Asides

So I’m Married

I have to apologize again for failing to post regularly, but at least I have an excuse this time: I’ve been on my honeymoon, sort of.

Since the global zombie apocalypse or equivalent is currently underway, things have been kind of weird for the magical girl and me. Naturally, our wedding plans fell apart—but that didn’t stop us. We originally planned to marry after Easter, but for reasons having to do with the current global situation, we got permission from our archdiocese to have a private wedding during Lent.

We were married in a small ceremony with exactly nine people, including us and the priest. We took “social distancing” wedding photos, which are charming in a way, but which I won’t display here as I don’t intend to slap photos of real people up on the internet without permission.

We had a self-isolation honeymoon, which also wasn’t what we planned, but was nice in its own way. Both of us had to work, though. The magical girl is a nurse, and she couldn’t get much time off. Most of my work I’m currently doing from home.

The Missing Cuteness of ‘Doom Eternal’

Featured image: “Drinks, Blood, and Vacation!” by WMDiscovery93.

(Spoilers.)

The highly anticipated Doom Eternal, which treads some of the same ground as Doom II: Hell on Earth, released today, and some mad lads have already played through the whole damn thing.

I’ve long been intrigued by Doom and have often wished for a respectable interpretation in another medium such as movie or novel, though most such attempts have been flubs. There was the series of Doom novels by Daffyd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver, which reinterpreted the demonic invasion as an invasion of space aliens, thereby entirely missing the point, and there was also the widely panned movie starring Dwayne Johnson, which reimagined the demons as genetic mutations.

I do understand there is a novelization of Doom III, which I only learned of recently, but aside from it, interpretations of Doom into other media have shied away from the core concept of an invasion from hell—which is to say that they’ve missed the entire point.

Doom Eternal made some waves because of its promise that you might fight angels as well as demons, though the final product, if the cutscene movie posted above is any indication, suggests that the designers ultimately moved away from that idea. In place of God is some being called Khan Maykr, and in place of angels are the Maykr’s servants, who don’t do much except shoot beams of energy out of their heads. The story, too, seems sketchy, suggesting either that this cutscene movie is incomplete or that the game’s creators failed to flesh out all their ideas.

Trying to piece things together (I may have some of this wrong), it appears that Khan Maykr is doing what the UAC did in the first game, using “Argent Energy” to power her world, which would die without it. Argent Energy is created in hell from damned souls, so Khan Maykr lets demons destroy other worlds so she can preserve her own, though the demons cannot enter her own world, and she cannot enter theirs. The world of Argent D’nur formerly worshipped her as a goddess or prophetess, and she ultimately betrayed them, turning three Argentians into “hell priests” who assist her in the invasion of Earth, which is intended to gather more souls to provide her with energy.

Perhaps most interesting to longtime Doom fans, Doom Eternal makes it explicit that the “Slayer” who first appeared in Doom 2016 is in fact the same as the “Doomguy” of the original games. Somehow or other, the Sentinels of Argent found him and made him one of their own, and some continue to oppose him even after the Khan Maykr betrayed them. Doom Eternal not only refers to him as the “Doomguy,” but also uses some of his dialogue from the goofy “Doom comic.”

Perhaps most interesting, at least to me, is that Doom Eternal contains some Easter eggs referencing an obscure bit of lore from the franchise. The original Doom game ended with an image of a rabbit’s head on a stake; this image was meant to indicate that the demons had invaded Earth and therefore set up for Doom II. However, fans quickly got the idea that this was the Doomguy’s pet rabbit, and that he was slaying demons to avenge the rabbit’s death.

Rabbit head on a stake.

This got (semi?)canonical affirmation in the expansion Thy Flesh Consumed, which ended with a brief scene indicating that the dead rabbit was indeed the Doomguy’s pet, and that its name was Daisy.

There were a few small gags making reference to Daisy in Doom 2016, and she apparently appears in some gags in the new Doom Eternal as well.

