What the Heck is Going On?

Hello and Happy New Year! Meaning, this is my first post of 2022 and in ten months, so hey! Welcome back to me!

This blog is definitely stale but it is still my online home and I appreciate you stopping by to see what I’m up to. While I have not self-published anything in a while, I am still very busy, and I didn’t want to let more time go by without updating my various comings and goings…

Most importantly, I have been a co-host of The Miskatonic University Podcast for about two years now and that really takes up a bunch of my time. We have an amazing discord community (link from the home page), a Patreon (also link from the home page), and are humming along quite nicely toward our 250th episode. That’s been most of my time these days, so stop on by the discord to say hi.

A scenario I wrote way back in 2018-19 was finally published as part of the Apocthulhu line, specifically in the Terrible New Worlds book. The Cthulhu Reborn team was incredible to work with and I learned so much about writing scenarios that it changed my game forever. The Apocthulhu line will continue to grow but more importantly the Cthulhu Reborn folks are building out their own d100 system and publishing it as an SRD that can be used by anyone. I’m looking forward to seeing their entire line expand and become a regular system for more and more horror game settings.

Finally, I am nearing completion on my contemporary horror setting and campaign book based here in Washington DC. I finished the final playtesting back in January and have everything I need to finish. I have about 30k words written but there are at least another 20k to go. It is my main creative focus now and I look to hand it off this summer.

Of course, real life keeps on getting in the way of all the fun stuff. We moved to a bigger house back in December, which has been fantastic in many ways, but also totally exhausting. I changed jobs in October and am just now getting into the groove. And of course between Covid and Ukraine it’s just a heavy time that brings a lot of general anxiety that I’m working hard to manage.

But I’m still here. I would love to write more on this blog, so hopefully once this modern DC book is done I’ll have time to write more. And also actually put some graphics and cool stuff up. This site is boooooooooooooooooooooring!

Thanks for stopping by. Drop me a line if you need anything!

How Good of a Mythos Story is The Stand? Is it GOAT?

In a moment of what I thought was levity last fall (November 2020, a time of heavy chaos, seriously – was that the craziest month of  my entire life? Except for Sept 2001? Whew, what a world) I had the totally bonkers idea to read Stephen King’s The Stand, Complete and Uncut (clocking in at nearly 1100 pages) and report on whether it is the Greatest Mythos Story of All Time. I’m done with my reading and reporting now, so let’s see where I landed.

Since then, I recorded audio book reports that you can listen to on the Miskatonic University Podcast Patreon feed, even if you’re not a Patreon backer. (I love Patreon but their UI is tough as shit to navigate – here’s the link to my podcasts if you want to listen.) Over the course of 25 12-20 minute podcasts, I reviewed the book in ~50 page chunks, and I’m proud of the work I did, having never done anything like that before. As I’m just finishing up the last episodes now, I thought I’d write my final report here and use that to clarify my thoughts.

Next I put a framework around my hypothesis, outlining my theory:

  • Randall Flagg, the main antagonist of the story, had been identified as an avatar of Nyarlathotep, a key god in the Cthulhu Mythos
  • Inclusion of Flagg then makes the Stand a Mythos story, and it may have further Mythos themes and constructs
  • The Stand is (or rather was) my favorite King novel, and, having read it twice before, I knew that it was an epic tale of good versus evil – so it was great in length and scope

My hypothesis was that, as a epic Mythos story, it was the Greatest of All Time, and that it should be revered as such. So – what did I find? I’ll explore three components to this hypothesis as I build my evidence and conclusion.

[Spoilers for the Stand follow for sure]

First – the story is definitely great, in size and scope *and* quality. It’s really a massive story and as only the third or fourth book that King published, it’s amazing what he accomplished. Basically he destroys America and builds cities of Good and Evil out of the rubble. King said he wanted to write a story at the scale of the Lord of the Rings, and he does it. But it’s not only massive in its scale (both the book and the story) but it’s REALLY GOOD. Seriously, there’s a reason why it’s got two mini-series and is such a key piece of King’s bibliography — it’s an epic tale with massive stakes, a full ensemble cast, and a dark vision of a future that, at least when it comes to how we react to a deadly flu, resembles our world in more ways than one. So yeah, it’s GREAT.

