“Bookshelf Revelations: A Peek into Professor Martin Pichlmair’s Literary World at ITU Copenhagen Games”

Greetings to you, dear reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday conversation with an array of fascinating industry individuals about literature! It is widely acknowledged that the longest novel ever penned is Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past – a cowardly choice, considering it comprises 13 distinct volumes. However, don’t let Proust’s appalling falsehoods tarnish your enjoyment of literature. He did possess an excellent moustache – a significantly more crucial literary attribute than actually penning any prose, in my opinion.

This week, we’re welcoming ITU Copenhagen Games Professor and Broken Rules co-founder, Martin Pichlmair! Cheers, Martin! Would you mind if we took a look at your bookshelf?

What are you currently reading?

At the moment, I am engrossed in the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, having surpassed 1800 pages. This trilogy unfolds as one continuous, exhilarating journey through the 17th century. Within just a few pages, the narrative shifts from thrilling pirate escapades to contemplations on the emergence of science. Following that, there’s even slapstick comedy intertwined. Along with thorough social critique, it’s a novel that allows you to immerse yourself, which is far superior to the alternative of discovering yourself within it, especially since nearly every character embodies a different hue of nightmare.

What did you last read?

The most fascinating book I’ve recently concluded is the Dictionary Of The Khazars by Milorad Pavić, a truly unique experience: a dictionary that narrates a story. You explore the same events from three viewpoints by consulting keywords across three separate dictionaries, stitching together the occurrences based on what three distinct unreliable narrators have recorded about an incident. Moreover, there is an additional narrative woven throughout that revolves around the dictionary itself and its history. Everything is interconnected. If Wikipedia were a game, this book would resemble it.

What are you eyeing up next?

I am eagerly anticipating The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut, a fictional biography of John von Neumann. Labatut discusses science and its implications on the world. However, he allows himself the freedom to extend beyond the typical confines of a biography. I believe he strives to craft historical narratives that feel more genuine than mere factual reality, since the consequences of past occurrences resonate within the text. The explanation is complex, but I can wholeheartedly recommend his previous work, When We Cease To Understand The World.

What quote or scene from a book sticks with you the most?

It’s not a specific scene, but one thing I cherish is when a book alludes to an entire world that lies just out of view. The inspiration for the title-giving Excession (Iain M. Banks). The ecosystem lurking in the mines of Moria, which is easily disturbed by simply tossing a rock down a chasm (J.R.R. Tolkien). The cities that beckon beyond the borders of medieval maps, captivating the characters in Umberto Eco’s Baudolino. Those locations resonate with me because I find myself drawn to populating them with fantastical creatures akin to “here be dragons.” Additionally, the line that stays with me is “it was the day my grandmother exploded” (Crow Road, Iain Banks) – what a striking opener!

What book do you find yourself urging friends to read?

I continuously recommend Katie Mack’s The End of Everything, a non-fiction gem that explores every possible way our universe could (and one day will) conclude. This work expertly manages to perform the magical feat of, on one hand, directly stating that all existence may vanish in an instant, while simultaneously instilling a sense of hope as it refocuses your mind from mundane worries to issues so vast that acceptance is the only option. Those small matters, of course, are what render Negative Space (BR Yeager) such a treasure. I want to take this chance to reiterate what was noted here last week: it stands as the finest example of social-realism horror I’ve ever encountered, and I’m proclaiming it from every ramshackle rooftop I can locate.

What book would you like to see someone adapt to a game?

It’s a children’s tale, or perhaps proto-YA, but ever since I encountered it at around 12 years of age, I’ve believed The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren would be an ideal candidate for a game adaptation. It is the only story I know that features permadeath (which intriguingly is a less definitive form of death) as an idea. And that was back in 1974. Only a few titles include a metagame – this is one of those.

I’ve truly given up attempting to tally the number of books my guests mention in an effort to see how close they come to naming every book ever written. I’ve honed an ability to detect the failure in fulfilling this column’s very clandestine mission, requiring only a fleeting glance. Nevertheless, I persist. The most courageous individual in game media, some say. A book for now!