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REALITY-BENDING NOVELS • MOVIE SONGS
• RED SHIFT • SUGAR HILL •
SCAVENGER’S REIGN • SHENMUE
X
EPLOITS
an UNWINNABLE publication
JULY 2024
ISSUE 76
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: ,
The older I get, the more I gravitate towards ction that messes with the real.
e more information, content and news I consume, the less I understand
and the more numb I feel. So I’ve come to crave ction that makes something of
this chaos. Because ction isn’t just an escape – it shouldn’t just oer conclusion
and redemption. Fiction can also deform reality in a way that it forces us to exam-
ine our own realities more closely and see them more clearly.
Marie NDiaye’s Vengeance is Mine, Esther Yi’s Y/N and Jon Fosse’s A Shining are
three contemporary novels that accomplish this. All three are simple enough on
their surfaces. In Vengeance is Mine, the protagonist Susane becomes convinced
that her legal client’s husband is someone from her past. In Y/N, a reclusive copy-
writer falls in love with a K-pop star named Moon aer attending a concert to
appease her atmate. In A Shining, an unnamed man takes a night drive to allevi-
ate his boredom and ends up lost in the woods.
But less than ten pages into each novel, the parameters of reality become fuzzy.
Dream, memory, ction and hallucination blur into one another. As Talya Zaxe
says in her review of Vengeance Is Mine, no one in these stories “seems to know
who they are.” e more submerged they become in their trauma, memories or
obsessions, the more lost they become to themselves.
In Vengeance is Mine, Susane’s mounting preoccupation with decoding her past
makes her present feel foreign, hostile and unstable. Her “good-hearted and emo-
tional” parents become so oppressive that she wishes “they would just disappear.”
Her childhood abuser becomes her protector and her own child becomes a
stranger. Meanwhile, Susane is unconvinced about her own identity, too. Is she an
accomplished, progressive lawyer, a generous, empathetic savior or a just failure
of a woman?
In Y/N, aer the narrator falls in love with Moon, the “violence of [her] desire”
overtakes her. In one scene, while having sex with her boyfriend, her boyfriend’s
T H R E E N EW NOV E LS T HAT C H A NG E HOW
YO U T HIN K A B O U T R EA L IT Y
b y K a t h l e e n L e v i t t
body morphs into the pop star’s and the narrator levitates above the copulative
scene. When she watches Moon’s livestreams, she’s convinced Moon is talking to
her, singing to her and desperate to be with her. To the narrator, everything is “so
much better” in her head. Her delusions are so enchanting that she’s willing to
“become someone else entirely” to bring them to life.
In A Shining, the narrator knows he should go in search of help aer getting lost
in the woods, but ends up sitting on a rock communing with a glowing presence
that may or may not be there at all. He knows he’s “going to freeze to death” if “a
miracle doesn’t happen.” But even when a miracle does happen – his parents ap-
pear out of nowhere and oer to save him – the narrator remains confused and
immobilized. Are those really his parents? And why should he, a grown man, ac-
cept their help when he “can go wherever” he wants and do whatever he likes?
While NDiaye, Yi and Fosse don’t oer easy answers, their narrative deformi-
ties aren’t authorial gimmicks. Rather, they challenge us to re-see reality by forc-
ing us to inhabit alternate states of mind and being. eir novels embody the mul-
tivalent nature of truth itself. ey deconstruct dangerous notions that truth is
black and white, one-dimensional and therefore easily digestible. In NDiaye’s, Yi’s
and Fosse’s worlds, truth and reality aren’t what you can see and touch. ey aren’t
even what everyone says they are. Rather, reality and truth prove to be as mutable
as the most powerful mind in the room says they are. U
MOVIE SONGS – I’ve written about the James
Bond theme songs before but there’s an-
other type of movie song that I adore, the
tie-in. A weird, sometimes entirely com-
mercial moment, that sometimes delivers
absolute bangers.
For example, take Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Par-
adise.” Written for 1995’s Dangerous Minds,
“Gangsta’s Paradise” is arguably the most suc-
cessful part of the lm. It was the best-selling
single of that year and netted Coolio a
Grammy. It got a Weird Al parody! It’s been
successful to the point that many may not
even realize it has this lmic connection. Per-
haps an example of where Adele and Skyfall
may go over time.
