Bookwarm Games

On the end of Xenogears. And then...  Xenogears OST   Creid arranged album   20th Anniversary Concert  

On Xenogears final gameplay chapter, First and Last, where I sat (figuratively) for twenty years playing cards, slaying dragons, looking at Christmas trees, and crafting Mermaid Rings, before finally beating the game a few weeks ago in preparation for this podcast :)

On Xenogears (the gear), Lacan's bid to 'Live!' and other late-game transformations

On sex and crucifixion in Xenogears

The hosts of the brilliant Retrograde Amnesia podcast join me to share some of the highlights of their chapter-by-chapter inspection of Xenogears. We ponder the cast from Citan to Big Joe, muse upon influences from gnosticism to anime--and our discussion here only hints at the super muchacho information to be found in their own comprehensive offerings on patreon . Thanks again, amigos!  We re...

On Xenogears' Anima Relics and the counterparts coming together here: the Elements, Ramsus, Hammer, and Cain 

Overview and tentative vindication of Xenogears' opening chapters of disc 2 

Leanna, aka Musical33, mod on the HDM Fandom Wiki, joins me once again, this time for a joyous discussion of season one of the new series. Spoilers abound!  https://hisdarkmaterials.fandom.com/f  

On ch 3 Scavengers and ch 4 Ama and the Bats, of The Amber Spyglass , by Philip Pullman  with "The Knight's Tomb," by Coleridge and "She lay as if at play," by Dickinson  https://newschoolnotes.blogspot.com/2020/02/gamecool-books-amber-spyglass.html 

The Gamecool Books podcast turns to The Amber Spyglass , the concluding volume in His Dark Materials , by Philip Pullman. Long-form discussions of the intertextual goodness branching out from the book in all directions, and of the depiction of consciousness at its heart, will be posted on a weekly-or-so basis, along with conversations with other fans and scholars. This page will also be updated wi...

In which we range over the contexts for game- and god-talk, with genial insights from my guest Moses Norton and some great audience input--many thanks to the Well-Red Mage for hosting my writing, cross-releasing this episode (with augmented audio) on his podcast, and letting me host him on this show! https://thewellredmage.com/ and see his Chrono Trigger dissertation  

Gabriel joins me to discuss the massive, rich, and challenging new book, The Secret Commonwealth , the second volume of Philip Pullman's Book of Dust.  After this interlude, I'll be picking up with The Amber Spyglass shortly!  Thanks for listening.   https://newschoolnotes.blogspot.com/2019/05/gamecool-books-subtle-knife-by-philip.html  

On Solaris, where we're head over heels , and on to the end of Disc 1 of Xenogears. If anyone knows what Citan's sword is saying with his elemental attacks, please teach me that sophistry or poetry or whatever it might be!  https://newschoolnotes.blogspot.com/2019/05/bookwarm-games-xenogears.html 

On ch 15: Bloodmoss, concluding The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman. With reference to The Journey of the Magi, by TS Eliot, and to the wrestling passage in Gen 32:24 more: https://newschoolnotes.blogspot.com/2019/05/gamecool-books-subtle-knife-by-philip.html 

On ch 14: Alamo Gulch, in The Subtle Knife , by Philip Pullman

On Xenogears' destroy the gate generator missions: the omnigear in the Mausoleum, the Republic of Aveh, tag-team battles on Babel Tower and Ft. Jasper, and Emeralda in Sargasso  With thanks to the Retrograde Amnesia podcast for a kind shout-out, and to Karnegal at the Let's Play Archive

Opening a discussion with the Argentine scholar Guillermo Lariguet on the philosophical context for Pullman's trilogy. This conversation was recorded piecemeal and built up from transmissions from Guillermo via whatsapp, with my responses.  "A Brief Examination of the Literary Trilogy by Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials " essay (in Spanish) on academia.edu and Erasmus online review:  h...

On Ch 13 Æsahættr, in The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman.  Word study: Fandom , wiktionary , Skaldic poetry ; Waking of Angantyr ; Icelandic dictionary And while you're looking that up, maybe you want to check out this band's Self-titled album

On ch 12: Screen Language, in Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife On Everett and his Many Worlds: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hugh-everett-biography/ Augustine on Angels: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p5.htm

On The Subtle Knife and Philip Pullman's epic tendencies. Many thanks to Faith Acker , lecturer and preceptor at Signum University, for joining me! See more about her course, The Life and Times of the English Epic: https://signumuniversity.org/catalog/the-life-and-times-of-the-english-epic/   And our conversation celebrating the release of The Secret Commonwealth, with Kris Swank and Gabriel...

On ch 11: The Belvedere, of The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman

On Xenogears' central chapters, from Zeboim to Shevat via Babel Tower, and what awaits you there

On ch 10: The Shaman, in Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife

On the simulacra and ekphrases of Xenogears' first half or so, continuing where our first talk left off. 

We touch on C.S. Lewis' "On Stories," which Pullman cites approvingly more than once: https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/lewiscs-onstories/lewiscs-onstories-00-h.html  Here's some information about the wall Gabriel mentioned, dividing rich and poor parts of Oxford:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2009/03/26/cutteslowe_feature.shtml It's very close to the Hornbeam trees (Sunderland...