Monthly Archives: August 2023

Grand Theft Auto 6, GTA 5, and a Red Dead Redemption remaster are more than enough for Rockstar to focus on right now. But as we approach the 20th anniversary of the first game, and as I come to the end of replaying it, yet again, Im craving the return of Manhunt. One of the greatest horror games ever made, its not just scary, but shocking, smart, and legitimately squalid. Theres something to be said for the current tide of triple-A games, which compared to perhaps two or three decades ago represent a culture that has seriously broadened its appeal. But Manhunt takes me back to a time when gaming was a counter-culture, and it felt like a willingness to experiment and plumb the depths of poor taste still existed among big-name developers.

Im a bit cynical, a bit jaded, and a bit older now than I was, and it takes a lot to really get to me. But I still think Manhunt is genuinely nasty. Ignoring some of the old hysteria and hyperbole, and the reputation that Manhunt has gained as one of the most controversial games ever, this is still more brutal and nihilistic than any other mainstream release Ive seen in my lifetime.

Its a horrible cliche, and often untrue, but I think it genuinely applies with Manhunt you couldnt make this game now, or at least, it seems very unlikely that Rockstar, or any other big developer, would allocate a budget and attempt to market a game like this now.

Its not just the violence. Its the sexualization of the violence. Its the director, Lionel Starkweather,groaning into your earpiece when you open a hunters face with a hammer. Its the old mock-up website for the in-game snuff ring business Valiant Video, a place where you can buy latex gloves and gimp masks.

This is a journey to the center of depravity, a horrible adventure through some of the darkest psychosexual impulses. Your enemies are white supremacists. Your weapons are hand axes, shards of glass, and plastic bags. Stripped to their underwear and tied to a stake, you rescue your family one level, only to watch them butchered, on a VHS tape you find in an abandoned shopping mall, one level later. Its real dirt.

Its the levels with the family that really bring the power of Manhunt home, in fact. In other games, rescuing them would represent something redemptive, an optimistic kind of uptick in the story where were allowed to feel that perhaps the world isnt all bad.

Similarly, when they die, itd be a dramatic turning point, the momentour protagonist, James Earl Cash, resolves to do something topursuesomemorally cleansingvengeance. But Manhunt offers neither of these things. When he rescues them, apart from barking orders like run away or get out of here, Cash doesnt speak to his family its as if they dont love each other, dont care about each other, dont know each other. Likewise, when theyre killed, the game just continues like nothing happened. Cash keeps following Starkweathers orders. The executions roll in. None of it matters.

And that, I think, is Manhunts greatest achievement. When I see writers or game-makers or whoever it may be talking about nihilism, and how they want to explore hopelessness, immorality,or how everything is pain or something it often feels like a cop out, like theres something easier in making art about how everythings terrible.

But while its certainly nihilistic, Manhunt has a forceful conviction. It takes perhaps the first four levels before it hits the absolute rock bottom of the soul, and then it just keeps digging and digging and digging. Its committed to squalor, sleaze, and spiritual oblivion. For a game about hollowness, and the absence of even the basest humanity, its gotseriousvoice and substance.

Which is why I want it back. By broadening their appeal and softening their approach, videogames, as a commercial prospect and arguably as an artform as well, have done well in the last 20 years. Games have proven to the world to the mainstream cultural vanguard that theyve got some expressive and certainly some industrial worth.

But in doing that, theyve stopped being dangerous. Stopped being iconoclastic. Stopped being appalling. AndI missthat particular creative urge, that urge to be grungy, challenge taste, and rebel against accepted standards of artistic cleanliness. I think that urge once gave to gaming a distinctive cultural identity. And if it did, Manhunt was its apex. Id love to have it back. But Im almost certain it wont happen.

Manhunt 3 might not be coming, but the GTA 6 release date is definitely on its way. In the meantime, if youre still causing chaos in Los Santos, check out the best GTA 5 mods for 2023.

