Interesting comments, everyone.
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Awe to the thread author. You've made such a deep analysis, I never even noticed that the game actually forced me to take its enviromental disorders for real. But I think, it's not that bad after all and we must give our gratitude to the designers that were able to deliver such consistent setting combined of real, subreal and unreal elements to the audience where one would never question why this building or photo or whatever is there, nothing seems put of the place, unlike, for example, the reactor at the very center of Pripyat in CoD 4.
The more I visit these forums the closer I'm to the idea that the westerners are really different from us in terms of perception. I usually try to take the picture as a whole, but foreigners tend to gradually build it step by step often pointing out very peculiar details. Good job.
Thanks.
I find your comment about westerners very interesting. I've sometimes suspected that there may be some differences in worldview among those from further "east".
Of course, any society has a diversity of people and any large society has a diversity of cultures, all of which will have their own ways of interpreting the world, of knitting it together into a coherent whole or pulling it apart. But, I still suspect that there are always some people who are culturally prone to thinking in ways that few people in another culture would easily find (or "think to think of" so to speak).
I was thinking some more about this: Some Russian authors (thinking Dostoevsky and some Strugatsky brothers) have at least a few scenes where there is a great synthetic moment, when the meanings behind symbolism and the meanings behind the world seem to lose their distinctiveness and overlap. Its an interesting literary technique that I've only scene in a few places (eg. chapter eight of "the ugly swans").
The results can differ somewhat: A character and the things which they represent (class, role, philosophy) can become indistinguishable representatives of each other, or signs of an underlying reality can emerge which seemingly hides behind everything and isn't often clear, but which can be seen to tie past and future events together into some kind of pattern.
I think that is something which fascinated me about Pathoflogic: the world pathologic presents is a much more consistent world (in art and structure), despite its seeming contradictions, whether they be conflicts of physics, characters or plot ideas. Many differences exist but the sum of all of the differences is one unified whole - even when that whole should seem to be impossible to reconcile.
I think your observation may really have something behind it. All societies tell stories, sometimes for amusement, but they also often carry messages about the role of humanity and ways of interpreting the world.
Thank you for expanding the idea. If you have any more thoughts about Western Europeans, let me know. (I'm part Aboriginal and I've been trying to understand what makes them tick for some time (they're an odd bunch). Perhaps its because I've grown up around them that its a bit hard to figure out.)