elsandifer

[elsandifer]

Exclusive for my Patrons for at least the next three weeks, a book-length analysis of Sandman, why it mattered to so many people, and how Neil Gaiman's abuse changed it. Featuring Scientology, Tarot, trans literature of the 1980s, John Milton, failed comics crossovers, Tori Amos, magic, and four quotes from William Blake across two separate seances.

Perfect for dropping everything you're doing and reading right this second.

[elsandifer]

If I were you I’d script a better future

Recite the words aloud till they were true

I’d sing until I’m someone else—’cause stoic or seducer,

Someone else is gonna sing until she’s you

And if I were you I’d start the transformation

While the bodies of the heavens are aligned

If I were you then I’d be losing patience

Yes, if I were you I’d leave myself behind

(If I were you then I’d be losing my mind)

[elsandifer]

Thoughts on Peter Capaldi's music?

I've not listened in depth, but his description of himself as an enthusiastic amateur seems broadly correct (non-derogatory).

[elsandifer]

Thoughts on David Lynch?

Not half bad.

[elsandifer]

Eventually they attain their second form, where twelve years go by with no updates and then suddenly it goes from version 3.4.3 to 3.6.0.

Dwarf Fortress isn't so baffling when you understand that there's a whole subgenre of mostly-roguelikes out there that have been in what amounts to early access since the 1980s and still have no functional endgames in spite of having been in development for thirty goddamn years, but they do have twelve distinct ways to die by vending machine, and by gosh folks like it that way.

[elsandifer]

Nosferatu is a movie about how you gotta let women post about their problematic fantasies cause otherwise your whole city will get covid

[elsandifer]

I love that this, an introduction to a 2014 festival set, turns out to be Trent Reznor’s biggest contribution to culture in the 2020s.

[elsandifer]

Do you have a ranking of all christmas specials somewhere? If not, what is it? Has it cuanged significantly after some distance with some of those episodes?

I have not redone the full-series ranking I did In August to incorporate the one further Christmas special that has aired, no.

[elsandifer]

What are your favorite moments of The Power Fantasy so far? I'm still thinking about that incredible Telstar sequence from issue #3.

The timeline that casually flexed about how things will be appearing in issue 12 or whatever

[elsandifer]

Have you read E. P. Thompson's Blake study "Witness Against the Beast"?

One of many books in my piles, but I’m not especially focusing on the secondary literature; I’m more interested in helping people read the poems than I am in trying to summarize the larger field of Blake studies.

[elsandifer]

What do you hope to say with your Blake book that has never been said before about him by anyone else?

Most obviously, I’d like to offer a coherent account of his prophecies. More broadly, I’m hoping for an approach that takes him seriously as a seer and treats his poems as magical writing but doesn’t do so by shoehorning him into existing magical systems like Yeats did.

[elsandifer]

In the Last War in Albion, you describe (U.K.) Dennis the Menace as an “unreconstructed sociopath.” Is that just “a sociopath, basically,” in the same way that there’s not really such a thing as a “regenerate sinner,” just “unregenerate sinners” and virtuous saints, or does it posit the possibility of, like, a sociopath that acts positively?

(I’m sorry if this sounds like a gotcha question or quibbling or whatever. One of my dearest and most trusted friends is, basically, a sociopath who behaves well — better than most people, honestly — and my ears always perk up at the slightest hint that someone else thinks it’s possible for a legitimate sociopath to still be, for lack of conciser terminology, a good person.)

I mean “unreconstructed” to describe the depiction more than the character.

[elsandifer]

What do you think of the changes that the War Games in Color made to Doctor Who such as making the War Chief a previous incarnation of the Master and canonizing UNIT dating?

Haven’t watched it, but UNIT dating has been canonized for a while, no? Can’t find a reason to care much about the War Chief/Master thing—it’s always been a reasonable theory, but I don’t think it ends up affecting much.

[elsandifer]

Have you snagged yourself a copy of Moore & Moore's Bumper Book of Magic yet?

Yeah. Gorgeous book, and by miles the best general introduction to magic I’ve read.

[elsandifer]

chances you'll get back to the cyberpunk book at some point?

Unlikely for 2025 at least

[elsandifer]

What part will the Harley Quinn fart comic play in the magical war?

None whatsoever

[elsandifer]

Are you doing a December playlist this year?

I do them every other year at most