#and yet I feel like I’ve seen this trend in the fallout community

[kyngsnake]

Over the years the Fallout fandom definitely has slowly crept further into a “moral high ground over suspension of disbelief” space. I see a lot of people discussing their opinions of Fallout through the lens of their own personal morals that they’d apply to their own life, which is… Strange to me. I feel like dystopian media especially is not the sort of thing you should be judging by your own real life standards. Most things in Fallout are extreme. Most of the factions do extreme things. A lot of the things people do in Fallout would be considered inhumane, cruel or uncanny by modern standards. Because it’s a post-apocalyptic dystopia.

This isn’t me saying “everyone in Fallout is evil, stop expecting otherwise,” because I don’t believe that to be the case. Even good-willed people in Fallout do shit that would be considered extreme by modern standards. I just see a lot of people shying away from discussing the “grittier” aspects of the franchise because it might for whatever reason imply you condone those things in real life.

[folie-lex]

A lot has been discussed about “when” it was that James & Teresa started catching feelings for each other. (Thanks to Ryan and Jorge for feeding the fans on twitter and keeping this debate alive at any given chance).

While I think we can all agree that it’s been a gradual process for both and it has certainly not been one sided I think we can also acknowledge that each one worked in a different speed and pace... and I also think it’s safe to say that James was the one who fell first (granted, you gotta cut Teresa some slack here: she was still going through trauma, grieving - or coming to terms that her grieving was unwarranted - and just plain old trying to stay alive.)

Now, this was NOT some “love at first sight” crap. The world in which the show functions and the situations these people find themselves in simply doesn’t allow for that. However, there was a connection between them very early on; something that a true deep romantic relationship could be built upon, and subsequently has.

I’m getting ahead of myself here though, but let’s pick it up from the start because it IS important.

James & Teresa’s first interaction is maybe the furthest thing from a meet-cute (which sidenote: A meet-cute is exactly what she had with Guero). Teresa is being held down, threatened and abused and she’s fighting back like a wild dog. For his part, though clearly not happy with what’s going on, James is being professional, cold, detached and pragmatic. “Just another wayward girl to have around the warehouse... *shrug*... whatever.”

But she offers to do the job and now he worries, because THIS job comes with strings and stakes and responsibilities and needs some level of experience. It doesn’t help that this girl seems to already have enough trouble following her around in the first place. However, she volunteers and Camila is intrigued enough to go along with it. So James is left with no option but to comply and just get the job done, as James does. And as James does, he feels he’ll be the one to clean whatever mess and fallout follows.

He gives her a crash course coaching about their cover story and drives like a pendejo to get her to the airport, because both the job needs to get done, but also, more importantly “that was not the first girl who died and [he] won’t have that again”. And when he insists it’s over and they won’t make it, Teresa digs her heels. She’s doing this.

This is turning point Number 1.

In 2.03 James tells Camila that what he believes in is “survival instinct” and that is what he recognises in Teresa in that moment. And just like that she becomes more than “another wayward girl”. Suddenly she becomes somebody he can communicate with and talk to, on the same level.

And that look... well... it’s far from the full and in-effect “hearteyes level: james valdez” but it’s a precursor to it. It is those mutual core instincts they share that set the foundation of their whole dynamic.

The rest of the mission is spent establishing that rapport. Everything in the airport solidifies that connection. And nothing caps that better than his “I can’t believe she made it and we pulled this off” look after she hands him the last baggie.

Episodes 1.03 and 1.04 continue with this trend, with the layers of James actively trying to ward Teresa off, while she begins to quietly observe how the business works, being added to their dynamic.

What I find very interesting in these two episodes is how passive Teresa seemingly comes off, as she just starts to take everything in, while James is at his most verbal, social and swagger-ish. Which makes sense: she’s educating herself about what it takes to stay alive (all while keeping her cards as close to her chest as possible) and he is preoccupied with feeding her with as much information as he can so she can learn and be prepared for what lies ahead (all while trying to maintain dominance and the upper hand in whatever relationship they are being forced into developing).

However come episode 1.05 things begin to shift again... and quite a lot.

Up until then it’s all about James seeing in Teresa someone he can be straight with. Someone he doesn’t have to sugar coat things for, nor should he. Someone he can (maybe) rely on to pull through, when the going gets tough. But she’s still got the blinders on... or more accurately she persists on not taking them off. Therefore a bigger “lesson” is required. So he takes her to “go kill someone”.

I want to make another sidenote here to point out about this episode that:

From James’ side he actually invites her in his home. We talk a lot about how “closed off and secretive” he generally is. But here we witness as he allows her a glimpse into part of his life outside of work. The way I’ve always interpreted this was as more proof he saw her as someone with the potential to be treated as an equal. (And he does this again in a way in S3 when he offers up his own HOME as their safe haven).

And what needs to be pointed about this episode from Teresa’s perspective is she had the curtain pulled off her eyes about the kind of woman she used to be when she was with Guero, as she sees her past self in Kim, furthering her acknowledgement of how treacherous this world really is.

Moving on...

Before they go to “kill someone” he takes her to get her “dolled up” because the job calls for it.

And look while I’m sure, as a straight man he was aware she wasn’t an unattractive woman, I’m also pretty sure he hadn’t actually put himself in the mindframe to look at her that way. Because that look and that small step back, when she walks down those stairs dressed up to the nines?

That right there is surprise... and turning point Number 2. This is where it hits James: “She cleans up nice... she looks good...”

And yes, fiiiiiine... It is just the shallow, superficial aspect of romance and their relationship is built on so much more than that, I 100% agree. But to be physically attracted to someone is important. And IMO there is something to be said that James bothered to both see and treat her like a potential future equal first, before he even cared to admit she was also a “pretty girl”.

The mission goes as all their missions go: with its ups and downs, but getting the job done; and concludes with their scene in the car, i.e.: turning point Number 3.  

Informing her on Eric, his role and what the deal AND plan is, was all James wanted to show her during this excursion. That random guy getting killed was not on the schedule and it throws both of them off.

However it also gives James a glimpse through the first crack in those walls Teresa has very consiously put up since she came in his life. Sure he’s seen her be stubborn before, but actually fight back? For “what’s right”? This was a first. And her persistence in how she comes alive in the car, actually lunging at him to DO SOMETHING is completely new.

After she realises there is nothing more she can do for the guy, and he manages to calm her down, the way he softly looks at her, surprised and taken aback by their proximity, he sees those things he has long given up to be in this world. Those things he misses about himself. Those things he wants to get back when he comes looking for her in S3.

But we’re still at the beginning here. And James, here, is still in that hopeless cynical place in his life, where he believes this naiveté, and this willingness to still try and be somewhat “good” is pointless and will get you killed. One can imagine James, who has this business so well figured out, being confronted with Teresa who while unwilling to lay low, is also still trying to stay true to herself must be overwhelming. And more than that this is the first time she isn’t letting him just boss her around. She talks back. She stands up for herself. She calls him out. She is putting in question his whole world view.

And all this is followed by 1.06 and her “using the time she had to get him out of the cave” which is turning point Number 4. And IMO, it’s his point of no return.

