SIDE QUESTS: Fonts and Typefaces!

Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together. The name kind of says it all. Collectively, we share a love of science fiction, fantasy, and horror — and the tendrils that both braid those together and simultaneously allow them to branch out in so many different directions. But while Nerds of a Feather is a genre blog, as individuals we're nerds about way more than just science fiction and fantasy. SIDE QUESTS is a new essay series where we explore some of the other stuff we geek out about. A nerd cannot live on but sci-fi and fantasy alone...though it's certainly fun to try.

What Are We Talking About?

Today, friends, we're talking typefaces and fonts. I know there's a difference between the two words, but I don't want to be pedantic, I just want to share the joy of making letters in slightly different ways. Who knew there could be so many!? For today's purposes, I'll be using "font" because it's the more prevalent term in the parlance of the times.

The Basics

At what is probably the most fundamental level, you have two varieties of fonts: Serif and Sans Serif. A "serif" is the little embellishment we find at the terminus of a line, like the little flare at the bottom of a "t." What you're reading now is a serif font. In general, serif typefaces are thought to be more readable, so the vast majority of books and magazines will use a serif font for their body text. A couple examples probably everybody's familiar with are Times New Roman and Garamond. Serif fonts aren't afraid to linger a little, to take just that tiniest little moment to put a little flourish on the otherwise rote exercise of, say, writing an "R."

Sans serif fonts, or gothic fonts, don't have time for any of that ornamental nonsense. They're all about precision and control. They're clean and efficient, and their eyes are on the horizon — not for the sunset (save that for the serifs), but for the future. The archetypal gothic font is Helvetica. Starting in the late 1950s, Helvetica became the go-to font for logo designers because its clean, spare lines seemed to capture the essence of living in the jet age. Apple computer licensed Helvetica and it is the default font on Apple devices. Microsoft didn't want to license it, so PC users got Arial, or "Crappy Helvetica." It just doesn't have the same grace and balance of Helvetica.

The Rabbit Hole

A capital "F" is always a (more or less) vertical line and two (more or less) horizontal lines (more or less) intersecting it. On my computer, I have 956 typefaces. They all make that capital "F" in a different way. Some are almost identical to others, some are wildly different. The limitless variety of ways that designers have found to make letters while keeping them recognizably letters is bewildering and, for me anyway, a testament to our endless creativity, and our ability to create beauty and express our personalities even when working within narrowly defined limits.

I fell in love with fonts at the same time that I stumbled into design, which was in my late teens while playing in a metal band. There were cassettes to be made, and inserts to design, and eventually, a CD to make and design. I didn't do a great job. BUT! The world of metal is a tremendously valuable case study. Metal — like sci-fi and fantasy and horror — is littered with sub-genres. So, so, so many. So, take a look at three typography examples. These are all metal bands, and, from top to bottom, they get more extreme. You can see that in the logos. Black metal has gotten bonkers about the ornate, illegible logos, and that's a fun tangent to explore on its own. But the fact that simply a typeface can act as a logo — not just for bands, but for products and services, giant corporations and the little restaurant on the corner — points to the thing that I think I find most meaningful and intriguing about fonts:

Fonts are storytelling.

The choice of font can convey elegance or earthiness, optimism or pessimism, momentum or rigidity. A million different things. Fonts can conjure images of the past or capitalize on the promise of the future. They can help us tell our stories better, and they can allow others telling their stories to manipulate us (no negative connotation implied...but, you know, be wary). So in my humble, geeky opinion, we would all do well to have at least some understanding on how something as "simple" as a font can have an impact on our emotional reactions to something that we are presented with out in the world, in a store, on TV, or on the web.

It's also worth thinking about how the fonts you use say something about you. It's not an accident that I described serif and sans serif fonts in terms of personalities above. If you choose to employ Copperplate Gothic Bold, for instance, people might assume that you never made it out of the 90s. Fair warning. If you use Comic Sans, you are announcing to people that you don't have great taste, and that you also don't know what comic lettering actually looks like. And Impact is now forever "the meme font." Unless you're making a meme, or a fake meme, or a meta meme, use it at your peril.

We Are Not Alone

There are so many great resources about fonts and typography. Here are some that I enjoy, and you might, too:

• Butterick's Practical Typography. An online primer about typography. It's clear, concise, helpful, and lovingly done.
• Typeset in the Future. A look at how sci-fi films employ typography in world-building and set design. With the occasional Homestar Runner reference thrown in. So, win-win-win.
• Blambot. Comic book fonts. So many of them. You can lose a day on this site, easy.
• Fonts in Use. A site that breaks down what fonts were used in actual design examples. Want to know what font they used on the Speak and Spell or the labels on your dad's old stereo receiver? This is your stop.
• My Fonts. Get your fonts here. Pay the designers. They earned it.
• Website Planet. You should pay the designers, but if you simply can't (I've been there), here are some free fonts approved for commercial use.
  

