What’s on your bookshelf?: Dread Delusion and The Night is Darkening by James Wragg

Hey reader, who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat about books with a selection of cool people from the industry! Words are a wonderful thing, aren’t they? I once wrote in a cover letter for a uni creative writing course that I’d “even invented several words of my own” before my mate talked me out of it. Killjoy. This week it’s the turn of Dread Delusion’s creative director, The Night is Darkening maker and Lovely Hellplace director James Wragg! Cheers, James! Mind if we take a look at your bookshelf?

What are you reading right now?

Lord Of Light by Roger Zelazny. It’s a 1960s science fantasy novel where the lines between magic and technology become completely blurred, much like a certain book about worm surfing.

The idea is that Buddhist reincarnation is enforced by technology. When someone is close to death, their “karmic register” (a brain scan) determines their new body. Of course, morality becomes politicized because the so-called gods are really just tech bros. It’s like Elon Musk can turn you into a snail.

It’s a compelling book, but it contains – as in Dune before it – an element of cultural appropriation. Zelazny was a white American whose novels were absolutely enriched by the mythologies he borrowed; make of that what you will.

What did you last read?

The Faithful Hangman by Joel F. Harrington. It’s the biography of a 16th century Nuremberg executioner who spent 45 years trying to get another job. The problem is that once you’ve chopped off a head or two, nobody wants to hire you.

Harrington does a fascinating job of deconstructing the medieval legal system to show why punishments were often so brutal. In an era when a single arsonist could burn down a town or grieving relatives could instigate a riot, executions were a way for the emerging state to convey the illusion that everything under control, honestly.

What are you eyeing next?

My wife gave me Salt Slow by Julia Armfield, a collection of hypnagogic stories in which the surreal intrudes on everyday life. My wife is much further along in her journey to reading every book ever written, so I am forever grateful to her for her selections.

I also want to get Technofeudalism when it comes out in paperback. In it, Yanis Varoufakis argues that technology monopolies have become our new feudal overlords because they are taking all this wealth out of the global economy without giving anything back.

What quote or scene from a book has stuck in your mind?

It’s obvious, but 1984 blew me away in college. In particular, how O’Brien destroys Winston’s individualism at the end. He argues that “if both the past and the outside world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable,” then the Party’s version of the truth is absolute. It’s a somewhat incontrovertible argument, and it shook me to my core. It’s also why Half-Life 2 is bad 1984 fanfiction – because it doesn’t end with the player’s entire worldview being torn to pieces.

Which book should your friends definitely read?

Everything You Ever Wanted by Luiza Sauma. Ostensibly about a millennial Londoner who signs up for a trip to a modern-day colony on another planet, it’s actually a poignant reflection on depression and isolation.

And then there’s The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers, about a gang of Yorkshire coin counterfeiters in the 18th century. It’s written in this earthy, rhythmic prose that somehow makes you smell the country mud.

And Blindsight by Peter Watts. I am secretly obsessed with what the hell consciousness isand this novel about first contact is all about the quirks and paradoxes of the human psyche. It also features vampires.

Also, once, after reading Naomi Klein’s No Logo, I went through a phase where I would loudly complain in bars about how evil clothes were.

Which book would you like to see adapted into a game?

I’d love to play an RPG set in the world of Marlon James’ Black Leopard Red Wolf, a dark fantasy story inspired by ancient African mythology. I have no idea what the game mechanics would be, but you can’t really go wrong with such a beguiling setting.

“I was pretty sure I’d listed every book ever written, but then I re-read it and only listed 11,” James wrote in his email to me. I’m sorry, James, but what would have been a great set of answers in any other column is just a complete failure here to name every book in existence. The fact that you’ve seen through this most secret of goals perhaps makes it an even more miserable failure, since you can’t even hide behind a veil of ignorance. I guess there’s nothing you can do about that! So check back next week when another cool person in the industry tells us their favorites.

Also! Some valued members of the RPS community have asked in the comments what I’ve been reading, so here’s a little bonus round. I actually have four books in the works. Voracious by Belicia Rhea (pregnant, bulimic teen has horrific visions of an insect apocalypse, perfect light summer reading). The Last Yakuza by Jake Adelstein (who wrote that legendary piece of games journalism). Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz (recommended by Nikhil Murphy), and the book Alice Bell wrote. Pre-order now!