“Akali’s mask is shaped like a Korean goblin guimeonwa’s face, and the ‘four-toed’ dragon and cloud pictures are korean-traditional.” Youtube commenter.

So, yesterday this music video blew up on the internet:

League of Legends has made more music videos with their characters, you can find them on this playlist. The one with Amumu, the Curse of the Sad Mummy also had an influence on me when it came out. So adorably sad. 🙁 I love these crazy little things, little bits of modern mythography. Just like with the saturation of superheroes, game characters break out of the confines of their video games and go into the pop culture, slowly embedding into the mainstream.

Japan is not new to this. Hatsune Miku is a fictional pop star, yes, a completely fictional pop star, who shows up in concerts and performs as a holographic avatar. This is a real thing.

If you watch the live performance, those pillars surrounding the stage are the ones that produce the hologram under controlled conditions.

EDIT: I also found this amazing mixed-reality performance at the e-sports opening:

I just love these little crazy things that seep into mainstream culture. Things like the word ‘cyberspace,’ ‘muggle,’ fictional sports like ‘Quidditch’ and ‘Jugger,’ and even bits of wisdom coming from the unlikeliest of places:

One of the most profound things a Pokemon has ever said.

If all of the above sound like a Black Mirror episode, that’s just because as a species, we like to hold on to myths. If you think about it, the myths are just stories that somebody made up, which then lived on through generations of retellings. They survived because their core is in tune with the human nature. Betrayal, pride, downfall, greed, courage, wisdom, all these things are innate in our lives. A pokemon can deliver as much wisdom as an animal character from Aesop’s fables. If you disagree with the previous sentence, then fuck off and go read proper literature, as you surely call it with your snobby upturned nose.

I’m fascinated by how the human mind seeks story. It seems to crave it, just like other needs like food and water and sex. The mind finds patterns and motifs in everything, and if it can’t find them, it makes them up. Our society has grown massively complex so now those patterns are becoming more complex themselves. We see old stories as cliches, yet we still crave them so we reinvent them all the time. Everything is a remix.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not an otaku, constantly watching anime characters and obsessing over them. I do find them a bit silly, just like all people do. But I simply see the appeal they have on the masses.

See also  Inktober Prompt: Chopped

I’d just love to have one day one of my characters achieve something like that, to seep into people’s minds, to become part of the collective unconscious.

That’s enough about brain cells. On other news, I’ve hit a milestone of 600 audiobooks sold. That’s quite nice, as I like doing them. People seem to love my latest, a retelling of the myth of the Teumessian Fox and the Laelaps Dog. If you recall, I actually wrote this for a themed anthology and that’s why it’s so different than my usual stuff. But, they rejected it for some reason, so I put it up as a standalone. I don’t think I’ll be doing any more fantasy stuff like that one, so enjoy it while you can. Harper Q. Landis has done a wonderful job in reading that story, I just love it.

“If a book is well written, I always find it too short.” 

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

The next one is a dilemma I have. This is more of a note to myself, really. But I would like some comments on it, if you’ve read the stories in question.

I have a bunch of short stories that keep getting reviews that say, ‘this was too short,’ or, ‘I’d love to read more of this story.’

  • BOO! A Halloween Story
  • Where a Spaceship Goes to Die
  • Nanodaemons
  • Speaking in Bubbles (Okay, that one is practically flash fiction, of course it could be longer.)
  • Lightshow Bright (They’re correct, as this was actually made as a concept chapter of a longer story.)

Those stories keep getting those comments. I’m not sure if that just means that the story works perfectly and should be left exactly as it is, or if I should actually expand on it. Perhaps, after I’m done with my massive to-do list, I’ll revisit some of them and see if there’s more meat into those stories. I don’t think there is because I write quite lean, without meandering passages and target word counts. If something is not needed, I cut it out.

Nanowrimo is going strong as I’m not actually doing it! I needed to finish a novel anyway in November, so nothing changed really… I’m still doing the Spitwrites, holding on up till now, one per day. It’s wobbly but I’ll keep doing it as long as I can, one story per day.

It’s a tough month as I have writers’ workshops and stories to read and comment on, and things to write myself, coordinate with audio producers… Plenty of stuff.

That probably means I should stop blogging and get back to them.

Did You Like What I Made? Then buy me a frappe. You can support me on Patreon, Starbackr or BuyMeACoffee. My preferred method is bitcoin sats over lightning. There is no exclusive content there but that way you can make sure these stories and renders keep on coming.

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