Il morgante maggiore @nonmorgan - Tumblr Blog

i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

technofeudalism

since this post blew up, i've been wanting to do an addition with all of the recommendations from the comments and tags. but there's a lot of them. some people might be crazy enough to sit down and seriously put them all in one post with descriptions. those people are honestly sick in the head.

anyway, here's all of the recommendations from the reblogs. not all of them are text-based, but it's a great mixture of styles. also don't forget the links in the second paragraph of the OP which will take you to FMHY where there are a bunch more games listed.

Games

A Dark Room - text-based science fiction role-playing game.

corru.observer - science fiction adventure web game.

Improbable Island - old-school text adventure game.

Candy Box 2 - incremental clicker game that evolves into RPG.

Arcanum - open source wizard clicker game.

sandspiel, Powder Game, Powder Game 2, The Powder Toy - more sand physics games.

Orb.Farm - fishtank simulator.

Façade - experimental game with a real-time interactive narrative where you try to fix a failing marriage.

The Catacombs of Solaris - trippy art game.

Yume Nikki Online - online version of the surreal classic plus fangames.

The Barncle Goose Experiment - combine element/alchemy game based on antique theories of abiogenesis.

Fallen London - free-to-play text-based open world RPG.

Nested - very unique text-based universe expanding game. described as possibly @orteil42's favorite thing he's ever made.

The Process of Elimination - interactive web novel (by @hypertextdog)

Discworld MUD - multiplayer, text-based, online game (a MUD, or text MMORPG) based on the Discworld books.

Horse Master - surreal text game about training a horse.

EYEZMAZE - flash (RIP) or HTML5-based puzzle games.

You Are Jeff Bezos - text game. spend Jeff Bezos' fortune.

The Password Game - challenging puzzle game where you have to meet password requirements (by neal)

Universal Paperclips - incremental paperclip making game.

Half-Earth - planetary disaster planning game where you try to save the world using socialism.

ChooseYourStory - community-driven website centered on CYOA style story games.

PhD Simulator - random event based text game. make your choice each month and see if you can graduate on time.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - open source roguelike.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - turn-based survival roguelike set in the modern day.

Nethack - open source roguelike originally released in 1987.

FarmRPG - simple, mobile-friendly, text-based farming RPG.

Kingdom of Loathing - browser-based community MMORPG.

PokeRogue - browser-based Pokemon roguelike

Tools

Text Game Builder - works in your browser, with just a little bit of Python (by @grumpygandalf)

Twine - great (free!) tool for making text-based games quickly.

Ink - scripting language for interactive fiction (also free)

Flashpoint Archive - a community effort to preserve games and animations from the web.

PICO-8 - fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs.

Non-Games

Library of Babel - interactive illustration which attempts to simulate what it might be like to browse The Library of Babel.

Superbad - technically not a game, sprawling website full of secrets.

17776 - serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative about football in the far-future. beautiful, creative, legendary. created by Jon Bois, a legend and one of my favorite writers of all time.

Choice of Games - text-based, choose-your-own-adventure games (interactive fiction). some free-to-play, others can be bought like an ebook.

The Deep Sea - scroll to the bottom of the ocean. encounter the humble squid and his friends (by neal)

Space Elevator - like The Deep Sea, but up instead of down. you can equip your avatar with a scarf (by neal)

Internet Artifacts - an interactive history of the early internet (by neal)

If The Moon Were Only One Pixel - scroll through an accurately scaled model of the universe.

r/incremental_games - reddit community for incremental games.

r/WebGames - reddit community for web games in general.

thank you to everyone who contributed and the creators. please be sure to show them some love where possible.

monchursouls

Reblogging the update too

knightofleo

Cats by Léo Forest

naxalbari1967

How the U.S. Perfected Modern Genocide

The United States has killed more people directly than any other power in modern history. That isn’t opinion, that’s just arithmetic. This country didn’t just become a superpower overnight through some mythical democratic process or capitalist innovation. It clawed its way to the top through centuries of slavery, genocide, coups, bombings, chemical warfare, and CIA wet work that make Nazi Germany look like amateurs in comparison. From the moment European settlers set foot on Turtle Island, the foundation of the US was blood and conquest. Entire Indigenous nations were wiped out so white colonists could plant tobacco and cotton. Millions of Africans were stolen, raped, murdered, and forced to build the American economy. That’s not a footnote. That’s how the entire system began.