Posted by Vance K — cult film reviewer and co-editor of nerds of a feather, flock together since 2012, sometime designer, musician, Emmy-winning producer, and all-around rabbit hole dweller.

6 Ways to Understand and Cope with Dystopia, Part I: Music

People have different reactions to political trauma: some get depressed; others get angry; and others try to pick up the pieces and move on. In my case, it's a combination of all of the above, and making sense of that can be challenging.

Now, as you are all surely aware, this blog is dedicated to nerdery not politics; when we do get political, it's typically in the context of fandom politics, or the politics of specific works of fiction--both of which can be divisive and heated enough. Even still, like many people (including many whose preferences are strikingly different from my own), I see a deep and foreboding storm brewing--not just in the US, but globally. And to make sense of that, I turn to my favorite media: music, books and film. 

Thus, without further ado, I present you six pieces of music that have helped me make sense of our world's darker tones (with a Spotify megamix at the end). 

1. Makeup and Vanity Set. Wilderness [Telefuture, 2015]

My favorite album of 2015, Wilderness is a sprawling double album of remarkable cohesion, which manages to sound both '80s retro yet also extremely current. As Black Book describes, this album feels as if it was "specifically written for warm weather night drives towards the end of the world." There are foreboding truths encoded in Wilderness, yet also a glimmer of hope and humanity amid the crushing darkness. Buy. Stream.

2. Cybotron. Enter [Fantasy, 1983]

Though known primarily as the world's first techno record, Enter is also a powerful and frequently surprising meditation on automation, corporatization and postindustrial decline of the American Dream. Produced at the same moment in time, this album has a startling affinity with William Gibson's cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer. And like that work, Enter simultaneously reminds you that the anxieties we feel today are not new. Nor, however, have they been resolved. Buy. Stream.

3. Wolves in the Throne Room. Celestial Lineage [Southern Lord, 2011]

Black metal is an acquired taste that few people acquire: its beats are too fast, its vocals too much of a shriek, and its thematic obsessions with satanism and vikings a bit too...uh, yeah. But Wolves in the Throne Room are not your typical black metal band. Their music is majestic, epic and deeply evocative, and their music manages to evoke both the immensity and timelessness of nature and the deep threat to it posed by modernity. This is both dystopian and utopian music at the same time. Buy. Stream.

4. Pink Floyd. The Wall [Columbia, 1979]

The story of a isolated, psychologically-abused child who grows up to become a celebrity-cum-fascist. Buy. Stream.

5. Joy Division. Closer [Factory, 1979]

An apocalyptic masterpiece, arresting in minimal glory from start to finish. Quite possibly my favorite album of all time, and one that is also frighteningly prescient. Take, for example, these lyrics from album closer, "Decades": We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chamber/Pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in. Buy. Stream.

6. Mos Def. Black on Both Sides [Rawkus, 1999]

A piece of music intrinsically concerned not only with oppressive politics, but with the everyday dystopias that most of us internalize. Unlike some of the other selections on this list, however, Black on Both Sides is not bleakly pessimistic, but rather affirmational. Those of us privileged enough to be new to dystopia clearly have a thing or two to learn from those with more experience of it. Buy. Stream.






Coping with Dystopia MEGAMIX

2013 Nerd Gift Guide - The G

Some of us nerds of a feather have distinct specialties, but I'm the jack of all trades. So it should come as no surprise that I've cobbled together an eclectic array of gift ideas for that special nerdy someone or someones in your life. Follow the links to purchase...

For Music Lovers: Black Metal by Dayal Patterson [Buy the book or download for Kindle.]

If you like black metal as much as I do, and chances are you do not, then you won't want to miss this. I mean, where else can you read the true stories of everyone from Necrobutcher to Necrocock? This ain't no tabloidy bullshit like Lords of Chaos--this is a real history of the "most evil" form of music ever made, in all its absurd glory. Though full of unintentional comedy, Black Metal is written by someone with both an appreciation for both the music's value and full understanding of how ridiculous it can be. This is easily the best music book I've read since England's Dreaming.

For Fantasy/Gaming Enthusiasts: Lords of Waterdeep, a D&D themed board game [Buy the game and the expansion.]

Do you know someone who waxes nostalgic about his/her days as a Dungeon Master, but doesn't have the time or inclination to plan/execute a dungeon drawl? How about that friend who loves both Settlers of Catan and Game of Thrones? Well, you're in luck, because Lords of Waterdeep promises the nerdy goodness of AD&D wrapped in the streamlined package of a European-style board game!

For "Your Kids": Collectible Darth Vader Taking Plus Toy Figure [Buy this awesomenes.]

Sure your kid asked for Rescue Bots/Sophia the First/a pony, but you know what's best for them, right? And this isn't just a gift--it's a hyperspace ticket to a lifetime of awesomeness! And who cares if it ends up in your room instead of theirs? You're just keeping it in good condition for them! They'll definitely appreciate that when they're older. No question. 