He spends that whole episode trying to bring back their tentative relationship to what it was before their talk in the car at Eric’s. From their drive to the meet, to how he barks orders at her during the shoot-out, to every bit of instruction he gives her while they’re running, that’s all he’s doing: warning her and keeping her alive, with a wee-bit of posturing sprinkled in there.

Still, she comes back for him amidst complete chaos, and that’s when he sees it: She’s not just a survivalist like him. She doesn’t just clean up well. She isn’t just a sweet, kind and somewhat naive girl that’s in way over her head. She’s also loyal.

And here’s the thing: James might only believe in “survival instinct”. However LOYALTY is the only thing he truly values. It is the only thing he considers as his one true redeeming attribute. And it’s a rare currency. Yet she has it.... in spades. But more than that, she just offered it to him, with open hands and no strings attached... and in this hole, in this life he’s found himself in, that’s even more rare. THAT he can’t negate, or dismiss.

So when Charger says “let’s trade her” it’s not even an option in his mind. She is not expendable. Period.

Though that, he won’t admit to himself until 2.04. (But that’s a whoooooole other post).

[bakagamieru]

Azoff Rumors

I’m terrible like this and don’t have the source, but I saw that there was some sketchy anon who apparently is claiming that Irving Azoff convinced Louis to do babygate in order to screw him over, ditch “difficult” fans like Larries, and promote solo Harry with a het!Harry image.

The OP was clear that this is not to be taken as fact, so don’t get me wrong; this is not a condemnation of the OP.

I did, however, find that theory to be implausible and because it’s such a dramatic yet somewhat plausible idea, I wanted to make a post about the things that don’t make sense.

Screwing Louis over entails that Louis and Harry and the whole band would find out that he’d been screwed over (if this were real and the fandom were hearing about it, you’ve got to assume the boys would already know)

This pretty much eliminates any chance they have of signing the more lucrative 1D band (their last album sold more than 2 times Harry’s album did in the 1st week), or if there’s somehow a binding deal in place, of having them cooperate and re-sign later

Yes, Harry’s popularity could grow, but 1D is a sure thing, Harry’s future popularity is not, so from a business perspective, 1D is still very valuable as a band, and if you have both solo Harry and 1D that’s ideal

This also pretty much means losing Harry’s good will and cooperation

In this vein, Harry seems relatively happy with his promo so far, accepting that happiness is a nebulous measure

Also, Harry has seemed relatively unstrained with Jeff Azoff who surely would be hit with some of the fallout if this were true

We’ve seen the boys show strain with people on their teams that they’re supposed to love before, so it’s not unlikely that we would see it now if there was strain

Harry doesn’t want het!Harry

Harry was perfectly happy to send a barrage of signs that he’s not straight and that Larry is a real thing, he did this over the course of several years and there’s nothing to indicate he would happily stop

The fact that Harry’s band is wearing rainbow shoes, Harry wore a rainbow pin and jacket, that rainbows were in Harry’s album booklet, and that Harry’s support of the LGBT+ community was a talking point in his promo indicate his continuing desire to not be seen as straight

If Azoff plans on marketing Harry as straight, again, I can’t see Harry jumping on board with that, especially when it’s a step back from the FOUR promo season and Harry and Louis slowly being allowed to be seen near each other again

We’re back to the point that pushing het!Harry, especially by throwing Louis under the bus, would lose them Harry’s good will and cooperation and any chances of re-signing him

If they were using het!Harry to get rid of Larries and build a more expansive and diverse fanbase, you would assume they would want to stick around in years to come to reap the long-term benefits

Harry’s promo so far has included the regressive 1D vs. Zayn narrative that is fake and serves no one but the old team

Alienating Zayn, again, means eliminating Azoff’s chance at signing the most lucrative part of 1D, the 5-person band

Solo Harry gains little to nothing from furthering this narrative

Solo Harry’s dissing Zayn conveniently comes in sync with Solo Liam’s dissing Zayn (after having been the most pro-Zayn narrative-wise for a long, long time)

Again, bringing up Zayn at this juncture is pretty much unnecessary for both Solo Harry and Solo Liam

The fact that it was brought up again for both and that the spin was the same means that there was coordination between teams which there shouldn’t be since Liam and Harry have completely different teams

This isn’t necessarily negative or tied to Syco, but we’re still seeing other coordination with the boys- we’ve seen new brand deals spanning across all the boys, notably Gucci, and again, this shouldn’t be happening since their teams are supposed to all be different

The only people who really gain from making Zayn look bad and making the band look fractured and the hiatus like it’s not going to end are Syco and Modest

Across the board, Syco seems to still have their fingers involved in all of 1D’s stuff somehow

Seeing that several boys are still at least partially controlled by Syco somehow, it only makes sense that all of them are, it makes more sense to think that continuing link is responsible for narrative delays and regressions rather than Azoff

Liam’s babygate 2.0 and solo promo (that basically revolves around babygate 2.0) that heavily promotes Cheryl

the subtle yet noticeable push to make it seem like the hiatus isn’t going to ever end and will just end up being a break up that came from both Liam and Harry

the negative Zayn stuff that came from both Liam and Harry

Niall’s validation / involvement of the narrative for babygate, babygate 2.0, and Liam’s bearding with Cheryl

Louis’ continuing link to Syco as his label which has done nothing but sabotage him

The continued “Simon is great!” BS spread in Dan Wootton’s interviews (Harry and Niall at least) and other interviews the boys do

Oh yeah, just the fact that Dan frickin’ Wootton is still getting interviews, even podcasts, with the boys, Niall is still connected to Modest, but discounting him, you’ve still got Liam and Harry who have no reason to be giving The Sun or Dan priority

Have they really acted like they wanted to get rid of Larries?

There was definitely a struggle during FOUR promo and OTRA between the old team’s closeting tactics and a new push for Harry and Louis to be able to publicly interact again

presumably some powerful force was working in the boys’ favor against the old team, and that would be their new team, believed to be Azoff

There has definitely been a split between how the US press spins stories relating to all the boys vs how the UK press does

it’s long been speculated that someone powerful is trying to protect the boys in the US, probably Azoff

Larries are most visible when they’re reacting to something bad, so all they had to do to keep Larries while not scaring off new fans, is not give Larries anything major to push back against

Harry’s current image minus some of the het stuff basically ensures no push back as long as they don’t touch Larry to start with (don’t poke the beehive with a stick and you won’t get stung)

If they want a more varied fan base, those fans are going to be casual and aren’t going to be in the fandom spaces of the current, more hardcore fans, so it doesn’t really matter if Larries are figuring out things that are supposed to be secret

Is het!Harry really essential to gaining new fans?

They’re already sending mixed messages with the het!Harry in the promo and yet the rainbows and LGBT+ talking points in interviews, so they can’t be too worried about some gay rumors scaring people off

TV shows, movies, and comic books have already accepted that the LGBT+ community is valuable / profitable to market to

Possible Azoff Smear Campaign / Fandom Demoralization Campaign

To be honest, I’ve seen a lot of rumors and discussions about Azoff not being as friendly to the boys as the fandom previously thought in the last few months, and it makes me feel like there’s a campaign to make the fandom distrust Azoff more than it makes me feel like Azoff is actually the bad guy here.

