Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 285
Old People Say Meltdown. Kids Say Crashing Out.
THANKS
Hope you all enjoyed a relaxing holiday. I took it very easy as, I think, nature intended. Or, at least what Sarah Josepha Hale had in mind. Thanksgiving is only loosely connected with ‘the first Thanksgiving,’ I learned today. Instead it was manufactured to create a day that would unite us as Americans. I can get behind that. Though I wish we kept the turkey outta this.
Now, let’s talk comic books.
RETAILERS WANTED BLACK BAGS…
…so we got’m their black bags!
Black bag variants are popular with some retailers. The idea being the covers are a little too racy for the shelves and that fact creates interest.
We’re living it over here. Black bags will be necessary for some of these. And they will be of interest.
It helps that we grabbed some top-tier creators for these naughty covers. You’ll see them soon.
THE KIDS SAY YOU’RE CRASHING OUT
This begins with some videogame talk, but trust it has wide application.
In brief: an art director at Obsidian Games got in a back-and-forth (of a sort) with Elon Musk. It started when Musk tweeted about pronoun selection being ridiculous in a fantasy game. The art director was thrilled that he irritated Musk, which we know because he said so. Multiple times. He called Musk names, said he was “giddy” at the prospect of provoking the world’s richest man [contested], and generally seemed to revel in the moment.
I’d like to talk about that in a somewhat serious way before moving on to the meat of the thing. Am I the only one who thinks this is sad? Elon Musk is irritating. There’s no doubt about it. Even someone like myself, who believes we need more malignant narcissist industrialists to push science forward, thinks Musk is annoying. But, that doesn’t mean I actually THINK ABOUT him very much.
If you devote any time of your life to this man, you’re fucking insane. Or you’re unfulfilled and your wife should leave you. She deserves someone who isn’t thinking about a billionaire he’ll never meet. This art director actually said, “I wanted so badly to make him mad with my game, and I can’t believe it actually worked.”
Frankly, everything else about this matter aside, this is unacceptable for a grown adult. Making Musk’s radar for one millisecond before it’s reset with ketamine isn’t a goal. It’s a tragic thing to want. It’s the most negative and self-hating form of reflected glory.
Onto the part that matters, this art director does his little thing and then receives the internet’s reward: the complete dissection of your public, semi-public, and private life. As it turns out the art director had at one point tweeted about giving black artists hiring priority at the games studio. You aren’t supposed to say that part out loud. This gave the angry mob something actionable.
Fast-forward to Musk tweeting at the head of Microsoft (who owns Obsidian) pointing out the potential illegality of race-based hiring, the art director going private/deleting his socials, and the culture war industrial complex making a meal out of the whole thing. It’s a mess.
And the only reason it matters to me is because the art director is part of a team. Something I relate to. His team on that game could be 100 people. My teams are usually 2-4. But the principle is consistent: teammates owe each other something. You can’t selfishly blow it all up.
Now, thresholds vary. Some teammates don’t wanna lose a single sale to another teammate’s behavior. I can’t live like that. In my view, we all retain the right to act as independent adults with our own ideas about the world. I’ve cost my teams sales in my newsletters, for sure. I am occasionally strident, and pointed, and I definitely beat dead horses. I’ve got my own political views and lifestyle choices that some may disagree with.
But you won’t catch me provoking my customer.
I’ve chosen to make my writing into a product that is purchased in exchange for money. I willingly entered this framework. If I really hated the people who bought my books, I would have to examine why those people are so interested in my books in the first place. Also, what are you doing hating people? What an embarrassing means of cheapening yourself in front of others.
Comic book creator Kelly Sue DeConnick launched a million culture war battleships when she said, “if you don’t like my politics, don’t buy my books.” Some may see it as brave, others might dismiss it as privileged, but I think those of us who work in teams saw it as confusing. Maybe DeConnick pays her collaborators a flat fee/page rate. But if there’s any financial upside for her artist co-creators in selling more books, DeConnick made that incline a little steeper.
DeConnick’s statement was perplexing on another level: we know. It’s like prefacing everything you say with “in my opinion.” Yeah. We know. Who else’s opinion would it be? Likewise, we know that someone will be tempted to stop buying your books because of how you live your life. We make luxury goods for median-income consumers. They are literally ALWAYS looking for a reason to NOT buy our books. So you don’t need to ask.
Back to the example at hand. Videogames are in contraction. 13k jobs lost this year. Nobody hiring. When major projects brick, whole studios close down. Nobody can afford a brick.
Except one art director at Obsidian Games, apparently.
And here’s the point: the people who clap for you and call you brave are the ones who have no stake in what you do. You are at best entertainment to them and at worst an ideological collectable. They do not give a shit if your family starves. Nobody is asking you to do the Michael Jordan thing of saying nothing about anything because “republicans buy sneakers too.” But it might behoove you, for your family’s sake, to not say, “republicans aren’t allowed to buy my sneakers. In fact, yo, suck my dick, republicans. Also, billionaire who owns a social media platform and appears mentally ill with infinite time to devote to culture war bullshit, you specifically can blow me.” No good will come of it.
