At The Bottom of the Mountain, There is a Valley (culture)

Reading

The Prince, by Machiavelli

The Prince is very dense with ideas, allegory, and historical reference. It's a remarkable work, yet Machiavelli is much maligned as a remarkable piece of work himself. Unjustly?

If you look past the brief appreciations of the utility of murder in an older age, there's a lot of practical advice about understanding perception and motivation, and maneouvreing politically in this book. He takes an analytical position on the relative effectiveness of different strategies as a means to obtain and secure power. He is generally descriptive, not prescriptive.

He is also writing in the 16th Century - permit him a difference in attitude and understand that if you are a prince, your enemies are in a position (incentivised, even) to ruin you and your loved ones. If you are to maintain your position, you need to be pragmatic instead of idealistic.

To that point, the major suggestion he actually makes that is ruthless is "destroy rivals in power by killing them and their entire family". The timing and mechanisms for doing this are repeated a few times throughout the book. I am going to steelman this for modern sensibilities, please bear with me. This is in fact very good leadership advice - continue bearing - if you determine the goal and reconsider the methods. The intended outcome is to isolate and remove a clique that erodes your base of power by sowing dissent and discord. Leaving people around that do this reduces your team's ability to perform, or is like letting a single small invasive weed flower in your garden. Like a weed, if given the opportunity to grow back and spread, a politically capable opponent will do so. The only way to properly remove it is to do so "root and stem", before they go from a nuisance to a problem.

Machiavelli exhorts several times that "a stitch in time saves nine", and that resolving a problem takes much less energy and effort before it ever becomes one. Therefore staying aware, considerate, and decisive makes a ruler continue to rule.

He even goes out of his way to denounce wickedness and evil, to say that rulers that untake evil acts cannot be glorious, and are inferior on principal to those who are truly good, who are the Greats.

it cannot be called talent to slay fellow-citizens, to deceive friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; such methods may gain empire, but not glory... his barbarous cruelty and inhumanity with infinite wickedness do not permit him to be celebrated among the most excellent men. What he achieved cannot be attributed either to fortune or genius.

As modern heathens this tends to be true on the basis of pragmatic concerns as well - pyschopaths often have to migrate social circles to maintain appearances. Maintaining appearances is the subject of another, and is a useful model to think about modern office politics - how others are perceived, and how others perceive you:

a prince ought to take care that he never lets anything slip from his lips that is not replete with the above-named five qualities, that he may appear to him who sees and hears him altogether merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and religious.

Once again, for the purposes of the workplace here religion can be any social mark of common belief - Agile, Scrum, personality & role matrices, strategic roadmaps, etc.

There is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this last quality, inasmuch as men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch with you. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them; and in the actions of all men, and especially of princes, which it is not prudent to challenge, one judges by the result.

If you ever see a person commanding a great deal of the mental territory within an organisation, despite knowing that pressed on any specific or hard topic they would fold, it is by this mechanism. In a sense being seen to undermine a person of sufficient prestige is to suggest to undermine the shared fabric of value that people without knowledge of the reality of the situation agree on. Nowadays, "judging by the result" can be a problem unto itself, as the outcomes of mental work are so often unseeable and fuzzy. Determining if a project was or wasn't successful can be endlessly rebuffed by a sufficiently skilled builder of Potemkin villages.

If nothing else, the section on mercenaries and auxillaries is gold for owning the suggestion that contractors and consultants ought to be brought in. The whole thing is him debunking with facts and also logic the long-term applicability of any dependency on outside forces as it atrophies internal competency and opens you to exploitation. The exact same mechanisms are true in modern corporate contracts, especially with modern large consultancy firms.

Since Machiavelli, some amount of poltical theory has been spilt regarding "realpolitk", which is a more "base" form of the same kinds of ideas around power and pure pragmatism towards getting more of it. I think of it as a sort of political rationalisation of concepts in game theory like Nash Equilibriums and Evolutionarily Stable Strategies - any player or goup in the political field that doesn't play this strategy will end up conceding power over time on average to someone who does.

Conversely, to understand modern geopolitics outside of an isolated setting like an organisation, de Sade (curse his name) is more accurate reading.

All You Need Is Kill, by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

There was a new trailer for an anime adaptation of this light novel. I have a positive recollection of the Tom Cruise movie based on it, so I figured I'd read the source material.

It's okay. The concept is obviously engaging, although I think the direction and editing in the movie does a lot to impactfully convey the scenario compared to the book. There is also not a ridiculous anime weapon and anime logic in the film, which grounds it a bit on the core concept.

The major difference is the ending. Hollywood gets a Hollywood Romance where Love Is Stronger Than Aliens and Time Travel, whereas the book is explicitly about the pain and will to make a heavy sacrifice for the greater good and keep moving forwards. I don't know which I prefer, honestly both of them feel a bit contrived, since in the book it seems like as long as there's at least 1 atennae the loop should continue unless something was lost in translation or my reading comprehension and in the film it's "big bang blood cover mean big win loop bigger".

A handful of illustrations by ABe was a pleasant surprise. I would be his biggest fan if I ate more food I think.

Ashura's Verdict

Read up to the latest release, chapter 26.

A young autiste Ashura believes in being good. Other people do bad things, and he prays they are punished. As far as he can see though, they are not. A group of school bullies "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea" Ashura's dog which immediately severs his copium supply and grants him a key to send people to hell by summoning the ghost of Kentaro Miura to draw some sick demon art. He subsequently turns into John Wick and A-sure-a's their Verdict all over the place.

Straightforward but engaging. It's slow at first then snowballs in pace, maybe a little too much for its own good. Hoping this draws to a satisfying climax.

Ashura nails the delusional lawful as an archtype to help and harm. We'll call him "Copeful Evil". The moral dilemas here aren't all that nuanced, every single victim so far has been unequivocally Evil, and the main thing that's happened isn't more fuzzy lines in decisions but instead increasingly powerful and brutally evil foes.

The scenes of bullying and violence are pretty raw, which is why a lot of so-called "revenge" series are "satisfying" to read. I am hoping that the point of this manga ends up being more about how this reflects on the main character. I might be projecting since it's not finished yet but that seems like what it's building up to.

Adults and police officers seem a bit clueless. Unclear what decade is depicted but seems like 2010s or 20s, but a kid walking to a place with some guys at school and then walking back with them gone and never being seen again should be obvious to anyone looking at CCTV

Compare to Death Note, which also has a moralising psychopath of sorts kill a bunch of people with a magical power. In Death Note the intrigue is the non-detectability of the source of the power and the games that have to be played by both sides to uncover or hide the act of murder. In Ashura's Verdict, it's really only about the impact that this little weirdo has on the world around him.

An enjoyable short read with clean art, recommend.

Movies

Labyrinth (1986)

For its 40th anniversary, Big Cinema is playing this in big cinemas. I was in a rare movie mood, and this was literally the only thing that looked any good - other than Markiplier's Iron Lung which is releasing on the last weekend of January which I also hope to see.

It immediately put me in a good mood thanks to the very dated 3D CGI barn owl with a 2.5-bit reflection in the intro credits. Pure Cinema.

Labyrinth is 80s Alice in Wonderland + Wizard of Oz with the Muppets. It wears its influences on its sleeve, both of these and more inspirations appear as cameos in the film.

The story is simple, the acting is servicable, but Jim Henson and the production team knocked it out of the park. The sheer creativity in the set and creature design singlehandedly carries this movie and they're constantly doing something interesting on the screen: painted views of the far-off labyrinth, shield bearers with heads above and below them, a pit full of speaking hands that grasp and mime faces and mouths for what they say, a talking relief that holds a door knocker in its mouth and can't speak through it. Swamps, walls, towns, castles, landscapes, and David Bowie and a baby walking upside down in that one M.C. Escher painting.

The main character is the set, followed by the cowardly Hoggle, who goes through a quest of betrayal and forgiveness. Young Jennifer Connelly is mostly there to be nice and learn a lesson about not wishing her baby brother was kidnapped by the Goblin King, a very important lesson to be sure.

A very 80s fairy tale. Saturated with design creativity to admire and simple fun otherwise.

Vidya

ENA: Dream BBQ (Chapter 1)

ENA is an ongoing manic-depressive episode ensnared in fiberglass amber and refracted through computer screens by animator-director Joel Guerra and now a bunch more people. I first happenstumbled upon ENA during the crashout of a prolonged manic episode of my own and felt very comforted by the animations he had made. The project is a lot bigger now and exploring its subject differently, but it's still got a lot of heart and potent visual direction.

A lot of the identity and mouth-feel of ENA is owed to 00s computer games, so without much thought the idea that they would make a video game is reasonable, but with a little more thought trying to capture that sense of being lost and finding strange things without much structure whilst still presenting a coherent modern experience that can be "played" is difficult.