But is it a Mythos story? Is saying that Flagg is an avatar of Nyarlathotep sufficient to make it a Mythos story? Well, let’s go with the assumption that – yes, if Flagg is a Great Old One, then the story should be examined in that light. But what does actually mean to be a Mythos story? I watched an argument unfold on Facebook (I know, crazy right?) when I suggested that it was a Mythos story — one person saying it’s a fight between Good and Evil (and really stated as such) so that’s NOT Mythos, and another saying, Uh, Yeah King is a HUGE Lovecraft fan and that his stories are about personal horror (which they definitely are) and that’s all you need to be a Mythos story. For me, orientation is somewhere in between.

A Cthulhu Mythos (or Lovecraft Mythos, or Lovecraftian, or Existential Horror, however you want to slice it) isn’t just about how the antagonist identifies themselves, but rather is about the questions at the center of the story. Mythos stories (if we’re tracing them back to Lovecraft as the source) are about Unknown Horrors and our interactions with them. “Cosmic Horror” (yet another phrase we can use) centers on two key principles to its stories:

  • The universe is vast and we as humans do not understand all that inhabits it (the Cosmic side)
  • The truth of the universe is so terrible (usually due to the other beings that are out there) that to understand it would drive us insane (the Horror side)
  • Both of these are rooted in a fear of the unknown – Mythos stories then are about unanswered questions, and leave lots of room for the imagination to run crazy… this is why we like these stories

So I believe that the Stand is a great story as well as a Mythos story, but is it the Greatest of All Time? Examining Flagg as the propagator of evil for the story, we rely on him to deliver both the cosmic and the horror. Unfortunately, it’s not his greatest showing.

He certainly gets off to a good start. For the first half of the book or so, Flagg mostly appears in people’s dreams as a terrible dark nightmare, wolves and weasels, and a force to reckon even as the world is being destroyed by Captain Tripps. When he’s in this shadow-dream form, Flagg is extremely efficient and competent as a Mythos force. He is intangible and distant, and communicates terror via the Same Dream to Everyone! It’s a great unifying force when the group of survivors realize they’re all having the same dreams of the same terrible Evil Force.

But when Flagg shows up to start running Las Vegas in his post-apocalyptic world, we get to see him run an operation, and even when he still does evil things, a lot (if not most) of the mystery is revealed, and that is enough to diminish his power as an evil force. Once we find out what kind of bad guy Flagg is, he loses most of his powers of horror.

Even Mother Abigail, in her final hours, pulls out some crazy miracle talk and white magic that proves she is not just an ordinary old woman. She ends on a very high note that, as an emissary for God, proves that she still holds mystery and magical powers that no one understands. Abigail herself finishes strong when Flagg does not.

King makes Flagg fallible, which is important for an antagonist, but in doing so he becomes too human and normal, and not mysterious enough. We get to see and understand his challenges, his temper, his dislike of “good people” and, perhaps most telling, his lack of leadership. The best/worst example of this is when his righthand-man Lloyd realizes that he (Lloyd) has been left out of the loop operationally, and that this whole thing would have worked better if only Flagg trusted him to actually run the Vegas operation!!

That Flagg’s downfall is based on his ability to govern New Las Vegas is both startling and hilarious, neither of which should be a key component in the Greatest Mythos Story of All Time. In humanizing Flagg, King removed his mystery, which diminishes all of the story’s power as a Cosmic Horror piece. By the end of the book, Flagg’s mistakes (and his successes) are no more than the ruler of a failed military state.

Another point of note for my reading of this — I was about halfway through the book when the attack on the US Capitol took place on January 6th, 2021. I watched this crazy bullshit failed insurrection from just miles away and wondered “What have we wrought?” Relating that attack to Flagg’s world of sin in New Las Vegas had me realize that Flagg really isn’t evil enough. Especially in the second half of the book when it’s about the new world and Flagg is setting up his empire, and we see some of his followers have  doubts — watching the Cult of Trump seeking to execute members of US Congress in real time really affected my perspective to what can make a charismatic figure evil.

