Post by Zophobas Morio in Falling Sand jam comments

Premium Crayon and Kazoo Jam » Entries » Falling Sand

Viewing post in Falling Sand jam comments

What an interesting and unique entry!

- The minimalistic use of the jam assets worked well to separate the two stories (and were also well-chosen and well-used for atmosphere/immersion)!

- Very effective and insightful writing with great emotional impact.

- I really liked the realistic story and I also really liked the fairytale (though there are a couple of things I didn't fully understand about the latter)! I was happy with my initial playthrough, but also enjoyed replaying to see other variations.

But I admit that I couldn't figure out how the two stories might relate to each other, or what realization the protagonist might have had at the end! I'll be curious to hear how other readers interpreted the story, and maybe eventually read anything the author may want to share (but no pressure of course)!

Like Reply

Games from the Lightside17 days ago(+3)

I'll take your curiosity about other's interpretations as an excuse to give my personal literary analysis on this story (though, quick warning, I touch on some pretty heavy topics here about child abuse, ableism, and suicide).

This story is, in my interpretation, ultimately one about neurodivergency in youth and how some parents of neurodivergent folks tend to react. While, of course, the neurodivergency the main character has is never specified, it doesn't really matter that much which one. Many, many neurodivergent kids can be seen to, in the parent's perspective, "lash out". This lashing out could be a symptom of underlying mental illness, or perhaps an autistic meltdown or sensory-related overstimulation. Again, that's never clarified, but it's clear that's the case, considering that the story notes how frequently this has happened, and how the mother has tried to "correct" their child through more and more desperate and severe means.

This is even more clear through the "monster" thematics. Neurodivergency is often seen as the "other" in a terrible sense, and some parents of neurodiverent children don't know how to handle the fact that their kids have this sort of disability. As already mentioned, the mother has attempted to "correct" her child through more and more severe, and often abusive, means. The child and the princess, as many neurodivergent kids do, identifies that their parents do these things such as locking them away in an attempt to hide their neurodivergency -- either through telling others that their child is normal and perhaps even better than other people, or by trying to correct their behavior though punishment. But the parents do this without realizing that they are, ultimately, abusing and hurting their children. It's a sort of violence done out of love, or a misunderstanding of how their children should be, taking drastic and harmful measures towards them instead of giving them accommodations and the help they may need.

The ending is intentionally vague, I think, but either way, it connects to this sense of escape. Neurodivergent kids who are treated like this have an intense and overwhelming urge to escape. It could be running away, committing suicide, attempting to get themselves taken away by CPS, etc., but either way, that is what the ending connects to for me.

Sorry this is like nightmarishly long! I just wanted to infodump how I took this story, especially as someone who is neurodivergent and read this with that sort of POV.

Like Reply

Zophobas Morio17 days ago (2 edits) (+3)

No, this is great and exactly what I was hoping to see!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Responding with a few (possibly longer!) thoughts of my own:

The neurodivergent angle is super interesting, and not one I had considered could be important even though I'm also part of that group myself! I feel like your explanation makes a lot of sense and is very plausible, though personally I find the "non-neurodivergent" angle equally plausible (explanation below).
But I'll revisit the story when I have a chance with that interpretation in mind, I wonder if I'll pick up on something new this time!

I also hadn't considered some of those options for the ending, they seem plausible too! I did get the impression that the end was left intentionally vague, and I thought it was very well-done overall. It felt fairly optimistic to me, especially with the little afterword that follows!

I will say that I've tried to visit every page in the story over a few playthroughs, but it's possible I missed an option somewhere or glossed over an important detail in the text, which could affect my interpretations!

That being said, it seemed to me like the kid may not even have done anything intense or out of the ordinary to trigger the "punishments".
Like you, I definitely saw the mother as abusive, and I also feel like she's probably not fully aware of the damage she's doing. But the impression I got was that she's not purely misguided—I think she has some deeper issues of her own (e.g. trouble controlling her emotions or communicating in a healthy way).

These things really stood out to me:
- Her face suddenly shuttering during what seemed like an innocent moment to the kid
- Seemingly not explaining at all what the transgression was
- Possibly getting carried away by her anger (grabbing the arm very hard, slamming down the hourglass)
- Punishing the kid for needing a bathroom break

It is possible that the kid is misremembering the events and there actually was something like a meltdown or big "misbehaviour" followed by an explanation, though! That just wasn't my initial reading. The mom came across to me as being quick to anger and emotionally closed-off, and the kid's self-doubt and anxiety felt like it was strongly fueled by that.