But there’s a feeling that there are two
strong sub-genres of movie tie-in. First is
“Songs by Will Smith.” 1997’s “Men in Black”
is obviously tied into the movie of the same
year. Perhaps not so remembered is that it’s
Smith’s rst solo single. While Smith is long
past doing works like these there was a time
when it felt like his MO. Of course, the 2002
sequel got a song, “Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya
Head)”. But I’d argue that 1999’s “Wild Wild
West” is just more fun. Especially because it
lets me mention that Stevie Wonder is sam-
pled both here and in “Gangsta’s Paradise.”
Next, strangely, is songs featured in Batman
movies. It wasn’t until writing this that I real-
ized there’s a Prince song, 1989’s “Batdance,”
that it was a success, and it revitalized his ca-
reer to an extent. While Seal’s “Kiss from a
Rose” has been a success, it largely owes that
success to dual lm appearances in 1995’s Bat-
man Forever and 1994’s NeverEnding Story III.
Worth mentioning, too, is Smashing Pump-
kin’s “e End is the Beginning is the End”
from Batman & Robin; also probably the best
part of the lm it’s featured in and clearly a
song Billy Corgan cared about as he plays it
regularly on tour. Its own cultural impact had a
strange reverberation as it was featured heavily
in the trailer for the 2009 lm, Watchmen.
Of course, they’re not all winners. I person-
ally despise “I Disappear,” Metallica’s contri-
bution to 2000’s Mission: Impossible 2. I in-
clude it here because there’s a music video that
is heavily inspired by the lm but also because
M U S I C
it changed the way we listen to music, sort of.
“I Disappear” was leaked onto Napster and
was the song that began the Metallica v. Nap-
ster saga that ended with Napster’s bank-
ruptcy. It’s a bad song though, don’t listen to
it. at being said, what might be the closest
thing the movie has to a banger is Limp
Bizkit’s “Take A Look Around” from the same
soundtrack. Actually featured in the movie,
their cover of Lalo Schifrin’s theme is actually
serviceable. e lyrics are rough though.
But there are a LOT of these songs. And
they seem to be dying out to an extent. I’ve
seen every Marvel movie, movies poised to
have a tie-in, and the only one I can remem-
ber is Soundgarden’s “Live to Rise” from Mar-
vel’s e Avengers. Although true to form, the
song was inescapable in the theater lobby dur-
ing that theatrical run.
But the tie-in is a strangely beloved genre
for me. And in a time when stars increasingly
have a music and movie career, we’ve hope-
fully not seen the last of them. Although,
clearly, the peak of these has past us.
–
PLAYLIST
"Gangsta's Paradise," by Coolio, L.V.
"Men In Black," by Will Smith
"Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)," by Will
Smith, Traknox
"Wild Wild West," by Will Smith, Dru Hill,
Kool Moe Dee
"I Wish," by Stevie Wonder
"Batdance," by Prince
"Kiss from a Rose," by Seal
"e End Is e Beginning Is e End," by e
Smashing Pumpkins
"I Disappear," by Metallica
"Take A Look Around," by Limp Bizkit
"Live to Rise," by Soundgarden
"Amish Paradise," by "Weird Al" Yankovic
M U S I C
RED SHIFT – Alan Garner’s 1973 novel Red
Shi tells three stories across time united by a
train and a stone axehead. It marks the point at
which Garner pivoted from children’s fantasy
to psychogeography, also predicting the visual
novel “true ending”: the nal climax that re-
contextualizes past information to serve as a
capstone to the text.
Put that knife away and hear me out. Red
Shi is almost all dialogue. Its centerpiece is a
teenage love story. e fallout of that love in-
fects the past – or could it be the other way
around? Men and women reenact cycles of vi-
olence in the wake of blue and silver waves.
Visual novels are less about choice than in-
formation acquisition. As Helen Chazan wrote
in her review of manga series Summertime
Rendering, the goal is (for better or worse) to
“know everything about the characters and
their world that is available to know – the uni-
cation of theories past and present.”
Red Shi ends with a coded message aer a
heartbreaking, slippery nale. No hints are
given. It is le to the reader to remember Tom
and Jan’s conversation about Lewis Carroll’s Al-
phabet Cipher. en they must study their
words carefully for the key.
