Career Ladder story-template

Kim Kardashian Hollywood could be the prototype for a whole class of more-or-less realistic simulation games in which the player tries to reach a goal over an extended period, usually a lifetime.

Fame, prizes, money, power... all these quests share similar frameworks in which fellow humans can be manipulated to move 'upwards'.

We can see the framework in biographies, and represent individual variations using standard properties (cf WikiData)

earliest awareness of goal: saw PERSON via MEDIA

teachers

contests
rivals

social ladder
levels

gatekeepers to charm

skills to master

dues/bribes to pay

signs of advancement/decline

role-models
rivals
teachers
utensils
books
purchases

acceptance/rejection by communities

Faces and facial expressions

i don't think ulysses spends much effort describing faces.

we'll have to start with generic male and female faces and tweak just the features joyce describes.

standard emotional expressions are also probably available.

where we have a photograph of the original person we can autofill details.

where joyce renamed characters, the names will suggest faces to most readers, and illustrators will be rewarded for secondguessing these.


(here's a very basic mathematical face-generator:

[more]

police sketch-artist software must have a serious mathematical representation scheme

Mulligan?

Sirens-voices-timbres

If you can synthesize speech via piano, why not via all the instruments of Sirens?



Joyce reading ALP as a piano:

Using emoji to summarise Ulysses

like using basic english
("Ogden also made a translation of the last four pages of ‘Anna Livia Plurabelle’ into Basic English with Joyce’s assistance. It was published in the journal Psyche in October 1931." cite)



episode one

episode five lotuseaters

episode 12 cyclops

misc1 misc2

Gossip

What 'laws of gossip' does Ulysses embody? (it's complicated)

Can we extract a spreadsheet of variables describing who'll gossip how, to whom, about whom?

Malicious vs sympathetic gossip: Purefoy's pregnancy, Dignam's death and family

Does Joyce ever show a character NOT gossiping when they have a chance to? (exercising discretion) ...Yes, Martin Cunningham has kept Bloom's father's suicide quiet, Stephen almost never gossips... Bloom too?

We glimpse others discussing Bloom's ethnicity, his work history, his marriage, his generosity, the lottery scam, his connection to the freemasons. And especially well-documented is the spread of the false rumor about Throwaway.


Similarly we see Breen's UP postcard making the rounds.


We hear Simon badmouthing Mulligan and others.

Mulligan and Lenehan seem especially unguarded.


Mulligan throws gossip about Stephen back in his face


Stephen 'gossips' about Shakespeare.

The newsmen gossip about Gallaher and Dawson.


Molly's thoughts are full of gossip but we never see her talking to anyone but Poldy. (did she gossip to boylan about poldy???)


Conmee is very discreet-- the Church defines who can gossip how.


People have varied absolute inclinations to pass on gossip. Some tell everything they know at every opportunity.  Some exaggerate what they hear.


Maybe a grid of who's heard which gossip about Bloom?

A model of how Throwaway changes as it spreads



each person needs a grid of who-cares-about-who, and how-well-does-each-know-each, so that gossip can be passed mainly to those who care but don't already know

if you don't already know someone you need to sound them out


useful gossip: un/trustworthiness

Sexual gossip

sexual gossip is one of the primary drivers of finnegans wake's lifecycle: HCE exposed himself to or spied on some nursemaids

imagine color-coding the various sorts of sexual trespass that gossip addresses (exhibitionism, voyeurism, masturbation, impotence, promiscuity, cuckoldry, incest, pedophilia...)

and then tagging occasions in ulysses where anyone commits or gossips about each variant (truthfully, exaggeratedly, or wholecloth fabrication)

Kim Kardashian Hollywood

the goal of KK's highly successful game is to claw your way onto the hollywood A-list by dating famous people, doing scandalous photo shoots, buying the right clothes and makeup, getting the right cosmetic surgery, etc.


so maybe let the young writers of dublin try to climb the social ladder, getting poems and plays published and performed, getting invited to Moore's, meeting Lady Gregory, cultivating a persona, offending others, exploiting peasant culture, renting a tower, going vegetarian, dating Maud Gonne...



read more: [5-important-lessons] [atlantic]



one of the cities KKH supports is dublin:

(Sullivan's is a real Irish microbrewery so this is probably a paid placement but it's not Dublin-based; Pop Clam is imaginary. no grafton street???)



gameplay: