fivefeather

big gay wizard

@fivefeather

finn, 22

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fivefeather
@fivefeather
kbkbkb
@kbkbkb
kbkbkb
@kbkbkb

hi everyone

i'm working on a book about speedrunning! i'm conducting a number of interviews & editing them & doing research & writing about speedrunning for the art & design & video game culture imprint read only memory who now exist under the auspices of thames & hudson. i've written for them & some of their projects in the past, like this piece about speedrunning history (now outdated but still fun) and a profound waste of time. if you like pretty books about niche topics, i think this will be a good one of those for you!

the people are all very nice and put a lot of thought into their books. i think it would be very neat if you wanted to get one. i'm still actively writing & working & researching, so i will take any and all of your favorite stories about speedrunning to my inbox.

thank u :)

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in reply to @kbkbkb's post:

dwoboyle
@dwoboyle

No problem!
Also I'm sure you're already going to touch on it, but one thing that's interesting to me about speedrunning in general is how much more outwardly queer of space it is. Maybe that's only from the efforts that GDQ takes, but the Free Enterprise community is also very queer.

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leggystarscream
@leggystarscream

To toot not just my own horn, but the horns of many of my dear friends - I promise it's not just GDQ making the space welcoming and queer. From smaller events like Power Up With Pride and Speedrun Ragnarok, all the way up to RPGLB there's queer folk in every corner of every speedrunning event that isn't chuddy, both behind the scenes and on the screen.

And Free Enterprise... well, I might be a little biased there >_> ( https://www.twitch.tv/freeenterprise/clip/RefinedSweetElkRickroll-rdOA4m1qPuV9bar1 ) but it's definitely one of the best communities I've ever seen in speedrunning and it's taken a lot of active work to keep it there.

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ratamero
@ratamero

This is the most excited I've been about a book announcement in a while!

(I spent 36 years of my life thinking speedrunning was a neat thing I did not have the brain (nor the hands) for, and weirdly enough it was after watching you and Jack play Tux and Fanny, and then playing the game myself, that it clicked that you can speedrun anything - I've ran a bunch of stuff since!)

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kbkbkb
@kbkbkb

that's such a good question!! i have no idea. i am just the word collector, but i can ask :)

i'll also note that the mockups here aren't necessarily what will go to print, and that the whole team is really attentive to printing quality etc. so maybe it will be easier to read once it is on paper! i can also make a note to tell the team abt your comment re: text color/contrast.

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mikejwitz
@mikejwitz

Thank you! Yeah, there's usually a difference between the digital and print outputs. I hope it won't look as intense in the final edition, or that I'll have more control with an ereader over how the text is presented to be able to better read and enjoy the writing too 😅

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kbkbkb
@kbkbkb

thankfully, this will be theorist-free! but my friend forest scully-blaker writes very convincingly about time & power & stillness & speed in games/play -- i'd check his google scholar for some de certeau and co. bo ruberg, my mentor & friend at uc irvine has done a lot of writing about queer modes of play & speedrunning, so i'd look at some of their work, too!

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pmctrilogy
@pmctrilogy

Extremely cool! I'm glad to see more work being done to print down speedrun history.

It seems like you've already written a lot about this and talked to a lot of the important people (I've got zero criticism of what I've seen) - but if you're looking for more stories about how people got into speedrunning or what early speedrunning might have been like, I had a pandemic project that was a speedrun interview podcast called OverBoost that asked questions about how people found speedrunning and got into it, so it may be useful if you're curious about a runner and I happened to interview them (there are about 60 episodes from 2020-2021).

Also happy to make myself available if checks notes weird janky bullshit like Armored Core or Just Cause speedrunning is relevant. Good luck with the book!

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AMindHalfFull
@AMindHalfFull

It's funny, I thought I had seen something about this before, but I couldn't remember where, then I was skimming the Flame Fatales schedule and saw your interview on there right before it came on! That's awesome!

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