I did not solve the code myself. Instead, I
looked it up on the internet, which did not ex-
ist in 1973. Even so I felt the sensation of
power. Generations past may have revered the
last page of Red Shi as a forbidding obelisk.
Not me. I knew the truth.
Visual novel readers know the moment the
story turns; when Ever17’s Kid sees his face in
the mirror. e truth of Mamiya Takuji’s
rooop ght in Wonderful Everyday. e
switch between Higurashi: When ey Cry’s
Question and Answer arcs. e medium lives
in the blinding switch from incomplete to total
information.
Alan Garner is not quite as kind. e last
page of Red Shi could be read as an escape
hatch to the numinous. It could also be a tragic
conrmation. e reader must decide for
themselves. Beyond blue and silver is red rarely
glimpsed.
Garner only got away with it because no-
body knew what the rules were for children’s
publishing in 1973. Today Red Shi is as much
a stubborn relic of the past as its stone axehead.
at’s ne. We read and reread with love, seek-
ing innity between the lines. Without love,
the truth cannot be seen.
–
B O O K S
The BOOK of DELIGHTS – Ross Gay's year
of meditations on delight and its surprising
complexities is one that I'm surprised I didn't
enjoy more. Read this if you need something
freewheeling and experimental. Sometimes I
felt the sexual metaphors were a bit at odds
with the text, even though I get why they
were employed in some senses (excepting the
pecan comment from one of Gay's friends at
the end of one "essayette," as he calls it;
IYKYK). e collection shines most when it
allows itself to focus more on simple obser-
vation and mental connections, rather than
forcing a metaphor to encapsulate said
observation.
–
CAMP DAMASCUS – Chuck Tingle (yes, that
Chuck Tingle) writes about gay conversion
therapy, autism, and evangelical Christians and
it’s so incredibly unnerving with every page
turn.
–
B O O K S
FLYBOY in the BUTTERMILK – I've been
making my way through this book for a little
while, not because it's slow reading, but because
Greg Tate (RIP) is such sumptuous writer that
he's worth sipping. Plus I have to catch up on all
the Miles Davis electric era that was buried by
the squares, not to mention every other drop
and plug he's writing on. A pillar of alt-weeklies,
and a reminder of what we've lost not just in his
writing but in those outlets in general.
–
SUGAR HILL – People have a habit of view-
ing any movie labeled as exploitation with
skepticism about its quality. ere's a reason
for that in many cases. But every once in a
while a movie will y under the radar and
surprise you.
Sugar Hill is one of those.
e 1974 AIP lm capitalized on the suc-
cess of Blacula and its sequel. It takes the
racist tropes prevalent in 1930's zombie
movies and turns them on their head in pur-
suit of revenge, not only on individuals but on
the systems they use to oppress others.
e ancé of Diana "Sugar" Hill (the
massively cool Marki Bey) is beaten to
death outside his club. e murder was or-
dered by Morgan (Robert Quarry, specializ-
ing in his brand of so oily it's actually
smooth), who wanted to buy the nightclub.
In retaliation, Sugar turns to the Voodoo
Loa of death, Baron Samedi (played with
gleeful, scene chewing gusto by Don Pedro
Colley), to raise an army of zombies in a
quest for retribution.
e Voodoo in this movie isn't really on
the level, but the writing is. e humor is
clever, and the characters are eshed out
enough to be enjoyable to watch – and to
watch die.
As is typical of this type of movie, the racism
of the white characters is so constant and a-
grant it’s almost comical. But it serves a special
purpose in this lm, shining a light on how
racism aects people's lives. What sets Sugar
Hill apart from other blaxploitation movies is
the care that was put into giving every scene
and every aspect layers of meaning that apply
not only to Sugar getting her revenge, but also
the ght against systemic racism.
Simultaneously a silly zombie revenge
movie that harkens back to the past and a for-
ward-looking movie about the past being
used to right the wrongs of the present, Sugar
Hill is an exquisite confection, the likes of
which AIP could only create by accident, and
a movie that deserves far more thought than
most people give it.
–
MOV I E S
GO DZ I L LA MOV I E S
GODZILLA (1954) – I was so shocked to
realize how serious-minded the origin movie
for this franchise was. I knew that it was
unlike the later Toho lms, but Godzilla was
honestly such a melancholy experience for
me that it took a bit for everything to process.
