Shutter Island is difficult to talk about. I find it difficult to even draw vague comparisons without worrying about giving away too much. I guess the main thing to say is that, going in, nothing is as it seems, and the story we think we are being told somehow turns, somehow slithers in our grasp, and turns itself into something else.
It’s a story about stories, and the roles they play in our lives, and how easily we can blind ourselves to the realities of our lives by wrapping them in a pleasant lie. The criminals of Shutter Island craft intricate narratives where they were the victims, or that everything is still fine, or tales so deeply personally byzantine that they cannot be told. It’s easy to see their flimsy fabrications for what they are from the outside, but to them they are utterly convincing, which raises the question:
On what grounds do we believe our own narrative? Why is our own history sacrosanct?
The only reason, seemingly, that this never bothers us, is because we are never told by nice men in white coats that it really really should.
Now: Coming up on ProMaRaRo this week:
Gravity’s Rainbow
Well, that’s what I drew. But, to be perfectly honest, I’m having a rough week, and this seems like the worst possible time to tackle an infamously dense, long, and difficult novel. I’m going to have to put it back in the jar, for now, regretfully. I was planning on going for at least three draws before exercising my privilege to swap things out, but… well, as I said, it’s been a rough week.
Thus: In place of this week’s draw, I’m substituting Anodyne. What do I know about this? I know it’s a top-down puzzle/adventure game with a retro style. It’s been compared to A Link to the Past, and to my senses the overall aesthetic seems similar to Chrono Trigger. I’ll be starting it today.