Kotaku
This isn't news. This isn't about gaming... not really.
After three weeks of Australian-flavored vacationing I'm back, well at least in mind I'm back. I'm actually still here in Australia for another couple of weeks, hanging out with my in-laws on the Central Coast, north of Sydney.
It's been a fun, and fruitful vacation. I managed to finally take up surfing, taking lessons from a surfer just south of Surfers Paradise. Never mind that he had to tow me out past the breakers the second day of lessons because I was shot, I still managed to catch some big waves, something I've always wanted to do.
I read through seven books:
Snow Crash: Just to finally get to the bottom of the whole Hiro Protagonist stuff... yes, tragically late. Good book, flat ending.
The Cleft: Author Doris Lessing won this year's Nobel Prize for literature. Her latest novel, The Cleft, examines the relationships between men and women by telling the story of the first men and women. Definitely worth a read.
His Dark Materials trilogy: I decided to pick this up after reading how annoying religious groups were getting with the upcoming movie based on The Golden Compass. The books, all meant for a young adult audience, are quite interesting and really get you thinking about the place of religion in the world, which makes sense since the author is a confirmed atheist. I'd call the three books a most read for anyone with any interest in fantasy or religion.
Parasite Eve: It's said that Hideaki Sena changed the face of horror in Japan, reading this book I can believe it. It manages to slip deftly between intriguing details about the mitochondria and graphic, chilling descriptions of a murderous bacteria. My copy of the book was given to me by a Kotaku reader at our New York Party at the beginning of the year. Oh, and the book was made a PS2 game by Square. Go figure.
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: The book is one part Gibson, two parts Kafka with a measure of Borges thrown in for good measure. Of course I loved it. Ashcraft tells me he would hug Murakami if he ever met him and recommended Dance, Dance, Dance to me, though I think I might sink into The Trilogy of the Rat or Kafka on the Shore the next time I dig into him.
I've started reading Pashazade, a book I picked up at a used book story last week totally randomly, not sure if I like it yet.
It sounds corny to say it, but I've really missed you guys. Sure Kotaku is a job, but it's so much more for me as well. It is my friend, made up of both readers and writers, my family, a tiny piece of me, though I'm glad it's grown beyond that, becoming, perhaps, a piece of everyone who both writes for it and reads it regularly.
When I first arrived in Australia, like with all my breaks from the site, living apart from Kotaku was sort of like (to steal a notion from Murakami) living apart from my shadow. Overtime, of course, I got used to it. And Australia is an amazing place to lose your shadow.
It's a country of incredible incongruity, for those of you not lucky enough to live or have visited here. Its a country of beautiful, modern cities in the middle of vast rain forests, deserts and mountains. My first, most vivid image of Australia, from my visit here nearly ten years ago, remains the most accurate: An freeway retaining wall lined with dozens of wild, white cockatoos. Australia is a splash of the wild and fantastic in an increasingly tame and mundane world.
Well enough of that, back to work, to writing, to my shadow.
Comments
That last picture is priceless.
sounds like a blast! have fun while you're there!
also, look out! there's a parrot on your head!
welcome back bri! happy to see you had a nice time. you look like you belonged on that surfboard
Damn, lucky you, that's one lifestyle I always wanted to pick up as a Skater. But, is tough trying to surf on the Hudson River, or better yet, Coney Island.......If your from NYC you know how infested those waters are. Enjoy the Vacation man.
"Good book, flat ending." - (Re: Snow Crash).
Couldn't agree with you more felt the same way about Neuromancer, there were some great ideas in there but the narrative structure falls flat towards the end.
Also, welcome back!
So... on your vacation you did some research about J Allard ? Interesting.
Welcome back, Brian!
I've never seen a fistful of birds before, so thank you for that, Crecente. Glad to have you back. The guest editors were nice, but I think I can speak for many when I say it just wasn't the same without you around.
Welcome back you have been missed. Glad you like Australia, it really is a fantastic place and from the looks of the last photo, you clearly enjoyed yourself!
Should you decide to read something else anytime soon, might I suggest Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan? It's an incredible book; beautiful, very visceral and incredibly well-written. It gets a very strong recommendation from me.
-1 no penguins on the surf one
+93 colorfull pets, with piracy theme
---
Your final score is:
92: Total coolness.
