#robert goodwin

Part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/sindy77/798321806196015104

Part 1: https://www.tumblr.com/sindy77/798322615484841984

Part 1: https://www.tumblr.com/sindy77/798322615484841984

Owned: No, library Page count: 415 My summary: A history of Spanish America, from the first contacts made by the early explorers and conquistadors to the dwindling of the Spanish Empire in the 1800s. My rating: 2/5

Are you ever profoundly disappointed in a book? One you thought might be good or useful, that seemed perfect for the topic that you're researching? Readers, I'm sure you can connect the dots of what happened to me when I was slogging through this dull, gargantuan beast of a book. I'm researching America, and specifically the Caribbean, and more specifically the Taíno people, for a book that I want to write. You'd think this history of Spanish America would be perfect for that, right? But nope. I learned very little from this book, and I question most of what I learned.

My main problems were threefold. One, the book is just boring. It's not written in an engaging style, it's just a lot of information being thrown at you, characters introduced, relevant for a few paragraphs, then dropped again. I get that not all history books are gonna be a laugh a minute, but I found myself literally falling asleep reading it more than once. Two, the book is less about Spanish America and more Spanish conquests of America. The tale rarely stays in the same place for long, it's always at the borders of Spain's influence in the Americas, which was a problem for me because Puerto Rico stopped being a part of the narrative like two chapters in.

But the third, most grievous problem, was that the book was just racist. Spanish colonists are near-universally described as being heroic, brave, uncompromising, and are by and large the protagonists of the piece. Atrocities committed against Native Americans are skipped past, or vaguely mentioned but not explored in-depth. Sentences like 'the Spanish killed five hundred Native Americans' are common, but when Native Americans kill Spanish people, it's given longer, more emotive focus, as though the white lives lost are tragedies but the Native lives lost are just a statistic. Few Native Americans are given names or focus by the story, and those that were tended to be more Spain-aligned than fighting Spain. Oh, and Native people are near-universally referred to as 'Indians', regardless of who their people are. Sometimes there's differentiation, like 'the Taíno Indians' or 'the Carib Indians', but sometimes it's just '[name], an Indian, did this' or 'an Indian did that', with no effort made to find out which people that person belonged to. Conversion of Native Americans to Christianity is seen as a common good by the narrative, or is at least not criticised, and while there's token mention that Native Americans rebelling violently against the Spanish was often caused by Spanish atrocities against them, the Native Americans are still portrayed as 'savage' and 'warlike' when attacking the Spanish, and their defeat and/or deaths as a good thing. It's sickening, and I really struggled to get through the whole stupid book. But I did. Time to forget it ever existed.

============= Links

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============= Synopsis

A session with Madeline. Probe into the psyche of a frightened young woman in an experimental psychological horror game built around conversation. (not scary)

============= Other Info

Thanatophobia is a ChatScript parser, submitted to the 2022 Edition of the IFComp. It was ranked 39th overall. The game requires a IPv6 address to work.

Status: Completed Genre: Horror, Psychological Horror

CW: Inappropriate for young kids. / substance abuse, death

============= Playthrough

First Played: 2-Oct-2022 Last Played: 12-Dec-2023 Playtime: around 1h Rating: 3 /5 Thoughts: Help me help you

============= Review

Thanatophobia is a relatively short horror chat-like parser in which you play a therapist trying to uncover what is scaring Madeline, your patient. There are two elements to uncover, before you can make progress and reach the end.

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

Jack Lowden as Robert Goodwin in The Long Song (x6)

Jack Lowden as Robert Goodwin in The Long Song (x6)