Also, amazing sound design. I wonder what
clips were lost from the original printing.
–
GODZILLA: KING of the MONSTERS – I
watched this for the Mothra scenes, really.
Not much else. Can we please retire or
reimagine the sad parents (especially the sad
dads) dynamic? Also, as with the rst Grem-
lins movie, there was too much focus on the
annoying humans. is movie wasn't bad,
but it made me feel very grumpy most of the
time with its creative decisions. e color
palette, for instance, was so uninspired and
oen detracted from the more exciting kaiju
battle scenes. Every scene was ooded with
blue, orange or gold. I'm glad they acknowl-
edged that the mom was eco-fascist though.
–
GODZILLA vs. MEGALON – One of the worst
Godzilla lms out there (this is where that
infamous dropkick clip comes from) but also
one of my favorites. is may or may not be
because of the introduction of Jet Jaguar.
–
MOTHRA vs. GODZILLA – Godzilla was
tripping all over himself most of the lm
and Mothra shows up pretty late, but I
actually really enjoyed how the B-plot
explored greed in an almost Steinbeck way.
Every party that encounters Mothra's egg,
which mysteriously turns up on the shores
of a shing community, assigns value to
the object in a dierent way and tries to
contrive ownership over it. In the end
though, it's made clear that no one can
truly control nature. ey can only adapt
and hope to nd a balance between urban-
ity and natural forces, represented of
course by the kaiju.
–
T E L EV I S IO N
SCAVENGER’S REIGN –“How does this
exist?”
I kept asking myself that as I watched this
show, most of the time because of two vastly
dierent reasons. Scavenger’s Reign is a sci- se-
ries that takes place on the extraterrestrial
planet of Vesta, which is full of wildlife that
looks and feels impossible at rst glance. ere
are creatures that can be used by humans as
breathing devices, others that can induce hy-
per-real hallucinations, and a seemingly end-
less array of parasites that can inict a fate
worse than death upon you. And yet there are
also kinds of life that feel like they’d be right at
home on Earth, from monkey-like predators,
straightforward insects and a herd of animals
that look like they have to be mammalian. It
must be said, when you take a step back and
consider just how many “impossible” kinds of
life we live with every day here on Earth, Vesta’s
lifeforms do feel like they could be the logical
result of millions of years of evolution, just like
our own planet’s life. As strange as it all looks
and feels, there’s a kind of inexplicable realism
in this alien world.
e other times I asked “how does this ex-
ist?” was when I sat back in amazement that
this Scavenger’s Reign is a thing at all – “how the
hell did this show get made?” It’s one thing to
envision an animated sci- series about a
stranded crew ghting to survive on an alien
planet, but it’s a whole other thing to get some-
thing this risky and niche produced, let alone
with this level of quality. e writing, the ani-
mation, the voice acting, the incredible sound
design and score; there are hundred-million-
dollar live-action blockbusters that don’t get
everything right like this show does. You’d
think that there must’ve been at least one meet-
ing during the production process where the
execs would’ve said “sorry, this is asking for too
much, just settle for a little bit less here,” but it
feels like there were somehow no such restric-
tions or compromises made. When you watch
Scavenger’s Reign, you oen feel like you’re wit-
nessing a nightmare, but aer nishing the se-
ries and sitting back to think about it, I can’t
help but describe its existence as a miracle.
–
T E L EV I S IO N
FALLOUT – I feel like there are good ways
and bad ways to do fan service, and Fallout is
a remarkably strong show in this respect. I
love how the writers weave story elements of
the game series into the narrative in a mean-
ingful way, rather than just focusing on
expanding the intellectual property, relegat-
ing these to Easter eggs. I also like the post-
episode credit scrolls, reminiscent of the var-
ious game trailers. e recaps are well done
as well, focusing on motifs within the dier-
ent episodes that you may have missed. In
other words, more than your average
videogame spin-o.
–
More like Walton Gaggins amirite (I'm the
rst person to ever say this).
–
GAME CHANGER – A joke concept (what if
every episode was a dierent game show) has
crystallized into some of the most fun on TV.
