diff --git a/content/week-notes/037.md b/content/week-notes/037.md index ed27caa..14456f5 100644 --- a/content/week-notes/037.md +++ b/content/week-notes/037.md @@ -16,9 +16,16 @@ I've started reading a few pages of *Villette* every morning while I eat breakfa For my college class next week, we're covering *Little Brother* by Cory Doctorow. I first read the book nine years ago when I took the course as a student and remember liking it, but I didn't recall it in specific detail, so I decided to try listening to the audiobook while playing *Pokemon*. This was the first audiobook I'd listened to start to finish and I am proud to say that I have been right all these years: audiobooks are not for me. I zone out and miss things, and I don't get to do my silly little annotations. It was a quick way to blow through the book, and I definitely grasped the main swath of the plot, but reading is more than that for me.[^2] The book is probably even more relevant today than it was when it was first written in terms of the surveillance that happens through technology, the need for open online spaces, and the threat of fascism taking hold in America. I did find it cloying (though a necessity) that a solid chunk of the book was dedicated to explaining things like key pairs and Tor browsers. Doctorow does a good job of explaining these things in comprehensible terms for the average person, and of course the average reader would be lost without these explanations — I acknowledge I'm in the minority of readers of young adult fiction in understanding the basics of these things — but it did get exhausting. I'm curious to see how my Gen Z students will react to the book.[^3] ## Watching -Joe and I watched *Cunk on Earth* after I saw some silly screenshots of it on tumblr. +Joe and I watched *Cunk on Earth* after I saw some silly screenshots of it on tumblr. It was great! We also rewatched the back half of *Fellowship of the Ring* that we slept through a few weeks ago. ## Playing +I've continued on with *Legends ZA*, but I'm still not super keen on it. I accepted that the game's main conceit was moving through the ZA Royale as compared to the Pokedex grind in *Arceus*, but then the game unceremoniously jumps you from Rank W (I think) to F in one swoop. + +It feels like the game just can't commit to doing one thing well. There's some lightly pakour-style traversal, but it's bad; there's the Wild Areas, but the catching mechanics don't feel as fluid and satisfying as *Arceus*; the Rogue Mega Evolution battles are a fight with the controls and the camera; and the ZA Royale had novelty but is half-baked and shallow. The game wants you to use stealth, but you have few tools in your arsenal (gone are the berries and other distractions from *Arceus*) and the city isn't built with effective cover. + +I also find most of the characters insufferable. Your core group in the game fits the typical Pokemon tropes: there's the airhead, the happy-go-lucky rival, and the mope. The script of the game reaches for modern slang but feels dated, and I just played through a bizarre sequence where a streamer's hologram held an in-person fan quiz convention and asked parasocial questions to obsessive fans. + +It stinks to be so down on the game; when I saw positive reviews after release, I was happy that *Pokemon* seemed to be doing something right, but maybe I've outgrown modern Pokemon — or maybe it's just not for me anymore. I've considered going back to *Arceus* to wrap up the story, finish the Pokedex, and just feel what I loved so much about it again. *Pokemon Lazarus* Is out now too, so I'm thinking about giving that a shot. ## Listening I listened to Rainbow Kitten Surprise's newest album, *bones*. It's good but not great. For reference, I think *RKS* is basically a perfect album (except for "Run," which sucks); I really like *Seven + Mary* and *How to: Friend, Love, Freefall*; and while I think *Love Hate Music Box* needed an editor, I appreciate how it tries to move their sound in a new direction.[^1] *bones* feels like an attempt to rollback the pop-oriented *Love Hate Music Box* and return to the refined rock of *How to* and *RKS*, but it's missing the sparkle those two had. Instead, it feels like a band that's simply comfortable in a sound. That's not a bad thing, but it lacks the magic and sparkle of its two heaviest influences. "Hell Nah," "bones," and "Tropics" were the highlights for me, but none of them are even close to *RKS* and *How to* for me. They're songs I don't mind to have in the background, whereas I consciously return to songs like "Cold Love," "All's Well That Ends," and "Moody Orange" constantly.