Wow, what a behemoth project! I really enjoyed learning about the origins of the weird genre and hearing your thoughts on Control. What really drew me to the game was how it felt so unique in the modern gaming landscape. With Call of Duty 406 and yet another Madden lurking, it was a breath of fresh air to experience something willing to take more risks with its themes and narrative design. While unsettling is not something we are supposed to be excited to experience, I feel like Control made being unsettled an oddly great time. Now I've got to go back and give the DLC a try.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket was an audio book I was given as a young teen and it was the one piece of fiction that kindled my love for the weird and new weird genres of fiction. The last half of that book is just wild.
Another sacred blessing from the RU-vid algorithm to show me this channel, and yet another video that I will be revisiting as years pass. Thank you for your content, and I cannot wait to delve into everything else you’ve made :)
I'm gonna admit, my eye kinda twitched when you said Harry Truant instead of Johnny Truant, but it's funny picturing Harry S Truman working at a tattoo parlor
Sir, you're just the kind of longer form content that I crave. This video is very timely! I just started playing Control and the first bit of this was incredibly informative. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of your thoughts on the game, the themes, and the connections with "the new weird" once I finish it. Keep up the incredible work!
When I first read Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy I kept getting this strange familiar and nostalgic feeling from it, it took me a few days scratching my head wondering where I had experienced this feeling before and it was Evangelion! Can't believe my very first New Weird experience was an anime before New Weird became a thing. I also realized some of the old Haruki Murakami books I've read have very New Weird vibes as well.
I played Control not even a few weeks ago on a PS5 and man was this game good. It's one of the most unique games i've played lore wise and was hooked immediately.
Great content! I was pleasantly surprised this essay wasn't parroting the same points as the couple Control analysis essays I've seen earlier. Really enjoyed that literary focused take.
The examination of semiotics broke my brain a little, but that was actually a really clear way of explaining and examining them, with great examples. I feel like I understand it way better now and I'm definitely going to utilise that new knowledge to make people uncomfortable. I adore weird fiction, and discovering it was a really pivotal moment for me as both a consumer and prospective creator. I love Control too, I also happened across it really late and it hooked me so fast. Your work is excellent, and I'm chuffed to find you seem to be passionate about some of my favourite games. I hope you're well, and that you're able to continue for a long while.
Your video regarding control as a sort of love letter to the new weird genre is a gem. I've found your account by the grace of YT algorithm while searching for new weird essays and couldn't be happier that I did. I've watched it twice already and loved every second. Control has been 9ne of my favorite games of all time and perhaps the best example of environmental story telling I've ever seen. Your point regarding Mieville's work also struck a cord. I consider him to be one of the most imaginative contemporary writers. Thank you for the entertainment.
What an unbelievably great video; I can feel your passion for weird fiction. You also avoid that "in-your-face"/this is what it really means - style of some other videos while still having strong views of your own. LOVE IT. I can relate to this desire to tell others about this crazy little hard to define thing called weird fiction so strongly. Almost nobody has ever heard of it, and all I want to do sometimes is say "Just give one of those amazing books a chance, your mind will be blown!" But at the end of the day, that's an impossible way to have a conversation with somebody or to write about something, and so the task of describing the almost indescribable begins. I'm in the process of writing a short passage on what i personally find so cool about (new) weird fiction for a video essay of my own at the moment, and it's REALLY HARD, lol. I think you did an incredible job of navigating this task of getting across some of the enthusiasm without sounding like somebody who tries to approach it from a position of authority. I also wonder whether I might be the only person in the comments who has never played Control and found this video because I just really admire weird fiction.
This was amazing. Genuinely pumped to see somebody who appreciates this game's source material just as much as it's own individual strangeness. Great video man. Your videos on the Dishonored series made me a fan, but I think it's this video that's convinced me to stick around for whatever's yet to come. Keep up the good work!
