Chris Braak's Blog, page 9

Dramaturgery: The Lone Ranger and the Curse of the Framing Narrative

I saw this movie the other day.  It…could have been worse, I guess, but it also could have been better.  On the one hand, I guess if you’re going to use the Comanche as a plot point, it’s nice that the war is started entirely by greedy white guys, and propagated by a white guy […]

Dramaturgery: Plot and Story

I think the way to describe the “best” narrative – that is, the narrative that, regardless of its content, is the most structurally-sound, streamlined, well-put-together – is that it is both unexpected and inevitable.  While watching it, you can’t predict the outcomes of the events you’re seeing onscreen, but once you’ve seen it and you […]

Campaign Setting: DUNGEONWORLD

(At work, they have banished me from the internet BUT they have not gone to any lengths to make my job appreciably more interesting.  See if you can guess what I’ve been doing with all my cognitive surplus.) Dungeonworld! A vast complex of tombs and caves, dungeons and ancient cities, bounded on all sides by […]

Egregoria

“Describe” actually literally means something like “draw a circle around.”  That’s why, in geometry, you don’t draw a circle, you describe one.  I want to play a kind of a game in which we use the word “describe” very literally – so, when we talk about “describing an idea” or “describing a person”, we have […]

On Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, and the Nature of Muscles

braak Okay, I wasn’t going to write about this.  I am practicing this new thing where I try not to get worked up about stuff, and instead try to maintain a sort of zen equanimity about things that I can’t control, that don’t affect me, and that — in the long run — probably don’t […]

On Brooke Donatone, and “Millennial Narcissim”

braak I saw this on the internet and wanted to respond to it. I’m actually at the very beginning of the millennial generation, I think, or the very tail end of Generation X – the lines are fuzzy, but I was born in 1981, which is roughly where the line is drawn. For whatever reason, […]

The Man with the Red Right Hand

Have YOU been reading THE MOST IMPORTANT FANTASY NOVEL OF THE 21ST CENTURY? Well, put it down, it is boring, read my book instead. Not convinced? Perhaps this new cover art from Casey Conan will change your mind! Filed under: books, Braak

Attn. Joss Whedon (and Dudes of the Internet)

Please remember that we are all guests, here in the house of feminism. There are many things that guests are permitted to do on behalf of their hosts. Redecorating is not one of them.Filed under: Braak

The Man with the Red Right Hand

Today begins an auspicious new day for Threat Quality Press, as we begin publishing the first volume of Sword of Savonarola, by Chris Braak.  Rather than an epic series of stand-alone novels that, when strung together, constitute a very long story, Sword of Savonarola is one very long story that is conveniently divided into seven different books. The […]

Your Halloween Recommendation: ‘The Batman Vs. Dracula’

Guys, Dracula kicked the utter crap out of Batman in a cartoon made for kids and I feel like not enough of you know that.