Night Vale impressions

[azurelunatic]

One of the people I follow on Tumblr listened to a bit (a few episodes) and found Night Vale seemed to her like a list of things that were weird, not an actual story.

I think that's not unreasonable as an impression to get.

I picture the narrative structure sort of like a large quilt made up of squares. Each square is a little vignette of weird. Mostly the squares are unique across the quilt. Some have a theme going.

Each episode is a separate quilt.

As time goes on, the squares that didn't seem connected to the others start to connect to themselves. If you were to line up pictures of that square across episodes, it too would start to animate.

Night Vale is not everyone's cup of tea and that's ok, but now I really want a Night Vale quilt.

Comments

[asciident]

I've never listened to Night Vale (it's not prominent in my corners of tumblr), but one of my friends riffs on it on his twitter & tumblr and calls his version Nat Vale (his name is Nat, of course). It amuses me.

I should probably give Night Vale a try. :)

[kimboo_york]

This is 100% my impression as well. I don't read much about it or the creators, so really I know nothing of fact, but my impression is that this is very, very VERY completely thought out world-building project that does have story arcs that all intersect at some point. It's kind of deconstructionist, really, and while that term/ideology is out of vogue I think this is possibly the acme of what it can do, when applied properly. Deconstructionist Night Vale Quilt...yesssss.

tl;dr - I am in AWE.

[momijizukamori]

...oh god I have all this fabric sitting around I don't need ideas.

[azurelunatic]

How much of it is purple and black?

It could also be potholders. Potholders could be good.

[azurelunatic]

I find it immensely enjoyable, although the narrator is occasionally prone to moments of embarrassing himself in public.

[azurelunatic]

I think it says something about the world-building that while there is a canonical gay couple, and smut with them is very nice, the thing that I want more of in fanfic is the world-building.

[momijizukamori]

A lot of it is black! Less of it is purple sadly, though I haven't gone through my mom's stashes yet.

Potholders could be A Thing though I'd have to see how some of the polyesters take heat.

[mmegaera]

Hmm. Interesting concept. Except that if you expect the squares to un-sew then re-sew themselves to different squares, you may run into some problems...

[ashenmote]

I'm into the twelfth episode now and I like it well and use it as my current thing to fall asleep to, but I really was in need for a concept for what it IS I'm listening to! Thank you.

[majoline]

In re a comment above me: Yes, the smut is nice but I also want worldbuilding!

Also, Night Vale is a huge project and if one listens long enough you can see them laying the foundations for a long series run. I think that what caught my ear first, is how snarky and apt and real-world critique-y a lot of the segments are, and the fact that it was builing this larger storyline second.

...Now I want a Night Vale quilt.

[azurelunatic]

I wonder how much time it would take to go through the episodes, classify each segment, and then come up with a square for each? I remember flyingthesky's amazing kink bingo quilt.

[azurelunatic]

I figure that's a sort of problem that can be addressed with good 3D software and/or video editing.

[azurelunatic]

You're welcome. I just had this sort of surreal vision as I was falling asleep.

[majoline]

I haven't the foggiest on ETA, especially because once you mapped out what bits went into each square, you'd still have the task of deciding what symbols would best represent the idea.

I bet an individual season quilt could be managable.

[azurelunatic]

oh oh oh oh oh I just had a horrible terrible amazing idea. I wonder if you can get huuuuge lenticular beads, and then piece together thin strips so it actually animates. omg that would be amaaaaaazing.

[majoline]

Oh, that would be perfect! *cough* I mean, no, what a terrible idea ;)

I think this quilt might actually be happening.

[azurelunatic]

Lucite rods, drilled at the ends.

[majoline]

And they come in all sorts of fun colors and patterns. (Could wood grain be considered a pattern? Ok, they come in pretty swirly colors.)

[mmegaera]

Ah. I thought you were talking about a real quilt. You know, with fabric and everything [g].

[azurelunatic]

Sort of both -- design in computer, quilt in fabric, then photograph and animate. Bonus points for lenticular fabric animation.

[ofearthandstars]

I want a quilt now, too. Damnit.

[azurelunatic]

Maybe I should actually start laying out squares in an art program...