Thoughts Archives - Yusuf's Almanac

2020 in Books

This must be “the book corner” of the house. In fact, it is not as in shadows as it seems. When taking shots with Polaroid, if the background is brighter, the foreground appears darker. And while I am being prudent while saying that, I should not be ashamed to admit that I took the same shot three times until I got the one I wanted. A great example showing the careless use of resources.

I think this chair, the view and the coffee table that I used to stretch my feet accompanied all the books I read this year. I finished my last book this week. As I am stay under the influence of the books I have finished for some time, I do not think that I will be able to finish another book by the end of the year. So I decided to devote this time to looking back at some of the books I read this year.

Shadow of the Colossus

How did a game with an unexplained story turn into a religion over time?

Blood, young sprouts, sky—and the one with the ability to control beings created from light… In that world, it is said that if one should wish it one can bring back the souls of the dead…

Although it says “PS4 (PlayStation 4)” on the box that I am holding, Shadow of the Colossus is actually a game released for PlayStation 2 in 2005. The one in the photo is the version released for the new generation game consoles in 2018. Nothing was changed except for the graphics. The story, the environment, the dialogues, even the birds and the fish were kept the same.

Let me briefly talk about the plot of the game. Mono, a woman that the protagonist Wander cares about, was sacrificed by the tribe’s shamans, as they believe that she had a “cursed fate.” Getting angry at this, Wander steals a magic sword from his tribe and travels to the Forbidden Lands with Mono’s lifeless body. A shaman had told Wander that, in the Forbidden Lands, there was a being that could revive the dead. Coming to the Forbidden Lands with Mono’s body, the magical sword, and his horse Agro, Wander makes a deal with Dormin, the being that the shaman was talking about. Dormin asks Wander to find and kill 16 colossi living in the Forbidden Lands. If he succeeds, he promises, Mono will come back to life. So, you take control of Wander from then on and try to find and kill those 16 colossi one by one.

This is the plot in its most basic terms. So how did this game turn into a religion over time?

This Journey of Mine

Since I have defined this blog as an “almanac”, it would be only logical to start my first post, “This Journey of Mine”, with a serious description and a suitable Polaroid photo:

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell says that all the mythological stories that people have read for thousands of years can be summarized with this one sentence. The heroes are called on an adventure, they overcome obstacles, and come back from this adventure; changed and grown. A character is called to destroy a ring, overcomes obstacles, grows and returns; another character is summoned to travel across the space to save humanity, helps unravel the secret of black holes and return his home more mature. This theory shows itself in many stories, but what makes me embrace this theory is something different.