There are people who pay attention to when and how fandom chatter changes to various BTS people involved with the boys.  I’ve seen theories before about how Syco is trying to deflect negative attention from some of their people elsewhere, so I see no reason that the negativity towards Azoff couldn’t be just another way to deflect attention.  

Also, making the analysis fandom believe the boys are trapped yet again with an unsavory team for an unknown amount of time, and making Larries believe that New Team doesn’t want them anymore than the old one did, is sure to be demoralizing.  Who has been trying to get rid of these sectors of the fandom for a long time?  Old Team.  Who benefits from demoralizing fans so that they leave the 1D fandom?  The same people who pushed so hard for fans to think the hiatus was a break up- Old Team.

The Disappointment Factor

Anons are always sketchy sources since anons can be so easily used for spreading narratives and gaslighting.  At the same time, I think a lot of the fandom is just disappointed that things haven’t gotten better as quickly in the timeframe that we’d hoped for.  Because of that, I think people are taking it out on Azoff who was viewed as a “savior”, now that the saving hasn’t happened as of yet.

Fandom analysis has always been guesswork because we don’t know what’s going on BTS, so fandom expectations of Azoff were never based on any concrete promise or timeline.  That means that there’s no reason to blame Azoff over anyone else that fandom expectations haven’t been met. 

Conclusion: Don’t Think of Things That Are Uncertain As Certain

Obviously I fall in the camp that believes that Syco’s continued involvement is to blame for the negative things we’re seeing, but I’m not demanding everyone else necessarily believe it.  

What I’m doing is saying to take speculation about Azoff screwing the boys over with a dump truck full of salt and consider the reasons I give above for why this particular rumor doesn’t seem to add up to me.

We tend to think we know more than we do about what’s going on BTS.  We just don’t.  We don’t have enough information and we don’t have reliable sources.  The more we think we know for sure, the less we’ll consider all the angles of what’s going on, and therein lies the potential to severely misinterpret things.  

I just want to urge everyone not to get caught up too much in the trends of opinion in the fandom, and especially not the negative ones which are always more likely to cause damage.

[canvaswolfdoll]

Canvas and Video Games

Have I talked about my Video Game history? Feels like I have, but I also can’t remember doing so. I’m also running low on possible essay topics, and haven’t finished off any media that I can review[1] recently enough to do that instead…

So, hey, you nerds, let’s talk about Video Games!

Because that’s obviously been a massive influence on my life, what with… my entire brand, really. Egads, am I a nerd, sitting here with a New 3DS in a charging cradle in front of me, trying to work out how to do better quality streams and deciding to write an essay about Video Games.

It all started with my brother, old Foxface himself. As the family lore goes, my parents once didn’t want video games in the house, what with… the social stigma, I guess? It was different times, alright?

Point is, my brother’s speech teacher was all ‘Hey, you know what may help with speech? Video Games! Get him video games.’

And so my parents did, despite any reasonable connection or evidence in the above argument.[2]

So they bought him the Sega Genesis, the only non-Nintendo console we’ve ever owned. He played Sonic the Hedgehog! Also… no. It was mostly just Sonic.

Obviously young Canvas was also interested in the wonder of interactive media, and the running rodent, so I’d watch him play, and occasionally step in as Tails or try to play it myself. And I was terrible at it.

Eventually, the Nintendo 64 was released and added to our fleet of hardware, and we never looked back! Ha ha!

That’s the console that we really cut our teeth on, with it’s many beloved games, from Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (first Zelda game I was ever aware of), and so on and so forth. We ended up with most of the major releases.[3] Also Mischief Makers for some reason.

It was also the height of Video Rental stores, though I never got to choose games to rent. Vulpin stuck with Space Station Silicon Valley which… might deserve an HD Remake, to be honest. Such a bizarre premise people would eat up, nowadays.

The Game Boy Color arrived, carrying Pokemon and various shovelware, plus a few Zelda Games. Tried my best with them, but for the longest time I never actually completed a video game, or got that far, though I did finish Johto in Gold, which is something.

Gamecube came out, the Dreamcast died, and I began to become aware of the surrounding culture as my capabilities to use the internet matured. We also continued a trend of our person game libraries for the generation growing larger than the last. Lots of GameCube games.

Animal Crossing was a Christmas gift early in the cycle, and it was the first video game all of the kids in the family played, to various extents. Elder Sister was her usual perfectionist self, paid off her house, then pretty much stopped playing video games forever afterwards. Little Sister still plays the occasional game (mostly Paper Mario), but largely it’s just Foxface and I who are deep into the gaming scene.

But, like so many things, tracking each and every experience would be a rather sisyphean task, so I should try and refocus here.

Video Games have always been a presence in my life, and thus had its effects on my creative self, from imaginary friends to the little stories I’d crafted pacing the backyard. They were my chief insight into narratives and various genres, design (whether costume or set or mechanical). Nintendo Power helped educate me on the concept of news and industry, as well as the community that could grow from a hobby.

In fact, Pokemon was the main driving force behind the event I joke is the time I’ve ever made friends myself,[4] being approached while reading a book related to the franchise during second grade. It was nice.

Learning about the internet and GameFAQs hinted towards the wider world and culture, and eventually I came upon 8-Bit Theater, which fired up my love of comics in a big way. Comics and stories made from and about elements of video games? That’s so cool!

Then Nintendo Acres happened.

The diminishing use of quality sprite work in video games makes me sad, by the way. There’s just something about the GBA/DS era graphics that invokes joy in my heart, by now even Pokemon has left sprite work behind for models, and even kitschy independent games tend for the super minimalistic version of 8-bit and… whatever one would refer to Atari graphics. Had I artistic talent, I would slather my media in 16-bit evocative of Friends of Mineral Town or The World Ends with You.

In fact, I think that’s one of my main hurdles getting invested in Stardew Valley[5] and Undertale. They just look ugly, even by the standards of kitschy 8-bit style. Frisk is malformed, and all the Stardew characters are in the wrong perspective for the rest of the world. Sprite work can be so beautiful, and yet no one puts in the effort anymore.

Look, sprites aren’t the only aesthetic I love, just so we’re clear. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, I just prefer bright, cheery worlds. Tale of Symphonia is one of my favorite games, if not my absolute number one.[6] There’s just something very nice about a fantasy world that looks lush and vibrant, where you’d be happy to live just for the scenery. The Tales series and Rune Factory also made me very positive about oddly intricate characters in fantasy. I’ve never liked the dirt covered fantasy of… let’s say Skyrim. Fantasy should be about escapism, grand adventure in grand landscapes, not the crushing reality of medieval times.

More Ghibli, less brown is what I want in general.

I may be an oddball for the elements I look for in video games. I like RPGs (obviously) but there’s very few members of the genre I actually enjoy. I flat-out can’t stand western Video Game RPGs.

