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Bonus - The Elder Scrolls & Philosophy: Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim · Mythic Mind Games

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  Speaker 1: Hello there. I'm doctor Andrew Snyder. I'm a professor of
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  Speaker 1: philosophy and theology and I've also taught it a number
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  Speaker 1: of independent studies in the realm of literature and philosophy, theology,
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  Speaker 1: that sort of thing, And coming up this October of
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, I'll be leading a course on the
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  Speaker 1: Elder Scrolls and philosophy. And so what you're about to
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  Speaker 1: watch or listen to if you're going through the podcast
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  Speaker 1: is the introductory video for that course, and I'm also
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  Speaker 1: going to provide one more publicly available video from the
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  Speaker 1: course that's going to deal with the creation mythos of
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  Speaker 1: the Elder Scrolls. You'll be able to find that on
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  Speaker 1: YouTube as well as through the Mythic Mind Games podcast.
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  Speaker 1: But for everything else, for the six week study that
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  Speaker 1: I'll be talking about in this video you're about to watch,
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  Speaker 1: you can head over to patreon dot com slash Mythic
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  Speaker 1: mind and you can either purchase the individual course or
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  Speaker 1: what I recommend, become a Tier three patron and that
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  Speaker 1: I'll give you access to the course link that'll bring
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  Speaker 1: you into the classroom. And also have some other upcoming courses,
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  Speaker 1: including the Summer Alion near the beginning of twenty twenty six,
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  Speaker 1: and then in the spring we're gonna do the psychology
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  Speaker 1: of Soaring Karcy card. If those interest you, then I
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  Speaker 1: recommend that you go ahead and get an annual Tier
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  Speaker 1: three patronage and that's going to give you access to
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  Speaker 1: all this courses. But if you don't want to do
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  Speaker 1: with that right now, then just become a Tier three
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  Speaker 1: monthly patron or purchase the Elder Scrolls course outright to
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  Speaker 1: get access to that particular course. All right, So now
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  Speaker 1: let's go aha and take a look at the introduction to
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  Speaker 1: the Elder Scrolls and Philosophy. Hope you enjoy it. Hello there,
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Elder Scrolls and Philosophy. I'm doctor Andrew Snyder,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm really excited to be leading you on this
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  Speaker 1: study over the next six weeks. Today, i'd like to
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  Speaker 1: talk to you a little bit about this cord, so
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  Speaker 1: what it is and why it is and how it's
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  Speaker 1: going to operate. So first of all, I'm obviously you
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  Speaker 1: know from the title, you know if you sign up
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  Speaker 1: from this course is be going to be taking a
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  Speaker 1: look at the Elder Scrolls, specifically Marowin Oblivion and Skyrim
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  Speaker 1: and really digging into the Lord, digging into the philosophy
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  Speaker 1: as a way of not just you know, nerding out
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  Speaker 1: about this year He's although I mean, surely there's some
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  Speaker 1: of that involved here, but but also so that we're
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  Speaker 1: we're better equipped to recognize the wisdom that's there as
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  Speaker 1: well as perhaps the folly, we're able to recognize the
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  Speaker 1: potential literary kind of value that this franchise provides. And
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  Speaker 1: not just this franchise, but but really video games more broadly.
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  Speaker 1: You see, if you've been paying attention to some of
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  Speaker 1: my content for the last little while, especially over on
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  Speaker 1: the Games podcast and some related stuff that I've done,
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  Speaker 1: you've already heard some of this. But I think it's
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  Speaker 1: worth reiterating that I played a lot of video games
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  Speaker 1: in my youth, and including things like Marwin, Oblivion and Skyrim.
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  Speaker 1: But then as I got a little bit older, it
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  Speaker 1: got into adulthood, got married, had kids, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: got my PhD, got to a point where I was
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  Speaker 1: working a lot. I mean, I really, for the most part,
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  Speaker 1: stopped playing video games for about a decade or so.