Great video! I played Control for the first time a few months back and fell in love with its world, the characters and the gameplay. And I searched for similar media and read The Southern Reach Trilogy and House of Leaves since then. So your video was perfect for me in overlapping all of those things and even gave me more stuff to read and look into :D
One of the best videos around RU-vid. I'm from Brazil and I discovered myself as a weird author haha. I didn't notice how much Control is linked to New Weird, it's a brilliant game. I write about games and literature too on substack (in Portuguese tho) and would like very much to interview you someday 😬
I had a similar arc to loving Control. That very first document sparked a drive in me to get into it, to scrounge evry bit of knowledge I could find. I especially loved the easily missable civilwar inside the Oldest House between the scientific guard and the old guard where science was more ritualistic. I want more I NEED more of this world.
I am in love with you point of view, for the past 3 hours ive been listening to your commentary while doing a playthrough on Dishonored truly a good series of videos
what a phenomenal video!! I loved the in depth look on books, unfortunately I can't read them myself for several reasons, but the flip-throughs was a great choice for this video! thank you so much
Thank you so much for making this video. I am on the threshold on where you are going to talk about House of Leaves and the Southern Reach Trillogy and these books, especially HoL have changed my life. House of Leaves, to me, represents what C-PTSS does to a person. The first chapter left me in tears because I have had gone through emotions similar as Johnny Truant describes. I have grown up in a house where my mom was sexually abused and how that warped the household. My mom had a lot of similarities with Karen and me having an older brother made me relate a lot more to the kids in the book. Especially because I was about the same age when the story came out. How much I wished that some kind of doorway would appear and that I could point to it, say 'HERE IT IS'. And then people do that in the book and it does not help them. IDigging deeper does not help them. What helps them is healthy and meaningful connection. I am personally really happy that Jessy is such a mentally stable character. This puts the focus on the world, not as much her emotional struggle. That being said, the same oppressive atmosphere is in The Oldest House. It is both clausterphobic and vast. It is wonderful, awe inspiring and horrific. It takes the atmosphere of HoL and turns it into its own thing. I respect that. And Ashtray Maze was perhaps the best video game moment I have ever had. It had the HoL vibes with none of the dread. I felt like I stood above The House. Like I overcame my own trauma and like I had the tools to actually fix my shit. This game will live rentfree in my head for a long time to come.
In case you were unaware when you mentioned Alan Wake, it's actually confirmed to be in the same canon universe as Control, and Quantum Break! Living the content! Keep it up!
Being an avid lover of Weird Fiction, Control was one of the most refreshing and thought-provoking games I've played in a long time. This genre is so much fun and I'm glad we got a game so incredible out of it.
Very happy to see this video randomly pop up in my feed. I played Control around the same time I started really digging into horror and Weird fiction. And while I have to say that Control’s combat won’t stick with me and felt rather stale by the end of the journey, the atmosphere and sense of investigation made the game unforgettable. Great work with the video. I hope that your overview of the New Weird inspires more people to dive into the genre.
Great analysis! I recently went back to Control after having put it aside to play once I got an RT capable card for my PC and am again basking in all its SCP glory. But I’m a little surprised that True Detective wasn’t mentioned here(or maybe I missed it) as an example of recent New Weird on TV. Season 1 of that show is magnificent and one of my favorite seasons of any show ever.
I only did not mention it because I haven't seen it yet! Though I've certainly been meaning to. HBO is absurdly expensive here in Canada so I've been waiting for a deal on the blu ray
@@EricCrosby Ah, well you're in for a treat. Se2 wasn't nearly as good and I haven't watched Se3 yet, but they're all standalone seasons so you'll get a complete story.
@@phrozac Update: I did watch True Detective S1 recently and it was a fantastic recommendation! I regret that I hadn't seen it as of making this video, but one can only read/watch so much for a single project haha. Absolutely phenomenal writing in that series.
