新加坡六合彩开奖直播 the author: n is a PhD student in the Department of English at 新加坡六合彩开奖直播.
September marks the 10th anniversary of 鈥�,鈥� one of the most and of the last few decades.
The game has generated a large and dedicated and has inspired a new genre of interactive storytelling 鈥� the 鈥�.鈥� These games are defined by high difficulty, explorative gameplay and a melancholic atmosphere.
As a fan of 鈥淒ark Souls,鈥� I am struck by how it takes up similar themes present in the early 19th-century Romanticist texts that I study for my PhD work in early post-apocalyptic literature.
鈥淒ark Souls,鈥� as well as other soulslike games such as ,鈥� 鈥�,鈥� and 鈥溾�� explore apocalyptic themes that were .
Dying embers
鈥淒ark Souls鈥� takes place in Lordran, a dark-fantasy version of a mythologized medieval Europe. While its grandiose architecture suggests Lordran was once a mighty kingdom, the player鈥檚 quest begins at the end of the Age of Fire, when 鈥�.鈥� This trope of the dying Earth is demonstrated in the sluggish, exhausted movement of many of the enemies and is reflected in the .
An early example of this dying Earth trope can be seen in the work of , a major figure in British Romanticism.
In his 1816 poem 鈥�,鈥� Byron imagines an Earth beneath an extinguished sun. The last denizens of the planet huddle for warmth around forests and dwellings 鈥渂urnt for beacons,鈥� and the final two survivors meet in a bitter encounter 鈥渂eside the dying embers of an altar-place.鈥� This use of fire as refuge prefigures the use of bonfires in 鈥淒ark Souls鈥� as rare safe havens within an otherwise menacing world.
鈥楾he Last Man鈥�
Byron鈥檚 poem was one of many works by British Romantic authors and artists to capitalize on the popularity of French author Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville鈥檚 novel (The Last Man).
Grainville鈥檚 鈥渓ast man鈥� character witnesses the slow decline and final end of the world. The novel is, , a literary expression of the social and ecological anxieties of the time. It also of science fiction and dystopian literature.
who was disgraced during the French Revolution, died before his only novel could be published in 1805. When the book was translated to English and published in England in 1806, Grainville was not credited as the author. Despite this, Grainville鈥檚 vision of an exhausted Earth that 鈥渂ore the sad features of decay鈥� influenced British Romantics such as Byron.
Grainville鈥檚 novel depicts a central figure that is eerily similar to one in 鈥淒ark Souls.鈥� In The Last Man, the Spirit of the Earth is depicted as a humanoid character residing in a cavern among 鈥渕illions of furnaces,鈥� where he 鈥渕aintained perpetual fires for the heat that held back the deadly cold.鈥� In 鈥淒ark Souls,鈥� Lord Gwyn sits within the Kiln of the First Flame, wherein he desperately tries to keep the world鈥檚 embers glowing awhile longer.
In both The Last Man and 鈥淒ark Souls,鈥� the world is not a stable certainty but is instead a precarious and fragile thing.
Crumbling ruins
A declining kingdom leaves behind haunted ruins and decaying monuments. Players tread through and among such remains in 鈥淒ark Souls.鈥�
The architecture of the game鈥檚 setting is inspired by real-world historical styles, including classical Roman and medieval Gothic architecture, and these influences lend to the surroundings a sense of times long past.
An obsession with ruins and ancient structures was prevalent too in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Similar to the ways in which gravitated set in , an obsession with ruins and ancient structures was prevalent too in the work of the British Romantic writers.
In 鈥�,鈥� Percy Shelley writes of a shattered monument in the desert, a 鈥渃olossal Wreck鈥� around which 鈥渢he lone and level sands stretch far away.鈥� In 鈥�,鈥� John Keats describes being transported in a dream to an 鈥渆ternal domed monument鈥� in which artifacts lie 鈥渋n a mingled heap confused.鈥�
In Mary Shelley鈥檚 dystopian novel (one of the many books, poems, paintings and plays to sport the same name following Grainville鈥檚 novel), she portrays the final specimen of humanity wandering alone through the 鈥渞uins of Rome.鈥�
Readers of the Romantic period could not get enough of ancient ruins 鈥� much like gamers who routinely play 鈥淒ark Souls鈥� and other soulslike games.
Uncertain times
A question remains: Why would such apocalyptic themes prove to be so popular in two very different historical time periods? Put simply, we share with the Romantic period a world of uncertainty.
Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries saw dramatic changes: upended the political status quo, while in geology and paleontology made the notion of species extinction difficult to deny and disturbed the prevailing view of a relatively stable natural world.
We too face destabilizing forces today, from climate change to global pandemics to economic anxiety to rising political polarization. Such instability is certain to inspire images of declining empires and dying worlds.
But ruins and remnants do more than imply the end. They also remind us of that which once lived, just as a tomb is both 鈥�.鈥� Ruins persist and, as Mary Shelley鈥檚 last man insists, affirm the 鈥�.鈥�
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Perhaps this is why a fascination with ancient ruins tends to accompany anxieties of dramatic societal change and ecological precarity.
Regardless, 鈥淒ark Souls鈥� stands among the works of Byron, Grainville, Keats and as a masterful artistic expression of our fascination with ruin in its dual meaning: both as disastrous end and surviving remnant.
This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. .