My nightmares always begin as dreams, and announce their onset by exactly the same meteorological slash atmospheric metaphor, whereby the warm and sunny weather I’m enjoying in my dream instantaneous- and inexplicably becomes overcast and cold. More than turn grey, the sky seems to die, that is putresce; likewise the landscape — which in theContinue reading “CHAPTER NINE: DREAM AND THEN A NIGHTMARE”
Author Archives: edsmith1990
CHAPTER EIGHT: YOU GET ALL IN YOUR HEAD ABOUT IT
Writing something like this it’s like jamming or actually very calmly and tenderly inserting my fingers into my throat to make myself sick when I have a stomach ache. I think everyone has something that if they were told or even worse if they just one day realised they couldn’t do it, were never ableContinue reading “CHAPTER EIGHT: YOU GET ALL IN YOUR HEAD ABOUT IT”
CHAPTER SEVEN: GROPING AROUND INSIDE MY SKULL
Like a lot of Silent Hill 2’s soundtrack, the music that begins playing partway along the run down the mountain is repetitive and monotonous, a slow, churning sort of sound that crests and recedes, crests and recedes in a heavy and even pattern. I’ve written already about the eponymous town’s consumptive, sentient behaviour, the wayContinue reading “CHAPTER SEVEN: GROPING AROUND INSIDE MY SKULL”
CHAPTER SIX: VOLUNTEERING
Honouring a great videogame tradition, this week’s RESTLESS DREAMS was repeatedly delayed. Contrary to some of what I’ve already written in this book, videogames are arguably very adept at inculcating their players to the mindsets of their characters, but typically this is enabled owing to the simplicity of the characters and the purity of theirContinue reading “CHAPTER SIX: VOLUNTEERING”
CHAPTER FIVE: LOVING REGARDLESS
I don’t think that James is supposed to be depressed. I don’t think that he is grieving, in the pathological sense, or afflicted by anything which easily could be given a name. James to me, rather than ill or suffering from a specific or set of specific conditions, is like someone who is acutely miserable.Continue reading “CHAPTER FIVE: LOVING REGARDLESS”
CHAPTER FOUR: “SPECIAL PLACE”
Once we leave the men’s toilet another cutscene begins. In the background, a vista of Silent Hill. The bathroom is parallel to a car park, within which James has secured presumably a nondescript light-blue sedan. Small in the frame, our protagonist leans against a short wall and gazes out over the town, our villain. Mary,Continue reading “CHAPTER FOUR: “SPECIAL PLACE””
CHAPTER THREE: STILL HEALTHY
But also we are not James. We are not James. Reads the instruction manual to Williams Entertainment’s 1995 port to the PlayStation of Doom: “You’re a space marine, one of Earth’s toughest, hardened in combat and trained for action. Three years ago you assaulted a superior officer for ordering his soldiers to fire upon civilians. WithContinue reading “CHAPTER THREE: STILL HEALTHY”
CHAPTER TWO: CAR
When we are first given control over James, the camera cuts to an over-the-shoulder perspective, inviting us to once again view his face in the mirror. However, as this is now part of the game proper and we as players are in now in control of James, we are also in this moment looking intoContinue reading “CHAPTER TWO: CAR”
CHAPTER ONE: MEN’S TOILET
As the game starts, James has already made his journey to the outskirts of Silent Hill and, having gotten out of his car to stretch his legs, is standing inside a men’s toilet –- the foreground in the initial shots of the opening cutscene shows us urinals. The very first shot, however, is of James’Continue reading “CHAPTER ONE: MEN’S TOILET”
INTRO
I started writing this book about two years ago, and then owing to various other pressures and influences, like starting a new job, having newer and what I thought were better ideas, and giving up on the belief that videogames were worth talking about, put it aside and forgot that it existed — or ratherContinue reading “INTRO”
RESTLESS DREAMS 