Liam Connell
@liamconnell.bsky.social
Independent Scholar, Researcher & Policy Advisor. Australasian, he/him.
it's not precisely what you're talking about, but it feels very old-school 'adjust the direction of the show on the fly'
February 13, 2026 at 8:11 AM
it's not precisely what you're talking about, but it feels very old-school 'adjust the direction of the show on the fly'
There's an interesting modern example in 'Halt and Catch Fire,' which has one season of being a decent but dull Mad Men knock off. Then in series 2 it retools, moves the brooding anti-hero to support, makes the two female supports the main leads, and becomes an entirely more interesting beast.
February 13, 2026 at 8:11 AM
There's an interesting modern example in 'Halt and Catch Fire,' which has one season of being a decent but dull Mad Men knock off. Then in series 2 it retools, moves the brooding anti-hero to support, makes the two female supports the main leads, and becomes an entirely more interesting beast.
I mean, I love Andor and I think it's very good, but so much of the discussion focuses on the complex and ambitious things it does rather than the simple fact that it's the only recent Star Wars thing that goes 'let's just work with the fundamentals of story structure.'
February 10, 2026 at 3:18 AM
I mean, I love Andor and I think it's very good, but so much of the discussion focuses on the complex and ambitious things it does rather than the simple fact that it's the only recent Star Wars thing that goes 'let's just work with the fundamentals of story structure.'
Tthe old EU did realise that while everything - around - the Star Wars movies was designed to be sold to nerdy twelve year olds, and everything - in - the movies had to be acceptable to twelve year olds, under no circumstances could you let the movies be made only - by and for - twelve year olds.
February 10, 2026 at 3:16 AM
Tthe old EU did realise that while everything - around - the Star Wars movies was designed to be sold to nerdy twelve year olds, and everything - in - the movies had to be acceptable to twelve year olds, under no circumstances could you let the movies be made only - by and for - twelve year olds.
I feel that you have to reluctantly credit Pound as well. God awful human being, defended too long by people who thought genius excused his vileness. But he certainly was an artist.
February 9, 2026 at 10:11 AM
I feel that you have to reluctantly credit Pound as well. God awful human being, defended too long by people who thought genius excused his vileness. But he certainly was an artist.
*not that Socialist Realism was right wing, but that it represents a sort of art in the service of modernist autocracy.
February 9, 2026 at 2:13 AM
*not that Socialist Realism was right wing, but that it represents a sort of art in the service of modernist autocracy.
They can't satirise, only sneer. They can't celebrate, they can only strut. There's not even a Riefenstahl or a Socialist Realism because, weirdly, they are too obsessed with aping old propaganda to produce anything in a new language. No Ezra Pound. No Futurism. Just rage and fear and basest lust.
February 9, 2026 at 1:59 AM
They can't satirise, only sneer. They can't celebrate, they can only strut. There's not even a Riefenstahl or a Socialist Realism because, weirdly, they are too obsessed with aping old propaganda to produce anything in a new language. No Ezra Pound. No Futurism. Just rage and fear and basest lust.
Art can be of any political stripe, but it requires self-examination, and these people cannot face themselves; there's nothing but malignance and insecurity. They cannot defend their own views because they don't understand the temptation of other viewpoints.
February 9, 2026 at 1:59 AM
Art can be of any political stripe, but it requires self-examination, and these people cannot face themselves; there's nothing but malignance and insecurity. They cannot defend their own views because they don't understand the temptation of other viewpoints.
It's remarkable because the twentieth century saw great conservative art. But the Trumpists cannot produce an Evelyn Waugh because Waugh mocked his own in-group; they cannot produce a Graham Greene because they can't tolerate an actual struggle of conscience.
February 9, 2026 at 1:59 AM
It's remarkable because the twentieth century saw great conservative art. But the Trumpists cannot produce an Evelyn Waugh because Waugh mocked his own in-group; they cannot produce a Graham Greene because they can't tolerate an actual struggle of conscience.
Barbara Tuchman has been rightfully superseded, but the opening of ‘The Guns of August’ is still magnificent in capturing how fundamentally alien the world of 1913. 1939 is a different place, but we can understand its rules. 1913 requires a leap of imagination and empathy.
January 31, 2026 at 6:11 AM
Barbara Tuchman has been rightfully superseded, but the opening of ‘The Guns of August’ is still magnificent in capturing how fundamentally alien the world of 1913. 1939 is a different place, but we can understand its rules. 1913 requires a leap of imagination and empathy.
If Harry is Tom Brown, this suggests the possibility that in the future a latter day George Macdonald Fraser can write The Malfoy Papers.
January 27, 2026 at 12:05 AM
If Harry is Tom Brown, this suggests the possibility that in the future a latter day George Macdonald Fraser can write The Malfoy Papers.
It's been a grim start to the year, I feel that they need to give us another titbit about production so we can have a Stephen Has Potter Thoughts thread.