Everything I’ve heard about the gameplay on this game indicates that it’s superb, but I’m not a gamer myself; I’m a story guy, and from what I’ve seen so far, I do think the story should have been fleshed out in parts. I started exploring Doom Eternal with the question, “What is the Khan Maykr?” and having sat through a cut-scene video of the game, I find I’m still asking the same question.

The game’s ending, too, seems anticlimactic to me. Although it looks like an epic boss fight, that’s pretty much it: The Slayer himself has personally gained nothing from all this hardship despite warnings and promises from other characters. It almost makes me think the Slayer should have had a love interest—but since that isn’t right for the character, it makes me think he should have had something else to to care about, maybe a pet or mascot character.

interestingly, because of a delay, Doom Eternal ended up releasing on the same day as Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This coincidence led to a lot of fan art depicting the Doomslayer with Isabelle, a fan-favorite character from Animal Crossing.

The Doomslayer carries Isabelle on his shoulder.

To me, images like this just look right, as if this is what Doom is missing. The protagonist of Doom needs something personal to fight for, perhaps something to protect or avenge. Daisy could have served this purpose, and that may be why the brief image of a rabbit so captured fans’ imaginations in the first place.

There is, I understand, a “hidden” bunny in each level of Doom Eternal, a nod to the fan-created lore, but of course that isn’t anything quite like a fully developed character.

This isn’t a serious criticism of the game, but I think the Doom reboot may have missed an opportunity by failing to make Daisy the rabbit the cute mascot sidekick of this franchise.

Update to Armageddon

As some of you are no doubt aware, I’m planning to get married, and the universe, realizing that my successfully wooing an attractive woman is as impossible and unacceptable as, say, Arthur Dent or Jon Arbuckle doing the same, has taken drastic steps to correct.

So yeah, this whole global pandemic thing is my fault. Sorry about that.

Anyway, the magical girl and I intend to defy the laws of the universe and get married anyway, and we’re now scratching our heads to figure out where, and when, and how.

In the meanwhile, since I caused this disaster in the first place, I think I can present a few ideas of what to do while you’re in quarantine. Stay tuned.

Behold the Legendary White Fungus and Bird Nest Beverage

So, anyway, whenever we need to run errands in the nearest large city, my fiancée insists at shopping at the Chinese market in order to find food items from a little closer to her homeland.

While we were there, I happened to notice this fantastic product and insisted on grabbing two cans.

Wonderfarm Bird's Nest

To explain, I first learned of the existence of this beverage when I was working on Jake and the Dynamo. In one scene, Pizza Margherita offers juice boxes to a group of magical girls, and I thought it would be funny if the flavors were mostly exotic ones that would generally offend American tastes, so I went hunting on the internet for weirdly flavored beverages, compiled a list, and applied them to Margherita’s juice-box variety pack.

The one that most stuck in my memory was this thing right here, Wonderfarm Bird’s Nest White Fungus. This drink from China is made with mostly water, white fungus, and sugar, with only a tiny bit of bird’s nest.

Bird's Nest Ingredients

The “bird’s nest” in question is that of a cave-dwelling swiftlet, which makes its nest from solidified saliva (no more gross than honey, if you think about it). This is a delicacy in China, usually served in soup, but it appears that only a tiny amount is featured in this drink. White fungus, on the other hand, is a mushroom-like growth used in a lot of Chinese dishes and is comparatively inexpensive.

I was thrilled to find this beverage, which had already inspired a passage in my first published book, so I insisted on trying it and making the magical girl try it as well.

You will be unsurprised to learn it’s not very good. It is something like slimy sugar water, or maybe like sweet snot. Tasting like thin syrup, it has large chunks of the white fungus in it. I wouldn’t personally recognize bird’s nest anyway, but I suspect its presence is mostly undetectable.

I can’t say I was disappointed because my experience matches what I’d already read about this beverage. I’m still glad to have had the chance to try it, and I am surprised to see it shipped to one of the places we buy groceries.

