We Did Not Read the Same Text
May 25, 2026
Harry Du Bois and Hershel Wilk have almost nothing in common beyond the superficial (both are state agents i.e. cop/spy) and the mechanical (through choices in skills, dialogue, and thoughts, we as the players can make them more "ours").
I read for a living. This is strange only insofar as my job title ("Senior Curator") makes this task central and explicit. I'm also a teacher (when I can get the work), a tutor (when I can get the work), and a marker (when I can't get enough of the other two to get by), and all of these are also variations of reading for a living. What makes my work at Critical Distance feel unusual enough to note is that it inclines me to think of myself as a reader (curator) in a field that mostly deals in writers (journalists, critics, essayists). But this framework is too reductive--the peers I call writers do plenty of reading, and the simple act of producing an issue of TWIVGB involves plenty of writing.
I had a ponderous and unwieldy vocabulary from an early age. There are any number of reasons why this may have come about: I was a December-born in a class of March and April birthdays, making me smaller, less athletic, and more prone to being picked on; my parents furnished me with reference books on paleontology, astronomy, biology, and psychology; when my mother could no longer read to me on demand because she had my infant sibling in her arms I picked up the books and learned to read them to her.
A large vocabulary did not make me a good communicator. I struggled to connect with other kids at school. I did not watch the same television shows or read the same books. I was (am) too afraid of heights to give any serious consideration to "the monkey bars". I couldn't throw a basketball high enough from the freethrow line to hit the rim. There was almost certainly some sort of undiagnosed neurodivergence at play.
Whatever my difficulties, I did eventually adapt, though not until I was on the threshold of high school. This transition is documented somewhere in the records of my IEP, or Individual Education Plan. I think direct comparisons between the human mind and computers are reductive and a little gauche, but I'll allow myself one here--I developed a kind of translation layer for interacting with other minds. In truth I think most people do this, and that I only remember this as a noteworthy event in my own life because it took me a little longer to do so.
A translation layer is never perfect. Hershel can know exactly what she needs to do to appeal to someone, get them onside, get something from them, and still choke. Her spy training can curdle into paranoia that buckles her perceptual reality. The right words can slip through her fingers. The spectre of girlfailure is ever-present, haunting Hershel's steps through every Portofiran back-alley with greater efficacy than any tail the Weeping Eye could bring to bear.
I read across an article this morning, in my job as a professional reading, that I think it's fair to say enchanted me. I can't say I understood all of it.
References
Abraham, Ben. "An oral history of videogame blogging." Critical Proximity, 16 Mar. 2014, https://critical-proximity.com/2014/03/16/an-oral-history-of-videogame-blogging/.
Hultner, Kaile. "The Spectacular Leviathan Part II." No Escape, 23 May, 2025. https://noescapevg.com/the-spectacular-leviathan-part-ii/.Kastel. "Common'hood: Figuring Things Out Together." Minidoshima, 4 Dec. 2022, https://kastelpls.substack.com/p/commonhood-figuring-things-out-together.
Santana, Steven. "A Reading Manifesto." Steven's Substack, 7 Nov. 2025, https://breakingarrows.substack.com/p/on-culture-missive-november-2025.
---. "Games Writing Resource." Google Docs, 7 Aug. 2025, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nbDhs78Na52rz5q2UoIpvmH7-nJ4TA3UO87BH5RI5RA/edit?tab=t.0.
Wright, Autumn. "What are we doing? What's going on?" Autumn Wright, 11 May 2026, https://autumn-wright.com/just-blog-it/.