Interesting Links for 30-09-2021

[andrewducker]

The Mystery Box Storytelling Approach Is Broken, and Here's How to Fix It

(tags:writing mysteries bad )

Covid in Scotland: Latest ICU patients largely unvaccinated and young

(tags:Pandemic hospital Scotland )

Oh lord, Will Wright's new game is built on NFTs

(tags:OhForFucksSake games cryptography )

How on earth were the red flags around Sarah Everard's murderer missed?

(tags:murder police uk )

The Biggest Churches in the World: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

(tags:religion architecture history )

Comments

[cmcmck]

I'm no believer in the idea of death sentences but I might make an exception in the case of that scumbag- the Chinese had something called 'the death by a thousand cuts' (and yes, it was real) which could take days if not weeks.

The ancient Afghans would turn that kind of criminal over to the women...............

The one consolation is that as a bent copper and woman abuser he'll have a hell of a time inside!

[andrewducker]

Awful though he is, I'm actually more concerned about the system that let him work as a police officer.

[cmcmck]

Well, you saw how the met reacted to those of us of the female persuasion who dared to protest what had gone on............

[dewline]

Therefore our concern about the system as established is grounded in fact.

[alithea]

Yes. It's awful that there are men like him but a system that knowingly lets him stay in a position of power to facilitate his crimes is rotten to the core. And also perfectly illustrates how incredibly far we are from women being safe.

The Mystery Box Storytelling Approach Is Broken, and Here's How to Fix It

[jducoeur]

While the article isn't wrong, I do sort of feel like he's missing a key point: that many of these mystery-box stories are problematic partly because they are lying about knowing where the story is going. And he is (as so many do) completely missing the original influence of Babylon 5, which isn't a modern "mystery box" only in that it really did know more or less exactly where all of the secrets were headed, right from the outset.

Having just rewatched B5, I'm acutely aware that it hasn't aged as well as I might wish: JMS was a newish writer, and the dialogue was often clunky. (Not to mention direction and acting that wasn't quite up to modern snuff.) But I remember the punch of the revelations as they came, and it was pretty intense, in no small part because they weren't just tacked-on, they were underlying everything from the outset. And yes, they were central to the story and characters, not just mysteries for their own sake. (Although the eventual thematic premise of the Shadow/Vorlon war feels a little trite at this point, I'm afraid.)