‘Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul’ Coming to America

The movie Dawn of the Deep Soul, which continues the story of the acclaimed Made in Abyss anime, which I have reviewed, is slated for an American release at Anime Boston on April 11, according to Crunchyroll. After that, the film will see (presumably limited) theatrical distribution.

Personally, I’m not sure if I should be thrilled or disappointed. Rumors have swirled around for a while about a sequel to Made in Abyss, and one was announced at a talk show some years back, followed by speculations on a 2019 release date.

2019 is obviously behind us, but with the upcoming movie set to continue the story where season 1 ended, it is no longer clear if there will be a season 2 at all.

On Lolicon: An Addendum

My series of essays, Why I Hate Cardcaptor Sakura, is probably still my magnum opus in the world of blogging. Recently, I noticed a comment, though now almost a year old, that I think deserves some discussion.

For obvious reasons, I’m not linking the comment or stating the author’s name, and let me say clearly that this is not an invitation to dox, harass, or otherwise act like an ass.

Here is the comment:

That’s the issue with people like you today. You focus on too much on what is bad instead of why it’s bad. Why do you find th3 “pedophilia” relationship bad? It’s immoral, it’s disgusting it’s whatever. But please realize why it is bad to begin with. Pedophilia is bad not because a person likes a child, but because a child isn’t mentally prepared enough for any sexual relationships. They are also prone being exploited. Imagine a world where these negatives doesn’t exist, where every person is just borned matured and so on. Naturally in that world, pedophilia is not considered bad. That’s why in my opinion, we should never immediately see fictional pedophilia as some disgusting, evil, ugly, horrible things alone, but also by their context. I’m not saying the context in this is anywhere justified since I didn’t look too deep into it. But I really hope people learn not think so simply.

Curiously, this reinforces the point I was making with that over-long series of essays. “Imagine a world where pedophilia is good, akshually,” is, I agree, the entire premise of Cardcaptor Sakura—which is why I loathe it.

However, having said that, I will admit that the commenter makes a statement that, like the argument of a Sophist, takes some time to think over before we can understand exactly what’s wrong with it. Our instinct is to recoil in disgust, certainly, but instinct isn’t enough.

So here is my best attempt at a rebuttal:

First, I seriously doubt pedophiles’ good will; that is, I am not convinced they will be willing to keep it in the fictional world. “They’re just drawings” is the constant refrain of lolicons, something I have addressed previously. The problem with that is that, although they are indeed drawings, they are nonetheless drawings that represent something, in this case children. If those drawings of children are treated as sexually desirable for adults, that will naturally lead their viewers toward the opinion that children are sexually desirable for adults. This will hold true regardless of whether those child-drawings have a fantasy setting or a realistic one.

Second, the technical term for the detrimental effect to children when they are sexually exploited is “scandal.” Unfortunately, within the last two centuries or so, that word has lost both its original meaning and its original severity. To “scandalize” someone is to drag him into evil and thus into hell. Exploitation of children is particularly heinous because of scandal. That is why it is needful to tread with extreme care in this area, and I speak as one who has sweated and fretted over this subject, since I am myself a writer of coming-of-age magical-girl stories.

Third, although this is not well understood today, a thorough understanding of sexual ethics (indeed, of all ethics) requires an understanding of final cause, that is, that toward which things tend or that for which they exist. The primary final cause of sex is reproduction; there is much effort to deny this nowadays, but it is obvious to everyone and requires no defense. The sex act can of course have secondary ends such as pleasure or health or mutual good, but reproduction is still primary. As such, any sex act that necessarily precludes reproduction falls outside the category of the morally permissible, and this includes sex with sexually immature children even if the reality of scandal is denied or ignored as it is in Cardcaptor Sakura.

