Finishing up the list

Just found this today, and loved it... but anyways, I think I'll wrap up the explanations behind the List that I started over in it's comments section.


The Dark Knight:
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to properly live my life. I believe in pacifism, and honesty pretty much to a fault. The Dark Knight was a good examination of the ways in which the world doesn't always function in the ideal, and the question faced when, as they say, "the truth isn't good enough." It's given me a great deal of food for thought, and allowed me to have some reference for various issues that my personal philosophies face.

The Prestige:
Beyond being just good entertainment, I'm constantly brought back to the argument as to what is true magic. Is it being able to fool everyone completely, to have a trick that is completely impenetrable. Or is the look on their faces when they are confronted by "magic". I face this own conundrum when I want to design a game, is it the depth of simulation and immersion that I aim for, or the fun factor and childlike wonderment. Much like The Prestige, I don't really have an answer... yet.

How to Save a Life - The Fray:
For the first time in my life, I felt some real empathy with how my parents must have felt in having to deal with me as a child and teenager. I heard the song when I was about 17 I think, so it really sort of mellowed me out for a bit.

Toxicity - System of a Down:
Don't have a good explanation for this one. I was playing the end of the game Oni with song on repeat, so the two kind of merge together. But the image of a "toxic city" is kind of burned into my mind, though I tend to equate the toxicity with certain people not with any literal toxins.

Adam's Song - Blink 182:
Listening to this while suicidally depressed actually helped me. Mainly because I kept thinking that "Adam" should tell his mom it's not her fault himself... which would require him being alive. Getting that third person perspective on it really helped me to not go through with anything.

Define Normal - Julie Anne Peters:
A, the first book I ever read that had a clinically depressed person who just slept all day. B, The first time I encountered literature that actually made me feel that being different was okay.

Keeping You A Secret - Julie Anne Peters:
I wound up picking this up at the library on a whim... best whim ever. The book follows the life a high school girl as she discovers for herself that she is gay, and then being outed before she can come out, and getting kicked out of her house... It's kind of cathartic, but then I later found most lesbian literature about that time of life usually is. Of course, I found this before I came out, and it's always sort of... well it's kind of like this strange ray of hope that at least you're not alone.

Luna - Julie Anne Peters:
I'm not really very much at all like Luna, but it's definitely the only fiction book I've read that actually deals with Gender Identity Disphoria in a realistic manner. Partially because it deals with the past, the fact that it isn't a new issue that pops up after puberty but rather something that you deal with for your entire life.

Something About Us - Daft Punk
Love... never had it, but I like to think it's out there. Of course, I've been avoiding it too, never seemed like the right time... if you listen to the song I think why that's important will make a bit more sense.

I think I'll cover the games in another post. But If anyone reading this still has my Birth Prototype, I think you'll see the direct effect of Mass Effect, Mechwarrior 2 and Escape Velocity.