But the machine didn’t stop at the border. It never does. Once the land was stolen and fenced off, once the internal colonies were established, the US started exporting death. Let’s start with Korea. By the time the Korean War ended in 1953, the US had carpet bombed the North so relentlessly that entire cities were flattened, reduced to rubble, even dams and rice paddies were bombed to cause flooding and starvation. Conservative estimates say over 3 million Koreans were killed, most of them civilians. They dropped more napalm on Korea than they ever did on Vietnam. That wasn’t a war. It was extermination.

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. Everyone knows about the 2 to 3 million Vietnamese killed by US forces, but fewer talk about the half a million Laotians and Cambodians who died because of secret bombings and operations like Operation Barrel Roll and Menu. They turned the jungle into a graveyard. Millions of gallons of Agent Orange poisoned soil and water, leading to generations of birth defects and cancer. And when the Vietnamese finally pushed the US out, what did Washington do? It backed the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. That’s right. The same genocidal regime that murdered nearly 2 million people got support from the US because they were enemies of the Vietnamese communists. That’s how little human life matters to the empire. It will arm anyone to stop socialism.

Latin America was turned into a US testing ground for counterinsurgency. Operation Condor, CIA black sites, School of the Americas, and death squads trained by US advisors and funded by US taxpayers murdered hundreds of thousands. Chile. Argentina. El Salvador. Guatemala. Nicaragua. Every time workers or peasants rose up to demand dignity, Washington sent in guns, tanks, and psychological warfare to shut it down. In Guatemala alone, over 200,000 people were killed during the US backed civil war. Entire Mayan villages were wiped out. This wasn’t abstract foreign policy. It was a systematic extermination of any movement that dared challenge capitalism.

Iraq. Don’t even get started on Iraq. First the Gulf War, then a decade of sanctions that killed over half a million children according to UNICEF. Madeleine Albright famously said we think the price is worth it. Worth it. For what? To crush a regional power and control the oil market. Then came the 2003 invasion. Over a million Iraqis dead. Entire cities like Fallujah destroyed. The use of depleted uranium munitions caused cancer rates to skyrocket. Hospitals were bombed. Water systems destroyed. And it was all based on lies. Weapons of mass destruction that never existed. And no one was ever held accountable.

Afghanistan. Twenty years of occupation. Tens of thousands dead. Drones flying twenty four seven, raining hell on weddings, funerals, homes. Entire families erased by a button pressed in Nevada. Children born and raised under occupation, with nothing but rubble and checkpoints to show for it. And when the US finally left, it froze Afghanistan’s central bank funds, ensuring that the economy collapsed. People starved. Girls sold into marriage. All to punish the Taliban by punishing everyone.

Libya was the richest country in Africa by many standards under Gaddafi. Free education, healthcare, electricity. So of course the US and NATO had to destroy it. They funded jihadists, bombed the infrastructure to dust, and left the country in chaos. Now there are literal slave markets in Libya. Open air auctions of Black men sold for labor. That’s what American freedom leaves behind.

And don’t forget drone strikes in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan. Thousands killed in countries the US was never at war with. Double tap strikes that kill rescuers. Signature strikes that don’t even target a name, just suspicious patterns of behavior. That’s how you get entire wedding parties and farming villages blown to pieces with no accountability. No justice. Just endless death from the sky.

Israel. One of America’s top clients. Billions in military aid every year. And what do they do with it? They flatten Gaza, kill journalists, bomb schools and hospitals, assassinate Palestinian leaders and call it self defense. Israel exists as a forward base for American imperialism. Its security is used to justify US hegemony in the Middle East. Palestinians die every day at the hands of an apartheid regime built with American weapons and backed with American vetoes at the UN. The US didn’t just enable that. It engineered it.

Let’s talk coups. Iran 1953. US and UK overthrew a democratically elected prime minister and put a dictator back on the throne. Chile 1973. Pinochet’s fascist coup backed by the CIA killed thousands. Congo 1961. Patrice Lumumba, the anti colonial leader, assassinated with CIA help. Haiti. Honduras. Indonesia. Everywhere people rise up, the US sends bullets, not ballots. Over 80 coups and regime change operations since World War II. All in defense of capital.