In what exists in the game so far, they have struck a delicate but reasonable balance. The way forwards to "complete" the game is fixed - either you follow the nearly completely linear questline, or interrupt it and take a 2nd path. The first playthrough, where I stumbled around and through that secondary path managed to keep the illusion that a lot was possible, but playing to see everything broke and then mended, or replaced, that illusion.

The real meat of the game, although the narrative great, is in easter eggs, hidden entrances, mazes and labyrinths, discoverable scenes of art, mysterious things that may or may not be more, perspective tricks, incidental discoveries, unseen changes. This is a game you can explore and find things possibly no one else has, and a healthy stew of symbolic gesturing to a subtext you can piece together.

In a lot of ways, the first iteration of this feels like a tech demo. I am thankful for what they have made and look forwards to moar.

Stephen's Sausage Roll

In Stephen's Sausage Roll, you Roll Stephen's Sausages. Maybe.

This game took me 3 years to complete, across 3 save files for 3 attempts.

In this most recent save, I redid all the puzzles I had done so far in about 1 1/2 hours. The Witness had a similar affect upon me coming back after a long time - some kind of deep learning process has happened during and between bouts of contemplating puzzles that has carved enduring neural pathways in the old wetware. In coming back after a long time you see you never really stopped contemplating the game, and your understanding has developed, untying and knotting itself in your unconscious.

It's very likely one of the best puzzle games ever. I recommend it if you enjoy puzzles.

corru.observer

Since moving onto the 2nd track in the OST last month, I didn't think a lot about this game this month. I'm sure I'll get around to playing it soon though. Playing ENA fulfilled my artsy atmospheric desire this month.

Music

THA CONSPIRACY, by FVDXVD

Not sure if I like this EP.

These songs are dirty, filthy, grimey even - the synths and the kick are leaden with bass.

These beats are ill, sick, diseased even. The snares and hi-hats are harsh, mechanical. Sharp stabs throught flabby rotten deep reverb tones.

The samples are corrupted or corrupt. Evocative. Gross.

It's good music, but is it Good? I don't know. Go listen to it.

January Review

I spent a lot of January very ill, winter vistas trapped behind the walls of homes and hotel rooms. Snow has come to stay, as has the wet and wind, but the sense of them is lost to me beyond a feverish veil.

Near the end of the month I went to Serbia for a weekend. Between very wonderful meals, coffees, wines, brandies, I visited a lot of churches, cathedrals, monasteries. These places, especially the Saint Sava Cathedral in Belgrade, are man-made monuments to the divine in a very serious sense. Saint Sava's Cathedral is overwhelmingly beautiful - everything is exquisite, and exactly where it ought to be, harmonious with every single other thing there. It feels blasphemous almost to consider and discuss experiences like these alongside what I read and watched and listened to for fun this month.

The Orthodox churches and monasteries in Serbia are not welcoming of tourists and cameras, which I appreciate. There's a Oliver Wendell Holmes quote I think of often when presented with a beautiful, special, unique moment or place or thing in the world:

"What is to come of the stereoscope and the photograph we are almost afraid to guess, lest we should seem extravagant. But, premising that we are to give a colored stereoscopic mental view of their prospects, we will venture on a few glimpses at a conceivable, if not a possible future.

Form is henceforth divorced from matter. In fact, matter as a visible object is of no great use any longer, except as the mould on which form is shaped. Give us a few negatives of a thing worth seeing, taken from different points of view, and that is all we want of it. Pull it down or burn it up, if you please. We must, perhaps, sacrifice some luxury in the loss of color; but form and light and shade are the great things, and even color can be added, and perhaps by and by may be got direct from Nature.

There is only one Coliseum or Pantheon; but how many millions of potential negatives have they shed,—representatives of billions of pictures,—since they were erected! Matter in large masses must always be fixed and dear; form is cheap and transportable. We have got the fruit of creation now, and need not trouble ourselves with the core. Every conceivable object of Nature and Art will soon scale off its surface for us. Men will hunt all curious, beautiful, grand objects, as they hunt the cattle in South America, for their skins, and leave the carcasses as of little worth."

The most special and precious things cannot be caught, they are a bubble burst as soon as one tries to capture it. Not everything can be deliberately found, or even seen, but must be experienced. And the foundation of a vital and varied life is this, which many will never so much as glimpse.

Willing you a wonderful February, keep strong.