thehauntedair

[thehauntedair]

Sketchbook work tonight! BARN OWLS. They definitely get my vote for creepiest owl. Like, why are they wearing a mask? What are they hiding that's so important they needed to GROW A MASK.

Anyway, if you've ever read The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and you didn't picture a Barn Owl as the Owl King who graduated from the Parliament of Owls by eating the eyes of fate.... Here ya go. Gotta be.

[thehauntedair]

Sketch for a painting I'm working on. If you've never read The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, I highly recommend it. That's a Top Shelf Book (tm) for sure, for sure.

I've been wanting to draw this scene forever, so I started some concept sketches and thumbnails, then decided to go back and read the passage on to find out it was COMPLETELY different from how I remembered. So I scrapped them all, and here we are.

[thehauntedair]

Starless Sea posting part 18

Hi, I'M BACK AFTER LIKE TWO MONTHS!

these are poems i wrote about Erin Morgenstern's book The Starless Sea! we're currently in the section Written in the Stars!

first one:

next one:

last one!

[thehauntedair]

He wanders alone but safe in his loneliness. Confused but comforted by his confusion. A blanket of bewilderment to hide himself under.

- the starless sea by erin morgenstern

[thehauntedair]

Commission for @mj-bites of Mirabel (Fate) and the Keeper from the Starless Sea, thanks so much, friend!

[thehauntedair]

Inspired by The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern originally created on Pinterest

[thehauntedair]

one small thing I like about the starless sea is the whole thing of like. even if you fuck up and miss opportunities and don't make the right choices wonderland will wait for you. maybe the magical adventure of a lifetime comes to you later, when you aren't a child anymore, and maybe that's for the better. magic as something that spans a lifetime. adventure and wonder as something that can drop into your life anytime, anywhere

[thehauntedair]

Not all stories speak to all listeners, but all listeners can find a story that does, somewhere, sometime. In one form or another. Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea

[thehauntedair]

be prepared for a lot more the starless sea art but first eleanor! i loved the description of her hair piled up around the ears of the bunny mask and also her ships captain outfit

[thehauntedair]

finally got some more portraits done this was surprisingly difficult idk what was up i’m having funky burnout

[thehauntedair]

I NEED to see a starless sea “good luck babe” amv it would be so good PLEASE if anyone out there has the power…

[thehauntedair]

Honestly when people say their art needs to get "more weird" they usually mean that as in "less commercial/less broadly appealing" and I think the answer to this is not to insert artificial Quirky Weird Style Stuff into it I think you just need to get uncomfortably earnest. What's the thing you really want to draw but feel shy about putting the effort into because it'd be too sincere an admission. You need to draw that. I want to see it

[thehauntedair]

The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern

[thehauntedair]

Zachary Ezra Rawlins moodboard

I'm only partway through the book so no spoilers please :3

[thehauntedair]

Well said!

What you said in the first paragraph reminded me of the scene where Zachary is at the “inventory table” near all of the doors in the owl king section of the book- he briefly waits, and eats, putting off opening the paper star and taking the items and advancing the story.

He gives himself a “rest point” before continuing, but he does continue the story- and when he does get to the hidden door with all his little items the narrative says “A man this far into a story has his path to follow. There were many paths, once, in a time that is past, lost many miles and pages ago. Now there is only one path for Zachary Ezra Rawlins to choose. The path that leads to the end.”

The book explicitly acknowledges that by this point the story does have its set, singular ending, and all Zachary has for a very long time been on that path- he barely even acknowledges the other doors, the other choices. To him, the choice is to go through the door or delay the inevitable and the narrative explicitly acknowledges this.

And you do make a good point in the acknowledgment that in reading a book you choose the timing. In as much as Kat and Zachary each personify fate, Kat is the “chaotic” fate where free choice reigns and Zachary is the “inevitable” fate, where the only thing stopping events from happening is time. Which is further shown when Dorian, the man set up to take the place of Time, is the one to inevitably seal Zachary’s fate and end the story by stabbing him and subsequently giving him the heart of fate.

And I think there is something to be said about the flexibility and the human element in theater working really well for Kat’s themes in this way! The necessity for collaboration in theater and Kat’s story being one of fate being driven by free will. I do think part of making that happen in the Starless Sea is keeping Kat’s actions and characters away from the audience until the end, and showing them to us from the point of view of a diary outside of the regular narration. It gives the feeling that in as much as the story was driving Kat, it’s only in hindsight. Each choice Kat makes as she makes them feels like her own.

And then Dorian as an actor! Dorian, who personifies time, acting as a synthesis between Kat’s theatrical Fate and Zachary’s pre-written Fate. The story Dorian follows intersects with the narrative, but is ultimately his own. He finds himself filling in different roles through the book. In as much as Fate writes the stories, Time is the one to deliver them. For a brief time, the actor becomes the story itself, and that’s really the role of Time in this book. The thing to join the narrative element (Zachary) to the human element (Kat) and synthesize them into a story. Taking something pre written and making it unique.

