June 3, 2013
MarkBernstein.org
 

Borderlands

SummerFest is turning out to be a huge success. It’s only on for two weeks; don’t miss this chance to get some terrific artisanal software at the vineyard gate.

Meanwhile, Wikipedia left me wanting to blow stuff up. So I’ve been playing Borderlands, a now-classic first-person role-playing shooter.

Borderlands

As usual, the art is extraordinary. The writing is less good, but it’s actually been fairly clean so far.

While this is supposedly set on distant planet, the terrain is clearly the post-apocalyptic American South. Yes, there are some nods to Mad Max and therefore to the Outback but this isn’t Australia and these aren’t Australia’s problems: this is Ruined Dixie from the swamps of Louisiana to the mesquite and pinyon sands of New Mexico. It’s conveniently depopulated save for some Colorful Characters™ and a lot of bad guys who shoot first and talk Southern afterward. I suppose that a game about guns and ruins fits naturally into the South — see Joss Whedon’s Serenity — but it’s interesting how our imagination runs in this channel 149 years after Sherman.

I fancy some of my colleagues in the eLit world know this work. Suggestions for the best way to read it — remember, I don’t have infinite time! — are welcome.