Even at home the death machine runs nonstop. Mass incarceration. Police shootings. No healthcare. No maternity leave. Forty million people in poverty in the richest country on earth. Tens of thousands die every year from preventable diseases. Black and Indigenous communities are overpoliced and underfunded. Drug overdoses. Suicides. Homelessness. America eats its own children and calls it freedom.

So no. The US hasn’t just killed more people directly than the rest of the world combined. It’s done so while pretending to be the savior of humanity. It’s done it while wrapping itself in the language of democracy and human rights. There is no deadlier lie than that. Every empire kills. But few have killed with such hypocrisy, such arrogance, and such indifference to the rest of humanity.

That’s the reality. Not the Hollywood myth. Not the textbook fairy tale. The real story is stained with blood, and that blood is still wet.

carlosmarcosapproved

gallusrostromegalus

At the gate for my flight home from visiting friends and there's a woman here with a service Shiba Inu. No pics because he has a Do Not Disturb vest and taking pics of strangers is illegal but I need to stress how ON DUTY this animal is. Ears up. Eyes doing Lazer scans of everything. Examining everyone who passes within 10ft like a security guard. Ass planted on her feet. I have never seen a dog with such intense chivalric guardian energy before. He has tiny eyebrows and they are FURROWED with concentration.

gallusrostromegalus

Man behind me having unhinged phone conversation. There is an internationally famous dairy in the area I was visiting and he was commissioned by the lady on the other end of the phone to collect specific cheeses from there. The lady is very high strung about the type and condition of the cheese.

The man does not know from cheese. The man "ain't never seen no cheese but orange before" and "I showed ya list to the cheese lady so if it's wrong it's her fault ok?"

I am 80% sure she sent him there for a really specific bleu cheese, 40% sure he does not have the very specific bleu cheese, and 100% sure he's done with her shit.

Our flight is delayed.

He does not have the cheeses in a cooler, just a regular backpack.

gallusrostromegalus

I need to emphasize that there is no cooler bag in the backpack. He has Jansport backpack that is jam-packed with cheeses. There is apparently $405 dollars worth of cheeses in that backpack, which I know because he has been trying to get the lady to venmo him the expense, which she has failed to do. It is unclear whether his relation to the lady is romantic, familial or what, but I'm leaning towards "what".

Two more people have joined us. One is a very elegant man with a perfect manicure in a tailored business suit, the other is a neon-haired person of indeterminate gender wearing a fox kirigumi. The Shiba Inu has been staring at the latter for three minutes now.

gallusrostromegalus

Uh oh.

Cheese man has been demanding payment because apparently he went like six hours out of his way and paid with his own money and between the cheese and price of gas, he is pretty sure he does not have enough money in his account for an Uber home.

The lady is FLABBERGASTED that he is demanding payment at all, as she was under the impression he was doing this for her out of the goodness of his heart.

He's not having it. He's insisting she told him she would pay him back- he would have gotten her maybe one cheese somewhere closer to his business in the area out of love, but he went out of his way because she agreed to pay him costs+ extra to cover it.

gallusrostromegalus

HE RECORDED THE CONVERSATION IN WHICH SHE PROMISED TO PAY FOR THE CHEESE, SHE'S THAT MUCH OF A FLAKE.

I am about to offer this man cash for some of these cheeses because our flight is now more delayed.

gallusrostromegalus

"YOU ALWAYS DO THIS! YOU ALWAYS DO THIS AND I FALL FOR IT EVERY TIME! NO! NO! FUCK YOU! IF YOU'RE NOT GONNA PAY ME, YOU DON'T GET FANCY CHEESE."

"OR ELSE WHAT?"

"I'm gonna-? THE BABY SHOWER? MONICA CAN'T EVEN HAVE THIS CHEESE SHE'S PREGNANT!"

"The cheese lady asked if it was for someone because the mushrooms or whatever in the cheese are dangerous for the baby or something?? You wanna poison Monica?"

"WHY WOULD I LIE ABOUT THAT?"

"YEAH OF COURSE I GOT THE CHEESE, THATS WHY I DON'T GOT MONEY FOR UBER!"

"YEAH, GO TELL! GO TELL MOMMA I STOPPED YOUR STUPID ASS FROM KILLING MONICA OR THE BABY! FUCK!"

*hangs up phone*

*head in hands, borderline hyperventilating*

The man in the three piece suit is in the chair next to him. He waits a moment, then reaches into his carryon and pulls out an entire bottle of wine with the TSA pre check sticker on it, and taps cheese guy on the shoulder.

