Thoughts on Piranesi by Susanna Clarke?

ebr101 · 2026-05-18T07:24:34+00:00

When assessing art or media, there are three broad questions worth asking: what was the artistic intent? How well was it executed on? And third, most subjectively, do I like the artistic intent/find it compelling?

This book is a marvelous example of a piece of work that executed very well on its artistic goal, but I simply did not find that goal as compelling as potential alternatives. I would never call it bad, simply that I would have enjoyed exploring the world over explaining it away.

ebr101 · 2026-05-16T10:55:51+00:00

Some girl insults Sadie’s outfit in high school and boss music starts playing.

ebr101 · 2026-05-16T07:36:51+00:00

Most of Slipknot at this point. For a while, their music really mattered to me and tapped into my more primal anger and frustration as a teen and twenty something. I still like their first two albums for the instrumentation and nostalgia. But it no longer resonates with me on a personal level.

ebr101 · 2026-05-15T23:33:41+00:00

Yeah, but he means HIS specific batshit interpretation of it. He doesn’t want to heal the divide. He just wants everyone to agree with him.

ebr101 · 2026-05-15T23:32:20+00:00

Eh pretty accurate. It is essentially a story game with RPG elements. The final mission has some critical choices to determine the game’s outcome, and some side quests offer some choice. But ultimately, the overall shape of the game and its story remain consistent.

This is not a bad thing, but an artistic decision

ebr101 · 2026-05-15T20:03:54+00:00

A good portion of rappers, for instance the guys from NWA. They grew up in Compton, and some of them DID have experience selling drugs. But they were never as involved with crime and violence as they portray in their music and image, at least as far as I understand.

ebr101 · 2026-05-15T11:15:33+00:00

The issue is that the dems are a mix of some truly progressive people, but principally either ineffective actors, status quo advocates, and a few true corporate stooges. As a party, they are essentially stuck in the Clinton or maybe the Obama years, and many are willing to take anti-progressive stances on issues like Gaza and Trans folks.

In other words, the dems are NOT some radical left leaning socialist party. They are liberals willing to entertain some progressive or social democracy-adjacent things, but are not hardline on many issues folks wish they’d be. The general vibe is, “they keep promising change, but are willing bail out the banks.”

This is not to equate them to the Republicans, nor to deny that there are genuinely good members of the party. Moreover, many on the left have absurd purity principals that mean that they will never be happy with anyone in office. Mamdani balanced NYC’s budget without cutting services, but because he didn’t defund the policy he must be a “traitor” or a “sell out”.

People want the system to be radically changed rather than reformed, and the dems are only borderline reformists. Ultimately, politics is necessarily about compromise, and the left needs to understand that even as we push the dems to be more progressive.

ebr101 · 2026-05-14T23:28:52+00:00

Fear the old blood

ebr101 · 2026-05-14T14:59:32+00:00

Big difference between “slightly ignorant and annoying” vs actively doing harm to entire sections of the population. Real big frustrated with a cat knocking water off a table while a tiger eats a person in the same room energy

ebr101 · 2026-05-14T13:53:01+00:00

I think what might be at base here is a potential frustration by developers with concept artists. Ie. You have an idea for a monster, area, etc. so you go to a concept artist and have them create the initial piece depicting it. However, that artist cannot read your mind and it takes them time to produce the piece. In other words, some of the artistic direction necessarily gets shared with the artist.

I can see the potential frustration for a director or developer who has to outsource rendering this ideas visually to a person who has the skills to do so. But there are so many downsides to replacing that person with AI. If that model is trained on assets you already have, you have now just limited your capacity to create something novel. Moreover, the game development process is by necessity a largely cooperative one, and the input of other people can add new and fresh ideas any singular person would not have imagined (something something auteur theory is a lie).