What I usually look for in games is both a compelling narrative and interesting mechanics, with allowance for the ‘Classics’ and trendsetters.[7] This is something I find lacking in Western-Style RPGs, with their focus on customizing and granular stat advancement. Sure, I understand someone’s desire to try and put a popular character in an Elder Scrolls, or place some curious limitation on themselves while crawling around Fallout’s wastelands.

But because the game needs to allow the player to make whoever they want, it severely cripples the writer’s ability to write the “main” character into the plot, lest they step on the agency of the player. So, from my perspective, we end up in one of two situations: the PC is a non-entity in the plot, with the narrative happening around and to them instead of with them. Or, we get a Mass Effect situation, where they treat it like Choose Your Own Adventure, and you end up shooting a dude when you thought you were just going to arrest him.[8] That’s why I much prefer being handed a protagonist with a history and personality.

Now, those familiar with my tabletop philosophies, and namely my disdain for randomized Character Gen because it takes away player agency might be tilting their head at this inconsistency.

Well, it’s a scale thing. I realize Video Games have a limitation, and thus it’s unreasonable to expect it to cater to you completely. Tabletop, however, allows endless narrative possibilities, because it’s being created in the moment. So, with Video Games, I’m more willing to just let the story take me along as an observer, like a TV Show.

Which is to say, I don’t really project on the Player Character, and am I happy with that. It’s a division between game and story that may seem odd, but it’s what I look for: every piece having a narrative purpose, especially the loser who’s carrying us on our back.

So, narratively, I prefer the style of JRPGs (also, I like Anime and it’s tropes, so…). Yet, I have never really gotten engrossed in any Final Fantasy Game, because list combat is very dull. I mean, grindy, set the auto-attack against opponent style of Western RPGs[10] aren’t much better, but at least it’s got a hint of visual interest.

What am I left with? For a while, Tales of Symphonia, but now I’ve got Rune Factory, with it’s rather simple combat, but still mostly fun (helped along by other elements), and especially Fire Emblem, which what I wish battlemat D&D combat could be: quick, clever, strategic.

Though I’ve only played the 3DS installments thus far, due to lack of accessibility to the early games, which I couldn’t be bothered to try when they were released. Did try the first GBA game to be ported over, but that ended up having the worst, most micromanaging tutorial I’ve ever seen, and thus I am incapable of completing the first level.

I know how to play video games, Fire Emblem. I am aware of the base concept of pressing A. Yeesh. You’re worse than modern Harvest Moon games!

I’ve also never gotten invested in military FPSs, as a mixture of finding the gameplay boring, difficulty mastering it, and mockery whenever I was roped into playing one with friends.[11] In general, I don’t like being in first person view, as I find it limiting to controls, and responding to things that get behind me is annoying, because I flail trying to find the source of damage, then die.

Though, with time, my avoidance has decreased. Portal has a first person camera, but in a mixture of a more puzzle focused game and excellent integration of tutorial into gameplay,[12] it takes an agitating limited camera and makes it very workable, while also teaching the player how to interact with a game in first person.

I also played a little Team Fortress 2, and now Overwatch. The difference with those two over, say, Modern Duty or whatever, is the tone. The two games are competitive, yes, but also light hearted and goofy. Death is cheap and non punishing, the addition of powers make character choice widely different and fun, and, when I do get a little frustrated, it’s very easy for me to take a breath say ‘It’s only a game’ and let it go. Which is important when playing video games, sometimes.

Because that’s what games should always be: entertainment. It’s why I don’t try and force myself through games I’m not enjoying or lose interest in (though obviously I do try and come back and finish the plot) and why I very rarely strive for 100% completion. Because I want to enjoy myself, not engage in tedious work.

It’s also why I don’t care about ESports. Because I don’t care about sports. People doing something very well doesn’t really appeal to me. High-level chess players aren’t interesting to watch or study, seeing two teams of muscled people charge one another isn’t fun, and fight scenes with the usual punching and kicking is dull.

Because, what I look for in most cases is novelty.

Seeing a master craftsman make a thing once can be interesting, just to see the process. See a master craftsman make the same thing a 100 times is uninteresting, because nothing new is happening. When it comes to sports and games, it’s more interesting to see novices play, because they mess up in interesting ways, spot and solve problems, and you get to sit back and go ‘Now, I would’ve done this.’

So, yeah, not a big fan of Counterstrike and League of Legends news, even besides the toxic communities.

Public perception of video games turned rather quick in my lifetime. It used to be such a niche hobby, enjoyed by nerds and children and so such. Yet… well times change, don’t they? Obviously children grew up and brought games along with them, but the hobby has expanded to become mainstream, a console being as necessary as a television, where those without are viewed as bizarre, despite it not being a physical need.[13] We all remember the children who noted their family doesn’t have a TV (or keep it in the closet), and I wonder if XBoxes have gained the same traction.[14]

If only tabletop games could get the same treatment.

Though I still wouldn’t be able to find a group, but still…

Now that I’m an employed adult, I have even more control over the games I play. Which means a Wii U and a custom built PC.

That I built myself, because I also enjoyed Lego as a child.

Between the two, I tend to have a wide enough net to catch the games that interest me. Sure, there’s still some PlayStation exclusives I’d love to try (Journey, Team ICO’s works, plenty of Tales games…)[15] but some of those games are slowly drifting over to Steam, and I already have a backlog, so I can wait it out.

That’s my stumbled musings about video games… Oh! I stream them! Over here! Watch me! I love to entertain and amuse!

Also maybe consider supporting me through patreon? Then I can put more resources into being amusing!

And share any thoughts you have. I’ll listen. Until then…

Kataal kataal.

[1] Did finish rereading Yotsuba&! but there’s nothing to say about besides “Read it!” [2] Certainly didn’t help me. [3] Though not Harvest Moon 64. One day, I will slay that whale. One day… [4] The rest are inherited after old friends leave. [5] Someone on Reddit commented its port to the Switch may help scratch the itch left by Rune Factory. They are, of course, dreadfully wrong. [6] I still dislike do rankings. [7] IE, I’m not a big fan of hallway-bound FPS games, but have played through the Half-Life series. Mostly for the connection to Portal. [8] I know it was in the ‘Renegade’ position, but I thought it’d be played as ‘I’ll risk losing the Shadow Broker to book this small fish’ sort of thing. I’m not very clever, okay?[9] [9] I actually never progressed much further than that. Perhaps it’ll be on CanvasPlays someday. [10] I don’t care if you have a list of subversions of this style, by the way. I really don’t. [11] I once annoyed a former friend for not knowing there’s an aim button. I didn’t know this, because I don’t play FPSs. [12] There’s a very nice Extra Credits about this somewhere. [13] Though as a cultural need… [14] Nintendo Consoles, of course and unfortunately, being considered the off-brand. [15] the PS3 port of Tides of Destiny. Yes, it’s a disgrace of a Rune Factory game, and it was also on the wii but… well, sometimes I’m an insane collector![16] [16] I don’t even need a PS3. I can get it used for, like, five bucks from GameStop…

[michaelfallcon]

2020 US Barista Champion Andrea Allen: The Sprudge Interview

It happened. It finally happened. Earlier this year—in a year unlike any other—Andrea Allen of Onyx Coffee Lab in Rogers, Arkansas became the 2020 United States Barista Champion.

