Or: How I Learned My Heartstrings Are Especially Easy To Pluck
I’ve been trying to put together little newsletters about the art I’ve been engaging with recently, but I realised that putting out a post every single time I do might get a bit tiresome. And so, a compromise: once a week I’m going to post a new update detailing all of the things that have tickled my fancy recently.
Sound good? OK – here we go…
I’ve Been Reading…
Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear got a lot of buzz even before it was released this year, and with good reason. It’s got one hell of a premise: an influencer who’s a part of the burgeoning “tradwife” movement — in which women post videos of themselves homemaking and looking after children with frankly fascist undertones — wakes up to find herself apparently transported to the year 1885, and forced to really live the kind of live she’s been cosplaying for online clout.
I was surprised by how much of the book consists of flashbacks to the protagonist’s previous modern-day life, and I wish that the ending (which goes to some very interesting places) had been given a little more breathing room, but Burke’s prose is so darkly funny and engaging that I still tore through it.
I’ve also been reading a novel-in-progress by Ellen Taylor, an extremely talented writer who’s another of this year’s Writing East Midlands mentees. If you want a flavour of her work, she’s recently been featured in Pulse Magazine (also published by WEM) and in 50-Word Stories.
I’ve Been Watching…
This weekend we went on a family cinema trip to see Toy Story 5, and unsurprisingly we had a marvelous time (despite the best efforts of some parents who refused to control their obnoxiously loud kids).
I’m undeniably biased when it comes to Pixar movies — they’re basically the backdrop to my childhood — but this one is pretty damn good. Not up there with Toy Story 3, which is a nearly perfect film, but it definitely justifies its existence more than Toy Story 4 did. As a parent to a small child, the question of how to expose kids to technology without sacrificing play is a big one, and I like that the film’s message ended up being more nuanced than just “SCREENS BAD.” And yes, by the end I had tears in my eyes.
I’ve Been Playing…
Boy, between this and Toy Story 5, my heartstrings have been well and truly plucked this week.
Pragmata feels like a game unstuck in time. With gameplay that involves hacking and shooting waves of robots on the Moon and a story about a gruff middle-aged man protecting a small child (or in this case, a robot built to look like a small child) it could easily have come out in the PS3 and Xbox 360 era of the mid-2010s.
But where those games often build their narrative around the gruff man learning to care for the small child, in this case the protagonist seems pretty eager about looking after his young charge, indulging her curiosity and taking the time to play hide and seek with her. It’s a take on fatherhood that’s rare in video games, and I hope more titles follow its example in the future.
Thanks for reading! If you have any recommendations of books, games, films or TV shows I might enjoy, leave a comment below. And please subscribe to get all editions of my newsletter straight to your inbox!
Phil W. Bayles 
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