Rynling R&D

The theme of this month has been “I need to turn my brain off.” With that in mind, this is what’s been making me happy lately:

- We Used to Live Here (on Amazon here) is a contemporary gothic suspense novel that began as a viral post on the No Sleep reddit board. At first the story seems like it’s going to be “stranger danger” social horror, but it gradually transforms into something far weirder. I will admit that the writing is somewhat uneven (and I suspect that a ghostwriter might have been involved), but I flew through this book. As far as I’m concerned, this is creepypasta done right.

- If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You (on Amazon here) is a contemporary gothic mystery novel set in a TikTok hype house in Los Angeles. The main narrator, a 39yo woman hired to be the manager of the influencer kids, is a walking trashfire. She’s sympathetic enough not to be completely cringe, but it’s still fun to watch her make bad decisions. The author is admittedly no Shirley Jackson, but the Haunting of Hill House influences are very nicely observed.

- Maji Inu (on Amazon here) is a silly comedy manga about three dogs. They’re obsessed with eating and also very stupid. I’ve been following the artist (here) on Instagram since back when they were making Pokémon fancomics, and it’s very cool that they were able to publish an actual book with a major press. And it’s a good book!!

- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie wasn’t bad honestly. I can’t emphasize strongly enough that it’s written for a target audience of 6yo children, but the visual spectacle is impressive. The trailer, which functions as something of a stand-alone comedy short about Bowser, is (here) on YouTube, and that’s probably all that most people need to watch of this movie. I had a good time, though.

Take It from Me: An Agent’s Guide to Building a Nonfiction Writing Career from Scratch
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/734107/take-it-from-me-by-alia-hanna-habib/

This book is an approachable and interesting read, but it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. There’s no secret sauce, unfortunately. I think a lot of this translates to fiction writing as well. But essentially, this is how you get an agent:

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Basically, though, it all boils down to “platform.” In other words, the agent has to know who you are beforehand. So good luck with that.

To briefly return to the topic of "pro-psychotic" discourse, I want to add that it's entirely possible to handle these neurotypes compassionately + responsibly and still tell amazing stories about Lovecraftian sanity slippage.

Night in the Woods is a really, really good example.

Also, a short graphic novel I recently read and very much appreciated is Where Black Stars Shine, which is a super fun reworking of "The King in Yellow," a nineteenth-century short story (famous in Lovecraft circles) about a play that induces madness in anyone who watches a performance or even reads the script.

I feel like, if you present an actually realistic depiction of schizophrenia, it can add an incredible layer of nuance (and poetic beauty) to the broader theme of "madness." In any case, it's always cool when people feel comfortable telling stories about their own experiences with the full range of artistic tools at their disposal.

Here are a few books + games + zines that made me happy this month:

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This is what’s been making me happy this August:

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This is what’s been making me happy this month:

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Fam, be careful with your time online.
https://greenjudy.tumblr.com/post/771760180357742592/weird-cultural-shift-detected

If reading longform, offline, makes you feel bored or anxious, be gentle and patient with yourself. Start with stories you remember well, reliable sources of well-being. But please know you will need to put some backbone into it in the long run.

I think we are going to need to rebuild our ability to think, to process experience. This will be an unsupported activity. In fact, most of the really powerful cultural forces are making it very hard for us to notice, feel, perceive, or think clearly.

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My post-pandemic experiences in higher education have led me to believe that a lot of us are, in a very real way, at the point of Long Covid where being able to read a book from cover to cover has become a distinct and useful cognitive skill that can almost visibly put you a head above your peers in terms of performance. Literally: reading makes you smarter.

Anyway, I want to shout out to all the writers who are still using their own human minds to create books worth reading. I love you.

Vermis: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods RPG artbook review
https://bdsmrpg.blogspot.com/2023/06/vermis-lost-dungeons-and-forbidden.html?m=1

In those days, a guide book would sometimes contain a world unto itself, with the world lore, character options, and select item and enemy types to accompany the experience. [...] Implication was the name of the game, making you want to fill in those gaps and see the sprites in motion, to experience the endings to the quests introduced in the little tome.

The Guide to a Game That Doesn’t Exist: On Plastiboo’s “Vermis”
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-guide-to-a-game-that-doesnt-exist-on-plastiboos-vermis/

As a strategy guide — precisely insofar as it is a strategy guide — Vermis makes good on the promise that such volumes once made to their readers: that there is a world beyond these pages waiting to be explored. [...] Vermis also builds the speculative world of its own existence: a world where this bygone form of secondary literature, the strategy guide, never disappeared, never dissolved into the slush of the content economy, but instead flourished as an aesthetic form unto itself.

The How and Why Wonder Book of Mushrooms Ferns and Mosses
https://archive.org/details/HowAndWhySeries/How-and-Why-Wonder-Book-of-Ferns-and-Mosses/

I used to love this book as a kid. Even when I was tiny, I appreciated how retro it felt. I think we might have lost something important when we started replacing botanical illustrations with photographs. Also, I want to give a shoutout to the book about extinct animals. As you might expect of something published in the 1960s, the science is super outdated, but the illustrations are golden.

If you want to check this out, by the way, it's much easier to read on mobile than on desktop. Also maybe avoid the books about history and government.

once upon a bang
https://bsky.app/profile/fairytalebang.bsky.social/post/3lclbxs2cic2j

Introducing our first all-fandoms bang! Create brand-new works incorporating elements from fairytales & folklore.

I think I will, actually.

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