Der PigDog's PigBlog

Here is what happens to Odysseus: Right before the Trojan War, O and Penelope have a son, Telemachus. Penelope doesn't want O to go to war, and instead asks him to sail with her into the west. We learn that Zeus's Law is the golden rule, and binds a host's conduct to a guest, and vice versa. The penalty for breaking Zeus's Law is death or exile.  O makes a cunning plan to give the Trojans a gift, you know the one, which will violate Zeus's Law and defeat the Trojans. He tricks Eliot Page, who is on his side, because Eliot "needed to believe it", that the gift really is a gift. Eliot Page dies. Once O is inside the city, he lets Agamemnon and the Greeks into the city, and follows behind Agamemnon. The Greeks massacre the Trojans, including, especially, noncombatants and priests. O realizes he has broken Zeus's Law for everyone forever. He no longer wants to return home. He sees himself as a follower of Agamemnon, which makes him sick, and also as a sui ...

Recently I have been reading a lot of comics, including a lot of Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, Miracleman, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Watchmen, From Hell). A mixed bag, but he constantly opens up interesting topics. In this series of posts I'm going to go through each of his writings that I have read, in publication order. I'm particularly interested in Moore's treatment of race, sex, gender, and authority. I'll try to talk about art as I go, but I'm not well-educated on the topic. Consequently I'll be giving the artist short shrift, and probably assigning Moore too much responsibility in plotting and conceptualizing the comic.  V for Vendetta I first read this as a child, without any strong preconceptions for what comics "are like" or "should be". Therefore its innovative formal qualities were totally lost on me. I had no idea that comics didn't usually feature changed page orientations or musical interludes, a...

 Here's my prep for the game: There's some heavy stuff in there; content warning for sexual violence, drugs, and all kinds of prejudiced -phobias.  A disclaimer about the depiction of Mormons in this scenario: it's totally fictional. I know/have known many Mormons, none of whom were serial killers. This scenario is based on a paranoid fantasy of Mormon-Pentecostal syncretists. Unlike modern Mormons, the villains in this scenario still believe in polygamy (now forbidden by the Church of Latter-Day Saints), they make and take drugs (always forbidden by the LDS), they worship the cross, speak in tongues, and handle snakes (Mormons don't worship the cross, and the latter two activities are Pentecostal), and they kidnap, rape, and impregnate women to serve as their "wives" (which is not something I associate with any modern religion). Prep and writing  This scenario evolved from a dream I had, in which killer hillbilly farmers worked a pumpkin patch, and simultaneo...

Sometimes it's ok to have a movie with no subtlety whatsoever, especially if the movie blows straight past "blatant" and into "ridiculous". Plus the concept is good (though derivative; I thought about Seconds (1966) and The Picture of Dorian Grey (1890) throughout) and inspired deep emotion in my partner and me. The acting and practical effects are mostly outstanding (with one bad scene by Moore, though I think it's the script's fault more than hers). On the other hand, every single important beat is repeated two or even three times, sometimes literally, and by the end I was waiting for the movie to conclude. The last half hour really dragged. A strong 3/5. Goofy robe, what's up with the dragon? Anyway, how I would rewrite/re-edit the movie. (This is something I think about for most artworks -- what would I do differently, to preserve its core and show it in a clearer light?) Lots of stuff is going to stay the same, and so I won't bother listi...

We did a bit of a refresher since it had been two or three weeks since the last session . Refreshed both rules and the situation at play. I explained the string economy and asked everybody what their character had done last session. Everybody was, of course, able to remember their own activities, with just a few additions from me. I also read through the list of thematic objects, and asked if everybody was interested in them, and told them that if they wanted another topic dealt with, they had to bring it into play themselves, but that they can always talk about it outside play too. I wanted to revisit some threads that got skipped over last time. Evann's Fae had gone for a walk in the woods with her friend before the party; what happened there? I was interested in her feeling of alienation/inhumanity, and I wanted to push her into some decision about her place among humans. So I had the Green Woman, the Fae's mother, a 7 foot tall naked green lady, freeze time and greet her d...

CW necrophilia Here's the playlist I made and have been listening to as I prep the game: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ih9SFciZe1a38sHqXWDsP?si=d7552f0144114e5f Played with my partner Misha, our friend Divya, Divya's boyfriend Ken, and our friend Evann. Misha has played a little bit of wargamey DND with me, Misha and Divya have played in the last session of Monsterhearts, and Ken played one session of some kind of DND before. Otherwise, no RPG experience. We spent a really long time -- maybe too long? -- talking about the nature of play, how it works, what the skins do. Ken and Divya (werewolf and ghost, respectively) chose their skins eagerly. Misha was happy with infernal, and Evann eventually settled on fae. The game is set in  Hudson, Ohio, where Ken grew up. 20k residents. Majority white. Educated, middle class or higher. Headquarters of Jo-Ann Fabrics. He did not like it there, and does not want to go back. The seating chart is still a great method of scenario prep. ...