digitalpress
06-25-2003, 01:57 PM
Prose, Poems, and Emoto-Versatronic Expressionist Pieces About Video Games (1980-2003)
Blue Wizard Is About To Die! is Seth "Fingers" Flynn Barkan's literary love song to the arcades of the eighties. Focusing on great machines like "Joust", "Sinistar", and many others, the reader is led through a rich catalogue of experiences that range from the ridiculous to the sublime. Blue Wizard also makes a compelling argument for seeing video games as works of art, portraying them as "movement drama" and comparing them to great symphonic works of music. An absolute must for anyone who knows video games and an essential for poetry enthusiasts, Blue Wizard will forever alter your concept of what is possible in modern verse.
http://www.twhi.org/rip/wizard/wizard_thumb.jpg
Excerpt:
MARIO IN EXILE:
"I AM PLANNING GREAT THINGS!"
the drunken Italian dictator shouts,
legs extended, like Stalin
in repose before the fireplace,
lost in books and leather and the madness
of dreams gone wrong.
He laughs, suddenly,
a dark, cold, merciless laugh of
brutal irony, joyless mirth; reminiscent of
gulag exemptions denied,
of punks murdered with axes in the street.
He throws the brandy snifter against the wall.
"GREAT THINGS!" he roars,
re-iterating his main premise to the blank walls...
the resultant silence replaced by a soft chuckle,
dead in the air, muffled
by the books and the leather.
"Where is the music?" he mumbles, humming
the theme from his first great campaign... trails off, then silence.
he stares at the Persian rug, lost inside himself
he begins tweaking his mustache,
the one thing that remains vibrant
on his craggy face;
well-waxed and black as sin,
the life-energy of the land absorbed
in those hairs;
"GReat things," he whispers, drooling, in hiccup,
a smile rudely stretched across his face,
souring into grimace...
he does not call for the princess
for she is dead, turtle shell in the head;
self-inflicted, clutching a note with one question:
"where has my plumber gone?"
Copyright 2003 by Seth Barkan
Blue Wizard Is About To Die! is Seth "Fingers" Flynn Barkan's literary love song to the arcades of the eighties. Focusing on great machines like "Joust", "Sinistar", and many others, the reader is led through a rich catalogue of experiences that range from the ridiculous to the sublime. Blue Wizard also makes a compelling argument for seeing video games as works of art, portraying them as "movement drama" and comparing them to great symphonic works of music. An absolute must for anyone who knows video games and an essential for poetry enthusiasts, Blue Wizard will forever alter your concept of what is possible in modern verse.
http://www.twhi.org/rip/wizard/wizard_thumb.jpg
Excerpt:
MARIO IN EXILE:
"I AM PLANNING GREAT THINGS!"
the drunken Italian dictator shouts,
legs extended, like Stalin
in repose before the fireplace,
lost in books and leather and the madness
of dreams gone wrong.
He laughs, suddenly,
a dark, cold, merciless laugh of
brutal irony, joyless mirth; reminiscent of
gulag exemptions denied,
of punks murdered with axes in the street.
He throws the brandy snifter against the wall.
"GREAT THINGS!" he roars,
re-iterating his main premise to the blank walls...
the resultant silence replaced by a soft chuckle,
dead in the air, muffled
by the books and the leather.
"Where is the music?" he mumbles, humming
the theme from his first great campaign... trails off, then silence.
he stares at the Persian rug, lost inside himself
he begins tweaking his mustache,
the one thing that remains vibrant
on his craggy face;
well-waxed and black as sin,
the life-energy of the land absorbed
in those hairs;
"GReat things," he whispers, drooling, in hiccup,
a smile rudely stretched across his face,
souring into grimace...
he does not call for the princess
for she is dead, turtle shell in the head;
self-inflicted, clutching a note with one question:
"where has my plumber gone?"
Copyright 2003 by Seth Barkan