Thinking about it some more, I do think it could easily be both things at once—the kid "misbehaving" in ways that make the mother's personal issues even worse! One thing I like about focusing more specifically on the mother's behaviour is the message that if a parent has certain kinds of unhealed issues, it may not even matter how "well-behaved" a kid is, because even completely normal and innocent things can set off an explosion. But I do also love the focus on what the kid can do or has control over in that situation, and the whole "freedom" angle you discuss (plus thinking about the possible misunderstandings from both of their brains working so differently)!

Sorry that was a little disorganized, hopefully it still made sense... you gave me a lot of interesting points to think about!

Like Reply

Games from the Lightside17 days ago (3 edits) (+3)

No problem at all, I'm a senior in English so I'm a massive dweeb for these kinds of conversations! (Also don't worry this all still made sense to me!)

I completely missed the afterword I can't lie (I was playing all of the games one after the other on call with a friend so I didn't read the credits too well, that's my bad!). That definitely rules out the ending being something like suicide, but I think running away or contacting someone who can help (in a more positive light than I was originally thinking of) is still pretty plausible!

As for the kid not doing anything intense to potentially get in trouble, I'm looking at this beginning again and I read "you don't know what triggered it" as the "it" being the meltdown. I say meltdown, because as I'm rereading it, this is ringing autism bells in my head due to the passages following it: that the mother doesn't like it when the kid shuts down, goes quiet, doesn't look at her face, doesn't seem to listen, all of this being highlighted in red text... those are like, textbook autism symptoms (and potentially ADHD as well but I am not as well informed in that realm since that's not my personal diagnosis). Also, what may seem as normal for someone who's autistic or neurodivergent in general may seem strange, out of the ordinary, or even offensive to someone neurotypical*, so ~~the kid is a tiny bit unreliable in this sense without the context of what actually went on. If it wasn't a meltdown (which it isn't specified and~~ I agree with you that it's just as plausible that your reading of that sentence is correct and the poor kid didn't actually do anything that intense), I feel like it may have been something a little too blunt or rude, "talking back" when the kid was just trying to be honest, which would explain why the kid doesn't seem to understand in your reading.

EDIT: Wait I just read a bit further and the kid does mentions that they didn't know what happened. Disregard that about the meltdown!

As for the mother, I 100% agree that she's not well adjusted and that it could be both things at once. After all, well-adjusted parents know better than to be abusive. Quick-to-anger parents can do this sort of thing to any kid, and the mental effects of anxiety and self-doubt can happen to any kid being abused as well, so the non-neurodivergency reading is very understandable! And yeah the bathroom break thing, if I may break from my mostly semi-respectful explaining here, is super fucked up and I hope she explodes for that.

But yeah, no problem at all! Thanks for replying, I didn't expect such a well thought-out response and I'm so glad I got one because I love yapping about these things :)

Like Reply

G. Deyke14 days ago(+2)

Hello yes I have finally actually looked at these comments and seem to have sparked an amazing level of discussion, thank you both so much for reading so closely and putting so much thought into this!

I don't want to place my own interpretations over those of readers - it should speak for itself, and anything you get out of it is valid. That said, here's what was going through my mind as I was writing:

- Mother definitely abusive, more definitely so than the king, but still rooted in a misguided sense of "fixing" the kid

- Kid most probably autistic, but: leaving open the possibility of shutting down / avoiding eye contact / &c. purely as a trauma response to abuse and/or because of some other neurodivergence

- Also leaving room for a queer interpretation

- Ending intentionally vague, but I was definitely going for a hopeful vibe (I can see where the suicide thought came from, and tried to minimise it without completely ruling it out) and for that hopefulness being related to the mirror, ie, to recognising the autism / mystery other neurodivergence / queerness / whatever other trait the mother is fixating on fixing; thus, to realising the [trait] is a part of themselves, not inherently monstrous or bad. So, the ending is vague and open to interpretation, but could be along the lines of running away, finding [trait]-specific supports, transitioning, calling support services for help, etc.

Like Reply

G. Deyke14 days ago(+1)

https://itch.io/post/16032570

Like Reply