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Forget GTA 6 and Red Dead Redemption, I want Manhunt 3 - PCGamesN

Summary

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a box office disaster. In its opening weekend of release, the film, which is based on the seventh chapter of Bram Stokers classic 1897 novel Dracula, titled Captains Log, grossed a dismal $6.5 million at the domestic box office and will be lucky to reach the $20 million mark throughout its domestic run.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter marks the second failed attempt by the films distributor, Universal Pictures, to mine Stokers novel and revive the Dracula character as part of Universals now seemingly doomed classic monster-verse experiment, following the commercial failure of 2023s campy comedy horror film Renfield, which features Dracula, played by Nicolas Cage, and the Renfield character from the Dracula universe.

While The Last Voyage of the Demeter had a modest production cost of $45 million, the film is nonetheless on pace to be one of the biggest flops of the summer of 2023, as while blockbuster films like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One have certainly become commercial disappointments, in relation to their massive production costs, those films nonetheless grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at the worldwide box office, whereas The Last Voyage of the Demeter is seemingly being avoided by audiences like it was a plague.

While The Last Voyage of the Demeter attempts to deflect the bleakness of the films story with the addition of new characters and an ending that contains at least a semblance of hope, however symbolic, the depressing and tragic source material nonetheless infuses the film with a feeling of inevitability, even for those people who watch the movie without having first read Bram Stokers novel Dracula.

Moreover, for those people who view The Last Voyage of the Demeter with a deep appreciation of both Stokers novel and the titular ships significance within the book, the inevitability of the story's tragic outcome makes the film, despite its genuine qualities, seem both depressing and pointless, as while the similarly bleak Alien prequel films Alien: Covenant and Prometheus distinguished themselves within the Alien film series by answering long-held questions and posing fascinating new questions, The Last Voyage of the Demeter doesnt take viewers in any meaningful creative directions that dont already exist in Stokers novel.

Related: The Last Voyage of the Demeter: How Previous Dracula Films Portray the Horrific Tragedy

Indeed, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is much more similar, both in terms of its creative direction and the disastrous commercial results, to 2011s The Thing, the direct prequel to John Carpenters 1982 film of the same name, as the 2011 prequel, much like what The Last Voyage of the Demeter does to Stokers novel, attempts to blunt the impenetrable nihilism of Carpenters film by introducing new characters, including a potential survivor, whose fate is left unknown at the end of the film.

By following this cynical approach, The Last Voyage of Demeter alienates fans of Stoker's novel while holding no deeper meaning for the uninitiated, as The Last Voyage of the Demeter ultimately reveals itself to be a film with no compelling reason to exist.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter was the only major studio film to be released on August 11, 2023, and the film was heavily promoted by Universal, which attempted to market the film as being like Alien on a ship.

However, despite the fact that audiences have shown a willingness to support a wide variety of films throughout the summer of 2023, from the boundless beauty and optimism of Barbie to the thought-provoking drama of Oppenheimer, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, with its relentlessly gloomy palette and tone, fell into a commercial chasm, as the film, which takes place in 1897, appears to be simultaneously too elevated to energize the core horror audience, specifically in the key eighteen-to-thirty-four demographic, and too gory to interest a more sophisticated audience.

Related: The Best Films about Dracula, Ranked

In this respect, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is similar to Guillermo del Toros 2015 gothic romance film Crimson Peak, which, despite receiving excellent reviews, compared to the middling reviews for The Last Voyage of the Demeter, was too classical and highbrow in its approach to appeal to a large mainstream audience, as reflected in the films disappointing box office performance.

Of course, one key difference between Crimson Peak and The Last Voyage of the Demeter is that while Crimson Peak was a star-driven film with Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston, The Last Voyage of the Demeter features a virtually unknown cast, as the films main attraction is, of course, supposed to be Dracula, whose popular appeal as a horror villain has clearly declined with todays audiences, which seem to now regard Dracula as a genre relic.

