You've Been Canonized!: Myth
Good morning everyone and welcome once again to You’ve Been Canonized! our weekly interview segment here at Timelines ! If you’re new to our segment I’m your host canonized author of
Timelines: What if Spain Failed to Control the World? Today, our guest will be another WritAAR of the Week and one of our most interesting fans , Myth author of
Lamps Before the Wind - A Japanese Revival! As you know, each week we get together here on Timelines with one of the patrons of our thread who happens to be an author and we’re so lucky to have so many ! We will be discussing the author himself , their readership of our AAR , and about their current AAR as well ! I hope you all enjoy it !
Part I: The Myth of Myth
A Look into the Author
canonized: First , I'd like to say that you're a prolific author . You have at least 3 AARs to your record . When did you join up with the paradox forums and when did you start writing AARs ?
Myth: I joined the Paradox forums in mid/late July, 2005. However, my first AAR I only began in late July 2006, my Bayonets Made of Milk, in cooperation with Discomb.
canonized: What inspired you to begin writing ?
Myth: I've always enjoyed creating my own worlds--before becoming an AAR writer, I designed several scenarios for various games. As for the decisiion to actual begin writing, it came from my friend Discomb. Over the summer of 2006, I had been relaying to him through MSN the progress of one of my games, as Japan. During this game, I sank scores of carriers--the best score for any single of my carriers must've been nearly a dozen. He suggested I turn it into an AAR, but as I hadn't saved any material from the game I decided against it. However, we then decided to write an AAR together.
canonized: You mentioned to me that during the course of your writing career , you've subsequently been attempting to reach a more narrative focus . Especially with your most recent AAR it seems you're succeeding at your goal . Could you tell us why you decided to focus on the narrative route ?
Myth: I've always enjoyed reading stories of high adventure and the like, with colorful characters and interesting locales. I've tried now and then to attempt the same sort of thing when I was younger, though I could never stick to it. I guess my conception of the AAR, where the gameplay is wedded to the story, in various fashions, finally allows me to really try my hand at it. Starting with an incredibly gameplay and screenshot oriented AAR, I'm slowly moving away from it, away from the events and more toward the people who engineer or experience these events.
canonized: As a writer of narrative style AARs as well , not only do I find affinity in your writing but I truly do believe you execute it excellently , and it even shows with you garnering a WritAAR of the Week award last year . We both know that sometimes narrative based AARs aren't as popular as our screenshot heavy cousins , have you come to terms with that ?
Myth: Sure. In part, my beginning with screenshot-heavy gameplay AARs can be seen, after the fact, as a way of introducing myself into the community and building up a group of people I know like my writing and are willing to follow me deeper away from the screenshots and more toward the characters. While my current project will most likely not reach the viewing numbers of its prequel, I personally feel that my writing has improved and I'm satisfied with the direction I'm going in, so it doesn't matter too much.
canonized: Thank you for that candid response . As for your writing itself I've noticed that your characterization is both deeply thought out but at the same time seasoned to flesh out very realistically . Where did you learn to write such realistic characterizations ?
Myth: Are they realistic? I myself am never really completely satisfied with my writing, which is essentially a guided stream of consciousness, and usually actually can't bear to read my own work after a while. I don't suppose that's actually answered the question, so I'll simply say that I don't know.
canonized: Haha alright . Well I'd also like to touch on your particular style as an author although you write in the narrative style , at least in your latest AAR you forego a lot of dialogue in favour of , as you mentioned , a stream of consciousness style narration . What brought you to use this unique approach ?
Myth: I've always written in a stream of consciousness. Even with university essays, I can't create a detailed outline, as I can never stick to it--I just let myself write. So, to apply this to my current AAR, it seems to me that, except in certain exceptional cases, one only remembers the gist of the conversation rather than the actual words. Thus, as my latest AAR is supposed to be a memoir written many years after the events, the only actual conversation that'd remain engrained in Kuribayashi's memory are those exceptional ones--such as the two meetings with Tojo that he has already had.
canonized: How would you say that writing AARs has affected your life outside of the forums ?
Myth: I don't think it really has, beyond the one guy I know personally who is also interested in writing AARs--Discomb. He and I have a handful of ideas lined up for when we next see each other, though we'll surely never manage all or even most of them.
canonized: As a ReadAAR , you're infamous for predicting plotlines and occurrences could you tell us where that habit of prediction started ?
Myth: It probably stems from all the reading I do. While I would certainly not go as far as saying I've read even a good portion of the possible storylines, I've read many. That, and my cynicism, as well as my love of intrigue, usually makes me eschew taking things at face value in favor of trying to look deeper within the meanings of words and sentences. Many storylines are built of essentially the same building blocks, and some building blocks can naturally only be connected to certain others. It is also thus a sense of pattern recognition, of perceiving the building block. Or maybe I'm just lucky.
Part II: Prince of Predictions
A Look into the Reader
canonized: With that in mind , what're your thoughts on the Timelines storyline(s) ?
