I recommend this book.

by **Worm** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 2:40 pm

I thought Fallacy of Dawn was more about people who dug games rather than games. Looking at those quotes I think this book would piss me off.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 11:09 pm

I think I used that "nobody's bitch" line recently.

This thread isn't going well for me. I will now speak through the use of gimmicks if anything further needs to be said by me in this thread.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 10:53 pm

OK, I got about a billion times more weepy than I should have up there. Angst in the motherfucking pan(g)ts, so to speak. That's not me. I'd delete what I wrote up there, except I am against deletion in most cases.

I've been a little creatively bankrupt, but ah-ha-ah on the way home from work the creative process started churning. Basically, I had been defining my life with the idea that I was going to write some book. That would be well-received. And when just the thought of there being somebody snuggling up to my Kool-Aid, I desperately began thinking of something else to write about.

I was a bitch up there. I apologize to anyone hanging out in this thread. I got better.

"I am nobody's bitch" -- Jet Li, _The One_

by **looper** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 10:52 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I don't want to tread territory anywhere near "this book is very, very similar to this other one here. Hrmph." You know?

So they're both about the love of video games. That doesn't make them identical. I'd rather read both books (yours, Jonesey, and his) than just one!

Sounds like an emerging genre...if people are writing about video games, it's because it's part of their culture, their identity...it's no big surprise that that would be expressed in writing...

by **Roody_Yogurt** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 9:55 pm

I read this book like four or five months ago in advance form (since my brother works for a local book chain) and wanted to tell you guys then but was like, nah, I'll wait until it's actually out. I guess the author wanted to do an event at one our stores but we turned him down.

The thing is, the protagonist in the book is also sort of offensively non-geeky, as he totally writes off all gaming history from the moment he realized how totally uncool it was and gave it up. This is somewhat explained in the book, but it still kind of rings of 'since my ignorant ass didn't stay informed, it's not important.'

But like I said, there are definitely non-great aspects about it (even though some of its most brilliant moments are when it's waxing philosophically, sometimes it just tries too hard), but it's still pretty must-read if you love the stuff.

by **bruce** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 8:59 pm

Worm wrote:So this book is fictional? I mean Yar atleast didn't seem overdone ... those two quotes do sound overdone.

A lot of it is overdone. And the ending, yeah, the ending is really postmodern and twee. You can imagine Adam Cadre masturbating furiously as he wrote it, you know? Except that, of course, Adam didn't write it.

Despite that, I liked the ending. But even it was very David Foster Wallace.

Yes, if you were to publish FoD now, it would, inevitably, draw some comparison. Although not as much as it maybe sounds like. I mean, part of what's really creepy about this book for me is that, well, the protagonist is named Adam, and was born in 1971, and, well, has a lot of the same obsessions as I do. Let's just say that I knew why Clio was taking him to New Mexico long before the protagonist did. And, frankly, this guy doesn't have the technical chops Robb and I do; he gets his info about the games mostly right, but from the nonsense that is Lucky Wander Boy and the fact that his Microsurgeon patient isn't real, well, he is a gaming geek of a certain age, but he's primarily an author of fiction.

Not to say I wouldn't like to have a beer or fifteen with D.B. Weiss. One review likened it to Fight Club and that's fair. And it's a hell of a first novel. Is there still a place in the world for Fallacy of Dawn? Sure. But FoD is really a musing about what it means to be human, and LWB is about what it means to be a geek. I would not be surpirised to find out that Weiss has played Being Andrew Plotkin. I almost wet my pants when I found the very sly User Friendly nod towards the end.

Bruce

Goddamn it, I had a post I wanted to put on Monto Rusa's Lifetrax today, and I can't, because the motherfucker is down. Maybe it goes here.

by **Worm** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 5:57 pm

Today I saw a sky that looked just like one of those pink and grey saran wrap draw boards that were supposed to keep kids from drawing on walls and wasting paper.

So this book is fictional? I mean Yar atleast didn't seem overdone ... those two quotes do sound overdone.

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 4:54 pm

bruce wrote: Yeah, you did.

This book is about what Fallacy of Dawn was about. It's also about what "First Love" was about.

I really didn't think that a book based on a video game-loving protagonist would get made unless I went ahead and did it. I guess that was pretty foolish. Rather than writing ND over the last year I probably should have busted my ass and got FoD into novel form as soon as it won those awards.