0:44 "What exactly does 'New Weird' mean, you might ask, with your browser tab minimized and controller in hand." Go on, take my thumbs up. Well played, my good sir! EDIT: 1:31 "But Eric, you might cry, Monster Energy in hand." I feel personally targeted.
My favorite genre of fiction, and your inclusion of House of Leaves made me think of other unmarked New Weird pieces and the experimental band Death Grips comes to mind, not all of their songs, but there's a good amount that dig into the same ideas that are explored in weird fiction. Highly recommend Thomas Ligotti to fans of the strange and creepy.
Your work is amazing Eric! Since you did a video for major Arkane Studios Games, I think Deathloop could be a great option for your next video. And I know I would love your view on its connection with the Dishonored universe. Thanks again.
Hey, so this was an absolutely phenomenal video. I can't even begin to fathom the amount of work that went into this project. You have earned a sub from me. And, I imagine a ton more in your near future.
What an amazing video! It was a true pleasure to watch, I always enjoy learning about the references and influences of different works and seeing how they left their mark. Thank you so much for this!
Control: The best book I have ever watched. By that I mean the story is awesome, the story-telling is above average, and the game play is ... there. It's a great book being told in movie format wrapped in the shell of a game.
Really enjoyed this video as a deep dive into Control's "genre" (as you say, it's not something with precisely defined sharp edges). One set of works in that tradition which I really enjoy, but which you didn't mention, is the novel Roadside Picnic (1972) and its descendants: the Soviet art film Stalker by Tarkovsky (1979) and FPS game adaptation S.T.A.L.K.E.R. by GSC Game World (2007, 2008, 2009, Planned 2022). Like Control the acute disaster of first contact with an alien force is over when the story starts, and like Annihilation now humanity has to deal with the natural law violations of a resulting zone hostile to human life as we know it. It takes a more pessimistic view of its Institute studying the zone than Control takes of its FBC studying the paranormal. A small collectible subplot from Control (the use of objects of power obtained by, and for the benefit of, outlaws) is the meat of Roadside Picnic or Stalker. The novel protagonist even references a semiotic commonplace - that the scientists mistake naming a phenomenon for understanding it. The fact that it's been adapted into a series of video games marks it out as a uniquely relevant point of comparison for me. Anyway, I enjoy that whole idea space of stuff that pulls at the loose thread in the fabric of reality. This was a nice treat of a video to see a few more of the sources Control pays homage to!
Hey love your videos and am excited to watch this one. Before I do, coming from your dishonored videos, you said you like exploring the non lethal sides of video games and might I suggest a series of games. The Metro series has a morality system and you'll get the bad ending if you kill every human that wants to kill you and don't do good deeds and such. Metro 2033 has a pretty good system for morality, but it never outright tells you, hey this isn't want you wanna do to make everything okay. Last Light steps the system up a bit and making it a little more known, I actually found out 2033 had 2 ending because of Last Light. But the system is more or less the same. But Exodus judges your actions upon your comrades and their fates and it's genuinely amazing in my opinion. If you could do videos on these games I would love that, have a lovely day or night.
Man remedy game's are like an actual Remedy that gave you fever dreams, I've played both control and Alan Wake and It feels like I'm tripping because I don't know shit yet still am intrigued, Anyway, any chance you'd do a video about Disco Elysium? That game feels like a Master class of Writing in the Medium of video games, because it tells a story that no other storytelling media can tell, and I know the decaying view count lately can be discouraging but I do genuinely enjoy your videos and hope you for the best in whatever you're doing!
Nice work. I watched just half of the video, because I don't want to hear about these books before I read them. I am just learning English so I won't be able to acquaint with books in English soon. Will try to read them in Russian translation and get back to the essay. Thanks also for your videos about Dishonored. Great work!
Absolutely phenomenal video! Loved every second of it. Managed to cover all of the amazing works that inspired CONTROL as well as talk about the history of this fiction, AND still covered what makes CONTROL great and unique in its own right. Great job, Eric! Can't wait to see more ^_^
Weird = Xenophobia, or a genuine fear of "Them", instead of pure antagonism. New Weird = Neo-Cosmopolitanism, or the embrace of city as the New Frontier or a Middle Ground.
