We live in a complicated era to become artists. Limited time and money increasingly compete with the common AI works, with the entire industry working to replace skilled artistic labour with cheap contract work. It’s enough to take you to some very dark places. And those dark places are Banana Chan (Van Richen’s Guide to Ravenloft, Jiangxi: Blood in the Banquet Hall) It will flourish. Her latest book is Imitation, A solo TTRPG about a fashion designer named Marcos and his struggle with creativity in the fast fashion world.
It is the second part of Banana Chan’s “Mephistopheles Trilogy.” Fake Ends with the music title sample. and Imitation Still funding BackerkitI reunited with the writer and learned more about her trilogy and her approach to artistic horror.
Just from Go, let me know a little about the Mephistopheles trilogy you’re working on.
The Mephistopheles trilogy is three different games, as is the same “choose your own adventure” mechanic. They also have this element that creates your own artifacts to them: Fakeits color, in Imitationthe fabric, the next third book, sample,note. So they’re all about art, professional jealousy, that you don’t feel good enough and you don’t get the recognition you want. The constant is that they are all talking about this demon. So how this demon appears is through the art created. It is a manifestation of the creator’s own insecurities about themselves, how they fit into the world of art they have chosen, how they fit into the larger world, and their careers.
It is very in line with Marlowe’s concept of Mephistopheles Dr. Faustoshow he appears, and is a manifestation of the protagonist’s intellectual anxiety. I think what’s interesting is that we’re talking about the artistic elements and the frustration of it, but it’s interesting that all three characters are copylists. They don’t produce. What are you thinking about with these characters and having a bit of such creative frustration?
Creating an original takes a lot of time and energy. When I was first writing Tempest, FakeI was writing a lot for others. So, when I was thinking about it, it was kind of like that. That was the first layer, and the type of first con syndrome that had settled for me. And I think the other part of that is the idea of ​​Tempest, Marcos and the final character you know. They had experience, practiced, and trained. For the Tempest they were trained under another painter. For Marcos he was trained in school. He went to Fit, the Institute of Fashion Technology. They have skills in the belt, but they are in this world where they don’t feel they can do anything more for the world they live in.
For Tempest, she has struggled to find a gallery space and trying to make something out of her work, but she is building up her art. Same as Marcos. Marcos works in fasting and is very successful in not just tearing people off the internet, but working with fast fashion companies and not doing so much. What does it mean to work for yourself for someone else? And that’s like what I was trying to get with works about things you know about, like you’re forgering…
It’s a fascinating discussion as it’s now within the arts community. It can be seen on the tabletop and within other communities. In contrast to computer AI, I create my own things about originality and the power of an artist. So it’s interesting to see such doveTailing.
When I first started working FakeAI was just fun. No one really thought about it. They were all like making filters and things with AI. And I didn’t pick it up at the time, NFT seemed like a trouble for the existence of the art world, right? So I talked a bit about NFT in it, but that wasn’t when Carlos and I started writing the script. Fakethat’s when we were now, and we were now. Maybe we could talk a bit about it. Don’t give anything. But that was part of what we thought when we were doing something for the script. And Knock-offsimilar. I was thinking a bit about fast fashion and how fast it is to make something or steal something. What is the difference between someone who does this to other people and who does this? That was what I was thinking, but I didn’t actually add it. I didn’t put it too much forge until I got to part of the script.
I thought I was reading Fake About the fear of creativity. But how do we fear artistic expression?
So fear comes through the story, and it’s a guided story. At the theme level, it is very important you Being fearful, you It’s scary and scary to be the thing around you, but no one else really notices that it’s going on. You are aware of changes within yourself and changes in your environment, but it is a very lonely experience, right? So you are the only person who notices all this. You’re losing your friends. You are losing the people closest to you. They’re not experiencing what you’re going through, you eventually. And I think it creates a lonely environment, a lonely space.
I think loneliness is in the end very scary. As humans, we really want to connect with other people. At least that’s what I want to believe. But what happens if you break that connection? So I think all three games play with that idea of ​​loss. You’ve lost yourself, lost the relationship you have, you feel lonely. Artifacts exist as reminders for the game itself. There are also plenty of body horror. The story is the horror of every body.
Was the fake your first solo solo or did you do it before?
Yes, technically my second. My first very official solo journaling game was a game many years ago, but I think it was 2016-2017. And it was called They follow me And it was a video blog. And you will basically record yourself on your phone, you will answer the prompt, and as my neighbor behaves strangely, I don’t know. what happened? And I think it was like seven days. Essentially, you basically tell them you believe that your neighbor is an alien and that they believe they are following you.
The counterfeiting is the first official one, the first official standalone I’ve written. And that’s true Darkness on the brink of Ohioafter that Knock-offand finally sample. Unless I’m on another tangent. I hope not to go to other tangents.
In fact, how did you move to writing with solo, obviously whether it’s part of the work you did and the contract work you did? Egami?
I think it was both free and scary and scary. I was in control of everything, so I was so free, right? There’s no need for someone to schedule a meeting to match me. I watched Shanna Germain (Monte Cook Games) earlier this week, and the reason I play solo journaling games is because I’m tired of PlayTesting’s scheduling. It’s time to schedule a schedule, so scheduling time to play games is a huge amount of work, right? I was impressed with the six-year campaign. I don’t know how people found the time to schedule them.
But this was very personal to me, so it was scary. The writing of it felt very personal and it was a bit scary to come out there. And it’s very different to doing something with a dice, right? It’s just you and the player, you’re just writing for this player and seeing what happens.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where you’ll be deep in on Marcos’ story, on Monday Imitation Discuss the logistics of meat scans.
Images with read/write memory
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