Book, movie, music recommendations?

[Rhiyo]

Such an interesting choice of game recommendations from the staff, would love to see the same thing but for the things I listed in the title from them :)

[PlagueMan]

Рекомендую фильм Карточный домик 1993 года. Сюжет чем-то напоминает идею Тургора) | I recomend the film Card house. The plot reminds of the game The Void.

[Xsnusmumrik]

Great idea! We will try.

[Rhiyo]

Great, I can't wait to see if the team does it :)

[NiceS]

Тёмный Город и 12 разгневанных мужчин 1957

[Joyeuse]

Might general media discussion between fans work here? I'd expect an Ice-Pick Lodge group to bring a pretty tasteful audience.

[Lark]

We are the tastiest audience!

[Tenebren]

Fan here with book thoughts.
First things that come to mind are the My Path to Magic books by Irina Syromyatnikova, and The Way of the Demon series by Alexey Glushanovsky, and Faculty of Fire by Alex Kosh. That said, the last two there only had the first books translated to english, and the translation was kind of terrible, especially on Faculty of Fire. I still enjoyed it, but...

Other books of interest would be stuff by Brandon Sanderson and Anne Bishop. I could go on, but zombies are trying to eat my brains and I must run from them now.

[13ventrm]

The first thing that comes to mind that's like Pathologic is Camus' book The Plague. Bunch of healers stuck in a town slowly dying of plague, moral dilemmas and general existentialist shenanigans ensue. I would very much like to find out about other media like Pathologic.

[Rhiyo]

The Plague sounds great! I'll definitely find a copy.

[Joyeuse]

I'll check Camus out too; cheers.

[karel2501]

So, I have always wondered about the literarlly inspirations behind the game.
Here are some authors I was strongly reminded off while playing it (and why):

Jorge Luis Borges. The whole overarching themes of several layers of meta-fiction, the characters becoming aware of the fact that they are fictional, the paradoxical work with time and space, and the general atmosphere of being trapped in a literal maze of thoughts and philosophical concepts. I was particulary reminded of Circular Ruins during the final dialogue in the second secret ending for some reason.

Franz Kafka. The sense of mudanity in absurdity, the "dream/nightmare described as real life" as some had summarized Kafka's work, felt like it's oozing out of every corner of the Settlement. Also, the whole position of the Authorities and the communication with them, particulary in Bachelor scenario felt extremely Kafka-esque to me.

Bruno Schulz. The theme of creation, often imperfect and even almost cancerous creation in particular. Entire city coming alive - especially with a significant role played by children, and ultimately the strange feeling of underlying sickness - works of Schulz are in many ways very different from Pathologic, but I found some curious shared undercurrents between the two.

Ray Bradbury. I thought of him almost instantly when I saw how the game handles the child characters. I was very happy when I heard Nikolay Dybowskiy confirming that impression was right.

Andrei Platanov. The whole "isolated city in the middle of steppes in the insanity of early 20th century" vibe reminded me of him strongly.

I also think that it's pretty natural to think of Brecht and Artaud when it comes to the game's threatement of theatrical motives.

If anyone feels like looking into any of these authors and does not know where to start just ask: I'll be happy to make recomendations.

[Rhiyo]

So much great sounding recommendations! I'm not entirely sure where to start with what you have suggested - may I ask where you would suggest starting?

[karel2501]

Originally posted by Rhiyo:

So much great sounding recommendations! I'm not entirely sure where to start with what you have suggested - may I ask where you would suggest starting?

Depends on which author seems most appealing to you.

With Borges - most of what he wrote were short stories that basically all fit a single book, called Ficciones.
However, it may be a question which stories do you want to start with. He can be very... unaccesible. Personally, I think that Circular Ruins, Garden of the Forking Paths, Death and Compass, Secret Miracle and House of Asterion might be the best ones to start with to see how his writing style suits you. His most famous stories, like Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, Funes the Memorious, Library of Babel, Immortals, Zahir etc... are more philosophical and might feel rather unpenetrable at first. My personal second-most favorite story of his, "Pierre Menard: Man Who Wrote Don Quixote" is probably the most extreme example of how crazy his work can get and might need more than one reading to enjoy. Generally speaking, he is an author that can make you shake your head and think "I don't know what the hell is he trying to tell me" more than once, and there is no shame in it.
As a side note, I would dare to say that getting him in any other translation than english is preferable. Maybe it's just me, but I don't like the english translation very much.

Franz Kafka, if you haven't read some things by him already, has a general rule "the shorter, the better". Besides Metamorphosis, I think his best works are all in a compendium called Country Doctor. Stories like "Worries of The Family Man", "Old Parchement", "Jackalls and Arabs" etc... His longer stuff, like Trial, Castle or Missing Man is also good, but I recomend the short stories first.

Bruno Schulz: Read Street of Crocodiles (also known as Cinnamon Shops - "Sklepy cynamonowe"). It's terrifying. And beautiful. He also wrote a good book called Senatorium Under The Sign of Hourglass, which might be interesting if you enjoyed the Street.

Bradbury is too prolific author for me to seriously be able to recomend specific stuff. I did enjoy the short stories he wrote between 50's and 60's the most. Just pick up anything: Illustrated Woman or some other general anthology of his short stories.

And finally Platanov: I'm not sure if he even wrote anything else than one book called Chevengur. It's by the way a book that I have been frequently told by my russian friends to be something like Finegan's Wake of Russian literature, and absolutely impossible to properly translate. I don't know, I've read a translation into my native language, and found it fascinating. It felt kinda like Master and Margarita by Bulghakov, similarly absurd, dark, off-worldish, but without the actual fantastic elements.

Hope this helps, and if anyone else wants to ask anything, or maybe add, or correct anything I said here, please feel free to do so.

[Rhiyo]

Thank you kindly. You've given me a very detailed explanation of each author and some of their stories... it'll take a while for me to workout which one to have a go at first, but I'll get back when I have to explain how I thought about it.

You're post was perfect for me, nothing to add or correct. Thank you!

[bocca_chiusa]

His name is Andrei Platonov, not Platanov. If I may correct.