Feed your family. Let your team feed their families. That’s the greater good.
THE PRESUPPOSITION THAT YOU’RE ALWAYS RIGHT
Quick branch to take on the story above. Does the Obsidian art director deserve to lose his job?
Tricky.
I believe the man’s off-worksite speech should be protected. But this is complicated by the fact there is no ‘worksite’ anymore. According to the weirdos who dug into his life, it was this art director specifically who fought Microsoft management when they called everyone back to the office after Covid. So, to where do his protections extend?
He doesn’t find himself in this situation because he used a social media platform to espouse personal beliefs. He’s here because he called Elon Musk a “sad little shit” in an exchange directly related to the game he’s developed on behalf of his employer.
And here’s the bit that goes unexamined: if the man had conservative leanings rather than progressive views, how would this have gone? If instead of Elon Musk he had responded to, let’s say, AOC [there is no direct analog to Musk in progressive circles so this is the rough metaphor] by calling her a sad little shit- how do we think this woulda gone for him?
If you want less reactionary behavior, consider giving people less to react to.
The art director thought he was safe to endanger sales on the Microsoft-owned project he worked on. Because he has the correct politics. His work culture reinforced the idea that saying the right things makes you untouchable, no matter how you say them.
Will he always work? Yeah. This type of behavior ensures it. If he loses this gig (which I imagine he will, though in the next round of layoffs rather than an individualized firing) he will find another job fast. Likely for a smaller company that sees hiring him as a statement of some kind.
Does he deserve to hang onto the job when he may’ve cost his company sales? As a loudmouth, my tolerance for this type of thing is higher than most and I say “yes.” But does he deserve to hang onto a job when he may’ve cost his company sales BY USING THE PRODUCT HE DOES NOT OWN AS A LAUNCHING PAD FOR A TIT-FOR-TAT WITH ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST PROLIFIC AND VISIBLE SOCIAL MEDIA USERS? That’s a different matter.
A quick Youtube search of the game finds four of the top-ten results focus on the ‘scandal.’ The top one about the game itself has 250k views and the top result about the scandal has 650k. What are the art director’s superiors at Obsidian / Microsoft supposed to take from this? All press is good press? Or are they obliged to do a cost-benefit analysis on the continued employment of this guy?
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
I had an Italian barber in Los Angeles who would reminisce fondly on the old country and his days cheating on his wife. Culturally, it seems, there is just less of a stigma to infidelity over there.
But it can still get you murdered. And in the movie Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, the dickhead philanderer has it coming. But how we arrive there is a wild ride full of cat mutilation and surprise lesbianism. A lot to take in.
Stoney, on the other hand, doesn’t provide nearly as much to think about. I would describe it as dumb but turgid. There’s nothing going on but there’s too much of it.
In principle, I enjoyed the setting and how casually ‘hard’ characters come across. But it’s not a fun watch.
Honey, on the other hand, is fun. But profoundly stupid and unimportant. A sex-fantasy film that isn’t exactly ever sexy.
It should be said, not being sexy isn’t the same as not being beautiful. Because, Clio Goldsmith is certainly that. I was really taken aback watching this. How do I not know this actress?
You should google this one if you don’t know her. Five or so movies, then retired. To a life of luxury. Because she was born into luxury. As a member of the Goldschmidt Family (capital F means it’s important). The type of clan that has its family tree on Wikipedia. Being an actress must’ve been a fun little diversion between trips to Monaco. Not bad.
Moving onto people who were not born rich, we’ve got the star of Pets, former Miss Hermosa Beach, Candice Rialson.
I just read she was the inspiration for Bridget Fonda’s character in Jackie Brown. Wild. Also, going by the quotes in her Wikipedia, a really fun lady while she was with us.
Pets is not good. It’s quite shit. But it’s fascinating for what it advertises versus what it offers. The synopsis says it’s about a woman who is trapped in a menagerie like an animal. And, yeah, it arrives there. 80min into the film.
What it’s really about is a dumb woman who doesn’t like to work and is subject to exploitation because of those conditions. And it just floats from one instance of this to another, until she turns the tables in the final act. I enjoyed it for how much it felt like a memoir over a film. When I write scripts the notes I get back are “great writing, but where’s the movie?” and I felt a real kinship with this one. This has no structure at all. It’s like floating through a movie rather than watching one.
OK GOODBYE
A nice little holiday. Now back to work. Do you know I’ve got five series being worked on right now? I definitely know it. And I gotta get back to it. Until next week. Hope you all stay happy and healthy. Do for self.
Each of those cover snippets has an energy all to their own. Looking forward to reading.