"If your friend doesn't want it, would you be amenable to having it right now?"

gallusrostromegalus

Naturally, I have volunteered my box of wheat thins and offered to buy one of the harder cheeses which should be fine if it makes it home.

gallusrostromegalus

Meanwhile, Kirigumi has noticed that the Shiba Inu is staring at her and is correctly intimidated.

gallusrostromegalus

1. This is some fucking great Camembert. I have compensated cheese guy accordingly. So have like six other people. He's recouped like half his losses.

2. Cheese guy is crying a little about the cash and opening up about his problems. The cheese lady is his younger sister. Suit guy is being very generous with his Pinot Blanc. We are having a picnic/improv family therapy session.

3. This is apparently the latest in a long string of his sister asking for something and then flaking when he asks to be paid back. Started with paying him back only some of what he was owed, then claiming something she paid for him was of equal value when it was not, then recently telling him his memory is wrong and he said it was a gift or that he'd do it for free.

"Yeah, the specific thing of trying to convince you your memory is unreliable is called gaslighting and it's really fucked up." I say

"yeeeeah. The other stuff I forgave because she's never really had a good job so she can't pay me back all the time but at least she was making an effort y'know? But that was. That was over the line."

"If you haven't already, check on the rest of your family's finances. My brother started trying to gaslight everyone when he started stealing from our parents." Says Pinot Blanc.

4. Shiba Inu Lady has purchased a cheddar. Apparently, the dog's name is Donut, and he's her service dog because she's severely visually impaired.

"Oh, he's a guide dog?" Asks cheese guy.

"oh, no." She laughs. "He's too short, and the way my eyes are, it's easier for me to navigate with a cane. No, the problem I have is that some morally impaired people see the cane and think they can get away with stealing my bag or assaulting me because I wouldn't be able to give a description- which is wrong, but rather than deal with that I got Donut, and he helps me by howling at anyone who gets in my personal space and biting anyone who grabs me!"

"Uh." Says Kirigumi. "He's been staring at me do I need to back up or..?"

"Ohdear! No, no- He wasn't looking at you! He loves cheese but he knows he's not supposed to beg so he decided the way to deal with something he wants but can't have is to stare in the other direction."

"OKAY!" Says Kirigumi. "I'm wearing fox pajamas and thought like. He thought I was another dog or something."

"No, no- he doesn't care about dogs, and you get a warning before he goes for the calves. Very helpful, when I was living in Italy!"

"Oh what part? I have family in Tuscany." Says Pinot.

"Does he want a cheese? There is still so much cheese." Says cheese guy.

gallusrostromegalus

Plane may be arriving. I am paying for in flight WiFi to keep y'all updated.

gallusrostromegalus

1. Cheese guy has sold all but two or three cheeses that he an Pinot are going to eat on the flight.

2. I know they're planning to continue because Pinot talked to the gate agent so he and cheese guy can sit together and talk about family drama and cheese.

3. Pinot has been teaching him about different types of cheese and how to enjoy them.

4. Cheese guy apparently repairs computers and other technology devices for a living and is currently doing the software version of scraping barnacles and other crap off Pinot'macbook.

5. Pinot is now convinced that cheese guy is the smartest and most interesting man in the world.

gallusrostromegalus

Ok so the Wifi wasn't working on the plane (also like, nonstop turbulence) and also they got seated in a different row from me, but:

Now that I've heard the word aloud, and they are an astrophysicist. Who correctly believes in being comfy as fuck on planes. They are also familar with the concept of a meet-cute and is rooting for them too.

Got to walk the nice lady and her Tactical Assault Shiba to her next gate because it was on the way out and talk for a bit. Donut is called that not because he is the color of a Donut (which he is) but because he likes to sleep curled up in a perfect circle. He has a sister who does the same thing named Bagel.

Lost track of Pinot and Cheeseguy for a bit but when I saw them again at Baggage claim, Cheeseguy was holding both their jackets, and Pinot was on the phone to his hotel about "Well do you have any rooms with TWO beds?". The rest of the call indicated that yes, there were rooms with two beds, but Readers, I Had A Moment.

