Culture Consumption: January 2025

Normally, I would have published my reflections on the past year and my goals for the coming year — and now we’re a month and a half in to 2025. It’s been a slow start to the year in terms of this newsletter, but that’s because I’ve been either sick or hitting the ground running on several other things (as best I could around being sick).

At any rate, here’s my first Culture Consumption of the year, and I hope to start getting things back onto my loose version of a schedule this month.

Books

I picked up Blackouts by Justin Torres based on the cover alone, drawn in by my love of blackout poetry and fascinated to realize that it was actually a kind of mixed-media novel. A young man journeys to the Palace, a nursing home, to reconnect with an old acquaintance, Juan Gay, a man he met at an institution years before. As the young man tends to Juan in his dying days, he shares his story, describing his youthful disillusionment and experience of the electrical blackouts and psychological blackouts that led him to this place. Meanwhile, Juan shares pieces of his own personal journey in return and passes along a passion project (comprising a series of blackout poems created by an unknown poet), urging the young man to continue his work.

Each chapter is written in a short, poetic vignettes, allowing the tale to focus in on specific intimate moments between the pair as they explore the personal tales of their lives. Interspersed with these vignettes is a collection of blackout poems created from the pages of a real document, Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns, representing the project Juan is passing on, as well as collection of photographs and artwork exploring the art and lives of gay artists.

Blackouts is a beautiful and compelling work. I love the rich language and layers of storytelling, and I’m looking forward to exploring more of Torres’ work.

Held is the first book of poetry from Lorenz Mazon Dumuk, who is a long-time friend — and one of my favorite poets. In particular, his slam and open mic performances are delightful. He’s witty, intelligent, and deeply compassionate — and all of that comes out in his brilliant work. So, when asked, I enthusiastically provided a blurb for the cover of his book. Here’s what I wrote:

“Lorenz Mazon Dumuk is a poet of great compassion, generosity, and humor—and his debut book of poetry, HELD, celebrates all of those attributes of self. Whether he is communing with his ancestors and family, examining the many facets of himself, or exploring the idea of manatee farts, Dumuk brings a deep resonance of heart and soul into every poem. In his poem, ‘Offspring of Victor Frankenstein,’ he writes, ‘at least a name would help bind / the collection that is you.’ In the same way, these poems are naming, breath, laughter, and prayer bringing the pieces of the poet and his words together into a beautiful, lyrical wholeness.”

Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders is a phenomenal collection of speculative short stories, mostly science fiction exploring the humanity, hopes, and horrors of our society. In “Because Change was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy,” a young rebel joins an idealistic commune attempting to clean the oceans a generation after they’d been poisoned. The community works together grows, makes mistakes, and falls apart, all while trying to hold to the hope of shaping a better future.

In “Ghost Champagne,” a struggling comedian is haunted by her own ghost, and though she tries to ignore it, it becomes a looming presence. All her efforts to make her ghost leave are fruitless, and its presence begins to create frictions in her relationships.

In “The Bookstore at the End of America,” a woman runs a bookstore that stands on the border between California and America, which are on the brink of war with each other. The bookstore stands as almost a no man’s land, a seemingly neutral territory that allows people to cross from one side to the other — a fascinating liminal space that opens the possibility for understanding.

And these are just a few of the fantastic stories in this volume.

Wandering Games by Melissa Kagen is an academic exploration of the ways wandering in games reflect societal concerns, such as work, gender, colonialism, and death. Initially inspired by “walking sim” games, such as What Remains of Edith Finch and Firewatch, in which the player explores a space, discovering the story through the world design and ephemera (letters, notes, journals), the book stretches beyond that original concept to consider other types of wandering in games beyond the walking sim, including Ritual of the Moon, 80 Days, Death Stranding, and The Last of Us II, among others. I really appreciated Kagen’s perspective, and I’m interested to return to some of these chapters after playing (or replaying) some of these games.

Books Finished This Month:

1. Blackouts by Justin Torres

2. Wandering Games by Melissa Kagen

3. Held by Lorenz Dumuk

4. Even Greater Mistakes: Stories by Charlie Jane Anders

Total Books for the Year: 4

Still in Progress at the End of the Month:

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 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.

In preparation for the Writing Excuses podcast’s close reading series on C.L. Clark, I read three of her short stories (all of which first published in Uncanny Magazine:

• “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home“ — “She is light. Until she is not, and the lighthouse goes dark as the waves crash against the cliffside, the rocks at its foot jutting and jagged, a peril to even the most skilled navigators’ ships.“

• “You Perfect, Broken Thing” — “When I leave the kill floor, my legs are wasted. I shuffle to the women’s locker room. I can’t stand anymore, but I know if I sit, I’ll never get back up. At least, not for another hour.“

• “The Cook“ — “The first time I see her, it’s just a glimpse. I’m standing in the inn’s common room and the other warriors straddle chairs and call for ale. While some reach for a serving wench or boy, cheeks to pinch, a life to grasp—my stomach growls a monster’s growl. I should be slain; the growl is that fierce. I smell the roasting lamb, the unmistakable sneeze of freshly ground peppercorns, and garlic, but it’s all hidden behind the kitchen door.“

Poem: “The Fool Begins the New Year” by Ali Trotta — 

Dark Fantasy/Horror: “Their Wings as Powdery as Bones” by Avra Margariti (Apex Magazine) — 

Poem: “the dogs don’t forgive us” by Sophie Fink (Strange Horizons) —

Poem: “The Thing Is” by Ellen Bass (Poetry Foundation) — 

Poem: “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop (Poetry Foundation) — 

Movies

Nosferatu is a masterpiece. The cinematography, lighting, costume and set design, and acting is phenomenal across every scene, and I’m fascinated by the way the film evokes the 1922 original, while simultaneously finding its own exploration of these characters and their world. However, despite all its beauty, I personally did not connect with this iteration on an emotional level — and I’m a bit sad about that, because it’s fantastic in every other way.

