as well as some of the best table top games ever created. 

At first glance, the game might seem a little strange.  It is entirely narrative, requires keen observation and logic skills, but almost no coordination.  It requires a skill set that is typically used in board/card game play and when used in those it tends to be in an "abstract" fashion.  Most video games that use this skill set -- exclusively -- also tend to be abstract.  Think Chess, Solitaire, and Minesweeper for examples of the kinds of games that have historically been observational/logical in game play.  Very rarely are these games narratively exciting.

Somehow, the Phoenix Wright game manages to be exactly that -- exciting.  Sure, the random "OBJECTION!" from time to time wakes up the mind in a brute way, but it is the engaging stories and humor that really make these games worth playing -- and replaying.  It should be noted that game designer extraordinaire did work on a "Harvey Birdman" game for the Wii that is more humorous, but similarly entertaining. 

Engaging stories and humor...hmmm...that sounds like a good combination for a film, and low and behold there is a Phoenix Wright film in the works.  The official trailer should be released November 5th and the film will be released in Japan on February 11th.  The film will be directed by Takashi Miike of 13 Assassins, Ichi the Killer, and Audition fame.

One might think that Miike is an odd choice for a humorous attorney film based upon a video game, but players of the game are familiar with how gruesome some of the murders in the game actually are.  One can only hope that Miike is able to balance the gore, humor, and engaging narrative in the same manner as the games.

A Blacksmith's Macaroni and Cheese? Pure Cheese!

I don't know if I have ever posted a commercial video on this website before, but the new Velveeta ad campaign is incredible. I don't know who came up with the "Liquid Gooooold!" slogan, and the idea of using a blacksmith to sell Mac&Chee, but this is hilarious.
Here is the first ad I saw.

But it is the next ad that really brings the cheese!

 

Should I laugh at the absurdity of comparing cooking to blacksmithery?

Should I be offended at the sociological implications of the ad?

Should I wonder if the person who came up with the campaign plays D&D? Wait, they probably do. "Smite them with the liquid gold until there can be no more smiting!" Only a D&D player could write that.

What's next? Will the blacksmith fight hordes of fast food goblins?

Make Tonight a Vincent Price Night

On this day of Creepiness,
When rampant ghoulies run,
and kids go masked about,
Enjoying pagan fun...

Witches feast on human flesh,
While we recall a host,
(A haunt himself in living)
Recently turned ghost...

Scary movies [were] his thing,
(Theater gave '[i]m a try)
Whales of August I liked best.
My favorite was The Fly.

We do request a brief repose,
(A moment should suffice)
of silence just to say,
"So long" to Mr. Vincent Price.

Fine, Silence, and then we get the candy?!

SH!

Yow!

5-27-1911 to 10-25-1993

October 25th, 1993, Vincent Price, a horror film legend, left this mortal coil. The horror films that Vincent Price starred in were not the violent shockfests people so often imagine when they thing of the words "horror film." His films were not about gore, or quick cathartic release of tension, rather they were about fear. H.P. Lovecraft, a pioneer in American "Wierd Fiction", wrote in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature :

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown...their admitted truth must establish for all time the geniuneness and dignity of the wierdly horrible tale as a literary form. Against it are discharged all the shafts of a materialistic sophistication which clings to frequently felt emotions and external events, and of a naively insipid idealism which deprecates the aesthetic motive and calls for a didactic literature to "uplift" the reader toward a suitable degree of smirking optimism...men with minds sensitive to hereditary impulse will always tremble at the thought of the hidden and fathomless worlds of strange life which may pulsate in the gulfs beyond the stars...

This horror of the unknown is the kind of horror that permeated the films of Vincent Price. To be sure some like the Tingler had moments of visual shock, but most of the horror in Price's films was internal to the viewed characters. The audience felt the horror not as an immediate thing which passes when the musical sting chimes, but as a lingering afterthought which remained with the viewer long after the film had been viewed.

An image from The Tingler more akin to modern horror.

Vincent Price and Roger Corman's screen adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe tales are some of the best examples of this lingering kind of fear. With modern special effects making the imagery in The Pit and the Pendulum tame, possibly completely enervated of shock value, in comparison to the slaughter a Jason Voorhees is capable of committing. It is not the violence in Pit which horrifies, it is the thought of what man is capable of doing. This is the best kind of fear, the fear that reminds us as we look into the abyss that the abyss is looking back into us. True fear is horror at the possible meaninglessness of existence and the potential cruelty of man. How horrible is the realization in Fall of the House of Usher that Roderick Usher had accidently put his living sister prematurely into the tomb? The audience who watches this film can imagine both having to dig oneself free of an early grave and the terror of realization Roderick comes to when he realizes what he has done. There but for the grace of G-d go I.

When Price first died, I worried that the "lingering fear" horror tale was dead. I "feared" that all I would be able to watch were gorefests made purely for shock value, but I should have known better. There were already hints that filmmakers knew what kind of fear was most valuable. In John Carpenter's version of the Fog, the horror wasn't that the dead had come back for revenge. It was why they came back, and that it didn't matter who they killed to get the requisite number of victims in compensation. Even a child would have sated their lust for vengeance. There were other films as well, but I would like to focus on what has come since Price died.

The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, is a wonderful example of personal realization bringing horror. Sure there are moments of suspense, but what keeps you talking about the film is the moment of realization. The same goes for Sixth Sense, but I think that the Village with its demonstration of what people will do to create a "just" society is more horrifying. Even if you guess the "twist" in the Village the lengths the Elders go through to maintain the serenity of the village is frightening. Eric Kripke's story about the Boogeyman isn't about gore, it is about how we give power to our fears. The same can be said for the numerous Japanese horror films which have come our way over the past few years. They often contain shocking images, but it is the lingering thoughts of the spitefulness of the dead which have value in the long term. The most Lovecraftian of recent horror tales was The Forgotten in which humankind were naught but play pieces for aliens in a G-dless materialistic universe. Julianne Moore, and all the other characters, were truly helpless against the antagonists and the resolution that she was "okay" isn't cathartic because the threat remains for everyone else.