I have to admit, that is a sentence I’ve wanted to write for some time now, ever since her surprise first appearance in the USBC Finals in 2016 (back when Allen was a steal in your Barista Championship Fantasy League). She quickly became a kind of household name in the coffee competition world, and for good reason.

After her first appearance in the Finals, savvy comp watchers could more or less pencil her name into the Top 6 in the years to come, including multiple second place finishes. But Allen’s battle was as much against time as anything else; openly mulling retirement after a Runner Up finish in 2019, Allen had been considering retirement from the competitive world after each of the past few seasons, 2017 US Brewers Cup Champion and heir apparent to the Onyx Barista Championship spot Dylan Siemens was set to ascend. Allen faced increased pressures on the business side of Onyx, running a rapidly-expanding number of progressive cafes. It felt like maybe she was done.

She was not done. Her work has quietly helped set a series of competition trends over the years: the reemergence of natural processed coffees in competition, a focus on the coffees of La Palma y El Tucan, and the use of freeze-distilled milk, to name just a few.  An Andrea Allen routine was never without a wow moment. Remember when she brought that giant green juicer that looked like a paint shaker? Remember when she washed the judges’ hands? (And remember how everyone said it was a good routine but would never play well at Worlds?)

2020 was no different. Did you see her serve her signature beverages behind a mirrored structure with a hole for a straw in it so that the judges couldn’t see the drink, just themselves? Like, what? This has got to be good enough for second place… at least… right?

But 2020 is different. Andrea Allen won. She is the 2020 United States Barista Champion.

After four years of watching her routines and waiting for this moment, Sprudge sat down via digital communique to speak with Allen about her winning routine. It was well worth the wait, but also took place in the middle of a fast-changing world grappling with a pandemic. We talk about a lot of things in this interview, not all of them related to COVID-19, which is discussed up front before we dive into much more. Congratulations to Andrea Allen from everyone at Sprudge!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

First things first Andrea, how are you holding up with COVID-19 stuff at Onyx? 

Andrea Allen: Coffee competition seems like a distant, niche, almost unreal thing. I’m currently working to install walk-up windows at our cafes, build curbside ordering apps and platforms, navigate the quickly changing terrain of service in pandemic times. All said I’m hustling hard to save our company and hold on to as many of our jobs and people as I can. My heart goes out to all in the community that have found themselves without work in a downturned economy where the service industry is currently obsolete. My only thought for everyone is one from my most recent presentation: kindness produces purpose. We can’t be in control of our situations right now, but we can be in control of how we react and how we treat others. Reach out to those around you, build new community, share what you have. We will make it through to the other side.

Well—congratulations all the same on your big win earlier this year. It’s important that we move on and talk about that work, to honor your achievement as the 2020 US Barista Champion. Can you give a quick introduction to the readers who somehow don’t know who you are?

Oh yeah… Andrea Allen, co-owner of Onyx Coffee Lab, proud parent to two daughters. I’ve been working in the industry since 2002. I’ve competed the last six years. I don’t know what else to say about myself. You can write a bio for me if you want :)

I’d add US Barista Champion to that list now. Has it set in yet that you won?

I mean yes and no. It’s been a really crazy whirlwind. I went from that weekend straight into hardcore preparation for WBC, which has now been halted for the coronavirus, so, it’s insane. All that aside though I’m just so excited that we were finally able to pull it off. The US circuit’s competitiveness has been increasing exponentially for quite some time, so to be able to put together everything successfully has been crazy and awesome. It’s like you need the coffee, the theme, the technical skillset, and then luck all in your favor.

You’ve been in the USBC Finals four times previous, three of those you made it to one of the last two. How did it feel when Kay Cheon’s name was called as the runner-up, knowing you’d finally did it?

I kinda blacked out for a second honestly. I was both so excited and humbled in that moment. This was the most competitive finals I’ve been apart of, so for it to turn out the way it did is amazing.

You’ve had some memorable moments in competitions past, all of which have performed extremely well. What’s your process for putting together such high-level routines?

Well thank you. The process is pretty involved. We (Jon [Allen, Andrea’s husband and Onyx co-founder] and I, we do everything together) start by kinda figuring out what questions we want to ask the industry and the areas we see that need change. There’s obviously plenty of places to work on if I’m being honest. We then start looking for coffees and signature drink concepts that fit with that narrative. We really try to think of things that haven’t been done in competition in terms of signature drink flavors, concepts, preparation, style of presentation, and coffees. From there, there’s the process of trying to figure out what’s actually possible in a 15 minute routine. There are a lot of things that we’ve cut from my routines over the years because they just simply wouldn’t fit logistically. I write and rewrite a script and memorize it word for word, and then I practice for months. For any competitor it takes a lot of work, discipline, and time to execute something like what you see on the USBC stage.

Is there anything in this year’s routine that you think helped put you over the top?

We spent a lot of time this year working on flavor descriptors and working to qualify them, if that makes sense. One of the difficult things is having a common language for the way we discuss flavor. For example, this year I called orange as a taste note for espresso. An orange can seriously taste so completely different depending on variety, size, terroir, ripeness, etc. So we qualified it by variety and then described the way we felt that orange was being experienced—as a color, a tactile feel, and as an aroma. That seemed really to work.

I really think it was a magical year where my coffees and drinks were totally on point as well as my presentation. All of those things combined to put everything over the top.

Tell us a little more about layering the two coffees in the portafilter. How did that idea come about? How is it different from a homogenized blend?

Yeah so competition coffees tend to be really interesting—usually containing tons of fun flavor, acidity, etc—but also they tend to be polarizing or they pull inconsistently. This year I was interested in Eugenioides but was also aware that it’s so different that it was possible it wouldn’t be received super well scoring-wise. Then of course I’m always wanting to use Cafe Granja la Esperanza coffees, so we started playing around with blending them together. The coffees are so different in size and density that the espresso tasted completely different every time. So the idea started floating around to just officially separate them, and that created some of the most amazing espresso I’ve ever made, and it was super, super consistent from shot to shot, which was something I haven’t achieved in the past.

You’ve been ahead of the curve on a lot of trends at USBC, and Onyx now has four national titles and too many Finalist appearances to count. Do you feel like y’all have cracked the competition code in some way?

We got into competition originally because we were buying great coffees and had a talented team, but we couldn’t get anyone in the wholesale industry to even try our coffees because we were unknown in Arkansas. We still buy great coffees, we publish all of our transparency information, we work really hard to be excellent. We pay for all of our coffees upfront, meaning we don’t finance coffee. All of this I think is evident in the way we’ve performed in competition. We feel like we’ve had some influence on buying practices by presenting these things at the national level, and we’re proud to push ourselves and our industry beyond what is thought possible.

Are you planning on changing any of your routine for WBC? Has the postponement brought about by COVID-19 affected what you planned on presenting?

