1 review liked by nyxxy_nichts
Homestuck
2009
Policy
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I woke up with this strange craving to play through Homestuck to completion this time after having the jingle of one of the songs pervade my sleep. So I'm making a decision to enter this rabbit hole again.
I read Homestuck about 6 years ago to around page mark 4000 or so. I believe this was roughly far enough in the story that I met the highly charismatic and quite lore complex Trolls but I believe I had stopped due to the investigation intermission I was on wearing me down. Now I've decided to try carving through this Text again so I figured I would give a small reflection on it.
For one, I want to start off by settling that Homestuck is actually more of a game than even most Kinetic Visual Novels. You see while a majority of the text does function as a Kinetic Visual Novel, there are various hyperlinks you can click on throughout the journey that meander you into nonsense. For example when speaking about Betty Crocker's aroma on the reread you can click a link that takes you to the Betty Crocker wikipedia page.
Most of the links tend more substantial than just this. But regardless it reveals the first cultural button that Homestuck is pushing on, the idea that its own text is embedded in relation to a lot of texts around it which are themselves constantly moving. This process of change of evolution is reflected in the massive amount of fan content and the fact that there has been more and more fan participation in the story. Up until now, we usually think about the effects of fan participation as an audience as something hostile and oppressive, one of the most notable examples being the re utilization of death threats that Hideki Anno recycled into End of Evangelion. By comparison, perhaps in part due to the playful and immature tone of the work, Homestuck's fan participation for a long time remained frenzied but relatively warm. Originally I was under the impression that Homestuck's fandom didnt have a whole lot of controversy and that Andrew Hussie was mostly ok, but upon reading a couple articles I realized that there is litigations going on, and the Hussie quite frankly sees himself as a reluctant cult leader now. I think the intelligence with which he speaks about it here is telling:
“The content vacuum created by a cryptid leader results in overwhelming conditions of parasociality, and the projections of personality, morality, and biographical data onto the blank-slate leader can get ludicrous, and often pretty spiteful. Then again, depending on the atmosphere of any given moment in fandom, there may be at least as many simps projecting absurd deification fantasies on the leader.”
source
What I find so impressive about this is how it seems to show something that I picked up in what I read and am aware of when it comes to Homestuck itself: This terminally online lingo is culturally accepted and then utilized in order to tell a more immediately accurate story. While it keeps hands off with just simple teenaged irc interactions early on, people saying 'thats boring bro', it slowly billows out more and more into niche internet slang and technologized thinking especially once the trolls become involved.
It's particularly for these later parts of the story I'm interested in reading to, and in particular want to prime myself for some of the spinoff content: Psycholonials, HiveSwap. Along with the late game embedded in the work itself Alterniabound. But I will say that the humor and direction of early homestuck does actually amuse me.
One of the most startlingly effective things about how Homestuck functions is that it will spend a lot of time with its characters fumbling around to figure out what to do. Characters will stand around jamming items into each other and getting confused with how their own interaction systems (called Capchalogues). I always thought these meandering moments were really entertaining as they call back to not knowing what to do in a point and click game. On top of that the rich mess of the environments and rooms of most of the characters is relatable, having shit just littered all over the floor and constantly sorting through it is how a lot of people online including myself tend to live, but also shows a skill in environmental storytelling that backs up a lot of the more dialogue heavy portions of the game. I was complaining recently how most visual novels tend to perform description through internal monologue, so the lack of focus on internal monologue here is going to help my reading a lot.
I think a lot of people on here are critical of this for being only either 'technically a game' or plastering it in a teenaged nostalgia about how they played it, but will probably never play it again. Honestly I can't help but find both of these approaches somewhat uncritical and tedious. While there's no impression on people to do anything I think referencing the text via nostalgia from what I understand of it does it a huge disservice to the primary themes of change and hyper-subjectivity. While perhaps rereading the whole thing is untenable for most depending on life circumstance, flipping the book back to your favourite moments or scenes or quotations does a lot to keep you tethered to the identity with a work, rather than just throwing it on like a hat when it suits you. For example, i'll throw on random episodes of MLP to help keep my memory with the main work sharpened. On whether or not its a game point, I just find this so frankly ridiculous. The failstate is not finishing the damn thing which a LOT of people have done. Also visual novels by their digital design are games, so this is also a game.
The fact is, I hear a lot about how I should read homestuck but a lot less rather why or what it means to the person in particular. Perhaps this short circuited nature is exactly what Hussie is referencing here and has a right to do so. Eventually people will 'wake up' from the cult and disavow from it etc. But the glamour of the music has also pierced out to me, with Toby Fox even having apparently done the music for certain parts. I'm excited to hear that music in its original format all other things aside.
That's why I plan to reread and actually finish Homestuck this time. I figured I'd leave a note here going in on my previous impressions and positive feelings towards the work. If it's somewhat dry and unspecific in relating to character dialogue I would understand, I really remember really liking Dirk Strider and his awesome sunglasses. A lot of people say I'm like a femme Dirk Strider sometimes so that makes sense. I also really like Nepeta's whole catgirl aesthetic is cute and her desire for roleplay is so fun.
