continuing my cloistered era/monastic phase/year of the monk/whatever with matrix, a novel that follows the life of a 12th-century mystic. i loved the interplay of abbey politics and the dreamlike location, creating that magic realism i always enjoy. the vivid prose is so insanely up my alley—the few books i've read that omit quotation marks have all impressed me. and it's not a particularly funny book, but this one line really stuck out and made me smile so i'll repeat it here: "Marie has to rescue the severed head from the novices, who are taking turns playing Judith with it."

i've been listening to the discography of dim, which can be described as medieval ambient/dungeon synth. really good!

the watermelon woman is a 1996 pseudo-documentary that radiates its time and place with an incredible amount of sincerity. it's so easy to fall in love with cheryl and her quest to track down the titular woman, all the while juggling her video rental job and new relationship.

i enjoyed the presentation and layout of interactive fiction piece undone—it really lends itself to the journal entry-style, stream of consciousness writing that makes up the bulk of the work.