An Ending Dis-/Like Hypothesis/Poll (Comparison with "A Canticle for Leibowitz")

[Robert Kosten]

Having played the game (including, of course, forming my own opinion about then ending) and *then* going through the discussions ,some reviews, etc. I have a literary theory I'd like to test. Those of you who finished the game AND have read "A Canticle for Leibowitz", could you please share whether you liked or disliked each work's ending? E.g. like/like if you liked both their endings?

I'll tally up the responses on 2024-07-17 and post results as well as my own position and hypothesis (I don't want to affect the responses, so I'm keeping those to myself for now; But since I'm a cryptography-nerd and believe in committing myself to honesty, here's the SHA256 for what I will post, so you can then go back and verify that I have not changed my position and hypothesis to suit the results: fb83f00b00b419519ac9517bb72424d72aa60c13c6ca9831575f21406f558f16)

[44]

I'm curious what connection you'd draw between the two.

I wholeheartedly like the ending of A Canticle for Leibowitz, it's a masterpiece from start to finish.

I'm more ambivalent toward the ending of "The Excavation of Hob's Barrow." If it's either/or, I would go with dislike.

A bad ending without alternatives can be fine, especially for a story-focused game. I think it's a fine idea to give the player more information than the protagonist, forcing them in a direction they know is irrational and won't end well. If you do that, of course, you're naturally going to open yourself up to criticism from those who like the character, don't like a bleak ending, etc., so it's better if the circumstances and decision-making are airtight. That's my issue with the ending here, it feels as if things are being contrived in an unbelievable way to make sure Thomasina does absolutely nothing to help herself (like a reverse deus ex machina). Things could have been improved a lot either by giving Thomasina less explicit flashing danger signs or a more gradual/convincing justification for her belief that she *must* do what she ended up doing.

I'd contrast it with The Wicker Man. Like in Hob's Barrow, the justification for the protagonist being alone in that situation in the first place is not very convincing. The difference is that in The Wicker Man, what the villagers have in mind for Sergeant Howie seems so out of bounds from his experience and expectation that you can understand not seeing things coming. Can't say the same for this game, good as it is overall.

[Robert Kosten]

Originally posted by 44:

I see why you'd compare those two, and I wholeheartedly agree about the Wicker Man having a setup where Howie cannot reasonably expect the Villagers to act like they do. I like Midsommar even better in that regard, with it slowly introducing more and more crass behaviour.
(Still don't want to spoil my opinion about Hob's Barrow/A Canticle for Leibowitz, obviously, so as for why I'm comparing them, I'll go into more detail on the 17th. It was just something that struck me rather forcefully as soon as I had finished Hob's Barrow.)

[Robert Kosten]

Hm, shame no more replies came, but it is what it is, no conclusions to be drawn from it :-) My statement was:

dislike/dislike; In both cases I have interpreted the work as having a strong rational, atheistic, etc. bend RIGHT UNTIL THE END, where that assumption crashed HARD, leaving me not merely disappointed, but outright offended, because the ending contradicts EXACTLY what I found most relatable and valuable about them. My hypothesis is that the poll will show a strong correlation at least for the double-dislikes.

I want to clarify that I *very* much liked both works, and while I think Canticle is irredeemably broken by going on a sudden "Jesus is reborn / Suicide is a SIN, not matter how painful your life is" diatribe (I have rarely read something I found so vile and outright evil, but then Religion isn't my crowd in the first place), Barrow has settled into more of a disappointment where my headcanon has a better ending.

INB4 "It's *Lovecraftian*, it's supposed to be like that": I've read all of HPLs fiction and a lot of works about him (I'm a fan, as much as his turned-up-to-eleven racism and xenophobia permit), and let me point out that his protagonists most often do NOT act irrationally (There are exceptions, like in The Festival, for example), but are driven by curiosity until the point where they either a) faint, b) go mad, or c) commit suicide. It's also worth noting that, strictly speaking, nothing in HPL is ever supernatural, it's just natural stuff *way* beyond human comprehension. In short I think the "Lovecraftian" tag is not applicable to Barrow.