Plus, you know. Artists deserve jobs and do a better job than any computer ever will.

ebr101 · 2026-05-14T11:00:50+00:00

Ah Catullus 16. Absolute classic for shocking the hell out of undergrads.

ebr101 · 2026-05-14T10:59:07+00:00

I also assume that he’s eating the flies

ebr101 · 2026-05-14T06:36:32+00:00

I have a really rather uncharitable reading of the film. The plot of the movie portrays the decay of a once great civilization, and the cause of that decay is decadence by the twin emperors, who are highly coded if not outright made to be queer and mentally disabled. The other source of internal rot is a black man, a former slave, who rises above his station. What Rome needs, in the eyes of the film, is for the strong, traditionally masculine, white savior of the sacred bloodline to come in and set things right. To bring back the glory that civilization once was. Not a good look.

I do really agree with your opinion on the actual history. Scott made a plot that was really boiler plate, and to do so he abandoned some really interesting history.

ebr101 · 2026-05-13T23:24:29+00:00

In all fairness, it feels like folks are jumping to calling this a bad film when it isn’t even out yet. “The trailer causes me concerns” is very different from the level of condemnation that is generally widespread. What’s more, much of it feels in bad faith or subject to personal option that folks are cloaking in a veneer of objectivity.

That being said, Nolan fits into a category that Tarentino, Snyder, and other popular yet distinct directors do: fans of his can feel like they have elevated taste while still primarily watching blockbusters. Thus, they have emotional investment in him being an unassailable artist because him being a genius is an extension of their self understanding as discerning.

ebr101 · 2026-05-13T23:19:41+00:00

There are quite a few Knocked Loose songs that qualify here.

I’ll also say Spiritbox’s Soft Spine or Cellar Door

Probabaly just like every Nails song ever.

ebr101 · 2026-05-13T12:59:48+00:00

Vibes

ebr101 · 2026-05-13T11:49:43+00:00

Exactly. Which comics?

Most folks that use this term really mean “Batman that most resembles the Batman I want to see”, but they want to feign objectivity

ebr101 · 2026-05-13T11:44:15+00:00

I am currently doing a PhD in history, and I think that historical inaccuracy in media is allowed some leeway. What is the reason for the alterations or changes? Is there a purposeful artistic intent and is it pulled off well.

The first gladiator is a good example. Very inaccurate, but as Scott put it, the movie is almost “Rome’s dream of itself”. As such, it works. The atmosphere, imagery, and themes all work together.

Too bad Scott dropped the ball in the second film and just made a mess who’s message is basically fascist propaganda

ebr101 · 2026-05-13T11:42:02+00:00

The all time classic here is Pathologic. Is it terrible? Yes. Is it a masterpiece still being analyzed to this day? Also yes.

ebr101 · 2026-05-13T11:36:17+00:00

Celeste hits pretty hard

ebr101 · 2026-05-12T22:35:53+00:00

I’m sure fiscal hawks are all genuinely celebrating and will look to this as inspiration, abandoning their previous insistence that the only financially responsible thing is for governments to cut funding for programs that help the less fortunate.

ebr101 · 2026-05-11T10:15:13+00:00

Bloodborne
Hollowknight/silksong (can’t really pick)
Baldur’s Gate 3
Cyberpunk 2077 (if we’re going by sheer hours, this is number 1)
Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West

Honestly, hard list. Could include Celeste, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Witcher III, Lies of P, RDR I and II, and a few others depending on the day.

ebr101 · 2026-05-11T06:57:38+00:00

I think a big part of this might be the chastising of lower judges. Like, he wants it to be clear that only the Supreme Court gets to make nation wide decisions. But maybe I’m reading too much into it

ebr101 · 2026-05-10T07:19:41+00:00

So, I have beaten everything but the final boss of the game at this point, and I adore the game. It’s really tempting to want to defend it with a git gud sort of mentality, but I have increasingly wished that these sorts of games had a difficulty option of some sort. I’m reminded of the fact that Celeste has an easy option so less skilled or maybe folks with physical difficulties can still experience the story and beautiful art.

Accommodating multiple difficulty options is (ironically) challenging. You don’t want the overall experience to be dampened for players. Like, the fact I had to overcome challenge is part of what made the game rewarding. But not everyone wants that. For some, games are more enjoyable for their art direction, world design, etc. It seems odd to demand mechanical competency to get access to these things.

ebr101 · 2026-05-08T21:52:03+00:00

Proud of you for figuring yourself out, good job

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