Working with our nightmares
Joshuah Bearman, in the NYT, on video games and storytelling art:
Billed by its programmer, Erik Svedang, as a game of "curiosity and exploration," Blueberry Garden features little instruction and no puzzles — other than the question of what exactly to do next — but roaming among the garden's flora and fauna to the sounds of a Debussy-like soundtrack is captivating. "Dude, you just kind of float around and get those blueberry power-ups," one player explained to his friend. But the directionless dream world of the garden turns out to be a seductive trap. The garden is slowly filling with water; only once it’s inundated do you realize how to escape.
Anne Germain, to Margaret Talbot in The New Yorker, on new nightmare therapy that asks participants to write it down, revise it and imagine it:
"It's fascinating to me how people can change the content of a nightmare to a non-nightmare. I genuinely believe people know what they need. Some will change a character; some will include new ways of protecting themselves. One of the advantages of the technique is to give patients the flexibility to change the nightmare in keeping with their own beliefs — their own identity."
