Here's an idea.
"Homestuck" is the internet's "Ulysses."
[THEME MUSIC]
If you've never heard of "Homestuck,"
I've potentially just given you something
to do with all of your evenings and weekends
for the next two years.
"Homestuck" is a webcomic that's written and drawn
by Andrew Hussie.
It's about a boy named John and his group of friends
who, while playing a game called "Sburb,"
they accidentally, you know, open a rift, which summons
some meteors, and so to escape the meteors,
they have to enter this otherworldly realm called
the Medium, and there's this ancient battle that's going on,
and they meet this other group-- actually,
you should just read it.
But you should also maybe clear your calendar.
Because "Homestuck" is long.
Very long.
5,000 pages long.
5,000 pages long, and it's not even done yet.
And just as a quick aside, I'm not current on "Homestuck"
yet, though I'm getting close.
So no spoilers in the comments.
I'm Serious.
None.
I will flag you as spam.
A mammoth story told in the style of a text adventure
using still images, animated GIFs, and chat logs,
"Homestuck" also occasionally requires its readers
to watch Flash animations, play Flash games,
and read huge walls of text.
This makes it a really novel storytelling vehicle.
But because of these things, it can also
be a little bit of a chore to get through.
Which isn't too uncommon.
I mean, "Homestuck" isn't the only difficult piece
of literature with a huge cult following, right?
I mean, I have friends who have made their own infographics
in an attempt to keep track of the over 400 characters
in Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow."
And if you went to an art school,
you probably suffered through all
of the not-tennis parts of David Foster Wallace's "Infinite
Jest."
These tomes, though great, are but delightful heraldry
on the path towards the mecca of labyrinthine
lit-- James Joyce's "Ulysses."
Considered one of, if not the greatest English-language novel
ever written, "Ulysses" is a knot of syntactic rigmarole.
It is about one man, Leopold Bloom, on one day,
June 16, 1904.
And it is 265,000 words long, with a lexicon
of over 30,000 words.
And it is a challenge.
For example-- "A vowel, so nay I could, rebound of garter,
not leave thee.
Smack!
Leclosh Fie smack.
A vowel warm sweetheart goodbye."
In one sense, "Ulysses" is about one dude
in his home city of Dublin.
There's a carriage ride, a funeral, a dinner,
some random wandering.
In another sense, it's also kind of about itself
and its circuitous construction, its constant allusions
to Homer's "The Odyssey," and Joyce's insane linguistic
gymnastics.
In a way, it might be because of its challenging bizarritude,
not in spite of it, that people who've read "Ulysses"--
who are kind of like unicorns, but instead of horns,
they have degrees in the arts-- really, really enjoy it.
There's this weird, rare joy in getting through "Ulysses"
and figuring it out.
In wading through the details and all of the nonsense prose.
In looking a word up in the dictionary
every 10 minutes, only to find out that
it's not in there, because Joyce invented it.
Jerk.
At the finish line, however, though parts
may have been unpleasant, you really
feel as though you've accomplished something.
This is called effort justification.
In essence, the more difficult an experience
you inflict upon yourself, the more likely
you are to think it is totally worth it once it's done.
It's a bit of cognitively dissonant psychology which
explains why people love organizations which
haze them, or are enamored with their terrible tattoos,
or go see "The Expendables 2."
Find 'em.
Kill 'em.
It kind of means if you have a bad time,
you're gonna have a great time.
Of course, there is a law of diminishing returns.
If something is a huge challenge but also totally
sucks, then all bets are off.
And that is a balance that's really hard to strike.
It's why Joyce can throw thoughts on a page the way
Pollock throws paint on canvas.
And why Hussie can up and kill every single one
of your favorite characters, and what do we do?
We stick around.
Because the challenge makes the awesome stuff
that much awesomer.
Of course, not everyone agrees.
Its difficulty might be why the Modern Library lists "Ulysses"
as the greatest English-language novel,
while "The Guardian" describes it as a book which
is more discussed than read.
And its flagrant disregard for its players--
um, readers-- might be why I've heard so many lamentations
from friends who just aren't able to continue "Homestuck."
But this doesn't change the fact that Andrew Hussie has
undertaken a creation of unrivaled proportions
on the internet, the very source of our,
quote, "shrinking attention spans."
He successfully challenged the very common assumption
that internet audiences don't want a challenge
and won't stick around if one arises.
And while for some that might be true,
there are still plenty more who are
willing to put up with all of the time shenanigans
that Hussie can summon.
And why?
Because it's worth it.
What do you guys think?
Are you more likely to enjoy a piece of media that
presents a larger challenge?
Let us know in the comments.
And if you're not too busy futzing with your Fetch Modus,
subscribe.
We predicted that you guys would have some really smart things
to say about William Gibson, and you didn't disappoint.
Let's see what you had to say.
First and foremost, to Mr.MonfresClass,
awesome questions.
Yes, Ray Bradbury, genius.
Love him.
Hoverboards, I'm not so sure.
Seems like we're not going to get there by the time
that "Back to the Future" said we would.
But we did get hoverbikes, so we'll put a link
to that in the description.
Those seem pretty cool.
Time machine, I think probably a little bit further off.
And as far as The Doctor selling sonic screwdrivers?
Questionable.
But if he did have a corner shop,
I would definitely go there.
And please make sure that you thank
your awesome teacher, Mr. Monfres,
for letting you watch the show.
And keep asking questions.
We will keep answering them.
There was also an awesome take on some
of the ideas in this episode on io9,
so we'll put a link to that discussion in the description,
as well.
You should check it out.
Joshua Magee, I don't understand this comment.
It-- it's just a rearrangement of random words
that make no sense.
jinsu2301 points out that a lot of Nostradamus's predictions
were based on celestial patterns,
so that, in effect, they're not really random.
In response to that, I think that you
should go and check out this thing called bibliomancy, which
was one of Nostradamus's favorite techniques.
Opfelixc and a bunch of other people
pointed out that William Gibson and his cohorts
might not be predicting the future
but might be inspiring it, and that
the cause-and-effect relationship might
be totally reversed, which is really interesting and totally
valid.
I would love to hear what those guys have to say about that.
William Gibson, if you're watching, send us an email.
lookattheceiling makes a really interesting point
that the availability and ease of use of technology
is actually making it easier to predict what happens
next, which totally makes sense.
I totally buy that.
Me too!
She was carving her initials into the side
of the moose with an interspace toothbrush given to her
by her brother-in-law Svenge.
Wait, do you know Svenge?
[THEME MUSIC]