The World competition is like taking a kid to a candy shop. Something as simple as changing the table layout has opened up tons of potential service concepts. And at Worlds you can use multiple grinders, which I’ll most likely be incorporating as well.

We had originally planned to keep some of the presentation and elements from the US competition, but as things have changed drastically across the globe in the last few weeks I think I’ll probably be starting my presentation completely from scratch. My presentations tend to be pretty socially and economically weighted, and as we’ve seen much of the coffee service industry forced to its knees by the beginnings of economic fallout from COVID-19, my guess is that I’ll be discussing that. I’m currently hustling hardcore to keep our business in tact, so the thought of preparing for WBC seems like a distant memory and a far off event, if that makes any sense.

My coffees will be different as well. I had used all of the coffee I had for US, so we were working to source up new lots from those same farms as well as casting a wide net to cup other stuff as well. Now that it’s pushed to November it’ll be a completely different harvest, etc, so at this point I don’t really know what I will use.

Will Melbourne—if and when it happens—be the last we see of Andrea Allen, Barista Championship competitor?

Probably. I have loved competition and all that I have learned through it, but I also recognize that the US competition only grows fiercer by the year. My goal for quite some time has been to win and now that that’s happened it feels really straightforward to be finished.

What’s next for you? Will you be transitioning into more of a coach/advisory role for other Onyx competitors or do you plan on taking a step back from competition altogether to focus more on the business/being a parent/having a life outside of coffee competition?

You know that’s definitely something I’m considering. I’m hoping to explore coaching, judging, and volunteering. Competition has a really special place in my heart and I want to continue to give of myself to that community wherever it’s needed. There are also some folks here at Onyx that are incredibly talented and are looking to step into the Barista competition now that I’m going to finally bow out.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank?

I firstly want to think Jon for helping create these presentations over the years. I’m the one that gets to stand up there and do the things, but he works as hard as I do. He watches tons of run-throughs (many are terrible), tastes coffees and sig drinks as we’re experimenting (many are terrible), and carries the load at home and at work while I focus on competition. Beyond him my family and my team at Onyx have been beyond supportive of me.

Thanks Andrea!

Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Photos by Charlie Burt for Sprudge

2020 US Barista Champion Andrea Allen: The Sprudge Interview published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

[shebreathesslowly]

2020 US Barista Champion Andrea Allen: The Sprudge Interview

It happened. It finally happened. Earlier this year—in a year unlike any other—Andrea Allen of Onyx Coffee Lab in Rogers, Arkansas became the 2020 United States Barista Champion.

I have to admit, that is a sentence I’ve wanted to write for some time now, ever since her surprise first appearance in the USBC Finals in 2016 (back when Allen was a steal in your Barista Championship Fantasy League). She quickly became a kind of household name in the coffee competition world, and for good reason.

After her first appearance in the Finals, savvy comp watchers could more or less pencil her name into the Top 6 in the years to come, including multiple second place finishes. But Allen’s battle was as much against time as anything else; openly mulling retirement after a Runner Up finish in 2019, Allen had been considering retirement from the competitive world after each of the past few seasons, 2017 US Brewers Cup Champion and heir apparent to the Onyx Barista Championship spot Dylan Siemens was set to ascend. Allen faced increased pressures on the business side of Onyx, running a rapidly-expanding number of progressive cafes. It felt like maybe she was done.

She was not done. Her work has quietly helped set a series of competition trends over the years: the reemergence of natural processed coffees in competition, a focus on the coffees of La Palma y El Tucan, and the use of freeze-distilled milk, to name just a few.  An Andrea Allen routine was never without a wow moment. Remember when she brought that giant green juicer that looked like a paint shaker? Remember when she washed the judges’ hands? (And remember how everyone said it was a good routine but would never play well at Worlds?)

2020 was no different. Did you see her serve her signature beverages behind a mirrored structure with a hole for a straw in it so that the judges couldn’t see the drink, just themselves? Like, what? This has got to be good enough for second place… at least… right?

But 2020 is different. Andrea Allen won. She is the 2020 United States Barista Champion.

After four years of watching her routines and waiting for this moment, Sprudge sat down via digital communique to speak with Allen about her winning routine. It was well worth the wait, but also took place in the middle of a fast-changing world grappling with a pandemic. We talk about a lot of things in this interview, not all of them related to COVID-19, which is discussed up front before we dive into much more. Congratulations to Andrea Allen from everyone at Sprudge!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

First things first Andrea, how are you holding up with COVID-19 stuff at Onyx? 

Andrea Allen: Coffee competition seems like a distant, niche, almost unreal thing. I’m currently working to install walk-up windows at our cafes, build curbside ordering apps and platforms, navigate the quickly changing terrain of service in pandemic times. All said I’m hustling hard to save our company and hold on to as many of our jobs and people as I can. My heart goes out to all in the community that have found themselves without work in a downturned economy where the service industry is currently obsolete. My only thought for everyone is one from my most recent presentation: kindness produces purpose. We can’t be in control of our situations right now, but we can be in control of how we react and how we treat others. Reach out to those around you, build new community, share what you have. We will make it through to the other side.

Well—congratulations all the same on your big win earlier this year. It’s important that we move on and talk about that work, to honor your achievement as the 2020 US Barista Champion. Can you give a quick introduction to the readers who somehow don’t know who you are?

Oh yeah… Andrea Allen, co-owner of Onyx Coffee Lab, proud parent to two daughters. I’ve been working in the industry since 2002. I’ve competed the last six years. I don’t know what else to say about myself. You can write a bio for me if you want :)

I’d add US Barista Champion to that list now. Has it set in yet that you won?

I mean yes and no. It’s been a really crazy whirlwind. I went from that weekend straight into hardcore preparation for WBC, which has now been halted for the coronavirus, so, it’s insane. All that aside though I’m just so excited that we were finally able to pull it off. The US circuit’s competitiveness has been increasing exponentially for quite some time, so to be able to put together everything successfully has been crazy and awesome. It’s like you need the coffee, the theme, the technical skillset, and then luck all in your favor.

You’ve been in the USBC Finals four times previous, three of those you made it to one of the last two. How did it feel when Kay Cheon’s name was called as the runner-up, knowing you’d finally did it?

I kinda blacked out for a second honestly. I was both so excited and humbled in that moment. This was the most competitive finals I’ve been apart of, so for it to turn out the way it did is amazing.

You’ve had some memorable moments in competitions past, all of which have performed extremely well. What’s your process for putting together such high-level routines?

Well thank you. The process is pretty involved. We (Jon [Allen, Andrea’s husband and Onyx co-founder] and I, we do everything together) start by kinda figuring out what questions we want to ask the industry and the areas we see that need change. There’s obviously plenty of places to work on if I’m being honest. We then start looking for coffees and signature drink concepts that fit with that narrative. We really try to think of things that haven’t been done in competition in terms of signature drink flavors, concepts, preparation, style of presentation, and coffees. From there, there’s the process of trying to figure out what’s actually possible in a 15 minute routine. There are a lot of things that we’ve cut from my routines over the years because they just simply wouldn’t fit logistically. I write and rewrite a script and memorize it word for word, and then I practice for months. For any competitor it takes a lot of work, discipline, and time to execute something like what you see on the USBC stage.