Yes, the Stand is definitely a story of Good versus Evil, and it’s massive in scope and theme. And it’s very, very good. The pacing and characters and setting and execution are all very much above par. King’s work is a masterpiece in epic storytelling, and in the end I was glad to have read it. I examined it through multiple lenses and came out the other side having a much greater respect for King as a storyteller and writer. If you’ve not read it, I highly recommend it.

However, it’s not the Greatest Mythos Story of All time, and I’m not even sure it’s a Great Mythos story. With so much mystery revealed starting about halfway through the book, it loses its cosmic horror tone and moves onto something more practical — a tale of Good versus Evil, and a race to get home in time for a baby to be born.

So that begs the question – what is the Greatest Mythos Story of All Time? Frankly, I do not know. Is it one of Lovecraft’s works? Or something by one of his peers like Clark Ashton Smith? A disciple like Ramsey Campbell? I’m partial to Campbell’s Severn Valley works and wonder if one of his could top it all?

I was hoping to find that the Stand was GOAT, because of its size and scope, but maybe following the idea that the key to quality Cosmic Horror is unanswered questions and mystery, a shorter story might deliver the goods. If you have a recommendation, let me know. I’m still on the hunt.

6 Inspirations for your Alien RPG

I recently picked up five Aliens graphic novels as I’m a bit hungry for  inspiration for my game. I thought I’d post little quick reviews and recommendations here to guide purchase. The key here is that, as far as the rpg is concerned, these are all pulling from the same canon (six movies), and show a broad set of interpretations of those materials. Mild spoilers here but I’ve tried to stay away from major plot points. I’ve linked all books in the text itself:

Alien 3 by William Gibson

With all the recent uptick in Alien interest, the powers that be went back to the unused William Gibson screenplay for Alien 3 and turned it into a graphic novel and audio play. I remember reading the screenplay itself in the late 90s in the nascent days of the internet and being unimpressed, and I think the feeling is still there. Now, Alien 3 (the actual David Fincher directed movie) is a total train wreck, but the new cut at least pulls it together into something that makes some sort of sense. But for all that Fincher’s 3 does wrong, at least it focuses on Ripley, who is the key protagonist for the series. This makes Gibson’s choice to Anyway, this is still a MUST READ for rpg influence if only because it paints a picture of the UPP and how they might interact with UA forces, as well as WY science vessels. I’ve heard good things about the radio drama of this as well, but for me the graphic novel was easily consumable in an evening, and I was very glad to have that now as a touchstone. Grade A: Highly Recommend

Dead Orbit by James Stokoe

The Heavy Metal vibe in this collection is heavy here and it sucked me right in. The story itself is not that original, but it does put a new spin on the Space Trucker, so anyone planning to run a Trucker game this is a must-read. The art is totally bonkers with a heavy Moebius vibe but also a Dave Gibbons level of detail. I give the story a B+ but the art is A++++. This one is also a MUST READ if you are looking for some new angles on your Aliens game. Grade A: Highly Recommend

Resistance by Brian Wood & Robert Carey

This collection picks up Amanda Ripley’s story after the Isolation video game (which has officially been removed from canon apparently), and is the first part of a two-parter by Wood. I stopped reading comics because I really became attached to a certain style of drawing and I don’t like many overall, but Carey’s art is phenomenal. And Wood carves out a nice little corner of the Aliens universe with this story that involves WY and synths and more bonkers experiments. The story here is pretty clever and could form a whole backbone for any kind Aliens campaign. This one was probably the best of all my reads. So good on so many levels. Grade A+: Must Read

Rescue by Brian Wood & Kieran McKeown

This story is the surprise part two to Resistance, and picks up Ripley’s story for one more go. I am not enamored by McKeown’s art but it’s not bad, just very normal. The story is also not quite as original as Resistance, but since it’s the same characters, there is a strong feeling of continuity. It shows again how WY influence is broad and corrupt, and expands the universe well enough. It’s okay and is not a must read, except that, now that you know you want to read it, don’t you? If you’re going to . Grade B: Solid Copy

