Realizing how Weird has been Diluted in this Era; A Rant and a Brainstorming Exercise

 So when I set the idea on the weekend that I could expand my creative writing exercises by picking a new theme, I picked the idea of "weird" because it felt like a suitably evocative and also potentially broad word to interpret. What I have discovered....or felt, anyway....is that "weird" is harder to pin down these days than I was thinking it would be.

Part of the problem with this is the ubiquity of the internet. I will pick six examples of things I consider suitably weird for topical discussion, but in doing so realize that, thanks to the insane level of saturation on the internet, none of these really "feel" weird anymore. Everyone knows them, or you're just one rabbit hole deep dive away from a far more in depth analysis on these than I can manage, or, heck, there's probably a Youtube Iceberg video somewhere on one or more of these. Anyway, the list:

1. David Lynch's films, or just pick the weirdest: choose either Eraserhead or Inland Empire. Now find something to say about these that hasn't already been said and analyzed to death online.

2. Weird fiction and its associated authors in almost any form; the trick is finding an author no one has written or vlogged to death about already. Jeff Vandemeer? Ashton Smith? William Hope Hodgson? There's probably a thousand Booktube and Booktok vlogs out there on every single one of them.

3. Weird gaming! I actually thought that a review of Monte Cook's book The Weird might be a good idea, and maybe I will do that. But thanks to the mainstream acceptance of the indie 'zine scene, stuff once considered weird and interesting is now just....the stuff everyone plays when you're looking for a break from D&D.

4. Weird movies! I can probably manage reviews of movies that fit this bill, but so many movies out there are weird (no matter their genre) that it is almost more interesting to find movies that are, for lack of a better description, mundane.....

5. Weird concepts! I thought about this as an angle....come up with a dozen weird RPG ideas, for example, or a dozen weird plots, or a dozen weird monsters. But I have a secret problem: my capacity for thinking about and appreciating RPGs, my lifelong hobby, is at an all time low right now. My creative investment desires a release that does not involve statblocks or Pathfinder, 5E or Mork Borg mechanics. I'm....I hate to admit it....I'm tired of the tabletop RPG scene right now. So very tired.

6. Weird video games! I thought about this and realized that these days finding genuinely weird games to talk about that haven't already been done to death (Suda51 titles, Deadly Premonition, literally anything Grimbeard reviews--and he reviews some really obscure stuff, far better than I ever could in a few paragraphs). The most I could say about the genre of weird video games is that a lot of them are weird because it is actually easier to justify a weird premise in many video games, but when you analyze them they are almost invariably a medley of asset swaps and recycled gameplay and concept spaces used by amateur designers over, and over, and over....real gems like Little Nightmares are stand-outs and exceptions.

So yeah....today's Weird Post is about how hard it is to find untrod territory in the world of weird posts. So the question is......what could I find that would find unexplored territory? Where could I look to seek inspiration for the weird? Time to brainstorm...

How about weird things in archaeology? Not weird stupid archaeology (read: fictitious archaeology) but rather real aspects of archaeology that make for interesting and weird pieces of information? Such as the odd timing/dating problems of Pompeii, or the oddities of Catal Hoyuk? That's a possibility....I mean, all of this has been written on in the internet elsewhere, but maybe not so visible unless you (like me) are subscribing to the right sites.

Or...maybe I could massage my brain and dig up some of the weirder corners of philosophy. It would have to be meaningful philosophy, though....which may sound like a contradiction, but what I mean is none of the obvious "pop" philosophy being ground up in the continuous social media scene. So: no holographic universe, maybe talk about something Descartes wrote that does not relate to the cartesian demon, or maybe something unrelated to Plato's allegory of the cave. What would that be? I'd have to polish off my old brain and put some time into thinking about it. 

In the world of books there are, in fact, some truly obscure corners of the writing community. Splatterpunk fiction continues to prosper though you have to know where to find it. Surreal and weird fiction prospers in its tiny little niche, but once again....you need to know where to look. I think a great example of this is Jon Bassoff, who writes some truly weird surreal fiction and I bet you've never heard of him. So....yeah, hey! Maybe this random brainstorming session has paid off, and I think, hey, I may have come up with a few good ideas here now. 

Okay, stay tuned!

Brainstorming Things to Blog About

My expression of Burnout is not as bad as the clinical diagnosis, nor is it specifically about gaming in general...I know that behind this I am experiencing a lot of problems with work, and the slow but methodical fashion in which my professional career is unhinging in slow motion. A side effect of this, I think, is that the sense that I am just going through the motions with some of my hobbies, and not experiencing real satisfaction or stress relief from them is a byproduct of bigger issues I'm dealing with.

That said, in thinking about stuff I could use to maintain creative focus while also getting out of the rut I feel I am in creatively, I came up with a few interesting ideas. Starting this week and next I hope to expand on some of them.

Blogs are a weird thing. They're fairly personal (or can be), enough so that it's easy to write for yourself and if you develop a following it can be entirely incidental to the personal intent of the author. There's a whole different sort of blog, the one designed for promotion of the author or the author's ideas, goals or focus. Then, of course, there's the professional blog...where the author is perhaps one of many voices and the blog itself is a medium for the expansion or focus on another entity entirely.

I've treated this blog as I intended when I started it out early last year: as a means of motivating myself to write and stay focused on writing. As such I have written what whimsy prompted me to do, rather than perhaps what was best to generate hits. I've also kept this blog away from advertisements and generally (for the most part) ignored metrics. So what this means is, if I feel like writing weird stuff for it, I feel no compulsion to do otherwise. 

Anyway, the ideas I have are as follows:

1. I'm going to do "thirty one days of horror" starting October 1st, and carrying through until the end of the month. The goal is to focus on one horror film, book or game each day as a tribute to my appreciation for the genre and also because...you know...Halloween.

2. I think I need a D&D break, for a bit. I've actually been on burnout mode for a long time, but this weekend was one more reminder of it. The reasons are complex, ranging from the fact that I've been engaging in RPGs as a hobby for too long, I feel like I'm in a creative rut, that "special something" I used to feel for D&D in particular has been absent for a while now, and my sense of community with the hobby has been badly eroded by the internet.

A break from D&D does not mean a break from gaming entirely, though. I am not sure how I'd fill my time without gaming. I have other RPGs I'd really like to devote the time to exploring. Chief on the list are The Mutant Epoch and Conspiracy X, followed by my old favorite, Call of Cthulhu. I'd love to get into some other RPGs again as well, more interesting and unconventional genres that could be supported by BRP, Savage Worlds or GURPS. I need to try this, for my own sake of enjoyment.

3. I haven't posted much this year on my other hobbies and interests, namely archaeology and astronomy. I really feel like I should focus more on this. I hardly ever read fiction anymore; all of my interests as a reader center around non-fiction and science. I have also developed a keen fascination for cold war history, would like to talk more about stuff like this. It takes a bit more effort than the typical ramblings of a blog, but I feel it would be worth it.

So if you see a wider range of interest percolating through the blog soon, this is why! D&D probably isn't going away as a topic for me....I do enjoy it....I just feel I need to diversify my focus a bit, to keep from eroding my interest in the game. We'll see how it goes.