HOLY SHIT Spoiler: for the Smithwick House episode, sorta So waaay back in First Date? Cecil mentions a hole in the way, and what happened in the Smithwick House. And that carlos wants him to warn you about it.
The last few episodes have been a rollercoaster. Love how things are happening. And I want to hug Huntokar.
So I just spent the past five hours reading the second novel, "It devours!" Spoiler: All of the spoilers. All of them. And then some thoughts on recent developments in-show I kind of liked the first book better. I have seen some stuff coming (Darryl being the Wordsmith about 50 pages before the reveal, the people who got 'devoured' being in the desert otherworld). Other stuff I should have seen coming but didn't (The centipede going after insect-rich soil but that also only being a correlation and not a causation, Carlos' machine causing the rifts). But it continues in the vein of Night Vale Year 4 of giving us answers to questions we... ok, we might have asked them. But the mystery is gone. We are no longer left to speculate. There was no new weirdness introduced, or even just casually referred to. Just answers. Now I get that this is par for the course for a novel whichs protagonist is one of Carlos' scientists, and I do like her go-getter attitude about the shit going down around her, about the way she learns to cope with Night Vale and the people living in it, about the inteactions of belief and science through the utterly weird lens that is Night Vale... Night Vale has gotten outright preachy. All Hail, while interesting in concept, was outright blatant about it. And the plain introduction of more and more mysteries becomes, at some point, unsustainable. And some point, answers need to come. But the way it gets executed, that's what's lacking. A story about Huntokar did it brilliantly, I think. Because it seamlessly threw up more questions, it just showed that the truth was more alien than what we could have imagined. This book here is more mundane in its explanations. The call is coming from inside the house, Carlos is a spectacularly flawed character, holy shit, so much of this could have been prevented had just stopped to think and accept that there are people who have different thinking patterns than him. But I guess that's the price of a good character. But damn I want to smack him. In a way, this book shows a lot of harsh reality. As such, my dislike of it is on a purely personal level, I like my literature as far removed from reality as I can get it. It explores the reality of living under constant surveillance. It explores the consequences of a city government that is so caught up in its charades and secrecy that it ends in inefficiency. It explores the feeling of being alien and foreign in a place with different customs that you don't, and, to some extent, can't understand, because no matter how much you try to make sense of it. It shows that all these faceless people have their own stories to them. It shows the value of going in head-first because maybe if you experience it from the inside, and not just from the outside, you can at least start predicting it. It shows the danger of dismissing alternate viewpoints. I'm looking at you, Carlos. I'm also pointing at you, and shouting. It shows how you can come to all the wrong conclusions, just based on your limited knowledge and strong beliefs. This goes for both The Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, as well as for Carlos. It shows how three young believers decide that they are going to take back their religion from the path of destruction it was steered down into, and how they make it into something that rebuilds. It shows the pitfalls of a hero complex, of feeling obligated to save people. You know, in a way, there are many striking similarities between Carlos and the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God. It shows how, sometimes, things just don't work out. But in the end, there is no cost. No one except Pastor Munn and Gordon died (...and the poor centipede). Everything was rebuilt. Business as usual for Night Vale. The happy ending that is existence that it is. It's only the end if you believe the story is about you. It shows ingenuity and action, and how, two different viewpoints can clash, but can also complement each other, and see what the other is not seeing. And see what the other is looking for. In the end, nothing has changed in Night Vale, and it will continue on. There is no resolution. There is no catharsis. There is only life. [/spoilers]
I just went to A Spy In The Desert live so have some PICS Spoiler I couldn’t figure out how to turn of my phone camera’s flash in a hurry, so these are all from the end of the show when everybody came out to wave and I figured accidental flash wouldn’t be a problem. The bottom pic has everyone - from left to right it’s Cecil, Symphony Sanders, Hal Lublin, Meg Bashwiner, and Mal Blum, the weather musician (who I bought a CD from!). Cecil's jacket is skull patterned and Symphony Sanders is I think wearing rhinestoned cat ears. Real weird that all these people have physical forms!