The box office failure of The Last Voyage of the Demeter, so soon after the release of Renfield, indeed the seemingly absolute rejection of the Dracula character in the marketplace, would seem to mark the end of Universals long-gestating attempt to create a new cinematic universe based on the classic Universal Monsters film series.

Of course, this cinematic universe, formerly known as the Dark Universe, was intended to begin with 2017s The Mummy, and just as that films colossal failure led to the cancelation of the Dark Universe, its hard to conceive of a narrative in which this would-be universe, under any name, is restarted in the foreseeable future, certainly with Dracula.

Indeed, after The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, and 2014s Dracula Untold, its hard to conceive of a scenario in which Dracula is ever featured in another Universal film.

Original post:

Why The Last Voyage of the Demeter Sank at the Box Office - MovieWeb

Gabriel Krauze's extra-curricular activities were a little different from the average English literature student.

While completing his degree at London's Queen Mary College, he was involved in London gang life and living on a notorious estate in South Kilburn.

His debut autobiographical novel Who They Was, which describes this life, was long-listed for the 2020 Booker Prize.

Gabriel Krauze Photo: supplied

Who They Was isa violent, visceral book withno redemptive arc, Krauze says.

In literature, people are obsessed with these narratives that are redemptive, or with narratives that give them hope and joy, and this really is becoming a tired regurgitation of a kind of unreality that people for some reason, readers, a lot of readers, want to believe in a version of the world which simply doesn't exist.

And it's a false kind of idealism as well, because it means that we don't engage with challenging ideas.

On the nihilism which draws young men to gang life.

If you read the poetry of Homer, if you read the Iliad by Homer, there's this amazing passage, when Achilles is about to go off to battle to fight the Trojans, and his mother says to him, 'listen, if you go off to battle, you're going to die in battle, but your name will live forever.

But if you stay at home, you will live till you're 125 years old, and you'll have grandchildren and great grandchildren. But when you die, no one will remember your name'.

And in the blink of an eye, he says, 'I want to go to battle, I want to die. And I want my name to live forever'.

On why society turns away from the psychological reasons for crime.

Young men exist within this nihilistic psychological mindset, it's a psychological environment as opposed to a physical environment, because it's not as simplistic as saying oh, it's just to do with poverty and deprivation'. It's also to do with the fact that some people are affected by their circumstances. And by the way in which they view the world differently, and they disconnect from other people who don't look at them the same way or, look at the world in the same way as them.

And we don't really investigate in society the psychological environment, or the philosophical makeup of these young men.

We just talk about it in simplistic terms of poverty and crime.

On gang life as a kind of hyper-capitalism.

People often talk about criminality within the context of liberal thinking. And we think about how to solve this problem without realising that when it comes to selling drugs, and being in a gang, and basically being a gangster, having the aspiration to be a gangster it is a form of like really ruthless capitalism, where we realise the way in which you can have a better quality of life, the way in which you can be more socially mobile is just basically to get money.

On becoming sucked into gang life as a teenager.

I was 13 years old, when I first saw somebody get stabbed right in front of me, like literally a metre from me.

And then the next time I saw somebody get stabbed up was two weeks later, and it basically degrades your threshold for violence, it degrades your threshold for being shocked by things.

And before you know it, you're very inured to that, you're very numb to that stuff. And where it shocks other people. It doesn't shock you.

Like me personally, I don't find my book shocking at all, I have to be reminded by the others that is quite a shocking work because of the world it opens a window on to.

On his diamond grill.

When I first moved to South Kilburn, when I was 17 years old, I saw everyone on the block who was making money, getting money selling drugs and everything, had these diamond grillz.

And this is before the days of UK rappers, and rappers in other countries, wearing diamond grillz, it was like a really unique thing to see. It was very niche. And there was only one place in London as well that you could get diamond grillz, there was only one jeweller who was making this, it was a status symbol.

