Stanwixbuster
@stanwixbuster.co.uk
2.6K followers 272 following 916 posts
Stanley W. Baxton // he/him 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ Award-winning narrative game dev NWCDTP-funded PhD on non-commercial game communities + sustainability, BAFTA Breakthrough 2025, ex-Supermassive Games stanwixbuster.co.uk
!["please, stop embarrassing us" as a whole horror blurb ;; so short and so unsettling. come hang w other IF ppl ~
[A url to a discord server that was copied from google, source gmail. The discord invite code is censored]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qiyjd6ta6fg3x72klvtlufiy/bafkreibwetdswwbowod5tmpc6mimgxigcgzfvc5zrwzngmi7okyjn5uc2m)
![Max Remskyi [in reply to Stanwixbuster, a link to Racism without Racists]
Well, as I see that, it's rather western(mostly America)-specific thing. Would probably be a good read if I wanted to do anything with americas writing wise, because so far it looks as if you were explaining blind man (me) what colour is.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qiyjd6ta6fg3x72klvtlufiy/bafkreicsgomvn4afhwtfn3qsaqrzx4bcd4u3zvbgduowrutbmdqhnozrgu)
![Max Remskyi
I do not think he's made any "point" so far. He had some obervation, followed them through and wrote them down
Consider it as a longass blog post on "look I've researched many stuff and see such and such patterns, do with it what you want".
Stanwixbuster
his point was that all stories are a one-to-one map of the "hero's journey", what he literally called the monomyth (one original myth), and that all other modes of storytelling can just be approximated into a euro-centric framework
perennialism is a fundamentally eurocentric and white surpremist talking point and any attempts to further those goals will only dig ourselves further into those mindsets. there has never been a perannialist philosophy claiming that any non-european frameworks are the capital-t Truth, because they'll get laughed at for not being white
Stanwixbuster [Reply to Consider it a longass blog post...]
and he has been thoroughly debunked by almost every mainstream branch of anthropology and social science
people cling onto him because they like the idea of the One True Story mapping neatly onto hollywood
Max Remskyi [reply to perennialism is a fundamentally eurocentric...]
Could you elaborate? I am not thoroughly engaged with the cultural aspect of this stuff](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qiyjd6ta6fg3x72klvtlufiy/bafkreid34tk2xxuteo6he5czghxjusx3c6gsrpk7eqkzs5l7qytjswzbvy)
![Stanwixbuster
to start with do you know what perennialism is
[censored]
yeah the monomyth is very one note. some of my favourite stories are conflict-less which immediately falls out of its scope, so it aint all that
Max Remskyi
Nope
Max Remskyi [reply to yeah the monomyth is very one note...]
The times Campbell lived in are very different to ours, though, and different generations like very different things
Stanwixbuster
in short its this idea that there are common themes across schools of thought (usually religion), which means that all schools share one metaphysical truth
Max Remskyi
Judging anything out of the historical/time context isn't fruitful in my opinion
Max Remskyi [reply to in short its this idea...]
Ah, I did not know the exact term, but the definition is something I meet many times
[censored] [in reply to Judying anything out of the historical...]
if it's commonly applied in the present time (out of its historical context) then its worth critiquing i think
Stanwixbuster
in practice this means that the dominant modes of thought can point to other schools and say "well see, this is just what we're doing" and smother them out and can liberally appropriate their work without the original schools seeing any credit and in extreme cases being killed off entirely
the most long lasting (and shockingly unknown) form of this is theosophy, which then went on to be the foundation of nazi ideology and hindutva](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qiyjd6ta6fg3x72klvtlufiy/bafkreihmwnfbit52ftgwumpjqhbkqaahwqddnlidgxjnzkcuhtqyb5lscq)
![Max Remskyi
I agree on critiquing, I do not agree on the vector of the said critique, e.g. when explaining "why monomyth sucks" it is much more rational and understandable for others when it is explained objectively through the prism of "bad, lazy storytelling", not through "because he was racist"
Stanwixbuster [in reply to The times Campbell lived in...]
how much of a different world do you think 1950 is
Max Remskyi
Very much. They had no pocket "world library" in their pocket, machines could not generate so much slop and information (though there were attempts), the healthcare, and many many more stuff
I mean, the world is in constant acceleration, and each following year brings much more than the previous one
Stanwixbuster [in reply to I agree on critiquing, I do not agree...]
so you admit the grievance is not that the monomyth is racist, but that people are pointing out that it is racist
im dropping this now because you need to have a long sitdown and reconsider your relationship to this man that academia has spent the last 70 years debunking and why you feel the need to come to his defence this hard
Max Remskyi
My grievance here is that it is pointless. He's dead long ago and does not care if people in future call him racist. Nor it will help to debunk the monomyth faecal foundation.\](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qiyjd6ta6fg3x72klvtlufiy/bafkreiaumfgu2ky4ervia6but6oby4lq57cmj3ydxteesw3mge43fggls4)
![The "Games Industry"
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![Discord stream
The Shaman, the Outsider, and the Diet of Worms: Worldbuilding Through Negative Space
Stanley Baxton
Stanley has a problem with worldbuilding. He has such a problem, he made a whole game about it, and went on to win Best Experimental Game at last year’s NarraScope showcase. In this talk, Stanley will deconstruct the approach he took to worldbuilding in his project Diet of Worms, offer alternatives to putting everything into a public-access wiki, and show how “subtextual” worldbuilding can be used as a narrative tool in itself.
DES WRI FAN ACA [worldbuilding, narrative design, lore]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qiyjd6ta6fg3x72klvtlufiy/bafkreidwlajy4rqrr3w4yq5jncwowxrgffahvhp7hgv2qhqwtrmf7ao77m)