Myth: That's a difficult one. I think I'm currently in a wait-and-see mode as I think one of the decisive factors would be Tom's acceptance of his world, if he's reasonably satisfied with it despite his fantasies, or whether he'll be willing to make his fantasies something of a reality. As for Renault and his companions, they currently seem to be the classic group of adventurers in a dungeon and will most likely have to overcome, either by force or guile, several challenges before reaching their final objective. So essentially, I don't think I can predict anything long-term at this moment, though as you've most likely noticed, when it comes to smaller details such as the "tea" and Lara's home, I seem to be reasonably accurate.
canonized: Haha yes you definitely got the tea and Lara’s home although they aren’t as small details as you might let on , I can't evade your predictions all the time ! Actually to be honest one of the reasons why I make the story unpredictable is also because of comments like yours that try to predict the future of the story . Aside from being sometimes unpredictable , what other positive aspects would you say draw you to read Timelines ?
Myth: As I've mentioned before, I enjoy stories of high adventure, as well as of intrigue. Timelines not only manages both, but doubles it by telling not only the tale of Don Antonio, Isabella and the rest but also of Tom, Rodrigo and others as well--and skillfully and intricately links their stories together. It is also very well written, barring some occasionally stylistic errors.
canonized: Ahh yes, thank you hopefully I’ll get an editor sometime soon haha ! As you mentioned earlier , you see a pattern between the storylines in the 1500s and what's going on in the alternate 2007 , would you say that this aspect impresses you as a reader ?
Myth: Oh yes, I think it is the semi-parallelity (that's not a word) that is one of the greatest single aspects of Timelines. Not only does the reader know that somehow, events in the late 1500s affect events in the present, but that that events in the present are in some ways not only related, but sometimes shed a certain light on events taking place in the late 1500s. As I've partially mentioned before, the relations between the two storylines are skillfully and intricately woven together, in such a way that to take away either one would leave the other almost incoherent. They rely on each other to further the understanding of the reader, but at the same time not to divulge too much.
canonized: With all this intricacy , it might seem a little intimidating to a reader who may be new to the story but might be interested . Would you say that despite the complicated nature of the storylines it is still engaging enough to follow ?
Myth: I personally find that the intricacy is one of the factors that DOES make it engaging. It not only makes me think about what might come next, but has also already produced several surprises, and there are bound to be more.
canonized: Any particular part that really caught you by surprise ?
Myth: The most recent event is the fake poisoned tea, leading to Renault and his companions to have easier access to the Little China Mansion. I knew the "tea" wasn't real tea right from the start, but the actual purpose of the "tea" surprised me.
canonized: And since you're the prince of predictions , I was curious what your guesses are as to what the Timepiece is and its purpose ?
Myth: I'm not really sure why, but I keep imagining it in my mind as a wooden box made of polished, dark hardwood. It is longer than it is wide, with a cross of some lighter wood not quite dividing the top into four equal patches of hardwood. There are keyholes either along the length of the cross or on the sides of the box. It seems to be a sort of relic that is in many ways similar to the Black Rood, though it seems to be rather more powerful and less reliant on "mere" miracles to do its work. I have no real idea why I see it like this, though, as there really isn't any sort of evidence to back this up whatsoever.
I also sometimes see it as one of those fancy massive globes seen in every stereotypical expensive private library, on a wide circular stand with three moving 'orbitals' (for lack of a better word, as I am failing to find the words to explain them). Again, I have no real idea why. As for the purpose, I'd say it is similar to the Chrono Cross of, well, the old PSX game Chrono Cross. However, whereas the Chrono Cross united the two alternate worlds the player explored in Chrono Cross, I see the Timepiece as doing something different, if perhaps somewhat similar. I see the Timepiece as, rather than uniting two existing universes, uniting the *possibility* of two (or more) universes. Essentially, if used by the Spanish government, it could erase the possibility of Tom's alternate history swimming around his head--reality and fiction are united, and simply reality remains. However, if Marcus uses it in favor of Tom's fantastical world and history, the denizens of the world, though perhaps they had been living in it just recently, would have no conception of a world in which Spain was other than it was, of the world where Spain ruled supreme.
Part III: Bringing Japan Honour
Myth’s Latest Work Discussed
canonized: When I read your AAR so far I sensed two distinct voices . One is the very personal voice of Kuribayashi as he retells this tale of the mosquito attempting to tackle the elephant and also the voice of the tactician . Both meld well into the story and surprisingly don't leave much doubt onto its effect as 'Authenticity' of the voice . What kind of mental process to go through to successfully meld the tactical and the personal voices ?
