To do my due diligence this year, hoping to connect with the cosmic conspiracy that suddenly seems so proximal, I unearth Don’t Look Now, which I have secreted away on my hard drive…
Read MoreIt turned out 2016 was not just a “terrible year.” Like most conventional wisdom, that chestnut turned out to be bunk.
Read MoreThere’s an odd asymmetry about the enemies’ genders in Dark Souls II. It could be attributed to the adolescent target demo, or to the fantasy genre’s immaturity, but in the context of this analysis, it takes on a special literary importance. This is the gender asymmetry of the game’s bosses.
Read MoreDark Souls II makes a wild, echoing declaration of its Gothic influences, throwing itself full-force into every dark-medieval trope it could get in its undead fingers. Of course, the designers realized how important the Mysterious Castle was to Gothic, so they didn’t hold back.
Read MoreIs Dark Souls II the crowning rebirth of Gothic Romance for the digital age? I’m being dramatic, I realize. The spirit of Gothic has permeated our literary landscape so deeply, influencing so many genres and movements, that it would be unfair to single out any particular artifact as its rightful successor. Nevermind the overwhelming, almost parodic proliferation of Gothic imagery spread throughout the game, from the brooding castles to the inhumanly large swords to the incredibly expressive weather patterns.
Read MoreDon’t Look Now, Casey Productions, 1973 by Jesse Miksic Look at me, my native citizens, as I go on my final journey, as I gaze upon the sunlight one last time, which I’ll never see again—for Hades, who brings all people to their final sleep, leads me on, while I’m still living, down to the…
Read MoreColumbia, BioShock Infinite, Irrational Games, 2013 by Jesse Miksic That which has separated definitively – for example, the I from the non-I at birth – continues none the less to run along another line. These lines, or these parallel lives, meet only in death. But at certain moments, you can jump from one to the…
Read MoreShadow of the Colossus, Team ICO, 2005 by Jesse Miksic Myths have no life of their own. They wait for us to give them flesh. If one man in the world answers their call, they give us their strength in all its fullness. We must preserve this myth, and ensure that its slumber is not…
Read MoreBAD DECISIONS, GREAT IDEAS, Cristy C. Road, 2009 by Jesse Miksic The 90s happened, man. I was there. I saw the mohawks on twelve-year olds being carried on their punk parents’ shoulders. I rode in old cars while my friends snorted rids in the back seat, and I got delivered to crowded Warped Tours and…
Read Moreby Jesse Miksic I. Trainsylvania It’s cold and wet – the worst kind of early winter morning. I’m traversing a landscape under endless gray cloud cover, the ground softened to the consistency of flesh by a long night of rain. I pass through areas that look like small cities, sprawls of gray buildings groped by…
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