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  Speaker 1: I mean I would dabble here and there, mostly in
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  Speaker 1: things that I've had since my youth, but for the
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  Speaker 1: most part I really stopped, partly just out of practical
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  Speaker 1: restraints that I just wasn't at a point in time
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  Speaker 1: when it was feasible to play games, or at least
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  Speaker 1: when I don't think it was wise for me, at
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  Speaker 1: least at that time in my life. But as I
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  Speaker 1: started to really discover a new the value of literature
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  Speaker 1: and of storytelling and its various forms, I started to
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  Speaker 1: revisit some of this prejudice toward the medium of video
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  Speaker 1: games that I had developed over time, probably as an
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  Speaker 1: overreaction to my youth, because I mean, I wish I
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  Speaker 1: read more books as a kid. But looking back, I
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  Speaker 1: now really recognize that video games served something like a
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  Speaker 1: quasi literary role, forming in the storytelling in the world immersion,
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  Speaker 1: in the exercise of subcreation, the expansion of my imagination,
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  Speaker 1: the cultivation of my ambitions and andres like, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of that kind of literary value came to me by
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  Speaker 1: way of video games. In fact, I'm still convinced that
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  Speaker 1: with the right kind of engagement with the right kind
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  Speaker 1: of games in the right context, Like I mean, obviously,
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  Speaker 1: just about anything can become excessive, but when they're engaged
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  Speaker 1: in the right way, in a way in accordance with
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  Speaker 1: prudence and with wisdom, in a way that doesn't allow
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  Speaker 1: the lesser to overtake the greater. I think there can
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  Speaker 1: be a place of real value that the medium of
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  Speaker 1: video games can occupy, even into adulthood. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: that they are all simply escape, but there is some
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  Speaker 1: escape and recovery that that can be provided here. And
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  Speaker 1: I think that a franchise like Elder Scrolls is perhaps
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  Speaker 1: uniquely situated for this kind of analysis for a number
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  Speaker 1: of reasons. For one hand, it's very much high fantasy
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  Speaker 1: has been developed by people over a long period of time,
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  Speaker 1: people who are obviously aware of at least to some degree,
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  Speaker 1: like real world mythology, lore, legends, stories, philosophy, religion, and
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  Speaker 1: all that get gets built out into this world that
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  Speaker 1: is far more massive, is far more intricate than we
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  Speaker 1: can cover in this six week period. I mean, you
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  Speaker 1: could study the philosophy and the lore of the Elder
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  Speaker 1: Scrolls for I mean, I don't know how long, but
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  Speaker 1: much longer than six weeks. But another thing that's really
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  Speaker 1: unique about the Elder Scrolls is that even in the games,
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  Speaker 1: there is a pretty strong literary tradition here. Now, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: obviously we're not reading Shakespeare, we're not reading Polkien, we're
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  Speaker 1: not reading Beowolf, you know, and so I'm not trying
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  Speaker 1: to make the argument it's gonna be to that caliber.
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  Speaker 1: Like in the game, I mean, you have full stories
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  Speaker 1: and history you can find like you could easily spend
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  Speaker 1: a day going into an in game library, pulling books
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  Speaker 1: off the bookshelf and just reading through them. Now, typically
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  Speaker 1: if you're playing the game, I mean, you're not going
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  Speaker 1: to do that. Although one thing that picked up for
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  Speaker 1: the study that I would actually recommend to you, as
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  Speaker 1: nerdy as it is, as I don't know, when I
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  Speaker 1: was working on my PhD dissertation, I begin the habit
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  Speaker 1: of if I'm going to study something, if I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to invest my time in understanding something and presenting something, like,
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  Speaker 1: I want to read everything that I can about it.
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  Speaker 1: And so I've picked up this three volume set called
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  Speaker 1: the Skyrim Library. And so this is just one volume,
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  Speaker 1: this is the Histories. And what this set is, this
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  Speaker 1: three volume set, is it has every in game book
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  Speaker 1: that is in Skyrim, and it gives it to you
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  Speaker 1: like in texts, and you know, it's got some high
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  Speaker 1: quality paper. It's got some some good images and concept
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  Speaker 1: arts all throughout, and if you get the bundle on Amazon,
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  Speaker 1: it's actually not super expensive. And it's actually really interesting
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  Speaker 1: because you know, as I said, you're not if you're
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  Speaker 1: playing the game, you're probably not gonna sit there and
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  Speaker 1: read books. You know, in game, but like the world
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  Speaker 1: amount of world building that goes into this is actually
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  Speaker 1: it's pretty incredible that they wrote these entire stories, entire histories,
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  Speaker 1: entire myths and legends in the game, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: as you read through this the text like it's it's
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  Speaker 1: actually really interesting, and it demonstrates a love for world building,
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  Speaker 1: a love for myth, a love for lore, an interest
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  Speaker 1: in philosophy, and so you know, it's it makes for
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  Speaker 1: actually really interesting read Again, I'm not gonna say it's
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  Speaker 1: like sitting down and reading Tolkien. It's not. It's not
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  Speaker 1: that caliber. But at the same time, it is really
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  Speaker 1: interesting and it does help to build out a better
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  Speaker 1: understanding what's happening in these games. And so you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you're someone who really just likes to go all in,
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  Speaker 1: this is probably gonna be the best literature that you
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  Speaker 1: can read that is relevant to this course. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if you're gonna be able to read,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the entirety of there's three volumes in six weeks.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, if you pick up and you know,
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  Speaker 1: read some here and there, I think that would be
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  Speaker 1: of some benefit to you. Also, I read the Elder
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  Speaker 1: Scroll's Anthology, which is a compilation of essays. I was
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  Speaker 1: intrigued by the title, but to be honest, it's not
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  Speaker 1: very good. So you can do that if you want to.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if that one's gonna be worth your time.
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  Speaker 1: It's well setting aside some of the theological events, it's largely
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  Speaker 1: people who just want to talk about theology and find
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  Speaker 1: some very superficial way to tie it to the Elder Scrolls.
