Reading, Playing, Watching - July '25
It's been another hectic month! I went to Nova Scotia for a week to clean out my mom's old cottage, something in retrospect I shouldn't have chosen to do alone, and have been traveling pretty much every weekend since then for either wedding or family stuff. A couple of longer writing/creative projects are germinating but I haven't had time to do them justice, so here's the stuff I've been consuming this month.
Reading
Same Bed Different Dreams (Ed Park, 2024) - I went in with zero expectations and ended up deeply loving this book. The story of a Korean-American failed writer working at a tech company who comes across a "Great Korean Novel" with the same title, it's a Pynchonesque kaleidoscope that spans multiple centuries and multiple styles that all spirals together to an open-ended but satisfying conclusion. I read a lot and usually enjoy myself, but this is one of the rare books that consistently made me feel inspired and aware - I'd get off the train after reading it and notice fine details on my walk home, bask in the taste of summer rain. Great art makes you feel alive and this certainly did for me.
Berserk (Kentaro Miura, 1989-2021, Kouji Mori, 2022-present) - Finally decided to work my way through the godfather of all dark fantasy. It's an incredible work in its own right: Miura's dedication to his art is staggering, and the Golden Age arc is one of the finest tragedies written in the last century. Reading it now only makes it more powerful: you can see how this inspired games, books, manga, and movies for decades, but I have yet to see an imitation that surpasses the original. Later arcs drag on a bit - it probably shouldn't have taken like 15 years for Guts to make it to Fairy Island - but are still very worth the time in the end. RIP Miura, we didn't deserve you. Personally I think the Mori continuation is perfectly fine so far, but they've only released on tankobon so it's still a bit early to call.
Playing
Rimworld - Jesus fucking Christ man I should not have bought this game. The crunch, satisfying inventory/production management of Stardew Valley combined with a Fallout-esque apocalyptic world with generative events and constant, constant death. I haven't played a game that it was so easy to lose hours to in a while. Really excellently designed and written but also this type of thing is terrible for me.
Hades 2 - If you liked Hades, you'll like this. Some roguelike purists I know have issues with these games but Hades was the first roguelike I ever played and will always have a special place in my heart. The art really sets these games apart for me and this one is maybe even better than the first in that respect. There's a lot of grind-y stuff in the mid-late game that I didn't find very satisfying but I still stuck it out until I beat Chronos - I'll probably come back once it's out of alpha.
Watching
Police Story (1985) - I can't believe I never got around to this before. Absolutely fucking demented, Jackie Chan in his prime, feats of human athleticism that shouldn't be possible let alone legal. The credits have a bunch of b-roll of people getting carted off in ambulances and in the final setpiece of the movie Jackie got burns on over 75% of his body. Hong Kong in the 80s was different, man.
Grand Theft Hamlet (2024) - I thought this would be a lot goofier than it is! Ends up being a sweet little shaggy dog story about two out-of-work actors pushing through adversity to do something extremely silly. I'm always a fan of committing to the bit well past the point of diminishing returns, but it did get a bit navel-gazey and maudlin for my taste. Also a bit weird to do something with such an obvious intent of ultimately making a documentary about it but hey I guess it worked out for them. Still worth the watch if only for the truly inspired staging that you could only do in a videogame.