Snow Crash: Just to finally get to the bottom of the whole Hiro Protagonist stuff... yes, tragically late. Good book, flat ending.
well, is a Neal Stephenson books. Clouds are white. Water is weet. A Neal Stephenson books must have a poor ending, is something about the rules of the universe. Obviusly we need to abolism the Copyright rights, and rewrite a final for the book. With nowdasy laws, will be illegal.
maybe NS books are not novels, but something like a "manual"/"personal journal". And no one journal has a good ending. And don't even try to get a good final on a Manual. (like "Manual: How to clean your garden")
"The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" has things right on the title. But "Snow Crash" is more pfun.
Welcome back Brian. Sounds and looks like an awesome vacation, I was raised in Hawaii and I never took up surfing. Color me jealous.
Welcome back.
And folks, prepare. Be sure the last picture here will be used later for counting torture. I'm sure there's a gazillion parrots in this picture if you just set your screen brightness to a very specific value. Be wary of the trees for instance, it's actually clusters of parrots.
Oh, seeing as how you're into surfing now, go rent Riding Giants.
@McKack: "clusters of parrots" make me laugh out loud. A twisted new health/granola bar, perhaps?
Pictures with birds without Crecente wearing his bird shirt = me being very sad. ;(
PE was a PS1 Game, wasn't it?
Also, Welcome back. Did you get through Customs with that bird on your head?
Quick, how many birds are in that picture? Future gaming contest i'm sure.
You lucky bastard... Kotaku or Gawker must pay very well............
Cool "Shadow" analogy there...
@ Sorwah
Roughly 35...
Awwww... parakeets for the win!
I have to agree with you, Australia is a great place to lose yourself and one of the few countries you fall in love with the moment you set foot at the airport.
About Snowcrash, like someone mentioned before, a Cyberpunk book without a flat ending will destroy the universe, Gibson and Sterling are masters of keeping you enthralled for days just to kill the vibe with the ending, but glad you liked it. I miss the games that were influenced by Cyberpunk like BloodNet.
I have Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World but never finished it, gonna give it a try next time I fly.
Welcome back ^_^v
seems the birds found Cresente's doo a good nesting ground hehe
Did the bird on top of your head negotiate turning all that that hair into a nice comfy nest?
@ Lamshi
You're right, they do get paid well. Not only do they get paid well, but they get bonuses for traffic... AMAZING JOB. Where do I apply to "Blog."
Really is great to have you back. Kotaku just isn't the same without you... literally. :)
@Kiriphii: Absolutely. Richard Morgan's one of my absolute favs. Love all hit books, though Altered Carbon is my fav.
almost everytime a friend and I gamed together, one of us would say "I miss crecente." Then we'd proceed to say "It's not cold taco."
Welcome back. The guest editors were nice though.
Glad too see you're enjoying yourself up north - Must be avoiding all the Schoolies celebreations though :P
Ahh makes me happy to be Australian *sniff*.
Welcome back! Glad you enjoyed the vacation, and you've earned cool points for reading Snow Crash, flat ending or not. (^_^)
That parrot picture is screaming for a good caption.
"The Golden Compass was done by the same crew that did Narnia if I'm not mistaken. Kinda hypocritical for the religious nutjobs to be jumping down them so fast after their love fest of two years ago of the giant lion.
And yes, the parrot image is classic for the pirate Crecence we know and love. Glad you had fun! :)
If you want to talk flat endings go back and re-read the His Dark Materials trilogy. It's almost painfully clear to see where Pullman got the advance to finish the trilogy (somewhere in the middle of The Subtle Knife). The whole ending is a giant clusterfuck followed by a terrible cop-out. I was sorely disappointed. Although if he wanted to make an Atheist Chronicles of Narnia then I suppose the ending would have had to have been bad.
@lotkrota: Oohkay, someone didn't take their meds this morning... :p
Welcome back Crecente!
I actually preferred Stephenson's Zodiac to Snow Crash or Diamond Age. Odd, huh?
Yeah I read Snow Crash in the late 90's. Funny book, pretty bizarre. I wasn't really on the World Wide Web yet, so I couldn't appreciate names like "Da7id" (which in my head I pronounced as "Dave Seven Id" even though I knew it was "David").
I must invoke the "flying cars" notion here, as the internet still is nothing like what the past thought it would be (though it sounds like Second Life is getting there).
As for William Gibson, he always seemed overrated. I read him because all the references in Stu Hamm's song titles (see Black Ice) but I wasn't really impressed. I gotta thank him and Philip K Dick for inspiring one awesome album though, if nothing else.