I love your insights on theater and storytelling and they add a lot when thinking about the cyclical nature of the Starless Sea and what it has to say on iterative storytelling! Has given me a lot to think about (clearly!)

I also just keep thinking back to that one conversation about video games. The way Zachary participates but Kat drives it. The way the observations the students make about storytelling are basically the themes of the book.

Long analysis under the cut

Starting with the difference in how Kat and Zachary introduce themselves;

Zachary saying “I mostly study video-game design with a focus on psychology and gender issues”. He studies games, he focuses on internal things that are part of them.

Kat saying “I mostly spend my time trying to turn games into theater and theater into games”. This is more active. She spends her time transforming things into other things. Affecting change.

A student asks “how are we defining ‘gamer’” and Zachary answers by saying the definition is in itself and that he resents defining things, and Kat changing the question and defining it at the same time. Kat chooses to define the parameter of “game”, the implication being of course that a gamer is one who plays games, and sets the terms of the conversation. And the term she sets being “everything should come back to story”.

Kat then prompts Zachary to explain the parts of a video game, points he says he has retread a thousand times in writing but finds refreshing to a new audience- Kat’s audience, who keeps veering into parallels with theater.

And then the conversation about why people play story based games: the peanut gallery posits that “you want the narrative there to trust in, even if you want to maintain your own free will”, “you want to decide (…) but you still want to win the game” “even if winning the game is just ending the story”. Their theory is you want both- choice and will. And positing “win condition” as the end of the story.

Zachary agrees with this, adding that this is especially true if the games have multiple endings, that the draw of story based games is “Wanting to co-write the story, not dictate it yourself”. Basically, wanting the illusion of being an active participant.

A student posits this works best in games and theater, and then another posits choose your own adventure stories, which Zachary had mentioned enjoying earlier in the book. And then vine girl makes a statement basically encapsulating the difference between Zachary and Kat: “text stories are preexisting narratives to fall into, games unfold as you go”.

And then Kat changed the conversation to “what makes a story compelling?” Of the answers provided (change, mystery, stakes, character growth, romance, obstacles, surprises) the one Zachary latches on to is “meaning”. His focus, after all, is finding meaning. In that very moment he is trying to find meaning for the book he is a part of.

And in answer to “who decides what meaning is?” He gets “the audience, that’s what you bring to it”. And they discuss how stories are personal, and everyone is already a part of one.

This causes a moment of self reflection- Zachary wonders “why he had spent so much time propelling stories forward” this in regards to playing video games- and wondering how to apply it to his current situation.

And then the conversation ends with a student asking if it isn’t just easier to write a book, given that a book can encapsulate endless possibilities, which is answered by “the words on the page are never easy” and “until you run out of ink”.

I get a lot from this. The interplay between valuing agency versus just wanting to be a part of something. Kat outside of the conversation driving it while Zachary is inside, a part of it. Zachary saying part of the reason to participate in a story based game is that it can lead you down paths with different endings- and Zachary in real life feeling basically purposeless until he starts following a story where there only seems to be one ending for him- the only choice he makes being to follow or to not follow the trail of the story, and continuing on after that. Zachary being the “text story” and Kat being the video game story.

What makes a story compelling? Meaning. But what defines meaning? You do. So you are the one making the story compelling to yourself, by engaging with it. By engaging with the story you are participating, you are adding meaning.

And setting up from the beginning the end of the story as the win condition. Why play story based games? You want to win the story. Can you win a story? Is winning really completion, or is it meaning, participation?

I also keep coming back to the participation of cat glasses girl who is the one to give Zachary information about his book. Obviously there is the overarching cat themes in this book but also looking at what she says- she is the one who says “you want the narrative there to trust in (and,…) your own free will”. And “the words on the page are never easy”. Often I have thought she is another vessel or agent of Fate, after all that is one of the purposes of the cats in the story. But also “the words on the page are never easy”. This, about writing, and about reading. Yes, writing is hard. It is difficult to trap your imaginings with words and leave them for others to experience. And yes, reading the words is also not easy- if only for the emotions they inspire, the meaning you ascribe to them.

The multiple levels to this conversation, and the fact that it is one of the only conversations that happen outside the Story Proper in the Starless Sea, give it a particular importance to me. I like how so many of the major themes are set up so early and so blatantly. It’s almost didactic- willing you to think about what you are about to read next.

Anyway I would appreciate any other thoughts on the matter

[thehauntedair]

The other thing is. Like. Right, we know Dorian parallels time. Pulling his name from Dorian Grey, the man in the painting. His mannerisms and demeanor being so distinct but timeless. We know Dorian from all of our stories. There is always a Dorian. The namelessness. Working with schedules, planning. Outside looking in. Loving the incarnation of fate (Zachary).

