Where would you go if you could go anyplace in the world? Save up for a while and jump to it? I was asked this question yesterday and could come up with a number of answers, while the person I asked back had only one or two off the top of their head.
Where would you go?
I’ve never been off the west coast of America, still. I’ve lived in southern California and western Washington. Visited Nevada, Arizona, and been through Oregon. I told the person who asked me that I would love to see New Zealand. That was off the top of my head. But my real number one is to see a New England autumn.
I also love Top Gear, and after seeing Argentina on their Patagonia Special, I’ve never realized how much I really enjoyed mountains until then. There’s something to be said about an abundance of a natural feature. That’s why the plains are great, and why oceans are massive and insurmountable. It’s all impressive.
Nature is consistently easy to write about. You hear a lot of talk about rain in lyrics these days. So much symbolism in things that we can’t control. Ancient people came up with their own explanations of all things natural. Made rocks into gods and rivers into sources of all life. When you sit down to create something based on nature you’re doing exactly that, making a mythology for yourself.
I’m not going to worship Mount Si because the Snoqualmie people believed it was the corpse of Snoqualm, but I think it’s amazing for my own reasons, and I write to those reasons.
So when you’re asked where you would go if given the option to go anyplace in the world, it’s hard to say. There’s a new series of things to discover. New mythologies to make. It can be a bit overwhelming, really. You could say the same about new relationships or new places. There’s a lot to think about.
This journal’s excerpt will be from a series I’ve called “Infinity”, based off of the Xilent song of the same name. This poem is from “Develop”:
“All the film
Up in flames
That we painstakingly
Caused to evolve
Yet in the red rooms
We reveal what was caught
From the vehicle
And show the observer”
With the theme of nitrocellulose film used throughout. It’s important to make your own mythology when faced with art. Yahtzee Croshaw once stressed that it’s important to have your own head canon as a creator. Everything is fluid and together.
Speaking of mythologies, I’ve picked up and been playing Destiny 2! I have so many memories with the first one and I didn’t realize how potent they were. To give you a sense of perspective:
Destiny came out right as I was entering senior year of high school. I was 17. Fresh out of the summer of 2014. It was a big deal. Now it’s back and I can make new memories alongside it.
From year one of Destiny, one thing that stuck out to me was Thorn, a sort of revolver (hand cannon) that you can find in the game. The story behind it was that a wielder of the light (guardian), to be called Dredgen Yor, became corrupted by the dark in exchange for a gross, inherent power. The old wielder died and was replaced by a man corrupted by the dark. This hand cannon’s ability is to burn its target when a round hits, owing to its corrupting nature.
So when you fire it at something, they’re burned by Thorn for about 3 seconds. Cool looking gun, cool looking effect.
But later on in its story, Dredgen Yor is approached by another guardian, Shin Malphur. This approaching guardian is well known as a man of the people, fighting off bandits and punishing injustice. This guardian wields a hand cannon called The Last Word.
When Yor asks Malphur if he has any last words, Malphur responds in kind, “Yours, not mine”, as his weapon’s name describes. Shin Malphur has the last word. Dedgen Yor is slain.
Now what’s interesting about this is that none of this is explained in game. Most of this has to be pieced together. The quest involved to get Thorn sees your character nearly become corrupt, but is cleansed by its end. It’s quite a literal story of light versus dark that I think is done well in-universe.
The developers of Bungie have made their own mythology. A really fucking good one, at that.
As I ponder this looking like Charlie Kelley in my long johns and crow shirt. Classy. That and all the questions about identity these days makes for a nice stew of things to just kinda… wallow in. I’m happy to say I don’t wallow anymore. I used to be zen a year ago, but now I’m like… really zen. So zen as to be fine with typing my thoughts like a valley girl text messages. Pumpkin Spice lattes are great, tbh.
Today I’m listening to Cigarettes After Sex’s album Apocalypse, and deadmau5’s while(1<2). They’re each starting to mean something more to me as this season comes to a close and autumn more quickly approaches. Yesterday in Parkland there were leaves crunching beneath my feet. It’s wonderful.
Autumn is when I come alive!
I might just write about it. You should make something, too!
Consume Reality! 