fez - computer sciencefez is about exploring nu •every puzzle you solve uncovers some new...
TRANSCRIPT
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FEZA Critical Commentary
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THESIS
• Fez can function as a subject of a critical analysis of the assumptions of the culture within which it
was produced
• Fez accomplishes this via a nuanced reading, it is self-aware, it is ‘polysemantic’ (Dante’s term)
• These together make it, if not art, something that functions quite like art, so like whatever.
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THESIS
• The best way to show that Fez can be the subject of critical analysis is by offering that analysis
• Thus, we need a metathesis (or maybe a matethesis?)
• Thesis (i) – Fez models assumptions about how cultures are defined and how the process by which we, as subjects of a modern empiricist
worldview, perform the exploration of a culture –that is, anthropology.
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What the hell am I on about?
Welcome to NU.
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FEZ is about exploring NU
• Every puzzle you solve uncovers some new historical riddle about the culture of this alien race in a city called NU,
whose world you cohabit.
• You don’t actually meet living citizens of NU until about 2/3s of the way through the first 100% of the game
(completion is like 210%, one more irritant to blame Phil Fish about)
• This means you’re wandering in this beautiful, mysterious, world of ruins.
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What is relevant enough about NU that it got put in the game?
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prehistory
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Religion
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Class Structure,ties of dependence
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Mythology andLegitimating Superstructure
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History
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But above all, Science and Language.These are centre stage for the puzzles
-the game.
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How do we discover these facts?
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We rummagethrough ruins
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We decipher old texts
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We look at old paintings
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This functions similarly to nascent anthropology during the colonial period.
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We have our Rosetta Stone
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Our study of mythological kings
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Dicking around in graves
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Finding premodern humanoid remains
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Questions of race and speciation
But this time reversed
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There are problematics and differentiators, but I think those function as a response to this core analogy, rather than breaking it.
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Thesis (ii) - Fez accomplishes this via a nuanced reading, it is self-aware, it is
‘polysemantic’ (Dante)
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Self Awareness
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The reboot sequence
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The sidechannel puzzle solutions
• Sometimes you have to hear things
• The qr codes• The qr codes being constructed
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Polysemanty
But I mean, from a formalist perspective, what does this mean? Imma say – the Existence of signifiers with
loose yet potent meaning.
Something Dante Alighieri came up with to sound smart, also biblical interpretations and stuff. Basically, that a text has multiple meanings addressed to multiple audiences (like an esoteric
crowd, Sufis and shit.)
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NU ZU
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Aliens?
The game ends with a star portal to the moon or an asteroid, populated with
statues of mythological figures (the squids) and gods (the owls).
Does this mean they were real?
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The whole 2d subjects of a 3d world thing
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The 2001-esque ending sequence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tidAS_1l-ME#t=178
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Reminiscent of powers of ten, the old science vid
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Point being, Fez is art and stuff.