It is mainly for these second and third reasons that consent has become primary in today’s discussions of sexual ethics. It was around the eighth century that Christian theologians recognized that, because Christian marriage is a sacrament and not merely a natural institution, it requires the full consent of both spouses. From there, theologians refined their position, determining that, as a natural institution ordered toward child-rearing, marriage requires its participants to be of reproductive age and, as a sacrament, also requires that they be mature enough to consent to it.

Like it or not, these theological conclusions underpin all current discussions of this touchy subject.

With My Real-Life Waifu

I really must apologize for my lack of posting and for my lack of meaningful content. Quite a lot of real life is coming at me right now.

My fiancée has finished her work in Memphis, so she has moved up here and will be starting her new job next week. I spent the weekend helping her move, and there’s a funny story about that … for another time.

Anyway, she’s here, and our wedding is now two months away. It’s kind of bizarre to think that I’m actually getting married soon, but so it is.

I’m afraid I have no other updates at the moment. Too much is going on, but I am getting to my writing when I can.

The Latest on the State of the Books

Featured image: “Art Challenge” by Sonya Fung

So, as I earlier reported, my publisher has gone out of business. I disappeared after that for a few different reasons, mostly because I immediately dived into the next steps for my books.

I have, just today, sent both Jake and the Dynamo and Rag & Muffin out the door. I sent Jake and the Dynamo to another indie publisher that is interested in the orphans of Superversive Press, but after consulting with my editor, I’ve decided to shop Rag & Muffin with larger publishing houses.

It would be imprudent to name names. All I can say is, the books are out of the house, and I’m working on my rejection slip collection.

This means a couple of things for my current projects: First, Dead to Rites, the sequel to Jake and the Dynamo, is in limbo until further notice. It will get picked up when (if) Jake and the Dynamo does.

Second, I have no idea of release dates anymore because my submissions could get rejected. Rag & Muffin probably will be, since I’m aiming higher with it.

Third, I’m right back where I started a few weeks ago, working on Son of Hel, which I will submit somewhere when I’m done with it.

Fourth, I’m getting married in April, so I disappeared partly because I was working on arrangements for that. In a couple of weeks, I’ll travel back to Memphis to help the magical girl move, as she’s starting a new job soon in my current town of residence. Then we’ll get married a couple of months after that, and then I’ll have to move again because I’ll be moving in with her.

So that’s what’s up. I’m afraid I’m way behind on watching, reading, and reviewing stuff because my own projects and personal life have taken precedence.

Superversive Press Shutting Its Doors

I have been sitting on this information for a while, but I have seen it posted publicly in another space, so I think I can say this: Superversive Press, which published Jake and the Dynamo and was planning to publish Dead to Rites and Rag & Muffin, is shutting its doors.

I am not party to the reasons, though I assume they are financial (small-press publishing is always a risky business), and I am highly allergic to office politics and the like—so if any of that is involved, I am ignorant of it. I can only tip my hat to Jason Rennie, the publisher, and L. Jagi Lamplighter, my editor, and thank them both for taking a chance on my enthusiastically written but extremely niche work.

I am starting over from here. The future of my books is uncertain, but the novels I have completed will be published, somehow or some way. I believe Jake and the Dynamo deserves a complete arc, mostly because I know how it ends and it’s kick-awesome.

As for Rag & Muffin, it is probably foolish to say this in public, but I have long sensed that a higher power wanted it written and would grind me into powder if it wasn’t, so I think it will somehow be published too.

I will keep you posted.

Update on ‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’

I’ve received some images indicating the progress on the cover art for Dead to Rites, the next volume in the Jake and the Dynamo series.

I don’t think it would be any of my business to give details, but the talented artist doing the work has encountered a lot of problems in the process, almost as if some unseen power doesn’t want the book published. (I say that because I ran into strange trouble of my own while writing it.)

Anyway, things are moving along even if more slowly than I would have preferred. I have received a few images of the art, but post only the one here, as I figure I shouldn’t spoil it.

Anyway, Pretty Dynamo is still looking good. I absolutely love this interpretation of her outfit.