Dust to Dust by Gabriel Hardman & Rain Beredo

I am super touchy about using children as protagonists because apparently they’re so hard to do that no one can really do them justice (except Miyazaki, bless him). This story is okay and sheds some dark light on WY’s corruption; it gives some cool flavor to the universe and could even be a cool convention one-shot. But I don’t really like the art, and I don’t like how the 12 year old main character is incapable of actually taking care of himself for most of the story. I would not recommend picking this up unless you’re trying to get everything. Grade C: Only for completists

Sentient by Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta

This collection came recommended after I bought all the others by the monster that is the Amazon AI, which is funny because it’s a story about AIs and their capabilities. No spoilers here, in order to preserve the surprises, but while there are no aliens, there are definitely powerful AIs that are central to the plot. This black and white comic is well written and even more beautifully illustrated. The story is dark and scary with only humans and AIs, which is the perfect inspiration for your Alien rpg. Grade A: Must Read!

The Stand is the Greatest Cthulhu Mythos Story Ever

Or at least that’s my hypothesis. We’ve got plenty of reason to believe that the Walkin’ Dude is Nyarlathotep, and it seems, though I can’t find any direct quotes, that King, as a Lovecraft fan, always meant Flagg to be N.

Let’s go with the assumption that Flagg is an avatar of Nyarlathotep, which, with him/it as the lead antagonist of The Stand (apart from, I suppose, Captain Trips), makes The Stand a Cthulhu Mythos story. What would be needed to make this the “greatest Cthulhu Mythos story ever” then?

Definition of “greatest” then is:

greatest
  • adj. not to be surpassed.
  • adj. largest in size of those under consideration.

I’m sure there are Mythos stories where the world gets destroyed, or large populations go mad and self-destruct, but I’m at a loss to identify other stories by mainstream writers where an avatar of N is used so prominently to wage a war in such a long and detailed story.

Let me clarify one point first: Flagg (Nyarlathotep) does not cause Captain Trips, nor is he responsible for the downfall of civilization. That’s a key part of this investigation that I want to call out. We, meaning humans (and more specifically the military scientists that are part of Project Blue), are responsible for Captain Trips, which is responsible for ending civilization. Flagg then enters with the specific goal of leading the remaining humans into a world of authoritarian rule and selfish enterprise.

But with Flagg at the front of the “bad guys” (insomuch as The Stand is a tale of good versus evil), he/It becomes the main antagonist responsible for gathering and encouraging the antagonists in the story. He leads the efforts, initially in grim and dark nightmares, to antagonize and terrorize the protagonists, and as civilization attempts to rebuild itself, he works specifically to tear down the good guys’ efforts with violence and terror.

So, yeah, the story is Flagg’s to tell, at least after Captain Trips does its work and takes care of 99% of humanity. If The Stand is an epic tale of Good and Evil, and if humanity’s hubris, fear, and greed are a stand-in for Evil in the first part of the book, then at the end of Part I it’s Good-0, Evil-1.

Now, it’s Flagg’s turn to pick up the ball and finish us off. I’ll report more as I get further into the book, but for now, I think I’m onto something.

Note: I’m reading and reporting on Stephen King’s the Stand, Complete and Uncut, for the Miskatonic University Podcast, and you can catch my episodes over at our Patreon. Drop me a line in the comments!

Taking a Stand in 2021

Well shit, here we are, finally nearing the end of the blazing train-wreck of 2020, and really, there’s no end in sight for either Covid or all the political bullshit that is slowly tearing apart the United States. Good times indeed. So why not take on a new and possibly mind-bending project right out of the gate to keep me distracted? Sounds good!

I have to admit to feeling what might actually be anticipation for the upcoming TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand. If you’ve not seen the trailer, go see it now — the cast looks amazing, and I must admit to never thinking I would utter the words “Whoopie Goldberg, fuck yeah!” but here we are.

The Stand is my favorite King book, at least of those that I’ve read. I should do an analysis of all his works that I’ve read, but for a good chunk of the mid-80s he was all that we knew. Before I even heard of Lovecraft, I knew King and all that he brought in the first ten years of his career, which even then was vast and influential. The Stand, then, as its Tolkien-like epic battle between good and evil, also stood above the rest as the best King gave.