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  Speaker 1: So you can read that if you want to. Doesn't
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  Speaker 1: have my endorsement. I think that the in game books
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  Speaker 1: are probably going to be the best value to you
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  Speaker 1: as you really just they provide insights into the lore
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  Speaker 1: and whatnot, which then you know, you can make your
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  Speaker 1: own extrapolations from you provide your own analysis, and obviously
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  Speaker 1: we'll be doing a lot of that in this course.
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  Speaker 1: But those are just some of the reasons why I
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  Speaker 1: think that the Elder Scrolls really provides a strong subject
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  Speaker 1: matter in the realm of video games and philosophy. Now,
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about how this course is going to run. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as far as the asynchronous videos go, the videos that
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  Speaker 1: you get to just watch whenever you want to, I'm
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  Speaker 1: providing two of them before the course starts, this course introduction,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll provide one video that deals with the Elder
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  Speaker 1: Scrolls there the creation myth, because that applies universally to
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  Speaker 1: this entire study. Will be providing that really before the
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  Speaker 1: class even starts as part of this introductory unit. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to make this whole introductory unit available publicly
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  Speaker 1: and freely. But then once the course actually starts, you'll
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  Speaker 1: get two asynchronous videos per week. One of them is
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  Speaker 1: going to be just a basic story recap, you know.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, maybe it's been a long time since you've
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  Speaker 1: played Morowin, maybe you never played it. So the first
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  Speaker 1: video will just be a basic story recap, not a
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  Speaker 1: lot of analysis going on there. The second video will
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  Speaker 1: be more focused on analysis. And so I'll take some
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  Speaker 1: aspect of philosophy, some aspect of lore, and provide some
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  Speaker 1: reflections on base off that some kind of philosophical analysis
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  Speaker 1: connecting the in game story to real world ideas. And
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  Speaker 1: so the first week we'll be focusing on the main story.
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  Speaker 1: The second week we'll be focused on expansions and DLC
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  Speaker 1: and so similar kind of thing. And so you know,
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  Speaker 1: for the week two, we'll be talking about things like
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  Speaker 1: blood Moon and Tribunal and same thing. I'll do a
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  Speaker 1: basic story recap and then provide some kind of analysis,
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  Speaker 1: and so that's how the asynchronous videos will go. Each
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  Speaker 1: week we'll have two videos. One's basic story recap, one
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  Speaker 1: is some kind of fel asophical analysis. And then also
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  Speaker 1: each week on Thursdays at nine o'clock pm Eastern time,
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  Speaker 1: we'll be meeting via Zoom to discuss the game, discuss
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  Speaker 1: the material, kind of really just wherever you want to
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  Speaker 1: go with that, right, The asynchronous videos are largely where
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  Speaker 1: I feel inclined to go, but the Zoom meetings are
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  Speaker 1: really going to be open ended to wherever we want
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  Speaker 1: to go, right, And so whatever kinds of things interest you,
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  Speaker 1: that'll help to guide where that conversation leads us. We
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  Speaker 1: can talk about things like, you know, your gameplay experience,
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  Speaker 1: as well as broader philosophical and mythological themes again, just
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  Speaker 1: wherever conversation actually goes. I'm very much open to that,
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  Speaker 1: and although I'll have some things in my head, you know,
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  Speaker 1: if they're needed. So that's the basical flow of the course.
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  Speaker 1: And we're also gonna have ongoing discord conversation. And so
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  Speaker 1: if you're not involved in that, well, if you're a patron,
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  Speaker 1: then you should already have full access to our discord server.
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  Speaker 1: You should be able to find the Elder Scrolls and
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  Speaker 1: Philosophy Course channel, and so we can have ongoing communication
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  Speaker 1: with that. You know, maybe I need to communicate something
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  Speaker 1: regarding like is any change in the schedule or just
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  Speaker 1: our ongoing thoughts, ongoing questions, ongoing conversation. A lot of
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  Speaker 1: times there's this course conversations are really helpful. And if
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  Speaker 1: you're not a patron, then you can either become one
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  Speaker 1: that'll give you full access to the discord as well
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  Speaker 1: as early in ad free access to all the Mythic
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  Speaker 1: Mind podcasts, open invitations to the podcast, that sort of thing,
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  Speaker 1: So you can go ahead and become a patron if
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: you're not already. Alternatively, if you are enrolled in the course,
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  Speaker 1: then you can find that discord link in the introductory module.
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  Speaker 1: They'll take you over to the Mythic Mind General Chat
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  Speaker 1: and just let me know when you get there that
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  Speaker 1: you're in this course and i'll give you that specific
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  Speaker 1: course permission. All right, Well, that is it for now.
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  Speaker 1: I really look forward to getting to the study with you.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be enriching and I think
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be fun. And so that's it for now.
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  Speaker 1: Let me if any questions along the way. Until next time,
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  Speaker 1: God speed,