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Attention Elsewhere

@attentionelsewhere.bsky.social
8 followers 33 following 72 posts

ON HIATUS No medium is off limits. Everything is worth our attention. Alasdair & Eli spotlight overlooked, underappreciated, and/or up-and-coming entertainment media, folding in external research to develop a deeper understanding of each piece.

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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
And don't forget to read the extras, too! They might not be set within the world of YSMT, but they're just as important—if not more so—than its actual, textual narrative.
Zhang Jing's persona poses with the characters from her various manhua, including Ah Jiu and Yu Ji
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Interested in reading along with the show? You still have time to finish Yin Shan Meng Tan before our episode. But don't wait too long... With over a 100 chapters, varying levels of translation quality, and a richly layered narrative, YSMT demands both time and attention to properly enjoy.
Ah Jiu holds an open umbrella over Princess Yu Ji's head.
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
If you enjoyed our episode on 'Heaven Will Be Mine'—a game in which space is characterized as both playground and battlefield for its young cast—then we strongly recommend you read Asterisk Magazines' recent interview of Jon Peterson in which he traces the evolution of wargaming throughout history.
"There is an interesting distinction between what the actual professional military people want out of these games and what they find successful in them, and the kinds of things that hobbyists pursue in wargames."
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Next episode: We'll be covering Zhang Jing's manhua, Yin Shan Meng Tan (or: Dream Talking in the Hidden Mountain) (2017-2020).
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
LEADER. GOD. MOTHER. On this holy day, we worship at the feet of Mother Falke, Protektor Commander of S-23 Sierpinski Facility. We thank her for all she has done for us, the sacrifices she has made, and most of all, we thank her for stepping on us.
Signalis' Falke awakens from one dream to another... Ready to kill and replace Elster
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
In our second (and final!) Signalis episode, we discuss Adler who has plagued—and charmed—us since pushing poor Elster down the elevator shaft. Best read as a foil to Elster, he is both perpetrator and victim—his fate decided by compulsory heterosexual desire and Ariane's fading dream.
Adler shoves Elster into an elevator shaftAdler looking hot af as he says, "You shouldn't have returned." What a monster.
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Attention Elsewhere Ep. 4: 'The Genre is Empire':
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Attention Elsewhere Ep. 3: 'Would James Sunderland Approve?':
Adler looking relatively normal, other than the big-ass knife through his eye
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
In Ep. 3 we examine, not just Signalis' artistic influences, but its historical influences too: Its world draws aesthetic inspiration from both Nazi Germany and the Soviet-controlled GDR, while its narrative and themes subvert or directly refute their fascistic ideology, rhetoric, and actions.
A propaganda poster found in the world of Signalis. It shows a FKLR (Falke) unit holding a Eusan flag (which looks *very* similar to that of Soviet-controlled East Germany (or the German Democratic Republic).
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
In the first of our two episodes on Signalis, we discuss how, by featuring subtle and prominent references to—and direct use of—many famous paintings, novels, shows, films, and other games, Signalis' form comes to mirror that of the narrative with the blending and blurring of lines between subjects.
Isle of the Dead (Die Toteninsel) by Arnold Böcklin (1880)The Shore of Oblivion by Eugene Bracht (1911)Major Motoko Kusanagi comes apart as she attempts to rip open a tank hatch in Ghost in the Shell (1995)Echoing the scene from Ghost in the Shell (1995), Elster's arm comes apart as she tries to gain entrance to the Penrose (within which is Ariane, dying in cryo)
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Elster, assuming the role of Dale Cooper, talks into a microphone: "Ariane, cycle 3000. Entering S-23 Sierpinsky."
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
It's *always* a good time to (re)play Signalis, and with our next episode (and a delightful, if very spoilery, discussion) on the horizon, you've really got no excuse to keep putting it off. So ignore your backlog; play Signalis; and come listen to the podcast once you're done!
A STAR unit from rose-engine's survival horror game Signalis says, "...an Elster unit?"
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
In preparation for our next episode on Signalis, we are reading Robert W. Chambers' 'The King in Yellow.' While we won't be discussing it in-depth, it's far from a throwaway easter egg. Rather, it serves to expand and complicate both world and narrative of the game.
A copy of Robert W. Chambers' 'The King in Yellow' found within the world of rose-engine's Signalis
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
ACHTUNG! We're not quite ready to release it, but in our next episode we will explore the corrupted depths of Sierpinski S-23 and twisted, fragmentary memories of its many denizens in rose-engine's 2022 survival horror, Signalis.
The replika unit Elster stands at the bottom of a red pit. The stairs behind her lead up to the snow-covered surface, while a hole in the wall leads deeper into the facility.
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
The Eye of Attention Elsewhere is always searching for more yuri...
The all-seeing eye of Attention Elsewhere spots Elster and Ariane from Signalis creeping through Mordor(?)
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
In our upcoming episode, we test the blurry boundaries between journalism and espionage, news and propaganda, spokesperson and puppet - and how now, more than ever, we may need Oromay's insights to help us navigate our own political waters, muddied by news media, puppets, and propaganda alike.
Taken from the Wikipedia article on the Derg, the military junta that ruled over Ethiopia and parts of Eritrea from 1974 to 1991: "Ethiopian army soldiers rally in support of the Derg; many of them holding advocacy manifestos of the regime."
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Now, in 2026, we finally have a complete English translation of "Oromay" by David DeGusta and Mesfin Felleke Yirgu, and in just a few weeks, we'll tell you all about it!
Another cover of "Oromay," this time showing the silhouettes of a two people in front of a tall peak.
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
While a compelling narrative in its own right, "Oromay" is also historically significant: Like Tsegaye, Baalu Girma was the propaganda chief for the Derg, and with the cataclysmic failure of the campaign, he similarly became disillusioned, choosing to stay in Eritrea, rather than return to Ethiopia.
Photo of Oromay's author, Baalu Girma.
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
In the next episode of Attention Elsewhere, we'll be covering Baalu Girma's "Oromay" (1983), which follows journalist and minister of propaganda, Tsegaye Hailemaryam, and his role in, and eventual disillusionment from, the Derg's 'Red Star Campaign' (better known now as the Red Terror) in Eritrea.
The cover of the first, official English translation of Baalu Girma's "Oromay." It shows a woman posed in front of the silhouette of a soldier.
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Attention Elsewhere @attentionelsewhere.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Heaven Will Be Mine's setting and core conceit (that of the relationships that form between pilots as they operate their ship-selves in the vastness of space) draw, pretty explicitly, from elements of the mecha genre. But what's most fascinating, perhaps, is it's interpretation of the "Newtype."
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