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So, Welcome to Night Vale won me over. I still think it's overrated, but that doesn't keep it from being kind of fun. And now I want to listen to more shows. I got linked to Thrilling Adventure Hour but I didn't like it. It was too manic and kind of forced sounding.
Any suggestions for more to listen to?
And while we're on the subject of Night Vale. Once I had a conversation with my father about Bob Dylan lyrics, about when Bob Dylan didn't seem to be saying much about the issues of the day any more. My dad was understandably disappointed, and it suddenly occurred to me, you know how a lot of his lyrics never made too much sense if you listened too closely? -- Bob Dylan never meant as much by his lyrics as his fans did.
And I believe the same is true of Night Vale. A lot of it is Cool Bits thrown together in a way that seems sort of mysterious and threatening, but the thing doesn't much hold together either in the short run or the long run. It's not a problem if you understand it as a romp, but if you're expecting a big payoff -- I don't think there will be. Eventually the producers will be ready for the next thing and they'll tie it all up -- or not -- and wander off. Or worse, they won't get bored, and the Cool Bits will get their shiny worn off by too much repetition and permutation. They may acquire more meaning over time, but if they do, it will be due to a nice accident.
Thesde observations are the result oif having listened to most of it in a week-long period of time, which is a process guaranteed to expose all the shallow bits and weak structures of a thing meant to be consumed in small weekly doses. Obviously I enjoyed it enough to want to catch up with it, and obviously hearing the less than brilliant aspects of it didn't turn me off too much, because I went back to hear the last two updates.
The things that bug me, though -- they keep bugging me, and that's okay.
Any suggestions for more to listen to?
And while we're on the subject of Night Vale. Once I had a conversation with my father about Bob Dylan lyrics, about when Bob Dylan didn't seem to be saying much about the issues of the day any more. My dad was understandably disappointed, and it suddenly occurred to me, you know how a lot of his lyrics never made too much sense if you listened too closely? -- Bob Dylan never meant as much by his lyrics as his fans did.
And I believe the same is true of Night Vale. A lot of it is Cool Bits thrown together in a way that seems sort of mysterious and threatening, but the thing doesn't much hold together either in the short run or the long run. It's not a problem if you understand it as a romp, but if you're expecting a big payoff -- I don't think there will be. Eventually the producers will be ready for the next thing and they'll tie it all up -- or not -- and wander off. Or worse, they won't get bored, and the Cool Bits will get their shiny worn off by too much repetition and permutation. They may acquire more meaning over time, but if they do, it will be due to a nice accident.
Thesde observations are the result oif having listened to most of it in a week-long period of time, which is a process guaranteed to expose all the shallow bits and weak structures of a thing meant to be consumed in small weekly doses. Obviously I enjoyed it enough to want to catch up with it, and obviously hearing the less than brilliant aspects of it didn't turn me off too much, because I went back to hear the last two updates.
The things that bug me, though -- they keep bugging me, and that's okay.