The credits have rolled on What Remains of Edith Finch. Here’s the set-up: a family curse causes every member but one of the Finch family to die in every generation. That left-alive person lives only long enough to keep the family lineage going for another cursed generation. You play as Edith Finch, this generation’s lone surviving member, as you return to your childhood home to learn more about the curse and to, perhaps, escape it. What Remains of Edith Finch is a walking simulator that delivers its story with variety and creativity without ever buckling under the weight of its heavy message. I’ll be reeling from this one for a long time. This could very well be in my top 5 favorite games of all time. (more…)
Tag: Mark Z. Danielewski
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Video book review of The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski (Video Blog ep 021)
Click the image above to watch the video on YouTube I anticipate some reactions to this video book review will be negative. Of those negative reviews, I anticipate 3 response types:
- Hatred from those that haven’t read the book, but simply want to defend Mark Z. Danielewski (I understand this feeling, believe me; and despite how I feel about The Fifty Year Sword, I will continue to defend Danielewski, even if only for his potential; House of Leaves remains one of my favorite novels of all time)
- Hatred from those who have read the book, and claim that I’m simply too dumb to “get it” (again, I understand this feeling and am willing to embrace this possibility)
- Hatred from those who have read it and claim to like it. It’s this last group that I’m most interested in.
Those of you in this last group, please, please, please help me understand what I must have missed. I want to like this book. I really do. I want to believe that Danielewski’s verse writing is just an awkward trend (I didn’t like Only Revolutions, either, if you must know).
The Fifty Year Sword will be re-issued in October 2012 should any of you decided to read this book.
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Novel Easter Eggs, part 1 – Metafiction eggs (Video Blog Ep 007)
Easter Eggs, you know, those hidden references in movies, books, websites, and more that aren’t necessary but are damn fun in a treasure hunt sort of way. I planted a few (13 to be exact) in my newest novel, I Didn’t Mean to be Kevin, not on the assumption that some reader would be thrilled by a find in one of my books, but because the concept actually worked well with the theme of the novel. The theme being that people need validation. Jackson, the narrator, validates himself as a person by telling crazy stories to strangers. I, as an author, validate myself by telling you about all the cool books I’ve read.
Two down, eleven to go.
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Three books that break the rules yet still succeed (Video Blog Ep 006)
Rules are important, especially rules that govern how to write effective prose. But, in the hands of masters, those rules can be broken to great effect. I this, this newest episode of The World’s First Author Video Blog, I examine how three well-known books–Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, and Jose Saramago’s Blindness–break basic writing rules, but do so successfully.
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