Haruki Murakami, who I also read at the same time as Snow Crash, is awesome. I envy Ashcraft's ability to read it untranslated. Wwwwwwwwww.
Guest Editors are cool and all, but you guys would be better off getting Gabe and Tycho to be guest editors, IMHO. I think wit is more important than journalistic cred, for Kotaku.
Not to downplay any of your writing abilities, far from it. It's how you guys write that attracts readers.
"Kotaku: Come for the news, stay for the weirdness".
"Kafka on the Shore" is my favorite Murakami book, but "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" is a close second. That guy's a genius storyteller.
I'm reading Dance, Dance, Dance at the moment as it happens, although i'll say that i'm more than a little glad I read Wild Sheep Chase first.
Good to have you back Capn Crecente. Not sure what your literary bent is, but I'd advise House of Leaves if you aren't adverse to a good mindscrew.
@Norellicus:
watch the how to pronounce Crecente and Kotaku video, you'll get it.
[kotaku.com]
I saved having to search ;)
@Bunnyspatial: I've always found Snow Crash to be overrated. Diamond Age is better written and conceived. Still Cryptonomicon is probably Stephenson's best work with The Baroque Cycle coming in a close second (yes it's supposed to be all one book).
Gibson is best served when he doesn't spend so much time musing about far flung technology and Texas catheters. That's why Pattern Recognition is probably the best work he's done.
As far as Murakami goes, I can't see the appeal. I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and was thouraly unimpressed. There was some good stuff going on, but it was mostly a mess. I know it's translated but come on. I'd much rather read Gabriel Garcia Marquez or David Mitchell (who admittedly draws some inspiration from Murakami).
@stevekeene: Yeah, pretty sure both of them came out on the psx, not the ps2.
Ride those waves, Crecente!
Glad to have you back! :D
@lotkrota: Gee I wonder who that would be, Krotan? :)
Welcome back Crecente, no one could've taken your spot. As Krotan and I kept spouting yesterday, one does not simply walk into Mordor.
Glad you're back! And that you got around to reading some Murakami. Enjoy the rest of your time in Australia...
Looks like you had a truly fantastic trip, and I for one couldn't be happier. Kotaku missed you.
Also LOOK AT ALL THOSE PARROTS. How many did you end up bringing back for a contest prize? I'll be preparing by counting them now, over and over, until I can recite how many of them there are in my sleep.
I wanna win a parrot. ;)
I wish they'd make another Parasite Eve game. I never finished the original but found the story intriguing.
For Snow Crash I'll just say it had its good moments. Some.
Gotta be a nerd for a moment, but Senor Crecente, the parasites eve were PS 1 games, I only wish they were PS2 games.
Welcome back Crecente! I do have to note that you did a great job with your guest editor selections, particularly Ian Bogost. A nice variety to spice things up, but it is great to have the genuine heart and soul of Kotaku back in action.
Looks like you're having some serious fun there Crecente. That last pic is a tooth rotter for sure!
@D3Anon: Doh
Thanks everyone and those are lorikeets. A flock of them, along with magpies and two very friendly kookaburra wake me up every morning at about 6 a.m. They actually eat out of your hands.
We're all glad you got to enjoy your vacation. Welcome back. Hope the birds didnt poo
HDM started out great (minor non-specific spoilers to follow, I guess maybe). The Golden Compass was a fantastic fantasy book... I loved the world Pullman created with the daemons, witches, armored bears, etc. It was an exciting adventure. I can't wait to see how the movie turns out. The Subtle Knife was almost as good; I like how it expanded the universe(s), but it wasn't quite as exciting. The Amber Spyglass pretty much sucked. The semi-climax "why I stopped believing in God" scene boils down to a nun deciding she wants to have sex (pun only partially intended). That just lacks the... gravitas, I guess, that the "atheist answer to Narnia" should have, IMO. The narrative also got pretty boring and convoluted, and major characters had some big personality/motivation shifts happen pretty abruptly in the 3rd book.
Anyways, the vacation sounds awesome, and I love the parrot picture! I'm glad you got time to recarge your batteries and spend some great quality time with the family, Crecente. Except for a console launch, I can't think of any time that would be tougher for a gaming writer than fall/winter 2007. So many amazing games are being released right now, and so many great games on the horizon, it has to keep you guys busy! Keep up the good work!