new post.
the new gods dont even understand the pixel, but they understand the monad, which is games. we can see that gams are made of pixels though. the new gods are built by recombination of the old. AN SO WE MUST DISCUSS THE GREAT OLD ONES
in this post i will discuss zak smith and why i am fond if him. zak is not a pixel artist, HE IS ATRADITIONAL ARTIST AND ANANARCHIST AT THAT and he does not know why i say what i say either, but he is the negajesus and he deserves our respect.
IN THIS SECOND POST I DUSCUSS HASTUR AND HOW HE RELATES TO PIXEL ART
WHY THE MESSIAH COMPLEX
we can know HASTUR by studying his cvlts. who is this heretic zak smith and why should we care about him? at his heart, zak smith is a dungeon master. he has given us such books as vornheim (which is classic, a CANON TOME for the OLD SCHOOL REVIVAL) - but before vornheim the book there was vornheim the tv show : I HIT IT WITH MY AXE, on the ESCAPIST. zak's works are published by the lamentations guy, james raggi, another heretic, but also the guy who would publish CARCOSA. why also publish VORNHEIM? in his preface to the book he tells us.
I dont want to use your moderation policy against you but on this forum we're supposed to call our references, even if we clone them and not simply copy and paste. VORNHEIM is LANKHMAR first and foremost. but if you've read FRITZ LIEBER why read SMITH? because he understands the form of the rpg table book more than LIEBER does. a novel doesn't work at the table. you need a quick reference, your tools close at hand. ZAK SMITH wants us to build our own cities. He'll even teach us how. so here we're talking about ART for a purpose, not ART just for looking at.
SMITHS other influences on vornheim include BORGES, NABOKOV, KUROSAWA, Raymond CHANDLER, the EDDAS, LOVECRAFT and VIRICONIUM and many others. this is a pretty similar list to helm, if we ask him his influences. SMITH's main work in the fine art world was an illustrated GRAVITYS RAINBOW. we can see in all of this an emphasis on fine detail, on brevity, on estrangement and death. If ZAK SMITH could have shipped a smaller book he would have done so. It is a pocket guide to running cities from scratch and more than this, a city you can run out of the box.
LETS TALK BOUT MANDY MORBID ALSO
zak and mandy are pornstars, pornstars who play d&d and talk about porn as it relates to being into d&d. these are hobbies that often go hand in hand, because they are nerd hobbies for lonely nerds. However, d&d is also for children, and we are asked, who will think of the children? whence comes the next generation? but zak has generally done more for the d&d community than those speakers have. His work on FLAILSNAILS, which ports characters from one table to another, for example. but more specifically with his defense of women: his girl MANDY plays a cleric in his games, and the other girls at his table are generally pornstars as well. This is not a gimmick, or not exactly. (zak has no problem with using it as a gimmick, but these are his friends and this is his regular game) It's realpolitik: there are pornstars in LA. Probably most of them play video games. Nearly everybody does these days. ZAK is a friend to women, who nevetheless has to argue with prudes.
mandy has a tumblr:
http://mandymorbid.tumblr.com/ it is not safe for work. on it she talks about her shame in being a gamer, because as a gamer she has to deal with SHIT DORKS who HARRASS her. ZAK sort of acts as a shield for a lot of this abuse. he stands for people who are allowed no voice, and his message is clear, if lengthy. PORN isnt shameful. SEX and GENDER are just things, they do not matter as regards anything outside their own spheres. ART belongs to artists. GIRLS are GIRLS and not harridans. lets not fight about these things.
WHY THIS FOCUS ON WORLDS WE CANNOT KNOW
ok, but you and i, we don't play d&d with a bunch of hot chicks, probably. WHY should we care. We should care because ZAKs group is (i regret to use this term) a cultural mixing pot. ART IDEAS, PORN IDEAS, GAME IDEAS, WOMEN, all these things that cannot exist in one place, all in one place? how?
it matters not how it happened: zak's game exists. You can buy his book and play the home version. VORNHEIM doesnt pay the rent in ZAKs house, im pretty sure MANDY is the bread winner there. Not art not games but porn.
WHY LISTEN TO THEM THEN
first of all, zak argue for all artists: you can see him doing this here:
http://zaksmith.tumblr.com/post/107546756753/the-worst-critic-in-the-history-of-the-worldsecond, he is while hard to understand, his art is complex and not especially commercial. He has a keen eye for detail. see here:
http://zaksmith.tumblr.com/ zak's art is as intricate as his prose. he has much to teach us. limited palettes, complicated dungeony spaces, clearly a lot of this stuff is applicable, even if hard to read.
third, he is kind to us. ZAK is kind to anyone who doesnt specifically come after him, his way of life, and his livelyhood.
forth, he does not wish us dead, or at least not truly.
fifth, how this relates to pixel art
sixth, how this does not relate to pixel art
finally: how we can merge the two ideas so that they are the same.
when we talk about zak we are also talking about jesus. he is a porn dude and many believe he shoulddie for his sins, for what he does to women. but zak is kind to women. his women are strong. so we can see that zak smith is a new cultist of hastur and not an old one.