It's also something that's interesting because it exists in this very dark environment, this environment of brutalist concrete towers, it's very ugly, it's grim. And then you suddenly you have these diamonds flashing in faces and there's something beautiful about it as well.

Gabriel Krauze Photo: supplied

On a Nietzschean morality.

There's a quote in the Genealogy of Morality, when Nietzsche says, it is the meaning of all culture to breed a tame and civilised animal out of the beast of prey man.

And these young men, and the young men involved in crime, are the beasts of prey who haven't had that instinct bred out of them by culture, by civilisation, by society, they've retained some of that animalistic element within them.

So, discussing matters of remorse, that's like part of a different moral code. And again, the book is about how morality is relative to the level of danger in which you live, if you live in a different context, that's much more dangerous, your moral code is completely different, remorse doesn't come into play.

Because if you are burdened by remorse, every time you did something bad, you'd be incapable of living within that world.

On the redemptive power of art.

The greatest thing, the most powerful thing, that can take you away from the brink is art, art is the closest thing to God, is the closest way in which we get to God or the idea of what God could be, or what God is whether you're religious or not.

"And art can save somebody, because it engages their imagination, and it takes them somewhere else.

On the book and his writing.

I don't believe that I'm a particularly good writer, to be quite frank with you, I don't think the book is particularly good, but it's a personal artistic agony, like I could get the Nobel Prize for literature for this book tomorrow and I would just laugh.

I would just say, you don't really understand what great literature is, because I don't have a great work of literature. It's personal, a personal artistic agony.

On fake authenticity

There was this big push in the British literary scene a few years ago, I remember there was this moment when all the publishers were saying, we want to hear more authentic voices... but they don't really mean authentic across the board, they want versions of authenticity that tick boxes for them, that tick moralistic boxes for them, that also tick boxes in terms of like all these buzzwords and everything you know?

You can see like 100 books getting published now every year which are like powerful explorations, powerful explorations of identity and family, powerful explorations of love, hope and gender, powerful explorations...it's all just buzzwords.

It's just the vomiting up of regurgitated buzzwords that are endlessly recycled. And there's no truth in the desire for authenticity, because there's so many versions of authenticity that are very dark, that are very pessimistic, that are very nihilistic, very uncompromising.

On how long-listing for the Booker has not brought him money.

If I'm quite frank with you, I currently live in poverty. I live in government housing, I have a backlog of rent to pay. I owe the tax man money, when I go shopping for food I have to buy the cheapest products possible because I need to watch the pennies because I've stepped away from the streets.

I know how to get money in the streets, but I stepped away and decided to devote myself entirely to writing and nothing has happened for me financially that I haven't been financially successful at all.

I haven't even earned one royalty check from sales of my book. So, in that sense of success if we're talking about it as if the masses are running to read my book, no they're not running.

But it's fine, it's fine, this is not a complaint as well. I don't want anyone to think that.

Krauze is currently working on his second novel which will be partly set in Ukraine. He is appearing at WORD Christchurch in late August.

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Gabriel Krauze: raw writing from the streets of London - RNZ

What is the ideal man?

This is a question that philosophers have pondered over and riffed on for millennia.

Many philosophers have sketched out a vision of an ideal man who, unsurprisingly, encompasses the values that represent the pinnacle of their philosophical beliefs. These conceptions of ideal men are similar in that they all require reaching beyond human defaults to develop greater excellence, but each differs as to which virtues should be more or less emphasized to achieve that excellence. While none of the ideals can ever be perfectly embodied, they serve as aspirational models, guiding individuals to strive for personal growth and virtuous flourishing.

Below, we explore seven of these conceptions of the ideal man from seven different philosophers.

Note: Understanding these archetypal ideals requires a deep understanding of the philosophies that inspired them. Libraries of books have been written about the philosophies we describe below. For brevitys sake, we dont get into the nuances of these ideal men. But weve provided links to additional resources so you can further explore the ideas behind them. Hopefully, these short sketches will inspire you to learn more!

