🍂 July

July was a busy month for me, and there are three publications below to show for it. There is something over 5,000 words of crit in these pieces, and more always in the works. My next letter should have a pretty big update too, which you’ll soon see on Twitter. Until then, thanks as always for reading.

I return to Polygon to write about Chicory’s boss fights and its ludic representation of a panic attack. This one’s pretty straightforward.

I properly reviewed the whole of Chicory at Unwinnable. Unwinnable doesn’t usually do reviews, which gave me a lot of freedom to approach this. Basically, I’ve read a lot of literary criticism this year and I wanted to try to do what a good book review does but for a game. I want to see more reviews take this form, and any future reviews I do will definitely lean towards that style. My next piece (written weeks after this one) certainly took some ques.

Bullet Points asked me to write about apocalypses for their July issue. In this essay that is ostensibly about Biomutant, I interrogate why I am pulled to certain apocalypse fictions. From nature writing on the Everglades to criticism of the cult classic OVA of Yokohama Kaidashi Kiko to a discussion of phosphate mining and 3/11 (not in that order), this essay goes places. I’m very proud of it, and I’m so happy it was well received. It’s always nice to publish the next thing you know you’ll go to when you need to share your work.

Below is a picture of one of the scenes I describe in the Everglades, which words will never do justice.

Some things I have read, listened to, played, or otherwise consumed recently.

Without You, There Is No Us, Suki Kim

Lost Stars, Claudia Grey

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S

The aquatope on white sand

Link Click

Mutazione

Project Wingman

Cris Tales

No Longer Home

Sekiro

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