Sunday, March 30, 2014

Myst & Old Computer Games

Some computer games count as educational in my book. The Myst games and books were amazing. I loved Riven and the others as well. Atrus, my friend!

I still remember the old lines that I loved and puzzled over as a kid--after hearing this it just got me even more into literature and the endless landscapes it promised:
I realized the moment I fell into the fissure, that the book would not be destroyed as I had planned. It continued falling into that starry expanse, of which I had only a fleeting glimpse. I have tried to speculate where it might have landed, and I must admit however, such conjecture is futile. Still, questions about whose hands might one day hold my Myst book are unsettling to me. I know my apprehensions might never be allayed… and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written. 

Other games like 3 in Three, The Fool's Errand, Carnival, The silly noisy house were great too.

The classic game The Fool’s Errand is based around the tarot. It’s the fool’s journey through a land riven by war. The text is really interesting, you read a lot as you solve the puzzles. It’s so innovative, so much of it just blows you away and surprises you at every turn.

I never realized I read quotes of PD Ouspensky and Jung as a kid in The Madness of Roland, an old game I loved. It was based on The Song of Roland, a great long poem [here] with the mysterious 'AOI' refrain, how fascinating. I went on to enjoy Jung as an adult, without remembering that first moment of exposure.

Mystical Books


Mystical books can ignite your desire to read every genre. They have a way of being symbolist, and eldritch and Derridean all at the same time. 

The Symbolism of the Tarot [here] by the Russian P. D. Ouspensky (Пётр Демья́нович Успе́нский) from 1913 is a great book that I encountered over and over again as a kid and then as an adult. I think everyone has something weird and mystical that they’re interested in. As an adult, I saw a Pre-Raphaelite paintings exhibit in Montreal's main art museum that sold the book, and bought it anyway.

Tarot cards remind me of the Jungian archetypes. I love his Red Book and his ideas. Instead of narrowly constructing my self identity, I like to think ‘in this moment, I’m like the fool, and in this next moment I will be like the hermit.’ Each facet of ourselves is I think represented in the limitless archetypes of Jung.

Another neat place for mystical books is Scarlet Imprint Press. I always love to read about what they're doing next. 

Philosophy

Philosophy for adults or kids is a hard thing to start on. Some people suggest the famous Sophie's World, while I personally just read introductory texts as a kid. I wanted someone to cut to the chase and clearly outline everything.

I think the basic concepts of many philosophers make instinctive sense to children. Everyone can grasp how odd and strange the world is, and many famous thinkers were saying just that.

Heraclitus is one of my favorites. Only fragments of his work survives, read it here. As a pre-Socratic philosopher in ancient Greece, he said ‘you can’t step into the same river twice’ as they say, or:
“Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers.”

Greek: ποταμοῖσι τοῖσιν αὐτοῖσιν ἐμϐαίνουσιν, ἕτερα καὶ ἕτερα ὕδατα ἐπιρρεῖ.
Pronounced: Potamoisi toisin autoisin embainousin, hetera kai hetera hudata epirrei


Of course, overall philosophy is nothing but the love [philo] of knowledge [sophia], so reading is the only way to truly go forward!

Tolkien and High Fantasy

It will sound strange, but I often think of Tolkien as a symbolist, somehow. The ancient stories of the Silmarillion have that type of feel to them.

Tolkien is another thing I like dipping into. From Elwing saving the silmaril by turning into a bird to the destruction of the two trees to Celeborn, I love it. My dad had me read it at a young age, so I love the black speech of Morder and the secret names of the dwarves.

I love the quote from the movies that the nazgul murmur:
Gû kîbum kelkum-ishi, burzum-ishi. Akha – gûm-ishi ashi gurum.

There-is-no life in-the-cold, in-the-dark. Here – in-the-void only death.

Tolkien is truly beautiful, and his tales in the Silmarillion are really interesting. If you read it like an encyclopedia one story at a time, once in a while, it's really fun.

The grinding ice, or Helcaraxë, was crossed by Galadriel and many other elves when they went to Middle Earth. What an incredible journey to include. Tolkien has so many great ideas packed into the Silmarillion.

Many fan made songs are really cool, as is the BBC soundtrack song 'O Elbereth Gilthoniel - BBC Lord of the Rings - Stephen Oliver'. On Youtube there's the 'Galadriels song of Eldamar, Ai! Laurie Lantar' and the 'The Tolkien Ensemble-Hymn To Elbereth Gilthoniel III'.

Children's books

I loved a wide variety of things, some usual, some strange. If you give a mouse a cookie was great. I had a coloring book of ancient world architectural styles, which sounds weird but it was captivating; I also had an Egyptian hieroglyph stamp set, which blew my mind.

I loved books that were way too confusing for me too. Trying to read adult size books was something that sped up my reading way before the other kids. I looked through my dad’s Einstein biography and his Tolkien books. I loved the old world style of Winnie the Pooh’s original illustrations and Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking glass. Nancy Drew, The Egypt Game, The Angel and the Soldier Boy, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Jillian Jiggs, The Hungry Caterpillar, Frederick the poet, The Golden Eggand RedwallLittle Black Sambo, who outsmarts tigers and has pancakes with his mom and dad [he's from India in my copy].

And The Maze, which you can ‘read’ online. It’s an actual maze, each page is a door. The pictures are really incredible, and it just draws you in. It's a great early book to get you ready to look at art in museums and notice details, so that you can enjoy the work even more. And most of all, it's crazy fun! Masquerade was another puzzle type book that sucked me in. It’s very difficult to solve.
This illustrated Wizard of Oz with the best illustrations ever done by Charles Santore; fairy tales with medieval-like illustrations like Beauty and the Beast Sleeping Beauty & St. George and the DragonSendak’s Where the Wild Things Are was amazing, as was The Secret of the Andes, a book that still makes me nervous. 

It's truly a book with a big impact. A favorite of mine was From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. What an introduction to the Renaissance, museums, the ancient world, sculpting, art and life, I loved it once I realized where it was going--and even then it always surprised me. 
Animalia by Gaeme Base, has such gorgeous images that it should still be bought simply as a coffee table book. It's really amazing and detailed, like Bosch level thought was involved.



Mercer Mayer’s little critter books,  My Cousin Katie on a farm, Arthur,  The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Maine’s Blueberries for Sal.
I also loved The Water Babies book, where a young boy goes to a magical land of sea creatures; the illustrations are amazing. Halloween themed books were great too, like Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your SleepLittle Witch’s Big Night by Deborah Hautzig was great–the illustrations were so adorable.
My favorite of all was a book of interesting scary stories called Now you see them now you don’t–it has fascinating, subtle stories that are more strange and ghostly than horror.

As a kid my only cookbook was a cookie one, the Alpha-Bakery Gold Medal Children’s Cookbook. Each letter has a recipe and it has very cute illustrations. I still love it.

Intro

Art, Media, Books, Film and Music


As a kid what you read can change everything--just like it can when you're an adult. Culture can light up your life and give you joy. This twin blog with LiteraryNavigator focuses on everything other than words: movies, museums, art, music, sports, travel, history, computers, games, cuisine--and fun!