Plato, the renowned ancient Greek philosopher, proposed an ideal man known as the philosopher-king. In his seminal work, theRepublic, Plato aimed to define justice and outline the structure of a model society. In his vision, society would be composed of three groups that corresponded to what he believed were the three parts of the soul: the producers, workers who represented base desire; the auxiliaries, soldiers who representedthumos, or spiritedness; and the guardians, warrior-leaders who represented reason.

Philosophers-kings would be chosen from the guardian class after a long and rigorous education and testing process, which Plato likened to refining gold. During their formative years, the guardians would cultivate the physical and mental faculties necessary for their future roles, beginning with a focus on gymnastics and music. As they matured, they would delve into the study of war, politics, Socratic dialogue, and the Forms the abstract and eternal concepts that underpin reality. Once they reached the age of thirty-five, a test would determine the most qualified candidates for leadership positions within the city. Service in these leadership roles acted as another test to identify potential philosopher-kings. The guardians who excelled in these roles would be selected to be philosopher-kings at around age fifty.

The philosopher-kings extensive education would equip him not only with the skills of governance, but also with a deep understanding of eternal ideals, particularly the Form of the Good. This knowledge would enable him to lead with wisdom and justice and make decisions that benefited society as a whole.

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Aristotle, Platos famed student, presents a different ideal man in hisNicomachean Ethics. Aristotles concept of the ideal man is the great-souled man or the magnanimous man. For him, the pinnacle of manliness was the achievement of eudaimonia, a state of flourishing. For Aristotle, eudaimonia required not just excellence in virtue, but excellence in everything else: health, wealth, beauty, friendship, speaking, and more. Aristotles great-souled man embodies excellence in both inward traits and outward qualities.

The great-souled man has a measured sense of pride. He takes pride in his virtues and achievements, focusing only on significant accomplishments rather than trivial matters.

Moreover, the great-souled man maintains a sense of honor; he not only cultivates excellence for excellences sake, but he expects and values the recognition of his excellence by others. Not just any others, however; the great-souled man seeks the respect of those he considers his equals. He doesnt care about garnering the approval of the masses.

Aristotles ideal man also exhibits the type of courage Ernest Hemingway called grace under pressure and remains calm and dignified in the face of setbacks.

In his interactions with others, the great-souled man displays magnanimity. He ignores slights and doesnt hold grudges. He refrains from gossiping and talking ill of others. While the great-souled man avoids thinking and speaking poorly of others, hes also reluctant to offer praise, as that would be seen as subservient. Whats more, hes quick to grant favors, but avoids asking for them, as that too would signal his inferiority.

In short, the ideal Aristotelian man is a virtuous aristocrat.

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Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher, emphasized the cultivation and performance of proper social conduct and virtues. In Confucianism, the ideal man is known as ajunzi, often translated as a gentleman or an exemplary person.

Ajunzi demonstrates noble behavior and comports himself appropriately in all situations. The Confucian gentleman shows respect and deference to his elders and teachers while treating those beneath him with humanity. He observes societys rituals and forms with sanctity and circumspection. He embodiesren, or consummate conduct, which is a power that inspires others to be good and noble through ones example. Thejunzis actions uplift and ennoble others, encouraging them to do their own part to maintain social harmony.

The Confucian gentleman continually seeks self-improvement. He engages in book study and seeks to apply his knowledge in practical situations. Confucius believed that with dedication and the cultivation of consummate conduct, any individual could become ajunzi, contributing to the betterment of society through his exemplary behavior.

Unlike the Aristotelian great-souled man, the Confucian gentleman adopts a humble orientation. He avoids excessive pride, recognizing its potential to disrupt social order.

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Friedrich Nietzsche, a German existential philosopher of the 19th century, introduced his famous ideal man the bermensch or Superman in his workThus Spoke Zarathustra.