Is there anything in this year’s routine that you think helped put you over the top?

We spent a lot of time this year working on flavor descriptors and working to qualify them, if that makes sense. One of the difficult things is having a common language for the way we discuss flavor. For example, this year I called orange as a taste note for espresso. An orange can seriously taste so completely different depending on variety, size, terroir, ripeness, etc. So we qualified it by variety and then described the way we felt that orange was being experienced—as a color, a tactile feel, and as an aroma. That seemed really to work.

I really think it was a magical year where my coffees and drinks were totally on point as well as my presentation. All of those things combined to put everything over the top.

Tell us a little more about layering the two coffees in the portafilter. How did that idea come about? How is it different from a homogenized blend?

Yeah so competition coffees tend to be really interesting—usually containing tons of fun flavor, acidity, etc—but also they tend to be polarizing or they pull inconsistently. This year I was interested in Eugenioides but was also aware that it’s so different that it was possible it wouldn’t be received super well scoring-wise. Then of course I’m always wanting to use Cafe Granja la Esperanza coffees, so we started playing around with blending them together. The coffees are so different in size and density that the espresso tasted completely different every time. So the idea started floating around to just officially separate them, and that created some of the most amazing espresso I’ve ever made, and it was super, super consistent from shot to shot, which was something I haven’t achieved in the past.

You’ve been ahead of the curve on a lot of trends at USBC, and Onyx now has four national titles and too many Finalist appearances to count. Do you feel like y’all have cracked the competition code in some way?

We got into competition originally because we were buying great coffees and had a talented team, but we couldn’t get anyone in the wholesale industry to even try our coffees because we were unknown in Arkansas. We still buy great coffees, we publish all of our transparency information, we work really hard to be excellent. We pay for all of our coffees upfront, meaning we don’t finance coffee. All of this I think is evident in the way we’ve performed in competition. We feel like we’ve had some influence on buying practices by presenting these things at the national level, and we’re proud to push ourselves and our industry beyond what is thought possible.

Are you planning on changing any of your routine for WBC? Has the postponement brought about by COVID-19 affected what you planned on presenting?

The World competition is like taking a kid to a candy shop. Something as simple as changing the table layout has opened up tons of potential service concepts. And at Worlds you can use multiple grinders, which I’ll most likely be incorporating as well.

We had originally planned to keep some of the presentation and elements from the US competition, but as things have changed drastically across the globe in the last few weeks I think I’ll probably be starting my presentation completely from scratch. My presentations tend to be pretty socially and economically weighted, and as we’ve seen much of the coffee service industry forced to its knees by the beginnings of economic fallout from COVID-19, my guess is that I’ll be discussing that. I’m currently hustling hardcore to keep our business in tact, so the thought of preparing for WBC seems like a distant memory and a far off event, if that makes any sense.

My coffees will be different as well. I had used all of the coffee I had for US, so we were working to source up new lots from those same farms as well as casting a wide net to cup other stuff as well. Now that it’s pushed to November it’ll be a completely different harvest, etc, so at this point I don’t really know what I will use.

Will Melbourne—if and when it happens—be the last we see of Andrea Allen, Barista Championship competitor?

Probably. I have loved competition and all that I have learned through it, but I also recognize that the US competition only grows fiercer by the year. My goal for quite some time has been to win and now that that’s happened it feels really straightforward to be finished.

What’s next for you? Will you be transitioning into more of a coach/advisory role for other Onyx competitors or do you plan on taking a step back from competition altogether to focus more on the business/being a parent/having a life outside of coffee competition?

You know that’s definitely something I’m considering. I’m hoping to explore coaching, judging, and volunteering. Competition has a really special place in my heart and I want to continue to give of myself to that community wherever it’s needed. There are also some folks here at Onyx that are incredibly talented and are looking to step into the Barista competition now that I’m going to finally bow out.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank?

I firstly want to think Jon for helping create these presentations over the years. I’m the one that gets to stand up there and do the things, but he works as hard as I do. He watches tons of run-throughs (many are terrible), tastes coffees and sig drinks as we’re experimenting (many are terrible), and carries the load at home and at work while I focus on competition. Beyond him my family and my team at Onyx have been beyond supportive of me.

Thanks Andrea!

Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Photos by Charlie Burt for Sprudge

from Sprudge https://ift.tt/2YiJjWh

[nebris]

Stefan Zweig, Wes Anderson, and a Longing for the Past

What’s Hungarian about the Grand Budapest Hotel, the most glamorous vacation spot in Wes Anderson’s fictional Republic of Zubrowka? At first, I suspected that the resort was a wink at another cinematic Budapest, one from classic-age Hollywood: the insulated haven of nostalgic charm perched on the edge of war that’s depicted in Ernst Lubitsch’s “The Shop Around the Corner.” Lubitsch made the film in November and December, 1939, just as war broke out in Europe, but its subject wasn’t war, it was manners. The film presented an exquisite microcosm of aesthetic refinement and tactful reserve shadowed by monstrous forces.

But another hint about Anderson’s hotel comes from a book that Anderson has cited as the spark for the film, Stefan Zweig’s memoir “The World of Yesterday,” an autobiography that he wrote in exile in the early forties, soon before his suicide. During the First World War, the Viennese writer Zweig (1881-1942)—a vehement anti-nationalist and pacifist opponent of the war—occupied a post with the War Archives, and he accepted a mission to collect proclamations issued near the front. On the way back, he travelled by hospital train. In his book, after describing horrific visions of the wounded and the dying, he wrote:

The hospital train in which I was returning arrived in Budapest in the early morning hours. I drove at once to a hotel to get some sleep; my only seat in the train had been my bag. Tired as I was, I slept until about eleven and then quickly got up to get my breakfast. I had gone only a few paces when I had to rub my eyes to make sure that I was not dreaming…. Budapest was as beautiful and carefree as ever before. Women in white dresses walked arm in arm with officers who suddenly appeared to me to be officers of quite a different army than that I had seen only yesterday and the day before yesterday…. I saw how they bought bunches of violets and gallantly tendered them to their ladies, saw spotless automobiles with smoothly shaved and spotlessly dressed gentlemen ride through the streets. And all this but eight or nine hours away from the front by express train. But by what right could one judge these people? Was it not the most natural thing that, living, they sought to enjoy their lives?—that because of the very feeling that everything was being threatened, that they had gathered together all that was to be gathered, the few fine clothes, the last good hours!

Then Zweig got hold of a newspaper from Vienna which was filled with martial hectoring and patriotic bombast:

Here it jumped out at me, naked, towering and unashamed, the lie of the war! No, it was not the promenaders, the careless, the carefree, who were to blame, but those alone who drove the war on with their words. But we too were guilty if we did not do our part against them.

Zweig’s part against the militarists involved writing the anti-war drama “Jeremiah,” which was produced in 1917. He also travelled to Switzerland, where he worked, publicly and privately, with French pacifist authors, such as Romain Rolland and Pierre Jean Jouve. But his vision of the graceful world that the war would destroy was inspired by his stay at a grand Budapest hotel.

