I write frameworks for stories. The stories are your own to tell.
When I wrote Gratitude, I defined the world and the goals (leave).
I gave factions and their desires. I shaped a structure that you could fill in the blanks.
Like an elaborate mad-libs, with character and charm.
When I wrote Cyberrats, I wanted to emulate not just the games of XCOM that I loved, but stories of underpowered, downtrodden individuals asked to carry a task that’s just too big.
Stories of alien invasions by stronger enemies, and a hopeless defense because it’s the only one you can offer.
I wrote a story with a beginning, and with an end.
More likely than not, that end is in defeat. But the story is yours to tell.
Today I’m writing another chapter in that story. An expansion. It’s a framework, a tool. For you, the storyteller.
It offers angles and quests. Hooks and possibilities. Relationships and depth. Choices, rewards, and punishments.
We return to stories where bad things happen to our heroes. We watch them make tough choices. We watch them overcome.
Today I’m standing before you on Tumblr dot com yelling into the void, competing with countless other voices to be heard. And I’m asking you to stand with me. To yell along side me. To get the word out about this expansion.
This campaign ends in two days. More likely than not, we won’t hit our stretch goal, the one that brings more art into the world. The one that adds poetry, more illustrations, and depth to the work. More likely than not, that’s the ending.
But it’s not over yet. And until it is over, I’m going to be here. Standing at the edge and sharing with the world how much I love this book that I’ve created. And I ask you to yell with me. To look at this art and share it with a friend.
We hit our funding goal. That’s a victory. But it’s not the only one there is. And no matter how slim the odds, I’m going to be here, waiting to see how this story ends.
List of Academic and Literary Books Compiled by Dr. Kiran Grewal
Academic Books (many available in Goldsmiths library)
Rosemary Sayigh (2007) The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries, Bloomsbury
Ilan Pappé (2002)(ed) The Israel/Palestine Question, Routledge
(2006) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, OneWorld Publications
(2011) The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel, Yale University Press
(2015) The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge, Verso Books
(2017) The Biggest Prison on earth: A history of the Occupied territories, OneWorld Publications
(2022) A History of Modern Palestine, Cambridge University Press
Rashid Khalidi (2020) The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, MacMillan
Andrew Ross (2019) Stone Men: the Palestinians who Built Israel, Verso Books
Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir (2012) The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine, Stanford University Press.
Ariella Azoulay (2011) From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947-1950, Pluto Press
Jeff Halper (2010) An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Pluto Press
(2015) War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification
(2021) Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State, Pluto Press
Anthony Loewenstein (2023) The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the Technology of Occupation around the World (CURRENTLY FREE TO DOWNLOAD ON VERSO)
Noura Erakat (2019) Justice for some: law and the question of Palestine, Stanford University Press
Neve Gordon (2008) Israel’s Occupation, University of California Press
Joseph Massad (2006) The persistence of the Palestinian question: essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, Routledge Edward Said (1979) The Question of Palestine, Random House
Y'all ever get so excited about a scientific paper you’re reading that you get chills???
So I thought to myself
Huh, a lot of our invasive species come from China and Japan
And then I thought, huh, I should look up what Kudzu is like in its natural habitat
And I found this article by a team of scientists investigating the history of Kudzu in China
And ohhhhh my goddddd. I’m vibrating with excitement over how cool this is.
The first bombshell that turned my brain inside out:
KUDZU IS NOT WILD. IT IS SEMI-DOMESTICATED.
In China, Kudzu has been a fundamentally important plant for food and textiles throughout history. We have Kudzu cloth that is 6,000 years old!
THIS PLANT CLOTHED AND FED ONE OF THE MOST POPULOUS AND MOST ENDURING HUMAN CULTURES ON EARTH
and in turn
HUMANS SHAPED AND SELECTED FOR ITS TRAITS
*AND*
in its natural range, humans are the main “predator” of kudzu
“Harvest by humans appears to be the major control mechanism in its native areas.”
Kudzu is like that because it co-evolved with humans.
WHAT
YALL
This means
That Kudzu is so highly invasive because—just like most plants evolved to be grazed by herbivores and/or eaten by caterpillars, keeping them in balance with everything else—Kudzu basically evolved to be harvested by humans
The other half of the ecological partnership that keeps Kudzu in balance with everything else isn’t a caterpillar or a hoofed beast. It’s us.
So the traditional textile method (kudzufu) appear to be time and labour intensive, with the kudzu fibers being too fragile for standard industrial equipment but the first person to patent a sustainable method of consuming kudzu, whether it’s making (100% we swear it’s not humans this time) soylent green, or creating an alternative to rayon (or krayon, if you will) stands to make a lot of money
It’s too fragile for machines that were built to handle other fibers, but I’m sure we can find a way to innovate something that does work. It just needs some interest thrown at it, I think.
Even if it’s just a simple mechanism that makes the labor easier on the small scale.
“doesnt israel have a right to exist too??” well its an apartheid ethnostate so no
“what about the people dont the PEOPLE have a right to exist??” yes! they do! however, they do not have a right to an apartheid ethnostate
“what about the holocaust survivors in israel dont they-” yes they have a right to exist too, however surviving one genocide does not give you the right to commit another, nor does it give you the right to an apartheid ethnostate
This deep into his disaster of a time running Twitter and people are still reporting “Elon Musk said he’d give Wikipedia a billion dollars to change their name to DICKipedia xDDDDD” as a wacky story, Which first of all implies the sad possibility that there are people who still find his “let that sink in” shtick funny, but his questioning of Wikipedia is uh. Actually p. sinister
Like, it’s easy to go “haha, he doesn’t know about hosting costs!” But he. Clearly does know that hosting one of the world’s top ten most visited websites costs a lot of money. He wants to sow doubt and conspiracies, and it’s working, judging by his replies
Also, he’s a rich guy who loves spreading misinformation, mad that Wikipedia doesn’t allow it. He also is baffled by the idea he can’t buy it, that it’s not trying to make money
He doesn’t even have any specific criticisms of Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales called him out for removing verification with very specific criticisms, and he just responded “please fix Wokipedia”. Ladies and gentlemen…got ‘em!!!!!1!
Heya folks! If you been enjoying the latest Cyberrats art, the new kickstarter is live!
Cyberrats is a rules light, tactics heavy LUMEN system game inspired by xcom, teenage mutant ninja turtles and shadowrun. Players are mutant rats and interns for one of three evil, world-spanning megacorporations when aliens invade the earth. Not so bad, on paper. A good disaster now and then is good for your bosses bottom line. The issue is that a rival megacorp, Valdivian, has the issue well in hand and refuses to share the alien-fighting market. An unacceptable scenario. Your job is to sabotage the “real” heroes, secure the contract, save the world, and clock out of your shift.
Cyberrats: Rise of the Briny Bastards expands on ideas introduced in the first game, expanding both tactical options AND downtime actions to flesh out who your mutagenic operative is, what their relationship is to their team and what they’re really fighting for when their checks are cashed and the dust settles. We’ve also introduced a bunch of new mutators and classes, a toyetic submarine, and a new enemy faction in the form of an ocean that hates your player characters personally.
Cyberrats gameplay is designed to contrast risky, dangerous missions with the personal stakes of the characters. You’ll watch your helpless intern slowly build out a 90s-action-figure’s worth of extra weaponry, powers and relationships with other players and npcs that can synergize for more and more impressive combat strategies. The numbers are stacked in the enemies favor, and you’re encouraged to find unique ways to break the game balance to survive!
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