I have thoughts about Far Cry 3 and Matt Gaetz
Instead of reading the books, I wanted to this is what I did with my time.
So I didn’t end up returning to Florida as I stated in my previous post. After doing some looking around it was easier for me to get covid vaccinated here so I stayed out an extra month to do so. The first shot was good. No complaints so far about it.
What I watched this last week or so:
Netflix: The Irregulars, Diablero rewatch
Amazon Prime: Invincible
Disney+: Falcon and Winter Soldier
Hulu: Mayans MC
Let’s discuss what I watched. First off Irregulars is kinda fun? But took a while to find itself and even then seemed kinda hokey. The ending was great though. It’s set in the Sherlock (not the BBC show lol) Extended Universe and is about supernatural adventures so that’s a neat twist. Not a total waste of time.
Mayans MC is proving to be a more thoughtful character examination this season than previous seasons. This last episode carried a message about how Women have to mature and shift in ways that men are not required to. It was a nice change-up that I don’t think Kurt Sutter (the original writer/showrunner) could’ve pulled off.
As I said last week, I haven’t felt much like reading lately. I don’t know what it is, I had 3 books I promised myself I was going to plow through this last month, and then I didn’t lol. Sometimes I feel guilty but learning to read for pleasure (after Grad School I was unable to do this for like a year or two lol) means learning that you don’t have to read as well. So that’s that.
Games I’m playing
I’m playing an older computer game lately too. FarCry 3.
For those of you that don’t know the Far Cry series, they’re a game series that mixes your character being placed in survival scenarios while alternatively hunting/being hunted and going on murder sprees. None of the series are connected story-wise. This game came out in 2012, There are newer games that feature, undoubtedly, better graphics, better murder mechanics, better hunting mechanics, maybe even a better storyline but I decided since I had this in the steam library why not?
The game sets you on some unnamed Islands in the Pacific/Indian Oceanic area. You’re a White D-Bag who is vacationing with your rich friends when you’re all kidnapped after skydiving to a strange island. You’re now embroiled in a battle between “natives” and drug dealers who are also natives but are run by a white dude.
Needless to say, this is a weird game for a variety of exoticism reasons, but it is a mindless game and the murder sprees work in the narrative because the character finds himself enjoying it and becoming alienated from his friends as he becomes a monster of war and murder. I really have no justification for the game other than sometimes it’s good to have a game where you mindlessly shoot ppl. I don’t know if I’d defend that as a principled stance but since I can’t really go out and drink or blow off steam other ways, it passes the time for now. The hard part about games sometimes is you don’t always get to engage “ethically” in gaming in the sense ppl don’t often discuss themes or ideas and say this is why you should play it! There are notable exceptions to this, but as an industry Video Games do not quite work the same way as movies, books, and comics. The story is always subservient to mechanics, even in the games that claim otherwise.
Playing the game takes me back, to when it was first out. I was just out of college, unemployed probably (my first extended stint of unemployment), and was just vibing I guess? My mental state is a bit stronger now and I am more certain of myself and my future than I was 9ish years ago. So it is funny to step into a game like this, that is the same and yet I am changed.
Matt Gaetz
Another thing I wanted to write about was Matt Gaetz scandal. It seems like a funny totally predictable thing given the dude comes off as a weirdo creep. To what extent was obviously not something that could be predicted but as that story keeps going man just looks worse and worse.
Gaetz fascinates me because he feels like what would’ve happened if Fitzgerald wrote a trilogy about the rise and fall of a wealthy family. Gaetz feels like what would happen if Mario Puzo wrote about nonitalians. In other words, he comes off as the degenerate son of an otherwise wealthy and powerful family. Not Rockefeller wealthy, and certainly not Medici powerful but in their own spheres powerful enough. As news of him keeps piling up it’s fascinating to watch how many people are content to just let him hang himself with the noose he’s been tightening since his own explosion on the political stage. There were times when RWers were able to benefit or peripherally enjoy his firebrand “own the libs” particularly those in the Trumpist circles. But now the bottom’s falling out and all we can do is wait to see what snaps first, the rope or his neck.
This is all melodramatic, and I don’t quite think this is “the end” of Gaetz, but the story and reactions convey this, and try as I might I can’t look away.
I have some more other thoughts but I want to let them stew a bit longer. I’ll try not to wait a full week before something else pops up on this, but thanks for reading this, and I hope it didn't' suck.