Anyway I learned also that if you have any interest in playing the game now, the browser version is a bit busted and the sound no longer works. So it's best to download it from here. If all goes well expect another write up down the chute here soon.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I woke up with this strange craving to play through Homestuck to completion this time after having the jingle of one of the songs pervade my sleep. So I'm making a decision to enter this rabbit hole again.
I read Homestuck about 6 years ago to around page mark 4000 or so. I believe this was roughly far enough in the story that I met the highly charismatic and quite lore complex Trolls but I believe I had stopped due to the investigation intermission I was on wearing me down. Now I've decided to try carving through this Text again so I figured I would give a small reflection on it.
For one, I want to start off by settling that Homestuck is actually more of a game than even most Kinetic Visual Novels. You see while a majority of the text does function as a Kinetic Visual Novel, there are various hyperlinks you can click on throughout the journey that meander you into nonsense. For example when speaking about Betty Crocker's aroma on the reread you can click a link that takes you to the Betty Crocker wikipedia page.
Most of the links tend more substantial than just this. But regardless it reveals the first cultural button that Homestuck is pushing on, the idea that its own text is embedded in relation to a lot of texts around it which are themselves constantly moving. This process of change of evolution is reflected in the massive amount of fan content and the fact that there has been more and more fan participation in the story. Up until now, we usually think about the effects of fan participation as an audience as something hostile and oppressive, one of the most notable examples being the re utilization of death threats that Hideki Anno recycled into End of Evangelion. By comparison, perhaps in part due to the playful and immature tone of the work, Homestuck's fan participation for a long time remained frenzied but relatively warm. Originally I was under the impression that Homestuck's fandom didnt have a whole lot of controversy and that Andrew Hussie was mostly ok, but upon reading a couple articles I realized that there is litigations going on, and the Hussie quite frankly sees himself as a reluctant cult leader now. I think the intelligence with which he speaks about it here is telling:
“The content vacuum created by a cryptid leader results in overwhelming conditions of parasociality, and the projections of personality, morality, and biographical data onto the blank-slate leader can get ludicrous, and often pretty spiteful. Then again, depending on the atmosphere of any given moment in fandom, there may be at least as many simps projecting absurd deification fantasies on the leader.”
source
What I find so impressive about this is how it seems to show something that I picked up in what I read and am aware of when it comes to Homestuck itself: This terminally online lingo is culturally accepted and then utilized in order to tell a more immediately accurate story. While it keeps hands off with just simple teenaged irc interactions early on, people saying 'thats boring bro', it slowly billows out more and more into niche internet slang and technologized thinking especially once the trolls become involved.
It's particularly for these later parts of the story I'm interested in reading to, and in particular want to prime myself for some of the spinoff content: Psycholonials, HiveSwap. Along with the late game embedded in the work itself Alterniabound. But I will say that the humor and direction of early homestuck does actually amuse me.
One of the most startlingly effective things about how Homestuck functions is that it will spend a lot of time with its characters fumbling around to figure out what to do. Characters will stand around jamming items into each other and getting confused with how their own interaction systems (called Capchalogues). I always thought these meandering moments were really entertaining as they call back to not knowing what to do in a point and click game. On top of that the rich mess of the environments and rooms of most of the characters is relatable, having shit just littered all over the floor and constantly sorting through it is how a lot of people online including myself tend to live, but also shows a skill in environmental storytelling that backs up a lot of the more dialogue heavy portions of the game. I was complaining recently how most visual novels tend to perform description through internal monologue, so the lack of focus on internal monologue here is going to help my reading a lot.
I think a lot of people on here are critical of this for being only either 'technically a game' or plastering it in a teenaged nostalgia about how they played it, but will probably never play it again. Honestly I can't help but find both of these approaches somewhat uncritical and tedious. While there's no impression on people to do anything I think referencing the text via nostalgia from what I understand of it does it a huge disservice to the primary themes of change and hyper-subjectivity. While perhaps rereading the whole thing is untenable for most depending on life circumstance, flipping the book back to your favourite moments or scenes or quotations does a lot to keep you tethered to the identity with a work, rather than just throwing it on like a hat when it suits you. For example, i'll throw on random episodes of MLP to help keep my memory with the main work sharpened. On whether or not its a game point, I just find this so frankly ridiculous. The failstate is not finishing the damn thing which a LOT of people have done. Also visual novels by their digital design are games, so this is also a game.
The fact is, I hear a lot about how I should read homestuck but a lot less rather why or what it means to the person in particular. Perhaps this short circuited nature is exactly what Hussie is referencing here and has a right to do so. Eventually people will 'wake up' from the cult and disavow from it etc. But the glamour of the music has also pierced out to me, with Toby Fox even having apparently done the music for certain parts. I'm excited to hear that music in its original format all other things aside.
That's why I plan to reread and actually finish Homestuck this time. I figured I'd leave a note here going in on my previous impressions and positive feelings towards the work. If it's somewhat dry and unspecific in relating to character dialogue I would understand, I really remember really liking Dirk Strider and his awesome sunglasses. A lot of people say I'm like a femme Dirk Strider sometimes so that makes sense. I also really like Nepeta's whole catgirl aesthetic is cute and her desire for roleplay is so fun.
Anyway I learned also that if you have any interest in playing the game now, the browser version is a bit busted and the sound no longer works. So it's best to download it from here. If all goes well expect another write up down the chute here soon.