I mean, it appears that this one is even in the first person.

Is it funny? You have to realize that this thread is the biggest blow to how I hoped my future would go that has ever been posted in my life. I don't even know if I should bother making a book out of FoD now. I mean, *I* know that I am not "ripping off" anybody, and you guys know this, and what with the game having a 2001 release there is even evidence to support this, but... I mean, shit, I don't want to tread territory anywhere near "this book is very, very similar to this other one here. Hrmph." You know?

Jesus, what am I doing with my life? It is really in a complete freaking shambles. I cannot believe how stagnant I have been. There's got to be more to life than this. This endless "edit: beaten" shit over and over again.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

by **bruce** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 4:53 pm

Lucky Wander Boy wrote: With an X-Acto blade, I cut a square from the carpeting in front of the TV, and wiped the dusty, chipped hardwood floor beneath with a damp rag. I then Krazy Glued an Atari joystick to the floor in front of the TV, and taped the color photo of Araki Itachi that Clio had given me to the entertainment center so it hung directly above the TV. Removing my pants and underwear, but not my shirt or socks, I sat before the joystick in lotus position and plugged in the Adventure cartridge (one of the closest things to Lucky Wander Boy I had at hand, with its acquirable objects, and Holy Grail surrogate, and potentially interminable wanderings through castle rooms and hallways). I shuttled my gaze between Itachi and the game in smooth and steady one-second intervals--when my eyes were on her, I tried to bore through the picture plane to get to the woman beneath--and played the game with my right hand while masturbating with my left. This was not easy, as there is nothing overtly sexual about Adventure. Though the dragon is snaky and phallic on the box cover, in the game it resembles a duck more than anything. Perhaps that was for the best--as it stood, I climaxed in perfect synchrony with the acquisition of the magic chalice and successful completion of the game, after which I anointed Itachi's picture with a ritual dab on her forehead. Semen is often used in true magickal ceremonies, or so I have read.

by **bruce** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 4:45 pm

Lucky Wander Boy wrote: I would list the games in order, but this would be tedious. I began with Raiders of the Lost Ark (Atari), Ice Trek (Intellivision), Kaboom! (Atari); I ended with Dracula (Intellivision), Yar's Revenge (Atari), Microsurgeon (Intellivision). Before playing each, I pricked my finger, using a safety pin sterilized with a lighter and rubbing alcohol, raised a drop of blood, and wiped it on the edge of the cartridge; by the time I was done all my fingertips were extremely tender, but rituals that do not include bloodletting are not the real deal. This ritual took five and a half hours, during which I listended to Rush's 2112 on repeat seven and one-third times.

by **bruce** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 4:38 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Er... shit. I can't help but think that I got beaten to market here. At least the book seems to be enjoyable. Power to him. But truthfully, I am saying "motherFUCK" to myself over and over again right now.

Yeah, you did.

This book is about what Fallacy of Dawn was about. It's also about what "First Love" was about.

D. B. Weiss is definitely one of us. Although I'm kind of disappointed that he, you know, made up Microsurgeon Patient #23 and doesn't seem to know that patient number simply increases linearly from the time you release "Reset" until the time you press "9".

And since most of it is about a completely fictitious game....

Bruce

by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 4:15 pm

Er... shit. I can't help but think that I got beaten to market here. At least the book seems to be enjoyable. Power to him. But truthfully, I am saying "motherFUCK" to myself over and over again right now.

by **bruce** » Wed Mar 26, 2003 3:56 pm

Holy fucking shit, Lucky Wander Boy is spookily accurate. That description of using Microsurgeon as sympathetic magic (this is the excerpt on the web site) is brilliant (although patient #23 is not as he describes), and the bit where Adam nearly kisses Clio because she was able to play "Video Game Noises" with him, well, goddamn if that didn't almost bring tears to my rheumy old eyes.

I'm about halfway through the book right now.

Bruce

by **looper** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:18 am

I recommend "The Innkeeper's Song" by Peter S. Beagle. Has anyone read this awesome book?

by **Roody_Yogurt** » Mon Mar 24, 2003 7:43 pm

Lucky Wander Boy (http://www.luckywanderboy.com). I recommend this to any retro lover. It doesn't quite live up to its own potential, but there are parts in it that make you think, this is as good as it'll ever get.

I recommend this book.

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I recommend this book.