I read The Stand sometime in high school, and then he went and re-released it with an additional 400 pages, making the long version his longest book. And sometime in ’90-91 I read that whole thing as well — I was in college at the time but it must have taken me a couple months. My ADHD helped me become a very fast reader, but only in short bursts, and while I don’t have a specific memory of reading it for a second time, I know I did.

And now suddenly it’s 2020 and not only has CBS redone the series but somehow presciently finishing it right on the cusp of the worst global pandemic in 100 years. So yeah, I gotta read it again.

Now that I’m all tied into MUP and doing a lot of individual podcasts for them, I’m always looking for the next set of projects, so why not re-read The Stand but but take a new and perhaps fresh look at it. The Nerdist wrote a great piece on King’s Lovecraftian villains and Flagg-as-Nyarlathotep is right at the top.

With that correlation, The Stand becomes a Cthulhu Mythos story, perhaps the greatest one ever. In the reality of The Stand, Nyarly-Flagg is successful in bringing down the downfall of humanity, or at least wallowing in it once it’s done. So what better way to re-read The Stand than through the lens of the longest single Mythos story ever told?

The Stand and Me

I didn’t mean to buy the whole Complete and Uncut version of The Stand, which rolls in at ~1200 pages in a massive FUCK YOU to my unwillingness to read books more than a few hundred pages long. Now that I think about it, the last long book I read was The Great Influenza, which is so ironic I need to take a moment and reflect on that. I read it way back in 2013 and I can distinctly remember understanding the impact of a) that another massive pandemic was bound to happen sooner or later, and that b) we were nowhere near prepared for it. Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I was right. Golf clap and death for everyone.

This plague-thing then starts to hit on many lenses, and it just seems right that I would start reading The Stand again now, taking a much different path for the process. Rather than just cracking open to page one and losing myself in the story, I’m going to take it to the next level and also:

  • Perform an investigative analysis of the story of Randall Flagg through the lens of Flagg-as-Nyarlathotep and ask the question: is The Stand the greatest (by which I mean longest and most impactful) Mythos story ever written?
  • What is it about the story that makes it my (and legions of King fan’s) favorite King story? Is it just the scope and scale? Or is there something else that works alongside to hold it together? 30 years after the Uncut version was released, does it still hold up? And will I literally die reading The Stand (by which I mean get Covid and die from it)?
  • And how does it work as a parable for our modern times, because, hey, we’re living through a plague right now and how can we reflect this story to our own? Fortunately (if that’s the right word) Covid-19 is nowhere near as lethal as Captain Trips, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t seeing correlation between The Stand’s world and our own. How does The Stand’s world relate to our own and what does that mean for us?

So yeah, let’s do this. I’ll be not only blogging here but also recording small podcasts that will first be available to MUP Patreon backers and then eventually come out to the public at large. I’ll post links here as they come out, but a good way to get front row seats is to back MUP Patreon.

I’ve got front row seats to the worst disease in a 100 years, and I’m going to spend the time during the third and (so far) worst surge nose buried deep in what could very well be my last book, that was written by a fellow alcoholic and Lovecraft-fan, and tells the story of the last plague and the ascendance of a God-like man to extreme power over his cult-like following… what could go wrong?

Sun Spots GM Kits Available

After cleaning out my gaming closet, I found and organized 30 or so GM Kits for Sun Spots that I’ve made available for sale. I’ve already sold 10 of these, so there are 20 left, and when these are gone, they will be gone forever. If you’re into actual props and enjoyed Sun Spots, then check these out.

The kits have three maps, including a large print out of the map/menu from Red Valley, as well as a set of hand-written diary entries.

I will ship one to you either in the US or UK for $25, and you can email me at david AT weird8 DOT com.

Neil Peart and a Lifetime of Gratitude

How do we put to words how much one person can influence us? How do quantify or qualify how our heroes change and become a part of us through our lives? How can I tell you how much Neil Peart and Rush have become a part of who I am and get you to understand what Neil’s death means?