The Alan Wake retcon of Control was so disappointing. I wish you took a more critical view of it. but love your videos and would love to see you do a video on Deathloop someday
Hey, I recently finished reading Perdido Street Station (and it's sequel.) I know it's been a couple years for you, but how do you view the ending of PSS? I like it. Like a lot of media I enjoy, I feel compelled to find other people's opinions on it. But I've been a bit disappointed, people either don't talk spoilers, or if they do talk about the ending just describe the events in the book (moths dead; Isaac leaving) and say they liked or disliked it. They don't really expand on the more interesting points it raises. Things like did Isaac make the right choice? Is Yag redeemed? Should you respect the justice of other cultures? What's more I don't think I've seen anyone actually talk about the final events in the book; Yag "remaking" himself and walking back to the city. It's definitely a weird ending but in spite of that I've seen no one bring this up or their own thoughts on it. It's especially weird since a common theme throughout the novel is justice. I get that talking about themes is "uncool" and for "academic types" but it's been a bit disappointing for me. It's like if you were to review Disco Elysium and never bring up politics, your own or in the general sense.
I guess that's one thing Chambers and Lovecraft had in common: being unapologetically racist, even by the standards of their own times. Not that their literary works aren't great, mind you, but it does mar my enjoyment of them to a degree.
If I may recommend some ideas for future essays, here's few games, that could interest you! Darkwood S.T.A.L.K.E.R Series Here they lie Inside Little Nightmares
STALKER / Metro and the Zonepunk genre are definitely ones I have an eye on for a future video - but I don't have much more than a passing familiarity with any of the others.
@@EricCrosby They're all small indie games, so they won't take huge amount of time to play/look up. I personally find most of them really unique in their own genres, which is why I belive they could make an interesting video. But anyway, they're only suggestions so do whatever inspires you :)
Regarding lovecraft’s racism: I’ve come to a strange kind of middle ground when it comes to bringing my enjoyment of his stories in balance with his blatant racism. I think we need to be aware where the racism (specifically in his work) comes from. First of all, lovecraft is to an extent a product of his time. Born in the 1890s, it is evident that he would not live up to modern standards of morality. Does this justify his racism? No. Does it make it any better? Also no. But it helps me at least separate the racism from the interesting stories and may enjoyment of it. To an extent, I (as a modern reader with all the benefits of the 21st century) cannot really judge or condemn this man. I can recognise that his views are wrong, and move on with the stories. Secondly, I find there is actually an advantage in examining the stories in front of the background of racism and a sociological and psychological examination of it. We have a blatantly racist text with blatantly racist prose, which gives us insight in how a person like Lovecraft perceived, expressed and explained his racism. Examining that, I think, can grant a reader a better understanding as to where racism comes from and what core issues are which lead people to be racist (psychological, sociological, historical).
I'd argue Lovecraft wasn't as much a racist but rather a sheltered extreme misanthrope with undiagnosed mental illness who just so happened to live in a racist society. While his works contain racist language, there's a pervasive distain for humanity as a whole with fundamentally pessimistic takes on nearly every aspect of society. Ironically enough most often it's the "backwards" tribes that have the best grasp on reality and the truth of the world without abusing their powers. Meanwhile the cults are abusing their power for personal gain, and the academics are either scratching the surface or delving too deep.
We get it, Lovecraft was racist. We don't need a virtue signaling diatribe about it in literally every single video that mentions him. He's dead. Neither his mind nor his writings are going to change. Either like his work or don't, but a modern audience doesn't need an explanation of why his beliefs were bigoted. Also, he wasn't a "white supremacist" (though I know that's the popular buzzword these days). He hated plenty of white ethnicities too. Germans, the Irish, American southerners, etc.
