nerd shit

pathologic-the-play is easily read as something of a problem play, presenting moral and technical dilemmas with a mixed, ambiguous tone and forcing the audience to develop their own interpretation and judgement of the events. this also proves itself in the way comedy forces its way discordantly into the dark plot. in p2, we're made to understand from the get-go that the town is entirely populated by Tragedians, and mark's theatre of death is the theatre of inevitability, of tragedy, absorbing everything into itself and commanding everything outside: including bad grief, who of course is relegated to the theatre of death if he dies in-game. grief's position as the fool on this stage is why he has the ability to save artemy from the theatre of death on the first day. it's a moment of literal, mechanical comic relief, a jarring moment where the plot surfaces from tragedy for one unexpected breath. you could say that like the porter's scene in macbeth, the placement of bad grief's antideath boon gives the lead actor a moment to duck backstage and wash the blood from their hands before stepping back out into the nightmare. the face of the comedic matrix of the play, grief's interlude begs the question of if the theatre of death is as inevitable or as bleak as it seems; if this really is a pure tragedy.

in both games, like the gravedigger in hamlet, grief provides an alternate view of the grim themes at hand: not a lighter one, but certainly a more absurd one, through the same type of "meaningful nonsense" that defines the wise fool. the gravedigger appears in only one scene, following the harrowing death of ophelia; the gravedigger turns a miserable scene (ophelia's funeral procession) into a farce in which the gravedigger is literally throwing bones in the air as he coaxes hamlet into engaging with his nonsense. this is an emotional and thematic turning point in the play. susan snyder says "In the [to be or not to be soliloquy, death] was at least a significant reality, at once fearsome and desirable. Now the comic perspective calls even that reality into question... the end of life makes every life equally absurd." grief's confession to clara in the changeling route similarly perverts the theme of Death which has been so mythologized in the bachelor's route previous: what was terror, what was incomprehensible wickedness, what was The Invisible Enemy, to bad grief is "some jolly fun times". this is a thematic turning point for pathologic as well, as the player's perspective shifts from The Invisible Enemy to The Path of Logic: of the difference in hamlet after his conversation with the gravedigger, santha cassell says "he is beginning to approach death in a more complete, less intellectual way, one more conducive to action, and with increasing affinity with the wise fool's perspective." clara is undergoing a similar process through this quest as she develops her scrupulousness (choosing whether to keep this confession secret) and is invited to recognize both death and transgression as not always matters of mythological or dire motivation, but as mundane, human processes: something that she, for pragmatic purposes, may also be able to enact.

of course, clara condemns grief's behavior outright-- because grief's behavior is condemnable. the meanings of grief's meaningful nonsense-- as well as the style of his nonsense-- are constantly objectionable. pchd grief as a character is most like troilus and cressida's thersites, the worst-behaved of the fools: "a fool who exceeds his license... we do not empathize with him. like any other fool he asks riddles, calls names, and offers commentary but with unmatched vituperation. his language... poses a large contrast to the discourse of the soldiers around him, who are usually engaged in elevated debate... he is vessel and valve for what is unspeakable to others." (cassell) grief's dialect is so distinct from the rest of the bound that dankovsky picks up when andrey is imitating it (and in this imitation, aligning himself with the absurdly graphic/pedestrian perspective on death that grief represents), and is also far cruder than the others (idt anyone else says "cunt" even once). he is also distinct from the other bound in his lack of a characterizing path line. even his total lack of development or sympathetic dimensions differentiates him from the other bound, sharing thersites's constancy and self-knowledge within his bad manner. through all these discordant qualities of language and position, grief speaks frankly and consistently to violence and social collapse. he's a different type of finger on the pulse of the town, and in the establishment of patho as a problem play he serves the same role as thersites: "we are not allowed to assume much about the structure and premises of a play if a character is there to disrupt the patterns that it tries to establish." (cassell again)

but p2 bad grief is Different. as mark has been brought to center stage mechanically, grief's role has also been increased in scope narratively. while he's still in motley, his relationship to the principal characters is no longer that of a licensed fool: he's the protagonist's best friend, a peer, who offers concrete support in addition to the shrewd thematic/social/individual insights in form of "verbose nonsense" (quote artemy), but without the fool's license relies on the patience of his friends to weather his objectionable comments and erratic behavior. what i'm saying is p2 grief is mercutio. like mercutio, grief performs all the functions of a shakespearean fool for the first half of the play, including the "comic relief" antideath mechanic as discussed above, but with the added dimension of genuine care for artemy and a real character's positionality within the social world. mercutio's death in act iii of r+j is a different type of thematic shift: it instantly drops the illusion that mercutio is the fool (in the sense that the fool is other than a real character, sort of a suprahuman in its own right, who can always get away with ridiculous behavior; other fools die, such as in titus andronicus, but only as absurdity in itself), and it makes death and dire consequences a reality for the other characters, kicking off a sharp turn towards darker themes. it's the decisive moment that makes the play you're watching into a tragedy; the literal death of comedy. bad grief's ego death in act iv of p2 immediately strips away all of his pretenses. grief's enlightenment is part of the arrival of the inquisitor, and emphasizes it as the pivotal emotional point of the play. like mercutio, he throws himself into danger ahead of his friend, and what happens to him tells artemy that the situation they're facing is far stranger and more harrowing than he had imagined-- this death of comedy also signals a shift in tone and pace that carries through the rest of the play.

Daniil choosing his own ending is seen as an act that comes out of his negative feelings. It ultimately is a decision of destruction and revenge. The ending the game recognises as him winning is giving that up.

Meanwhile, both of Artemy’s endings (termite or utopian, because of the whole thing about choosing what the udurgh is to him) are seen as a good option. The one who can attain true freedom, because while Daniil could miraculously defy his destiny, he did not have the freedom of both of his endings being “validated”.

“Any choice is right as long as it’s willed” is not really a representation of Artemy’s character; it’s a representation of his path. Same with “There is only one truth”; it’s about Daniil narrow-mindedness. This conversation solidifies that.

Since this happens on the changeling route, when Clara asks if they could “defeat them”, defeat the game, the executor says it depends on what they understood. Clara then goes on to say that:

Daniil found out he was a toy. The executor says he better have someone else in the cathedral, then, because it’s hard for him to change his mind unless it’s a momentary lapse of judgement.

Artemy didn’t understand anything. She deems he thinks himself as a hero, now, without having actually achieved the heroic feat the executor mentioned that prompted the conversation. He’s a hero when he has the freedom to make a choice, not when he goes down his predetermined path without consideration.

Day 9 - In A Foreign Language

Day 2- Volition