But in a lot of ways it’s also like. Time could fill his role with anyone, as long as they had no other purpose.

And the funny part to me is that over and over people read this book, right, and project so heavily on to Dorian! So many people being like “he is just like me for real” and yeah that’s the point of him!

In a lot of ways Zachary can only exist in the context of this story, in a lot of ways he Is the story which is part of what makes him Fate. But Dorian is Time in that Time holds All the stories, of Everything, Forever.

Dorian could literally be anyone and that’s part of what makes him so compelling!

[thehauntedair]

I also just keep thinking back to that one conversation about video games. The way Zachary participates but Kat drives it. The way the observations the students make about storytelling are basically the themes of the book.

Long analysis under the cut

Starting with the difference in how Kat and Zachary introduce themselves;

Zachary saying “I mostly study video-game design with a focus on psychology and gender issues”. He studies games, he focuses on internal things that are part of them.

Kat saying “I mostly spend my time trying to turn games into theater and theater into games”. This is more active. She spends her time transforming things into other things. Affecting change.

A student asks “how are we defining ‘gamer’” and Zachary answers by saying the definition is in itself and that he resents defining things, and Kat changing the question and defining it at the same time. Kat chooses to define the parameter of “game”, the implication being of course that a gamer is one who plays games, and sets the terms of the conversation. And the term she sets being “everything should come back to story”.

Kat then prompts Zachary to explain the parts of a video game, points he says he has retread a thousand times in writing but finds refreshing to a new audience- Kat’s audience, who keeps veering into parallels with theater.

And then the conversation about why people play story based games: the peanut gallery posits that “you want the narrative there to trust in, even if you want to maintain your own free will”, “you want to decide (…) but you still want to win the game” “even if winning the game is just ending the story”. Their theory is you want both- choice and will. And positing “win condition” as the end of the story.

Zachary agrees with this, adding that this is especially true if the games have multiple endings, that the draw of story based games is “Wanting to co-write the story, not dictate it yourself”. Basically, wanting the illusion of being an active participant.

A student posits this works best in games and theater, and then another posits choose your own adventure stories, which Zachary had mentioned enjoying earlier in the book. And then vine girl makes a statement basically encapsulating the difference between Zachary and Kat: “text stories are preexisting narratives to fall into, games unfold as you go”.

And then Kat changed the conversation to “what makes a story compelling?” Of the answers provided (change, mystery, stakes, character growth, romance, obstacles, surprises) the one Zachary latches on to is “meaning”. His focus, after all, is finding meaning. In that very moment he is trying to find meaning for the book he is a part of.

And in answer to “who decides what meaning is?” He gets “the audience, that’s what you bring to it”. And they discuss how stories are personal, and everyone is already a part of one.

This causes a moment of self reflection- Zachary wonders “why he had spent so much time propelling stories forward” this in regards to playing video games- and wondering how to apply it to his current situation.

And then the conversation ends with a student asking if it isn’t just easier to write a book, given that a book can encapsulate endless possibilities, which is answered by “the words on the page are never easy” and “until you run out of ink”.

I get a lot from this. The interplay between valuing agency versus just wanting to be a part of something. Kat outside of the conversation driving it while Zachary is inside, a part of it. Zachary saying part of the reason to participate in a story based game is that it can lead you down paths with different endings- and Zachary in real life feeling basically purposeless until he starts following a story where there only seems to be one ending for him- the only choice he makes being to follow or to not follow the trail of the story, and continuing on after that. Zachary being the “text story” and Kat being the video game story.

What makes a story compelling? Meaning. But what defines meaning? You do. So you are the one making the story compelling to yourself, by engaging with it. By engaging with the story you are participating, you are adding meaning.

And setting up from the beginning the end of the story as the win condition. Why play story based games? You want to win the story. Can you win a story? Is winning really completion, or is it meaning, participation?

I also keep coming back to the participation of cat glasses girl who is the one to give Zachary information about his book. Obviously there is the overarching cat themes in this book but also looking at what she says- she is the one who says “you want the narrative there to trust in (and,…) your own free will”. And “the words on the page are never easy”. Often I have thought she is another vessel or agent of Fate, after all that is one of the purposes of the cats in the story. But also “the words on the page are never easy”. This, about writing, and about reading. Yes, writing is hard. It is difficult to trap your imaginings with words and leave them for others to experience. And yes, reading the words is also not easy- if only for the emotions they inspire, the meaning you ascribe to them.

The multiple levels to this conversation, and the fact that it is one of the only conversations that happen outside the Story Proper in the Starless Sea, give it a particular importance to me. I like how so many of the major themes are set up so early and so blatantly. It’s almost didactic- willing you to think about what you are about to read next.

Anyway I would appreciate any other thoughts on the matter