Why Are We So Afraid to Walk? [Reblog]

Miguel Penabella is a writer and literary academic whose works have appeared in publications such as Haywire Magazine, Killscreen, First Person Scholar, among others. His website, Invalid Memory, mostly hosts excerpts and links to his work published elsewhere, with some exceptions, but it is nonetheless a useful hub through which to follow his work.

“Why Are We So Afraid to Walk?” is, so far, my favourite piece of Penabella’s, not only because it is tightly and beautifully written, but because it airs positions on “walking simulators” too rarely voiced, including several I’ve held myself since the style first found its footing in the medium and began to climb into a position of focus for many of us. As Penabella states, “a lack of common critical understanding is failing these games.”

Scroll past the article summary below and follow the link through to the full text over at Killscreen.

What—you don’t mind a bit of a walk, do you?