[BONUS] Episode A - Disco Elysium

I interpret the conflating of Dolores Day and Harry's ex wife as being a metaphor for the idealism and hope that Liberalism in the past offered, which we as progressives still long for, but which can and will never return. As wonderful as this relationship was in the past, as intoxicating as the memory of it still is, events have transpired, history has occurred, and what you once had has been irrecoverably changed. You can never have what you once had, be it your relationship with your ex wife or the emancipatory potential of liberalism. And it has been so long since this past even happened, we are so far beyond that. But so many people still cling to this memory in delusion, and trap ourselves in this self destructive nostalgia, this dead-end ideology. The Liberalism of Dolores Day is long gone, and so is your wife. The only way forward is to move on and grow. Additionally, The Pale is this encroaching hopelessness and despair brought about by the belief of the impossibility of change or the future, by continuing to linger in the memory of your past. So long as the world remains under the control of the Liberal Order, so long as Capitalist Realism holds sway, The Pale will continue to consume the world. So long as Harry continues to live in the past, unable to change, his despair will continue until he completely destroys himself in the hole in the world. The only thing that can fight entropy is change and growth. It is only through the hope of new possibilities, of Communism, of a different way that the world could be, of choosing to grow as a person, that The Pale can be pushed back. "The long, dark night of the end of history has to be grasped as an enormous opportunity. The very oppressive pervasiveness of capitalist realism means that even glimmers of alternative political and economic possibilities can have a disproportionately great effect. The tiniest event can tear a hole in the grey curtain of reaction which has marked the horizons of possibility under capitalist realism. From a situation in which nothing can happen, suddenly anything is possible again."

I love how you pointed out Joyce's fascist dogwhistle. At the core of every Ultraliberal/Neoliberal is the vile soul of a monster, indistinguishable from any out fascist. Capitalism and Fascism are two modes of the same system.

I just had to get the Patreon subscription for this episode. Also, WHY?! DON'T BE ATTRACTED TO MEASUREHEAD OR JOYCE! EVIL ISN'T HOT!

novi had a little lamb who would inhale and imbibe and when he found a new novi show this lamb would hit subscribe but this time he’s here for Harry

I subscribed mostly because I wanted to listen to this bonus episode, though now I'll be enjoying all of them. Though there are many things I could note or specify about Disco Elysium and its strange references, I will for now note that Evrart Claire (and his never-seen-brother) are strongly inspired by the estonian politician brothers Janno and Villu Reiljan. Corrupt they were as well, though not social democrats, instead in the conservative agrarian vein, inequality in the rural areas vs the city etc.

Okay I paused and played through disco Elysium ready to get back to the podcast.

The problem with this is I loved the episode, but it made me realize that I could, and in fact, yearn to listen to around 80 more hours of Disco Elysium podcasting.

Great point in comparing this to the classic cRPGs. Planescape Torment, yep, that takes me back. What can change the nature of a man? (if that game was written in the 2020s, they would add " estrogen" , to the long list of correct answers)

I know it’s not really a detective game but this makes me hope with all my heart Nova has seen the transgender furry lesbian Disco Elysium aka Lovely Lady RPG. Dysphoria is an intrusive thought that reminds you periodically of things you forgot to do like shave, and he looks like the corpse of the guy you would have become without HRT.

Fun fact about Lena the Cryptozoologist is that she was supposed to be a possible partner character, but it was basically impossible to path her in the wheelchair. *laughs bitterly in wheelchair*

Ive wanted to get WREAK HAVOC ON THE MIDDLE CLASS tattooed on my ass for like a year now

Lucy's speech about being trans vis-a-vis The Pale was absolutely incredible. Fantastic episode

Yo, barging back in to say y'all need to check out Esoteric Ebb. It is the first game I've touched in a minute that even comes CLOSE to Disco Elysium, especially with how the stats talk to you.

Subbed for this. Curious how Nova's film analysis changes between this and KJB

Is it possible that the airship thing is a reference to Against the Day by Pynchon?

I loved this episode so much <3 There's so much to talk about in Disco Elysium and I might have to replay it just to get all the things about Harry's relationship with masculinity I missed when I first played it in like 2020. It's always fascinating when a work of art ends up being this transgender by accident (I assume)

I took the opposite track with liberalism in the game and thought it was mocking them as, at best, naive. Because it's telling you that progress is possible, but only by fractions of an inch, eventually, someday, with or without you- while you are standing in the corpse-strewn rubble of a bombarded city. There isn't even anyone in the game with the ideology who isn't a predator, duplicitous, or both ( Joyce ). I think that the way in which the game lays into liberalism is more vicious than it's mockery of fascism, because there is something both child-like about it, self-important and passive aggressive. Sticking your thumb up your own ass to perform the fascist salute is.somehow less embarrassing than that.

Mister Evrart is helping me find my pronouns

fuck YES death on the nile I'm so excited, but more importantly Evil Under the Sun WHEN. Gayest movie ever made. entirely cole porter soundtrack. truly ludicrous hats.

Okay now do the disco elysium episode again with no notes

I thought the bonus episodes might go 1, 1A, 2, 2A, etc, so that you could eventually drop a double bonus to get to episode 221B.

I don't know if it's by choice or necessity, but this style of audio editing where every pause is excised is kind of exhausting. Feels like one of those youtube talking head videos that cuts every two seconds

How much of the genesis of this podcast was to talk about this? Because I know the first thing I thought on hearing about it was "oh fuck yeah, can't wait till they all do disco Elysium"

I hope this is the first of many Disco Elysium episodes, because I'm sure there's a lot more to pluck at <3

As soon as you put Disco Elysium behind the paywall I knew I was doomed

For the naming scheme you could just work your way through all the Unicode characters. That buys you a few hundred thousand episodes

Thank you, this was everything I was hoping for ❤️

One of my favourite things in disco elysium is the fact that revachol itself is actively talking to Harry and seems it (she?) has a higher purpose for Harry beyond the scope of elysium, and that putting Harry on the best path might save revachol and the world from the coming pale nihilistic apocalypse and how hopeful the game is in such a depressing setting, BE VIGILANT I LOVE YOU

I could listen to you three talking about this game for hours, it’s such a dense and rich text and there’s so much it that I haven’t probably never will discover myself, despite playing it several different times.

So much potential for great drops -- get it Lucy! ❤️