Wendigoon Thread

Haven't touched the video yet, but I bit the bullet and bought it just now, too lol. It's been ages since I last read a Western, guess the author's known for writing dark Westerns in general.
 
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Kari Kamiya said:
Haven't touched the video yet, but I bit the bullet and bought it just now, too lol. It's been ages since I last read a Western, guess the author's known for writing dark Westerns in general.
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It's like reading an atipical weird western written like an Old Testament book or a bastard son between Moby Dick and Paradise Lost
 
It really does feel a lot like Paradise Lost. At least from what I remember from when I read it years ago.
 
Unpopular observation: there really isn't a lot of analysis in this video, especially relative to run time. This also isn't an audiobook, although it's extremely quote-heavy.

This is a condensed audio book, Reader's Digest-style. It's a Children's Bible retelling.

However, I do not believe there is anything wrong with a five-hour video of a friendly dork telling you the plot of his favorite book. The difference between this and your coworker/cousin/carpool member is that Wendi has an outline, has excerpts marked to read out, can be paused and doesn't smell like weed.

I just don't know that an audience who's read the book before would learn anything new, y'know? People either seem to be saying "sounds interesting, I should read that book" or "wow, I like that book, glad an Internet personality I like likes it too!"
 
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Aunt Carol said:
I just don't know that an audience who's read the book before would learn anything new, y'know? People either seem to be saying "sounds interesting, I should read that book" or "wow, I like that book, glad an Internet personality I like likes it too!"
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I haven't read the book, but I could see someone who had read it watching the video because they just wanted to hear Wendi's take on it. I think it would have been nice to use the youtube "chapters" feature (or post timestamps in the description) to help people with a more narrow interest in a long video like this.

edit: Also, found these on Wendi's twitter timeline
Based Wendi frogposting and sharing a greentext about how shitty a modern Hollywood take on Blood Meridian would be
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I.... don't think I'm the target audience for this book. I hate misery-wallowing torture gore porn where the hero dies. I know I spent 1-1/2 hours last week listening to Wendigoon narrate the death of a man who was so fried with radiation that his DNA shattered and his organs slowly melted, but that was real life, not a story........



....I'm kidding......
 
Aunt Carol said:
Unpopular observation: there really isn't a lot of analysis in this video, especially relative to run time. This also isn't an audiobook, although it's extremely quote-heavy.

This is a condensed audio book, Reader's Digest-style. It's a Children's Bible retelling.

However, I do not believe there is anything wrong with a five-hour video of a friendly dork telling you the plot of his favorite book. The difference between this and your coworker/cousin/carpool member is that Wendi has an outline, has excerpts marked to read out, can be paused and doesn't smell like weed.

I just don't know that an audience who's read the book before would learn anything new, y'know? People either seem to be saying "sounds interesting, I should read that book" or "wow, I like that book, glad an Internet personality I like likes it too!"
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That's just Wendigoon's style. Give what is essentially a summary of some piece of media to people who would otherwise have never heard about or will never get into, and add at the end whatever deeper meaning he took away from it.

The way I see it, his biggest strength is how he can take what is otherwise a complex piece of media and break it down and explain it in such a way that makes us feel like we've also gained a complete understanding of it.

But if you were actually interested in that thing you will realize that all he's giving is more or less a surface-level understanding that pretty much anyone can reach if they just consume the piece normally and attentively. That's the best case scenario. Worst case (and it's happened a few times. Only with relatively minor things) is that he may get things wrong or just flat out give false information with complete confidence.

Also lol on the Children's Bible retelling. I mean, he is a Sunday school teacher, after all.
 
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Blood Meridian is one of my favorite books ever. I hope his video doesn't shit up any and all discussion of it. Would be interesting to see him make a video on The Night Land by Hodgson since he no doubt would like it. It's one of those few things that are simmering just below the consciousness of the normie horror/dark fantasy fan. Hodgson as a whole is underrated and if you like Lovecraft you'd probably like his work.

Edit: If any of you get into McCarthy because of the video don't make the mistake of going from Blood Meridian to The Passenger or Stella Maris unless you're autistic and love physics.
 
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Aunt Carol said:
I just don't know that an audience who's read the book before would learn anything new, y'know? People either seem to be saying "sounds interesting, I should read that book" or "wow, I like that book, glad an Internet personality I like likes it too!"
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I agree with this, still enjoyed his summarization. I always like hearing how people interpret characters in books like Blood Meridian.

I have the PDF of My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue that I haven’t dove into yet so this inspired me to pull it up again.
 
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Point and Laugh said:
I agree with this, still enjoyed his summarization. I always like hearing how people interpret characters in books like Blood Meridian.
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I think that was what I was sticking on. In the blurb and the title, Wendi didn't give his video a useful description. "Celebration of," "Retelling," "Extended summary with dash of footnotes"--something to differentiate it from an analysis.

I'm not reading that book any time soon, but I appreciated a long-form listenable summary from a gregarious dork who can pace himself. If it had turned out to be five hours of analysis, I wouldn't have gotten much from it, not being familiar with the text. (And if I were expecting five hours of analysis, I'd probably be annoyed by the point that I decided to stop listening.)
 
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wtfNeedSignUp said:
Got into the hour mark and decided to order the book online along with The Road, hopefully will get here before the heat death of the universe.
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I heard All the Pretty Horses is the first in the trilogy.
 
Odd Opossum said:
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I think I remember him saying that he learned of the wendigo and other legends though his granddad. He may have said his granddad was Native, but don't quote me on that.
Also, cultural appropriation is gay. I'm White as shit but growing up near the rez in New Mexico all kids would hear stories about skinwalkers, La Llorona, aliens, the jackalope, and other folklore like that. You don't get to claim ownership on someone else's behalf.
We grew up next to each other, you Liberal Arts Major, of course we share stories.
 
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