January 27, 2026 at 12:00 AM
It's been a grim start to the year, I feel that they need to give us another titbit about production so we can have a Stephen Has Potter Thoughts thread.
Even as a kid, I thought Outcast of Redwall's message that if you rescue a baby from the enemy's camp it will inevitably grow up to be a murderous psychopath was... odd.
January 26, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Even as a kid, I thought Outcast of Redwall's message that if you rescue a baby from the enemy's camp it will inevitably grow up to be a murderous psychopath was... odd.
I still can't believe they had the gall to write a mission where you arrive in York an have to stop the Evil Saxons Burning Their Manuscripts.
January 26, 2026 at 4:57 AM
I still can't believe they had the gall to write a mission where you arrive in York an have to stop the Evil Saxons Burning Their Manuscripts.
I think it's striking how the early capitulations of institutions last year went to their head; after law firms and universities knelt, they convinced themselves they could do in ten months what Erdogan and Orban carefully spent decades building to.
January 26, 2026 at 12:47 AM
I think it's striking how the early capitulations of institutions last year went to their head; after law firms and universities knelt, they convinced themselves they could do in ten months what Erdogan and Orban carefully spent decades building to.
It's in on the absurdity without winking, whereas the sequels got po-faced. There's the whole thing with Chesterton's 'Man Who Was Thursday,' where the game is essentially telling you that all this whole story is nonsense, but that's not the same thing as it being without meaning.
January 22, 2026 at 12:50 AM
It's in on the absurdity without winking, whereas the sequels got po-faced. There's the whole thing with Chesterton's 'Man Who Was Thursday,' where the game is essentially telling you that all this whole story is nonsense, but that's not the same thing as it being without meaning.
Deus Ex's gameplay has been surpassed many times, but one thing that strikes me is that for all the fact that the narrative is very gonzo (The Illuminati! Area 51! Supersoldiers!) it's not merely clever, it's actually intelligent. 1/2
January 22, 2026 at 12:50 AM
Deus Ex's gameplay has been surpassed many times, but one thing that strikes me is that for all the fact that the narrative is very gonzo (The Illuminati! Area 51! Supersoldiers!) it's not merely clever, it's actually intelligent. 1/2
SMAC, Thief 2, Starcraft... Portal's an interesting one in that there's plenty of games with just-as-good or better puzzle gameplay, but I think twenty years of tired jokes have blunted the sheer presentational efficiency. Just enough narrative. Just enough character. Just enough whimsy.
January 22, 2026 at 12:45 AM
SMAC, Thief 2, Starcraft... Portal's an interesting one in that there's plenty of games with just-as-good or better puzzle gameplay, but I think twenty years of tired jokes have blunted the sheer presentational efficiency. Just enough narrative. Just enough character. Just enough whimsy.
GK Chesterton is the king of such writers.
January 17, 2026 at 1:18 AM
GK Chesterton is the king of such writers.
Oh, what the hell, I'll be the guy who joins at the end.
1. Deus Ex
2. Mass Effect
3. New Vegas
4. BG 3
5. Dishonoured
I really need to try Hades, and it's frankly embarrassing I haven't properly played Pentiment yet. I'm sure Disco Elysium is brilliant, I just keep finding obnoxious fans.
1. Deus Ex
2. Mass Effect
3. New Vegas
4. BG 3
5. Dishonoured
I really need to try Hades, and it's frankly embarrassing I haven't properly played Pentiment yet. I'm sure Disco Elysium is brilliant, I just keep finding obnoxious fans.
January 15, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Oh, what the hell, I'll be the guy who joins at the end.
1. Deus Ex
2. Mass Effect
3. New Vegas
4. BG 3
5. Dishonoured
I really need to try Hades, and it's frankly embarrassing I haven't properly played Pentiment yet. I'm sure Disco Elysium is brilliant, I just keep finding obnoxious fans.
1. Deus Ex
2. Mass Effect
3. New Vegas
4. BG 3
5. Dishonoured
I really need to try Hades, and it's frankly embarrassing I haven't properly played Pentiment yet. I'm sure Disco Elysium is brilliant, I just keep finding obnoxious fans.
Assuming I wasn’t watching Othello or Shylock (you said aggrieved, not surprised), I’d be disappointed if Hamlet was played as an indecisive ditherer and Claudius as an obvious bad in. The reading that the play is steeped in post reformation angst and uncertainty is much more interesting.
January 13, 2026 at 11:07 PM
Assuming I wasn’t watching Othello or Shylock (you said aggrieved, not surprised), I’d be disappointed if Hamlet was played as an indecisive ditherer and Claudius as an obvious bad in. The reading that the play is steeped in post reformation angst and uncertainty is much more interesting.
I think the key is that this story seems delighted by Jackson's writing, rather than treating the original piece as either a puzzle to be solved or a windmill to be tilted at.
January 13, 2026 at 9:58 AM
I think the key is that this story seems delighted by Jackson's writing, rather than treating the original piece as either a puzzle to be solved or a windmill to be tilted at.