Streaming on Dropout, it’s performed by a cast
of comedians who are always a few seconds
from being absolutely blindsided. An abso-
lutely deranged version of Simon Says? A game
where you have to come in second? e nal
episode of the season being a two-part send up
of e Circle? ere are no bad episodes.
–
COLUMBO – Every so oen, someone on social
media wonders aloud about the reasons for
Columbo's recent renaissance in popularity.
And that's a question that probably has interest-
ing socio-cultural answers. But it's always
tempting to just be like, "Because Columbo
rules." Which is also true.
–
SHENMUE –If you go back and take a look at
Shenmue’s marketing hype, you might be led
to think it’s the culmination of all that SEGA’s
soware had come to embody the decade
prior: A buckshot of nonstop action, a juve-
nile power fantasy and a bleeding edge tech-
nical showcase made possible by the largest
budget a videogame had ever seen. But Shen-
mue is a languid, solemn game – one which
moves at a glacial pace. e player lives pro-
tagonist Ryo Hazuki’s every waking moment;
and sure, he’s on a quest to avenge his father’s
death, but he’s also on a quest to make a living.
To look aer the neighborhood stray cat, to
blow o steam at the arcade and to ask dozens
of people questions they don’t know the
answers to. While Shenmue is clearly inspired
by wuxia classics and lis the basic mechanics
of Virtua Fighter’s polygonal slug-fests, you
spend little time ghting anyone. In fact, I
found it more reminiscent of a point-and-
click adventure game, but with the sort of rote
grinding you’d expect from an old CRPG. A
better part of the third act is spent working a
day job as a forkli driver. In fact, the major-
ity of Shenmue is spent exploring aection-
ately constructed mundanities and merely
observing a compact open world.
e game will frequently leave you to ex-
plore with large gaps of in-game time between
main objectives. ere aren’t enough mini-
games or collectibles to distract you in these
meandering moments, but there is the city.
Ryo’s home is full of photos, drawers stued
with oddities and mementos, a working land-
line phone the player can make calls on and so
on. Much of the game is painted with this de-
gree of delity, and the organic roleplay that
resulted shocked me, honestly. Here is a truly
boring game – one where I’m to wait around,
wonder at what to do next, nd anything to
pass the time and awkwardly wave down
NPCs who usually aren’t interested in talking
to me – and yet, I’m hopelessly absorbed.
What seems like downtime is truly when the
game opens up and allows you to live as a
stranger among strangers, briey connecting
over the weather and local drama before go-
ing home and listening to cassettes for the
evening. e game’s vision of 1980s Japan is
painstaking, tranquil, nostalgic and attentive.
A quest for revenge is the plot’s impetus, but
the monotony is the message. When warm,
mellow guitar chords end a day of rote labor
and slow progress, Shenmue embraces and
celebrates the catharsis in simple, small victo-
ries – in remembering to live every waking
moment.
–
GA M E S
GA M E S
HELLDIVERS 2 – I have only played two
matches but love me some capes. Reminded
of my youth spent writing sarcastic letters to
the editor in our local paper, until I got a
phone call from an older neighbor who mis-
understood my satire. A co-worker said "your
tongue was so deep in your cheek you almost
choked on it." Hoping the same doesn't even-
tually cascade down here but it's not a game
I'm working through for the deep lore.
–
HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST – I nally got
around to this one aer the recent release on
PC. I loved the rst game in the series, meaning
of course that picking up the sequel was an easy
call. I'm still quite early in the game, but I think
that what so far has most stood out to me is the,
wait for it, engineering. I really appreciate how
the developers were able to open up the game
world, something which in reality is no small
feat, even if we've become very accustomed to
open worlds. e cities and towns if you
remember were closed o and self-contained
in Horizon Zero Dawn, something which made
game photography quite the chore, among
other things.
–
SKYRIM – For years I would bounce o of
Skyrim aer only a few hours, but lately the
Switch version has really gotten its hooks in
me. ere are so many areas I haven't seen and
quests I never knew existed, and if any one
thing ever starts to get dull it's easy to jump
onto some other task or goal. Why haven't
Bethesda's more recent open world RPGs
managed to capture even a fraction of what
makes Skyrim so compelling?
–
HO RO S CO P E
A C "F E"
. U
Celestial signs interpreted by Levi Rubeck
