Continue reading “Four” →

This week, I sat down to learn how to make two of my grandmother’s recipes; something I wish I’d had the time and inclination to have been doing all along. Seasoned more in proportion with each other in a web of relationships than any standardized measure, and woefully precise in freeflow adjustments. It really is “the spoon we have in the cupboard” as the standard to which it all comes together. I learned how to make two things: Makgeoli and Kimchi. These are relatively simple recipes, mostly consisting of gathering ingredients together, mixing them together, and waiting for the fermentation to do the rest of the work.

And it made me think about fermented foods as a bridge between the past, the present, and the future.

Continue reading “Now, Then, and To Be” →

Game Host Rules

You are a child with your body of metal and blood of promise, sent into the depths to see the world. Answer the following, noting answers in your tweet:

1. Your name is a virtue, a wish for the future given by your parents. What is it?
2. What as your home like? (Choose 2): beautiful, dying, hopeful, hopeless, prosperous

When you receive a reply, write home in the following format:

1. date
2. time
3. record of encounter starting with “To You, Back Home”
4. End with “Signing off, [name]”

When you end the game, write home one last time:

1. “To You, Back Home”
2. Record Gratitudes and Goodbyes
3. Sign off for the last time

Player Rules

Respond to the Host tweet with a Prompt Word (any evocative word or short phrase) and wait for a reply.

The game ends when the Host signs off for the last time.

For all your life they have told you to never question the walls around you, the ceilings above you, the traditions suffocating you. They told you that because they fear what you hold inside your heart. They fear the power of your soul made manifest, able to rend the very heavens and fold causality over on itself. Your power awakens when you become aware of this, aware that you hold the infinite potential of the cosmos. While others make their pacts with fiends, fae, and outer horrors, you bind your soul to the only one you have ever known, for you are made of starstuff.

1st – Who The Hell Do You Think I Am?!

You have a pool of d4s referred to as Soul Dice. Whenever you take a long rest with less than 1 Soul Die, you gain 1 Soul Die upon completing it. You may have a maximum of 5 Soul Dice at any given time. You gain 1 Soul Die whenever you cast a spell using a Warlock spell slot. Alternatively, you may also gain Soul Dice by choosing to fail an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw before you roll.

You may expend Soul Dice to add the d4 roll to an ability check, attack roll, saving throw, or damage dice.

These dice increase to d6s at 6th level, d8s at 10th, and d10s at 14th.

6th – Kick Reason to the Curb

You may expend 5 Soul Dice to regain 1 Warlock spell slot. Roll all your Soul Dice. All creatures of your choice within 10 ft must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Spell Save DC or take force damage equal to the sum of the rolls, half on a success.

10th – The Magma of Our Souls Burns with a Mighty Flame!

Whenever you take damage, you may use your reaction to expend hit dice to reduce the damage by the number rolled + your CON modifier.

10th – A Real Man Never Dies, Even When He is Killed

The first time you drop to 0 hit points, you may instead choose to remain at 1 hit point. You instantly gain 5 Soul Dice. You must take a long rest before you can use this ability again.

14th – Don’t Believe in Yourself, Believe in the Me that Believes in You!

You have advantage on any saving throw that would cause you to be affected by a condition.

Additionally, you may use an action to expend Soul Dice to end a condition affecting you and/or any allies within 60 ft, with one die per condition per creature. You may roll each die expended and gain the sum as temporary hit points. Any creatures you target with this ability also gain those temporary hit points. At the start of your turn, if you are affected by a condition that would prevent you from taking actions, you may choose to use this action anyway.

Hey folks! Before we get into the actual post, I wanted to explain what this series is. I wrote a bunch of essays for my undergrad program and I’d rather put them up than forget about them. They’re a little rough around the edges from my current perspective, and they have a lot of literary jargon (since you need to put that in to not fail your classes). Plus I wrote most of them in one straight shot hours before the due date. I’ve done a little light editing to make sure the spelling, grammar, and general flow make sense, as well as changed anything that has become factually incorrect in light of new information. But for the most part, what you see is what I was two or three years ago as a student. I’ll provide a list of materials that you can read or reference, or just have on hand, to know where I was coming from/where the basis of the knowledge I was drawing from when I can.

This first essay is from a class about the writer Franz Kafka and both his body of works and his influence. It is primarily about the forms of violence depicted in The Vegetarian by Han Kang.

Continue reading “The Complex Violence of Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian”” →