Culture Consumption: August 2024

Books

Whenever Silvia Moreno-Garcia puts out new work, it’s an auto-buy for me. Her novel Silver Nitrate is a thrilling love letter to Mexican filmmaking and horror movies. Set in Mexico City in the 1990s, the book focuses on Montserrat and Tristán, friends since childhood, who are both stuck in the limbo of their filmmaking careers. Montserrat is a talented sound editor, but is left out by the male dominated film industry. Meanwhile, Tristán is a former soap opera star, who’s image is fading thanks to a tragic accident years before.

When the pair meet Abel Urueta, a cult horror director and legendary auteur, he tells them about an unfinished film, which a Nazi occultist planned to infuse with a spell that would grant him power. Abel manages to convince Montserrat and Tristán to complete the film — unknowingly setting in motion a series of mystical and terrifying events. And they have to work together to unravel the mystery and protect themselves from an old curse.

I love so many things about this book, from the descriptions of Mexican horror movies to Montserrat’s competence and tenacity to Tristán’s lost and haunted melancholy. I love the way this book explores occultism and cults. It presents interesting explorations of racism and the power certain people have over others. It’s a fantastic book — among one of my favorites that Moreno-Garcia has written.

For years, I’ve seen references to Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, mostly in videos comparing it to Harry Potter. Now that I’ve finally read the first book in the series, I can say, The Lightning Thief is a fantastically fun read.

In the novel, Percy Jackson is a young man who has always struggled in school, dealing with dyslexia and ADHD along with a tendency to get into epic amounts of trouble, forcing him to regularly change schools. After two attacks by mythological monsters forces him to flee to a summer camp for half-bloods (the half-mortal children of the Greek gods), Percy begins to discovers his true place in the world along with a destiny to become a hero, likely a tragic one. The book cleverly weaves mythology into the modern world, and presents a series of adventures, which Percy and his companions solve with wit and gumption. The story leaves some of the greater mysteries open, so there's plenty more to discover in subsequent books — which I will definitely be reading.

Books Finished This Month:

1. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

2. Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Total Books for the Year: 26

Still in Progress at the End of the Month:

Even Greater Mistakes: Stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Procedural Storytelling in Game Design edited by Tanya X. Short and Tarn Adams, The Source of Self Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches and Meditations by Toni Morrison, Wandering Games by Melissa Kagen Fullerton, and The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel

Short Stories & Poetry

A selection of works I recently read in journals and online publications, with a few lines from the text shared here.

Poem: “What the Water Gave Me” by Sarah Gorham (The Ekphrastic Review):

Fantasy: “The Lure of Land” by Alexis Kaegi (Abyss & Apex):

Movies

In Alien: Romulus, a group of teens desperate to escape the debt and lung-blackening labor of a mining world decide to board a derelict space station to steal the cryogenic gear they need to survive a trip to a new and better world. What they don’t know is that the station was actually a research facility studying the xenomorph aliens — and it doesn’t take long for the crew to unleash the alien creatures, leading to rapid panic and death.

As with the other alien movies, the true villain is the corporation — an organization that puts profit, science, and progress over human lives. You can see this in the way people are treated as indentured servants on the mining planet (never able to pay off their debt) and they’re willingness to sacrifice every human on the station to get their research safely back to the planet.

Another interesting aspect of the movie is the relationship between Rain (played by Cailee Spaeny) and her brother, Andy (David Jonsson), a synthetic person. Rain cares for Andy like a child, but as the horrifying event this relationship shifts in fascinating ways.

On the whole, I thought Romulus was fantastic (with maybe a few minor quibbles). It has truely fantastic body horror, along with some supper intense tension. I’d watch it again.

A Quiet Place: Day One relates the story of how the world fell when extraterrestrial creatures that hunt by sound fall to Earth. Samira (Lupita Nyong'o), a terminally ill woman, happens to be in New York with a group when the invasion begins and must struggle to survive. Along the way, she meets Eric (Joseph Quinn), a fellow survivor, who follows along with her. While I’m not sure I fully buy into Samira’s motivations (she wants to have one last slice of New York pizza), there’s no questioning that Nyong'o is a powerhouse of an actor, bringing gravitas and charisma to every scene. Also, the friendship that grows between the two characters in the wake of this overwhelming helplessness is really sweet. It was worth a watch.

Happy Death Day was a fun slasher. A bitchy sorority girl, named Tree, is murdered by a masked killer on her birthday — only to wake up and repeat the same day over again. Each day she is killed and each day she wakes in a silly and twisted Groundhog Day scenario, and she has to find the killer to close the loop and save her own life. The movie never takes itself too seriously and just presents its story with humor.

New-to-Me Movies Watched Last Month:

1. Inside Out 2 (2024)

2. A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)

3. Old (2021)

4. Happy Death Day (2017)

5. Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

6. Alien: Romulus (2024)

Television

In Baby Reindeer, Donny Dunn (played by Richard Gadd), a struggling comedian who is stalked by a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) after he shows kindness to her one day. At first, Donny is mildly flattered by her attention, finding some comfort in it due to his own personal need for attention and love. But as she grows more and more attached and obsessive, he becomes increasingly disturbed by her actions.

This is a phenomenal show, with fantastic acting from both the leads and all of the side characters. At times, Baby Reindeer was so intense to the point of being triggering to watch. But what really made this show great for me was the way it provided nuance and depth to each character. Instead of resorting to a good/evil dichotomy, the show focused on the humanity of everyone involved, their complexities and faults and wounds. Instead of demonizing Martha, the show portrays how mentally ill she is, leaning more towards compassion than spectacle.

Games

I finished Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games). Once I worked through the challenge of figuring out the gameplay, I was able to be fully immersed in the experience (except for the horse breaking mini-game, because that annoyed me to no end). Ultimately, I loved the way the game cleared up its storyline, hitting key story beats from the Western genre (with very Unforgiven vibes). The ending is beautiful and heartbreaking — and now I’m even more inclined to play the sequel.

One of the things I do when I’m stressed out is to rewatch my favorite movies or TV shows, finding comfort in the familiar. This month, I found comfort by returning to one of my favorite games, Horizon: Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games). I jumped into new game plus and played through the main storyline along with a bunch of the side quests, skipping most of the random collectibles and stuff that can be acquired through exploration. As a result, I was able to move through the game fairly quickly.

I just love the combination of smooth, creative gameplay, gorgeous level design, and excellent storytelling that Forbidden West provides. It comes together in a fantastically fun and moving experience. I’m so excited to see what Guerrilla does with the third game (which will come goodness knows when).

Outlanders (Pomelo Games) is a strategy town-building game and one of my favorite mobile games, but I quickly ran out of new challenges to play through. However, Pomelo Games has released Outlanders 2, which provides a whole new set of characters and challenges. Much of the core gameplay is the game in terms of selecting buildings and figuring out how to manage resources — but the UI is slightly different and some of the ways in which the player interacts with and/or removes buildings is slightly different. I’m not as fond of the UI in the sequel, because I feel like it looses some of the charm present in the first game. But Outlanders 2 is still a fun town builder and is a great way to pass some time.

That's it for me! What are you reading? Watching? Loving right now?