Myth: Well, toward the beginning, my stream of consciousness tended to focus on the tactical, as if it was more of a gameplay AAR. However, after I had written a couple such updates, I remember what grayghost had once told me--that if I ever felt that I was going off my chosen path, I should reread my preface. I did so, and thus went back to those subsequent, tactical updates and integrated a more personal, if not necessarily less professional, voice into those updates. After a half-dozen or so updates with this process, it reached the point where I somewhat automatically switched from one voice to the other depending on whether I thought the other voice would fit better at explaining or judging a certain situation.
canonized: Your main character is the famous Kuribayashi Tadamichi most well remembered for his last stand at Iwo Jima . From your position as his voice , the melancholy that we might attribute to him as well as 'nobility' seems to stand out in the way you portray him . Why did you choose to write about such a man and how did you prepare to write about him ?
Myth: I'm not really sure why I chose him over all the other possibilities. Partially, it must have been because he is one of the better known Japanese generals. We see that, in history, he put his duty before everything else when he went to Iwo Jima and remained to the bitter end, eschewing the traditionally favored Japanese tactics such as defending at the very beach and nightly Banzai charges in favor of a long, drawn-out defense. He had a very keen military mind, proven by the fact that Iwo Jima is the only battle where American casualties outweighed Japanese casualties. He is also, in some sense, still an enigma--for instance, there is still no actual consensus on how he died. He simply seemed to me to be the sort of man a reader could admire, empathize with and agree with. He simply seemed much better suited to writing a retrospective memoir than any of the other Japanese generals. As for preparation, I didn't really do too much. I, of course, drew upon what I had learned from my reading, which included a few books on the battle for Iwo Jima, and I read the wikipedia article on him. However, that was all the preparation I made to be his voice. I suppose, between the gravity of the task that faced him at the beginning of the AAR, and this relatively minimal preparation, I may have found the correct voice for him.
canonized: We share a bit of a kinship in that the storylines of our worlds where we begin our current narratives are alternate histories-- that is to say that in your work, China has dominated most of Asia and Europe and then now began to crumble . Where did you get the idea of doing this story in an already alternate history ?
Myth: The seeds of this alternate reality lie in my previous AAR, Great Ambitions, which was from the perspective of the Chinese Guangxi Clique--specifically its warlord, Li Jishen. Li Jishen embarked upon a trail of conquest that not only brought him through Beijing and Tokyo, but Moscow as even further west as well. However, my next prospective war was against the Allied powers and would have resulted in a true world war, one that would have left a mark on every continent. I was not particularly eager to embark on such a task and had, in any event, been toying with the idea of killing off my main character--Li Jishen--for several game years already. Finally, this did indeed happen, at such a time when his fortunes seemed about to get all the more brighter, with yet another war on the horizon. However, even as this AAR ended in such a shocking manner, I was not yet willing to abandon the game; thus, Lamps Before the Wind was born.
canonized: And how does it feel to deconstruct the giant that you've created ? Or try to at least haha .
Myth: I'd like to say the Russians are helping me, but I'm hesitant, as the Chinese seem to be simply walking right over them. Even if they were, it is something of an intimidating challenge, as I had built China quite strong and when I took over as a resurgent Japan, I modded the Chinese AI so that it would be a greater challenge. As it is, the Imperial Chinese Army has doubled since the beginning of Kuribayashi's memoirs, placing it at just under 300 divisions strong, whereas I have but 20. It shall be quite a challenge.
canonized: It’s certainly one of the most unique and best parts of your AAR if you ask me , the fact that this is a monster that can give a player pause that in fact you created that is . Ironically even if you lose , it will only be chawked up to your superior empire-building with China . I also wanted to point out that your affinity with China does not simply end with the scenario . You also give particularly excellent attention to the Chinese generals and the enemies you face which adds a depth of humanity and realism in a sometimes barbaric war , Why did you choose to give us such great insights into the Chinese generals and their personalities ?
Myth: My aim from the beginning was to make the world I was writing of as alive as possible, and one method of doing this was to refer to future events, to fictional works of history (sometimes even by historic authors, such as AJP Taylor!), as well as government archives and even personal interviews. I feel that a living, breathing world is, while not essential to a successful story, certainly a great asset to it.
canonized: And you certainly do a great job at showing that realism . One thing I did notice is that currently you're having a little trouble in Korea . I think that an AAR that is not just a successive chain of victories is more convincing and realistic and one side effect of your failed operation is that realistic atmosphere ; What are Japan's plans for recovering ?
Myth: I am an aggressive general, and my future plans reflect this. I will be returning to the mainland. By the time this interview is posted, it will be the eve of invasion.
canonized: And lastly , do you have future AAR plans after this one ?
Myth: I certainly do, beyond finally getting around to finishing Bayonets Made of Milk (which will be restarted as soon as Discomb can get a stable internet connection...), I have some other ideas swimming around my head, a couple of which are also in cooperation with Discomb. Those will, however, only be possible once we meet again, in Riga, this summer and begin planning once more.
canonized: Thank you so much Myth for joining us in this interview segment this week and I also wanted to once again thank our audience for reading and tuning in to us again . I’d like to wish everyone a good Holy Saturday ! Please tune in next week as we interview one of the celebrities of the EU3 boards, Rensslaer ! Thank you all again for reading and if any of you authors out there would like to be featured on You’ve Been Canonized! please let me know any time !