I was 15 years old in 1986 (overall a pretty stupid year for music) when Ian Welter came over with the cassette for Signals in his hand and said, “You gotta hear this.” He played Subdivisions and it blew my mind; there was nothing before that moment that compared to what I heard, the cool synth and tricky musicianship were clearly unique, but it was more than that. This song was about living in the suburbs and how it kinda sucked, and how peer pressure sucked, and not being cool sucked, and that if you didn’t want to be like everyone else it would suck. So they were writing about my life in a way that I had never heard, and wow that connection came hard and fast and I was instantly a Rush fan for life.

Then at the end of ’86 I started to play the drums, which was the single most important thing that happened to me up to that point, and now it wasn’t just about listening to Rush — I was trying to play along to Rush (on my dad’s ’67 Ludwig jazz kit that Peart would have totally appreciated) and OH MY GOD MY HANDS HURT!!! Now I had moved past just listening to the music and lyrics and was trying to crack the code of these drum lines that were beyond complex, and yet every single one was exquisitely crafted and composed to make sense in a way I didn’t know possible. Before I had been a Rush fan, but now I was a Peart disciple and would forever be his drumming student.

Yet, as I began to discover, the connection to Rush was even deeper than just fan or student. Go look at the list of top songs for 1986 for context, because it helps to understand that the mid-80s were a pretty dismal place if you try to get your musical connections and influences from the radio or MTV. Yes, there are some good tracks and bands, but overall there is little there for nerdy, uncool kids with glasses who don’t get school or girls or really anything and just want attention and connection more than anything but are not really into Tiffany or Debbie Gibson or Cutting Crew (ugh). But what I was into was RUSH. By the time I discovered them they had just come out with Power Windows (from ’85) and it told these amazing stories of a world I didn’t understand. And it was just these three guys making all this noise, but more importantly RUSH WAS NOT COOL. People didn’t like Rush (except me and my friends) and they didn’t play it at dances and the girls weren’t into it and really no one cared that I was into them, because, guess what? I WAS NOT COOL EITHER. Like the other thing from the ’80s that is now suddenly cool (looking at you D&D), Rush was a part of an identity that had you not stand out and not be part of the larger crowd. They were not cool but they were okay with that, and to be a Rush fan, you had to choose not to be cool, but shit, I was already not cool, so fuck yeah, count me in.

So then, by the late ’80s, the hooks were deep and would never let go. Here was this very uncool band who stood by their vision of craftsmanship and creativity, even at the cost of coolness and being a part of the crowd. How does a child (cos that’s really what I was) who was already unable to be a part of the crowd, who was picked on and shunned and unliked for just trying to be himself — how could I not instantly bond to that sort of creative and deeply mature stand? To stand up for one’s self even if the crowds shun you is the ultimate form of rebellion and the more Rush I played the more people didn’t like me so FUCK YOU, here’s more Rush.

These connections to Peart and Rush, then, are deep for me. And over the years I have cultivated it and after (finally) becoming an adult I decided I was going to put my money where my mouth was and spend the 100s of dollars to see Rush near to the stage, in the first 15 rows, where you can actually feel the energy from the stage, and it was always, ALWAYS worth it. Because as I and other Rush fans grew up, so did Rush, and as the years went by they put more and more into their stage shows, to the point where seeing Rush meant hanging out with the band for 3 hours of music and videos and cool stage decorations and drum solos — we always wanted the drum solos. Seeing them from the 7th row on their final tour was the culmination of everything that teenage me would have asked for from adult me and worth every dollar.

But finally, and perhaps most importantly, Rush grew up and the world grew up and yet Peart continued to push himself to be the best drummer he could be. Again, though, it wasn’t about what was popular or cool or what anyone else wanted. He pushed himself to be the best because the music demanded it, and his high standards never wavered, both as a drummer and a lyricist (the man was literally a drummer-poet). So as I grew up and watched Rush stay the course and not sell out their values and always do what they wanted, it became a blueprint for life, for my life. Rush never compromised, even if they weren’t cool or got it wrong or sometimes just plain sucked. Rush is by no means perfect (which they themselves admit) and that’s part of their identity too — they are humans with faults but they also have a dedication to music that is really quite unique and we will likely never see or hear again.

