for a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to kissenger, i'd highly recommend behind the bastards' episodes on him- they do a great job at covering the wide arc of his career for the uninitiated
open.spotify.com/episode/4RLm...

The Good Die Young - Various Authors

a good primer on the global footprint of arguably the most deeply evil yet fitting symbol of america's foreign policy. lots of interesting stuff on kissenger's philosophy too. glad i had some cursory knowledge of him- it assumes you know a good bit going in

Perdido Street Station - China Mieville

what a chonker of a book in so many ways. the pedestrian-level worldbuilding and beautiful prose paints such a full picture of the setting. even if i had character issues in the back half, the ending knocked me flat- it'll be stuck in my head for a while

for a more comprehensive nonfiction book- I just started Verso Press' Gwanju Uprising; I haven't gotten far at all but it seems like this is a very well-respected source on gwanju for general readers

entangling* -_- please add post editing bluesky

also to anyone who played disco elysium and wanted to find similar books- this is the one

Human Acts - Han Kang

devoured this in just a couple sittings. easily my favorite read of the year. kang perfectly captures the lingering scars of the gwangju uprising, and how the wound of one person can splinter and web, both entangled and connecting those left in its wake

Maybe projection is less the word, and it's more finding parts of myself in another- which I'd argue is both less work and more fulfilling for the viewer than building a player identity from scratch. Even with a more defined personality, there's less room for friction.

For me it's ironically easier to project onto established characters since there's way more opportunities to empathize. There's no dissonance with, say, DE's Harry since every choice is something he would do. If I don't gel with a part of the character I just go "well yeah they're their own person."