Anyway, it's 2AM, I need to sleep, if you feel like supporting this kind of hard-hitting reporting, I have a Tip Jar!

thatclockworkdoll

Happy (late) Pride Month to Cheese Guy and Pinot Blanc

kaijuno

Who that man

hollow-head

blorbo from my petroglyphs

horror-aesthete

The Twilight Zone, 1963, dir. David Lowell Rich

SE04E14 Of Late I Think of Cliffordville

regexkind

Found a CD binder with several hundred disks. Each CD has an hour of recorded audio; the audio is about two dozen tracks of the sound wind makes when it passes through trees. The disks are organized alphabetically by species; many of these species are extinct, extinct before the rise of audio recording and indeed before the rise of humankind. There is no indication as to provenance. One of the disks has a big scratch down the middle and the label is struck through; however I surmise from context that it is some subspecies of apple.

gayforcarstairsgirls

"came back wrong" but it's food that you heated up in the microwave

abalidoth

OK SO

For anyone who hasn't heard my Microwave Rant:

Microwaves are designed to be used at a broad range of power levels. If you're getting bad results reheating your food, and you're doing everything on full blast, try a lower power setting! 50% power for twice the time, just give it a shot. It gives the heat time to spread evenly, and prevents overcooking of parts that are exposed to more radiation.

People complain about reheated pizza a lot -- that's bc overheating the crust makes it tough and chewy. I usually do pizza on 30% power for THREE times as long because it's especially vulnerable -- and my crust always comes out nice and tender.

I think there's a good metaphor for Came Back Wrong here too: if you actually take the time to do your necromantic ritual and/or unholy experiment right, and don't rush it at 100% power, you're likely to get better results.

mouseonamoose

Since reading this post and following its advice, my microwaved good comes out so much better.

archenarrow

Since reading this post a d following its advice, my necromantic rituals have come out so much better.

drunp-archive-deactivated201711

this is peak Craigslist

impuretale

I want to know if they got answers.

finninsanelycoolish-deactivated

I really wanna know how this turned out.

chemmonkey-deactivated20230109

Just so you guys know.

hydok

cracking open 500 cold ones with the dads

out-there-on-the-maroon

“over 100 hopeful dads applied for the position” omg this is so lovely.

I love that the internet enables things like this.

oldschoolfrp

Pseudo-Dragen was a Danish RPG zine that published 11 issues from 1985-87 (above: covers for issue #1, August 1985; #2, November 1985; #6, autumn 1986)

bogleech

I know it's unfair vilification and stuff but it's also a lot of fun to see old media and stuff where people were SO scared of big animals like lions, sharks, crocodiles and wolves were fully expected to just come and eat you the moment you stepped into their territory. In older media we also made that assumption about gorillas and in still older we thought it'd be whales. But some animals that will actually fuck you up got left behind. Boars will kill you and eat you. They're way more likely to do so than any of those other things actually. Hippos, obviously, got off like bandits always being depicted as cute and dopey. And then there's the squids. Not giant kraken size squids. The eight foot squids that hunt in packs and will fuck you up if you fall in the water at night. I can't BELIEVE people slept on that. It's like all they cared about were the huge deep sea ones we never see. The medium size wolf pack squids were right there.

bogleech

Oh some of you don't know about the squids. I talked about them in another thread that went kinda viral somewhere or other but one of the reasons you should not swim in the open ocean at night in many parts of the world is that the water starts teeming with these:

And as you can see it is not like instant death, they too are just animals and they are often just gently curious about the presence of humans! But people who study and dive with sharks will tell you you're safe as long as you stay calm and know what you're doing. The world's leading professional night divers and experts on these squids, specifically??? Stress in every interview and article and paper they write in that you simply do not fuck around with these squids. They know what they're doing and they still all have at least one story of being attacked, in some cases having to be hospitalized. Considering just how rarely anybody puts themselves in the pitch dark nighttime ocean on purpose, let alone during a squid feeding frenzy, it sounds like they're quite a bit more likely to consider you potential food than other marine predators. We also don't know how many fatal attacks might have ever happened, because what humboldt squid like to do with large prey is just drag it away into the darkness forever. The two worst attacks ever proven involved two or three squid at a time latching on to a diver (in BOTH cases they were professionals and knew the risk!) and jetting straight downward with enough force that both divers suffered injury from the sudden pressure change alone, including burst eardrums, nearly passed out and they probably would have died if they hadn't broken free. In general, people who die drowning in the dark open ocean are either never found, or they're found in pieces picked over by enough scavengers that the precise cause of death can only be narrowed down to "the sea." But now you know ONE of "the sea's" possible murder weapons :)

There's a short section on Humboldt squid in Wikipedia's entry for Cephalopod attacks on humans:

And if you can get past some of Animal Planet's hokey presentation style, this video includes a bit of interview with one of those professional experts who still got nearly squidded from existence:

There is of course some debate about all this, with some arguing that all proven documented attacks occurred on people with reflective diving equipment, which they say the squid must have mistaken for the shine of fish. However, there are lots and lots of people who have to fish around these squids to survive, who do not have access to that kind of equipment, and also have a consensus that if you fall in the water when big squids are out hunting you might disappear without a trace or perhaps just get your head bitten open. With many modern science guys agreeing with this sentiment, this is one case where the "they're just misunderstood sea friends" crowd is kind of outnumbered. The sea at night is theirs and not ours is all. It's not ours during the day either but since we are neither marine nor nocturnal animals we are double fools in the eyes of the squids, which by the way are these eyes:

No for real:

my-ants-are-anxious

Absolutely! Also, the Humboldt squid will hunt in packs, sometimes with one flashing brightly to draw attention while the others approach in near unseeable camoflage!

bogleech

Beautiful footage of the nefarious sea demons also :)

Also because I can't reblog every addition together:

Okay where's the other 1199

spiralshellsreblogs

I absolutely adore Humboldt squid. I saw a doc once where a scientist was cage diving to study them, and one of the squid squeezed it's entire massive body through the cage bars, bit the guy and squeezed right back out.

bogleech

Why isnt this an animal that's already long gone viral like honey badgers once did. This is the animal that actually gives no fucks. People really are just that obsessed with bigger squids I guess? But the bigger ones frankly come across as big softies in comparison. One big sea monster can never be as intimidating as a thousand coordinated man sized sea monsters.

This is why I thought that if mermaids had a cultural equivalent to lycanthropy it'd be weresquids. Fun fact nocturnal marine life increases activity on the brightest nights ie the full moon.

lasrina

This is all fascinating but I'm reblogging it exclusively for the phrase "got nearly squidded from existence."

bhaalbab3-deactivated20250712

nonmorgan

My 3 girlfriends (they smoke weed)

folly-of-alexandria

This LAPD officer shot a rubber round into Australian Journalist Lauren Tomasi while she was live reporting on the police escalation during today's (June 8th, 2025) protest against ICE's mass kidnappings.

LAPD fired rubber bullets at Australian journalist @laurentomasi.bsky.social

tookishcombeferre

Phantom of the Opera: How Much Did Opera Actually Influence Erik's Understanding of the World?

So, I love monster lit. A lot of folks know this if you've been following the blog.

I'm also a huge fan of opera. Like literal opera.

And, operas are really interesting because they're kind of, stylistically, marked by a couple of different things - style, forms, and whether they're tragic or comedic. However, you don't often get like ... blends? You can. Kinda. But, generally, like Shakespearean tragedies or comedies everyone's either gonna end up dead or married.

And, that made me think about Erik.

We have no darn clue how old he was per Leroux's timeline (because he was a prodigy and a genius) when he ended up under the opera house.

So, how many social experiences did Erik really have?

How much of his entire social world was filtered through the tragedy and comedy of opera?

Part of the reason I say this is because if you look at his relationship with The Persian it takes on flares of the sort of combative nature of operetic friendship. They fight. There's drama. They're rivals. Then, they're buddies. There's no stability. It's all drama, mostly put there by Erik.

But, again. That's what he knows! It's all he knows.

Even his relationship with Christine fascinates me.

If you look at his dialogue, he wants a friend.

He wants someone to hold his arm and take walks with him because he doesn't want to be alone. He wants someone to end his solitude. He wants to keep coaching her in music. He wants her to be the prima donna of the opera.

That's all he *really* says he wants.

Yet, he says he wants to marry her.

Why?

In comedic operas, everyone gets married in the end. That's how the happily ever after *works.* It doesn't matter if that's not what he actually wants, or if that's what she wants. It only matters that that's how the plot of the opera is supposed to work. In order to have stability, in order for the tragedy to stop, the marriage has to happen.

Erik fundamentally lacks the language of friendship.

He doesn't understand what it looks like, what it's supposed to feel like, what living is like, because he has no lived experiences of his own to draw from.

So, instead, he draws from the beautiful lyrical poetry of opera. He draws from what he knows and loves most to understand the world around him because it's all he HAS.

