Random old Bruce Sterling speech about storytelling and games. No wait, come back! (From boingboing.net)
http://lib.ru/STERLINGB/story.txt
You don’t get there by acculturating. Don’t become a
well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull.
Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle.
Stick in their throats like a pufferfish. If you want to woo the
muse of the odd, don’t read Shakespeare. Read Webster’s revenge
plays. Don’t read Homer and Aristotle. Read Herodotus where he’s
off talking about Egyptian women having public sex with goats.
If you want to read about myth don’t read Joseph Campbell, read
about convulsive religion, read about voodoo and the Millerites
and the Munster Anabaptists. There are hundreds of years of
extremities, there are vast legacies of mutants. There have
always been geeks. There will always be geeks. Become the
apotheosis of geek. Learn who your spiritual ancestors were. You
didn’t come here from nowhere. There are reasons why you’re
here. Learn those reasons. Learn about the stuff that was buried
because it was too experimental or embarrassing or inexplicable
or uncomfortable or dangerous.