Mayday is a low-budget indie film directed by Karen Cinorre. When Ana (Grace Van Patten) is harassed and assaulted at her job as a waitress, she escapes from the world and finds herself in a dream-like reality. In this seeming limbo between life and death, she joins a group of girls living in a submarine in an idyllic cove on the sea.

However, this dreamworld is not entirely peaceful, and Marsha (with an excellent performance by Mia Goth), the head of the group, enlists Ana into an ongoing war, killing the men who arrive at their island. The girls even send out mayday signals, luring men and boys into storms and their destruction like sirens and then picking off the survivors.

Each of these girls came to this place of their own accord, having faced neglect or abuse in their previous lives. By escaping to this world, they are able to reclaim their power. As Marsha explains, in death, girls can be free and can finally win.

The movie doesn’t explain every aspect of its fable, nor do I feel it needs to. It allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions about the story, and I personally enjoyed swimming in the mystery of it.

New-to-Me Movies Watched Last Month:

1. Nosferatu (2024)

2. The Wild Robot (2024)

3. Toy Story 4 (2019)

4. Mayday (2021)

Television

Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal is a docu-series that explores various criminal cases that are said to have some connection to the paranormal. What I loved about this show is the way it approached each case from a grounded perspective, instead of leaning into the spectacle of the supernatural lore connected with it.

For example, the first episode, “Web of the Lizard People,” looks at a deadly explosion that took place in downtown Nashville in December 2020. The perpetrator of this explosion claimed that lizard people are ruling our government and society. The show provides interviews with a woman who knew the man and attempted to warn police about the threat, examines the decades-long believe in the lizard people conspiracy theory and how certain internet personalities profit off of spreading this believe, and other elements of the case in a way that feels nuanced and respectful.

Each episode provides depth to the case discussed, providing a focus on facts (at least those available), while also respecting the beliefs of those people interviewed. I really enjoyed watching these episodes, and I hope that they continue the series, because I would be interested in seeing more.

Storm of the Century is a TV mini-series written by Stephen King (not based on one his existing stories) and directed by Craig R. Baxley. When a massive storm rolls into Little Tall Island, Maine, it brings with it a powerful entity capable of pushing people to act on their deepest darkest desires. As more and more people die or disappear, the town begins to learn the depths of their danger and are confronted with a terrible choice.

This mini-series makes me long for the non-existent book version, so that I could experience King’s in-depth exploration of his characters. Because while I liked the townspeople and found them interesting, the compressed space of the mini-series didn’t feel like it provided enough of a chance to get to know them. So, I was not fully invested in the first two thirds of the show. The final confrontation, however, was deeply compelling and made the experience worth it.

Games

I dipped my toes into Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) when it was first released in 2023, but only played about an hour at the time before putting it down. This was partially due to my confusion about how to play the game and partially due to various distractions at the time that stole my attention away to other games.

In January, I opened it up again just for research. I wanted to understand how how Larian approaches branching dialog and gameplay choices, assuming I’d play for only and hour or two — and before I knew it, I was lost in the story and having a hard time putting it down. As of writing this, I have played around 80 hours of the game. And I still have soooo much game to go.

On my first attempt to play the game, I was a little overwhelmed by pulling up the wheel of options and didn’t quite understand that these actions could be used outside of combat, which slowed my progression a bit. But after getting some help from my brother, I was able to progress much more smoothly. I love exploring the world and seeing what can be discovered (although, I based on video clips I see from time to time, I’m pretty sure there are so many more innovative ways to approach this game). And the vast approaches to the gameplay is one of the great things about Baldur’s Gate 3.

But what I really love about this game is it’s characters, in particular the various companions that the player can befriend and have join them on quests. They are all wonderfully interesting, with unique backstories. One of my favorite activities is returning to camp and chatting with each companion to get their perspective on what’s happened. Plus, there’s opportunities for romance (though, I haven’t fully explored that aspect yet).

Anyway, I’m completely immersed in this game, I have tons of hours to go to finish it, and I’m already thinking about playing it again, so I can explore other possibilities.

Well, I’m back into Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. I open it up on my phone and attempt to progress in idle moments throughout the day, playing five or so minutes at a time. I’m still mostly stuck in the same area, but am immensely proud of myself for getting just a fraction higher — up onto the rocks (as in the screenshot above). I don’t know what it’s going to take me to get past this point, probably tons of falling and climbing back up and falling over again. At any rate, I’m back to trying.

Another game I open up on my phone regularly is “hexplant,” a free browser game created by willow, in which the player grows the plant as far as they can from the water to try to find the final (purple) hexagon. The game is randomly generated and super simple to play — and I find myself just as (if not more) interested in making pretty patterns with the tendrils of plant over actually completing the puzzle.

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