He uses the word "wife" because it's the only word he has to understand the complex intimate feelings he has for "best friend." He uses the word "wife" because marriage is the "fix-it" in almost all operatic comedies across all forms of comedy operas whether it's a Buffa (Think Barber of Seville) or Comique (This is probably what Webber was referencing with opera the chandelier crashes in although it could also have been an Operetta, as that incorporates dance, or perhaps it may have been a form of Grand Opera set in the current period, though that is less likely. It was likely a Comique because those were often about relatable characters in the current French culture of the 19th century. But, I'm getting in the weeds.)

Anyway, as soon as the world is brought to Erik, as soon as Christine recognizes his humanity, he is able to understand it.

One of my favorite, and perhaps the most important details in the Leroux text, is that Christine kisses Erik's *forehead.* She does not kiss his lips at any point in the story that I can remember?

In fact, Leroux seems to very intentionally make Erik and Christine's relationship quite asexual in nature. I never really noticed that as a young person, but I *did* very much notice it when I re-read the story as an adult. It's something I appreciate a lot about what Leroux seems to be doing and his commentary on human beings in general.

However, as soon as Christine recognizes Erik as a person, as soon as she kisses his forehead, he lets her go. He no longer wishes to marry her. It's like something is released in him, and he lets everyone he has been holding captive go. He no longer threatens to blow up the opera house and himself and everyone with it.

Christine and Raoul (who were childhood besties) run off together, and Erik dies of a broken heart.

But, if you look at his dialogue carefully, I don't think he dies because he wanted Christine romantically and didn't get to marry her. Instead, he compares her tears mingling with his to that of an angel's tears, and he goes on to talk about his *mother.* He talks about how his own mother never touched his face or kissed him. Yet, this girl looked at him, touched his face, and didn't die.

He fully expected anyone who kissed his face to die.

Yet, this perfect and pure angelic girl did not die when she kissed his forehead.

The way Erik talks in this is oddly paternal?

It's very different than the way he has spoken in past chapters of the novel.

In recognizing Erik's humanity, in bringing the world outside of operatic comedies or tragedies, Christine helped Erik make *sense* of the world, his feelings, and emotions. Marrying this girl is never what Erik really wanted.

He wanted a companion. He wanted a best friend. He wanted someone to walk with him when the world was too frightening after all the abandonment he had experienced.

And, his heart is broken knowing that he will never get to have that. He lost it in his own madness.

And, in that way, Leroux is right. We should pity Erik because if he had only been born a "normal" man he would have been a genius. But, things being what they were, he ended up lonely, confused, and broken hearted.

And, I would *love* to see an actor play Webber's Phantom in this way. Start him HUGE as though the only way he knows how to behave is in grandeur and, as the show progresses, make him more intimate. Take the energy from a 6 when we first meet him, up to a 10+ as Red Death, but then afterwards? Back down.

As he's losing it, he's softer. He's smaller. He's more intimate in his fury. He's scared.

So, at the very end, all is quiet. That final "Christine, I love you." And, he finally understands what that really means to him. So, it's just lightly sung. That exchange of rings is more pleasant. Nods are cordial. Maybe even a little hand clasp. There's understanding. It's soft. So, soft.

Even that last "It's over now, the music of the night?" So, stealthy. Don't belt. Just ... light. So light.

Like he's talking to himself and calling himself "Poor unhappy Erik."

As an autistic transmasc-nonbinary contralto. I would love to play this role. I can hit the notes enough to "pants" it in the original key too. I know. I've practiced.

So, anyway, thank you for coming to my TED-talk about why I think opera influenced Erik's understanding of relationship and how human kindness helped him to understand what he actually wanted for his real life.

beemovieerotica

ladyshinga

OceanGate, the deep-sea exploration company that created the Titan submersible, has removed its Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn a

poor things, well we should definitely make this easier on them by never repeatedly mentioning their name and deeds on the "reblog things forever" website

septicake

yea that'd be a shame

by the way, just so everyone knows what not to do, shift+r reblogs a post instantly

just make sure you don't reblog anything about oceangate because that would completely undermine their entire plan 😇😇😇

curoopeez

You also shouldn't queue a post, that would make people keep remembering this post for a longer time, which is the opposite of forgetting

ralfmaximus

June 18, 2023 never forgor

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Il morgante maggiore