Zweig was one of the most acclaimed writers of his time. (Leo Carey recently offered an overview of Zweig’s career in a Critic at Large piece in the magazine.) “The World of Yesterday,” written when he was in flight from the Nazi regime, evokes in sharp and nostalgic detail the artistic and political scene in fin-de-siècle Vienna, the collapse of civic society that followed the First World War, the rise of Hitler, and Zweig’s experience of exile. One of the protagonists of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is an exile, too: Zero Moustafa (played, as a young man, by Tony Revolori and, later in life, by F. Murray Abraham), a lobby boy whose destiny proves inextricable from that of the hotel itself. When young Zero’s flimsy travel documents are challenged by Nazi surrogates on a train, his friend and mentor, the concierge Gustave H., acts courageously in Zero’s defense. Zweig, too, addressed of the practical difficulties and psychological trauma resulting from the loss of his passport (which, before the First World War, wasn’t even a commonplace document), which, he wrote, turned him into one of “the outlaws, of the men without a country.”

There’s a terrific book forthcoming on the subject: George Prochnik’s “The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World,” which I’ve had the pleasure of reading in galleys. (Prochnik is married to the staff writer Rebecca Mead, and they co-authored a Shouts & Murmurs in the magazine.) Prochnik focusses on Zweig’s later years, discussing in detail his wanderings in the nineteen-thirties and forties—to Great Britain, the United States, and his last stop, Brazil. Zweig lived in New York for a while, and Prochnik movingly documents the toll that the author’s peculiar prominence among the Jewish émigré community took on him, especially at a time when millions of Jews who remained in Europe were dying.

It’s strange that, during his time in the United States, Zweig didn’t make his way toward the one place where, perhaps to his discomfort, he’d have been a natural: namely, Hollywood. His fiction has been an inspiration for dozens of movies, and, in “The World of Yesterday,” Zweig details the odd (and unintended) political fallout from Robert Siodmak’s 1933 adaptation of his book “The Burning Secret.” His novel “Fear” was filmed in 1928, again in 1936, and, in a great adaptation by Roberto Rosselini, starring Ingrid Bergman, in 1954. One of the most romantic and superbly styled Hollywood movies, Max Ophüls’s “Letter from an Unknown Woman,” from 1948, is based on a book by Zweig.

The Hollywood connection comes up in a surprising way in what is perhaps the most hostile critique that Zweig (or maybe anyone) ever received, from Hannah Arendt, who reviewed “The World of Yesterday” in 1943 (the essay has been collected in “The Jewish Writings”). She blames Zweig for his conduct after Hitler’s rise to power—“He continued to boast of his unpolitical point of view”—and charges that his greatest pursuit and most painful loss was merely of his “fame.” She argues that the false security felt by Jews in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire resulted from their lack of “concern for the political realities of their times.”

Above all, Arendt looked derisively at the Viennese artistic world that Zweig recalled longingly. This, too, she considered corrupted by the cult of fame—in particular, as it attached to the stage:

In no other European city did the theater ever acquire the same significance that it had in Vienna during the period of political dissolution…. Since the world had undeniably acquired a theatrical air, the theater could appear as the world of reality…. The Viennese went to the theater exclusively for the actors; playwrights wrote for this or that performer; critics discussed only the actor or his parts; directors accepted or rejected plays purely on the basis of effective roles for their matinee idols. The star system, as the cinema later perfected it, was completely forecast in Vienna. What was in the making there was not a classical renaissance but Hollywood.

Feh, Hollywood! Arendt writes the word as if it were patently unclean, a modern corruption, whereas, in fact, Hollywood is exactly what she says it’s not: the keystone of a new classicism. In any case, the charge that Vienna was a forerunner of Hollywood may be the nicest thing that anyone ever said about the city. Max Reinhardt, who was Viennese, was no sycophant to the star system. Though he made Berlin his base, he had an outpost in Vienna, where Otto Preminger was one of his key disciples. Max Ophüls, though German, was a leading theatre director in Vienna in the nineteen-twenties, before turning to movies. Erich von Stroheim lived in Vienna until the age of twenty-four, and he infused his movies with the showy and cruel mannerism of its military and court life—precisely the aspects of Viennese society that were by and large, as Zweig writes, off-limits to Jews.

The star system of Hollywood, which Arendt found so tawdry, reflects two major trends in modern art—the first, the comic genius of such performers as Max Linder, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton, who used the cinema to triumph over the hidebound conventions of the music hall by becoming directors (that’s the story behind the story of Chaplin’s late feature “Limelight”). The second is the invention of the closeup, which, in the hands of D. W. Griffith, got past the actor’s performance to reveal the being, and seemingly the soul.

It’s easy to understand why Hollywood must have appeared, at the time of Arendt’s writing, oppressive. First, the industry’s self-censorship on such matters as sex, race, and politics, made its ostensibly comprehensive view of American life seem narrow and false. Second, the unavoidability of movie ballyhoo would have made the movies themselves seem like mere publicity for Hollywood. Third, Hollywood was indisputably populist in tone, not merely commercial in its origins but expressly pitched away from the world of high art. Fourth, history offers works that have survived the triage of time, whereas the present day thrusts the viewer into a sea of mediocrity.

It’s the sifting that makes for the greatest obstacle: the aesthetic criteria to distinguish the greatness of some Hollywood movies had yet to be formulated. Such filmmakers as Howard Hawks, John Ford, Busby Berkeley, Allan Dwan, Fritz Lang, Josef von Sternberg, and, of course, Ernst Lubitsch were working there at the time, but critics were by and large still stuck in theatrical and novelistic standards and had trouble recognizing the art that passed as commerce. Arendt, in her repudiation of Hollywood, reflected the prejudices of the world of yesterday.

In addition to being the source of a new classicism, studio-era Hollywood was perhaps the greatest machine for sudden and drastic stylistic innovation ever offered to humanity. With its stars and its fashions, its lighting and its framing and its editing, Hollywood offered a psychic choreography, an aestheticization of the inner life that gave movies a profound unconscious resonance akin to that of music, and that sense that style is profound is a key part of Wes Anderson’s aesthetic, and it’s an aspect of moviemaking that links him to such predecessors as Lubitsch and Ophüls. (In a new interview in Cahiers du Cinéma, he says, “For me, music remains the best metaphor for my films.”)

P.S. In anticipation of the release of Prochnik’s book, it’s worth reading a wide-ranging discussion between Prochnik and Anderson about Zweig that appeared in the Telegraph last week. (Anderson cites Zweig’s reference to the peculiar institution of the passport, and Prochnik takes note of its role in the film.) It turns out that the piece “is an edited extract from a longer version of the conversation that appears in ‘The Society of the Crossed Keys,’ a new selection of Zweig’s writings” that, of course, derives its title from a crucial scene in the film. (As far as I know, it’s coming out only in the U.K.)

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/stefan-zweig-wes-anderson-and-a-longing-for-the-past