For Nietzsche, becoming an bermensch is a spiritual goal or way of approaching life. The way of the bermensch is filled with energy, strength, risk-taking, and struggle. He represents the drive to strive and live for something beyond oneself while remaining grounded in earthly life (theres no room for other-worldly longings in Nietzsches ideals).

In a modern world where God is dead and meaning gone, the bermensch creates his own meaning. Instead of feeling dread that life has no inherent purpose, the bermensch finds the process of meaning-creation joyful. He embraces the challenge of fashioning his own purpose with laughter.

The bermensch is really the full manifestation of Nietzsches will to power: the drive to assert oneself in the world to be effective, leave a mark, become something better than you are right now, and express yourself.

Nietzsche never states exactly what the ideal man should strive for beyond himself or what he should create. Being filled with the creative force was the important thing. Each individual must determine his own path into the transcendent.

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The ideal man for the Stoic philosophers was something called the Stoic sage. While all the Stoics touched on and described the sage, Arius Didymus, a Stoic philosopher and the teacher of Caesar Augustus, did the most to flesh out this ideal. His descriptions of the sage were quoted at length in a 5th-century book by Joannes Stobaeus that compiled extracts of the works of Greek and Roman philosophers.

The Stoic sage represents the perfect embodiment of Stoic principles, characterized by the alignment of his life with nature. The sages life is tranquil, guided by virtue, and free from disturbances caused by external circumstances. He recognizes that external factors, such as wealth or reputation, are beyond his control and therefore not essential for happiness. Instead, the sages happiness, his eudaimonia, stems solely from the cultivation of virtue and the correct understanding of mental impressions.

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Albert Camus was a French existential philosopher, novelist, and playwright. His most important contribution to existential philosophy was his idea of the absurd. For Camus, the absurdity of life is created by the juxtaposition of two ideas: 1) the universe is inherently meaningless and indifferent to human concerns, and 2) humans have an innate drive to find meaning in life.

Camus ideal individual, the absurd man, confronts the absurdity of existence with defiance and lives authentically in the face of meaninglessness. He is able to acknowledge the existential emptiness of the world without succumbing to despair or nihilism. He embraces the void directly with passion and joy. He rejects the illusion of imposed order, and in fact finds meaning in this very act of rebellion. He creates his own purpose and lives in the moment.

Camus laid out his ideal of the absurd man in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus. In the Greek myth, Sisyphus is condemned by the gods to push a boulder up a hill for eternity, only to watch it roll back down each time he reaches the top. For Camus, Sisyphus embodies the human condition: our endless search for meaning is as futile as Sisyphus eternal task. But Camus imagines Sisyphus as bearing a smile as he descends to retrieve the boulder, suggesting that theres a kind of triumph, dignity, or even happiness in fully acknowledging the absurdity of life and choosing to push on regardless.

Sren Kierkegaard, the 19th-century Danish father of existentialism, described his ideal man as the Knight of Faith. In his workFear and Trembling, Kierkegaard explores the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac to illustrate this archetype.

Kierkegaard contrasts the Knight of Faith with another type of individual: the Knight of Infinite Resignation. The Knight of Infinite Resignation renounces worldly attachments and makes great sacrifices for a higher cause or ideal. He resigns himself to these losses and finds peace by letting go of finite and earthly desires.

The Knight of Faith, however, goes beyond resignation and maintains an unwavering belief that he can still receive what he sacrificed due to his absolute faith in God. Abraham was a Knight of Faith because he simultaneously gave up Isaac for sacrifice while still believing that God would allow him to keep his son.

The Knight of Faith embraces the happiness to be found in the finite while also believing in the reality of the infinite and the power of the infinite to make seemingly impossible things possible. To become a Knight of Faith, one must demonstrate faith through action, as Abraham did when he raised his dagger to sacrifice his son. The Knight of Faith takes bold leaps into the unknown.

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The Ideal Man According to 7 Different Philosophers - Art of Manliness