The Art of Adaptation

In the McLuhanian read, an adaptation is just the old medium being placed in the new medium wholesale. To an extent, this is true: all adaptations are going to have baggage from their original version. The number of people who declared that they would leave the theater if the sound effects of Wolverine’s claws in the first X-Men movie didn’t match the “snikt” noise used in the comics was mind boggling. Of course, that was stupid. Because “snikt” is a nonsense word and English orthography isn’t 1:1 – if you don’t believe me, just google “ghoti.”

Literary Theory, Written by: Cameron, AnalysisCameron SummersFebruary 23, 2022Adaptation, Translation, Marshall McLuhan, Strange Brew, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, Pride and Prejudice, House of Leaves, Disco Elysium, Hench, Natalie Zina WalschotsComment

What is Identity?

In short, I have discussed identity as something inscribed upon a person, but the nature of that inscription has been left somewhat blank. That’s primarily due to the complicated nature of identity: people are free to behave as they will, but what we will is somewhat pre-determined. This isn’t to say that we aren’t free to choose things, but that our identity makes it more likely that we will choose different things.

Analysis, Written by: CameronCameron SummersFebruary 16, 2022Identity, Dis-Identity Politics, Deleuze and Guattari, Alphaville, Jean-Luc Goddard, Peter Cheyney, hard boiled fiction, Film Noir, Translation, OODA loop, Machinic Unconscious, Navajo Nation, Surrealism, Animal CognitionComment

The Spectrum of Consent

It is here that I find the genesis of a potential theory of consent. I believe that there are two varieties – at least – of consent that we refer to by the same name, despite being distinct from one another. I have decided to call these “opt-out” and “opt-in” consent until better terminology presents itself.

Analysis, Gaming, Political, Written by: CameronCameron SummersJanuary 26, 2022Consent, Sexuality, Politics, Gaming, Monte Cook, David GraeberComment

Quarantined in Horny Jail: on Metaphors of Disease

But we can see an interesting trend: as the number of epidemics tails off, so – generally – do the number of major moral panics. We have the red scare, sure, and prohibition and the devil’s music, and filthy literature – but, generally speaking as the number of epidemics tapers off, the moral panics become fewer and slightly more grounded.

Analysis, Very Online, Written by: CameronCameron SummersNovember 24, 2021Moral Panics, Very Online, Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman, Analysis, Propaganda, Behind the Bastards, Umberto Eco, Stanley Cohen, Anthony Comstock, Epidemics, Information HygieneComment

The Bound-Like

Occasionally, we discuss genre, and largely this is limited to film and literature, but there’s a particular problem with looking at the use of genre in a ludic context. In short: video games handle genre in a decidedly weird fashion, and it’s worth commenting upon.

Analysis, Gaming, Written by: CameronCameron SummersNovember 10, 2021Hylics, Earthbound, Persona 5, video games, Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass, Lisa: The Painful, YIIK: A Postmodern RPG, She Dreams Elsewhere, Off!, Get in the Car Loser!, Yume Nikki, Citizens of Earth, GenreComment