So Peart’s death isn’t just about drumming or writing lyrics or the end of Rush, which it is all of those things. But, for me (and I’m sure others), it represents the dying of a real life connection to a man who stood against the crowds, who just wanted to be left alone with his drums and books and cars and family, to not have to worry about what everyone else thought about him. And now, as an adult, I can see that’s not an easy thing to do, not an easy path to lead, and hero or not, we must admire anyone who chooses that path, to recognize their contributions and death at the end of a life well lived.

Thank you Neil Peart and Rush for all you have done for me and all your other fans. You formed a connection that has lasted a lifetime, a deep and uncompromising connection that will truly last the test of time. You were my favorite drummer, my favorite band, and my favorite performers, and you will be missed. But, more importantly, you will always be here in my heart, playing your music deep in the roots of my childhood and all the way through my own death. Thank you again. I will miss you.

Bohemian Rapsody Isn’t Good But Go See It Anyway

So, the Queen movie.

When I was nine (in 1980), I visited my grandmother in Michigan and on the first day she would take us down to the Ben Franklin store (that she and my grandfather used to own) and buy me a treat for my visit, usually somewhere around $10. Before that summer of 1980, I had always wanted Legos or Star Wars figures. But not that summer. For my birthday I had received a cassette player and had been looking to branch out into something other than a few tapes my parents owned (for instance, Peter, Paul and Mary’s Greatest hits because the 70s). I remember standing in front of a huge rack of tapes, all priced for $5.99 or some nonsense, and seeing the grey colored cover for Queen’s The Game. I had been hearing this really groovy song on the radio, Another One Bites the Dust, and I thought that if a band could play a song like that, then I wanted in on whatever else they were doing.

For my first music purchase, then, I chose The Game, which is a pretty solid choice for my nascent musical snobbery. The Game has it all: rocking riffs, huge melodies and harmonies, a swingy, jangly song about love and riding motorcycles, a song about suicide (!) and why not to try it, and of course the Chic-inspired/stolen bass line of Another One Bites the Dust. That album opened me to a whole world of possibilities and I was forever changed by that album and that band.

The movie Bohemian Rhapsody is not a great biopic of Freddy Mercury, nor is it even a good one. All the music critics are correct when they say the movie hedges its bets continuously, not really knowing what made Mercury and his band so special; they’re also correct when they complain that it’s really a by-the-numbers biopic that provides a very vanilla take on one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. For being about a band that was so adventurous, the movie takes very little chances. It’s a very non-Queen story about Queen.

But what the critics miss is truly the wonder of Queen, and how powerful they are and were. Yes, it’s not a deep or meaningful dive into Mercury’s life or what makes Queen so special, but it really doesn’t need to be for you to sing along and be reminded how seminal those Queen songs were and still are. That the movie doesn’t quite know how to deal with Mercury’s special talent for mixing the fun and bizarre, for taking chances that only now seem so obvious, for loving music so much that he becomes the voice of a generation of rock and rollers, eventually performing what is recognized as the greatest rock performance of all time — the movie has no idea what do to with these or why they matter, and that’s really alright.

Because music is art and art is mystery and mystery is what keeps us coming back for more, and goddam isn’t Queen an incredible band with so many songs that are fundamental to how we listen to rock and roll that it’s actually better that we don’t know exactly what makes them so special? So no, Bohemian Rhapsody is not a well made biopic that shrewdly cuts into Mercury’s or Queen’s personality to help us see them more clearly.

But it *does* provide us a rough outline of the story of Queen, with all its ups and downs, eventually ending in the super high of their once-in-a-lifetime Live Aid performance crashing into the bottoming out of Mercury’s death by AIDS, all the while reminding us, via their songs, that Queen was a truly special one of a kind band that wrote and performed like their lives depended on it, because, as it turns out, they did.

Do you like serious biopic films that cut and dive and explore personalities? Then maybe this isn’t for you. But if you like Queen (and really, who doesn’t?), then go see and thoroughly enjoy Bohemian Rhapsody. Go and relive the wonder and glee and just pure joy of a man and his band as they make true rock and roll, bringing joy to people across the world, just like nine year old me.

Go see it now.