Grimdark Fantasy/Heavy Metal Pairings

I've always had eclectic taste in music, but Spotify has clearly exacerbated these scattershot tendencies. For a while, all I could listen to was opera. Then I fixated on the indie rock of my teenage years before switching gears to a heady mix of minimal techno, 90s hip-hop and alt-country. Lately, though, I've been listening to almost non-stop metal. Among other things, the experience got me thinking about parallels with fantasy, and specifically, with the dark, anti-heroic fantasy variously called "gritty" or "grimdark."

Both exhibit similar preoccupations--with death, violence, suffering and a moral compass that either problematizes or outright embraces the things traditionally categorized as "bad." Both, moreover, embrace "darkness" to such an extent as to border on the ridiculous. When it all works, both gritty/grimdark fantasy and metal can be some powerful, visceral shit. But most popular art isn't good, and neither grimdark nor metal is an exception to the rule. Making matters worse, in these cases the crap generally takes the form of corny-ass pubescent male power-fantasies. And we really need is more of those, right?

Metalhead/Grimdark Aficionado

For the moment, though, let's put all that aside and concentrate on the good stuff, the expertly crafted, complex and full-bodied vintages of grimdark and metal alike. And while we're at it, let's wonder: what if we paired some really good grimdark books with some really good metal albums? After all, like wines and foods, or snacks and movies, certain albums just seem to go with certain books.

Selection Criteria

Okay, here are the rules. First, I've chosen 6 grimdark fantasy books, perhaps not the exact 6 best ever written, but 6 of the best I've ever had the pleasure to read. Next, I paired these will metal albums that, in my mind, best exemplify what these books mean to me. I decided to limit my choices to those available as full albums via Spotify. (This meant that I couldn't link to Black Sabbath's seminal album Paranoid, but that's not a huge deal.) I've embedded Spotify links to each, and if you listen to them, the bands will get some money (not much per listen, but it aggregates). I've also included Amazon links for both the books and albums, so if you like the look of any of them, you can support the creators (and us!) by purchasing via the link provided.

Now, keep in mind that, when it comes to metal, my tastes run to the black. Black metal is--and of this there can be no doubt--the most absurd style in music history. Its primarily influences are, in no particular order, thrash metal, Wagnerian opera, crust punk and "evil." The drumming and tremelo picking are so fast that melodies are typically forced to run at half-time. The guitar noodling of thrash and death metal is, by and large, dispensed with, yet compositional arrangements are as indulgent as the noodliest prog rock. And in its quest for "ultimate darkness," black metal often veers into self-parody. (Oh, and did I mention that a bunch of black metal fools in the 90s Norway went around killing people and burning down historical landmarks? Because they did.*) Still, if you can get past these kinds of things (and the growling), then you'll see that some of this shit, at least, is ill as fuck.

But even if black metal is overrepresented on this list, I've also included a few classic albums, and another that falls into the de-Satanized category of post-black. So without further ado, I present to you six Grimdark/Metal pairings. Don't forget to swish and spit after you taste...

The Pairings

1. Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook/Black Metal by Venom

Glen Cook basically invented grimdark fantasy back in the '80s. Yet despite being the one who first raised banners against the dreary Tolkein clones that dominated the genre in those days, he remains criminally under-read and underappreciated--even, apparently, by many of the authors he blazed trails for. That led me to pair this omnibus of short novels with Venom's hugely influential album Black Metal, which, among other things, convinced a bunch of Scandinavians to put on corpse paint, declare their allegiance to Satan and start acting out the stuff Venom were having a laugh about. The fit is just about perfect: both Chronicles of the Black Company and Black Metal are almost absurdly grim, dripping with gooey Lovecraftian darkness to the point where it becomes funny. Not only do both Cook and Venom recognize that, they positively revel in it. And besides, doesn't "Countess Bathory" feel kind of like a tribute to The Lady?

Have a listen...



2. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin/Hammerheart by Bathory

A Song of Ice and Fire has always reminded me a bit of the Niebelungenlied, the medieval epic about a hero who travels to a foreign court and gets murdered for it. It also served as a major inspiration for Wagner and a tidy slice of 19th century Germany Romanticism, and since that's basically the root of all modern fantasy, it makes sense to pair A Game of Thrones with the most Wagnerian of metal album: Bathory's 1990 Viking metal masterpiece Hammerheart. Like A Game of Thrones, Hammerheart has served a gateway of sorts for many a fantasy fan--the kind of thing that opens up a world of possibilities never before imagined. Neither is perfect, but they are touchstones for a reason, and a vast cut above the glut of impersonators that would follow in their wake. I mean, "Shores in Flame"--come on! Have you ever heard anything that epic? And for that matter, "One Rode to Asa Bay" could easily double as a lament for Ned.

Have a listen...



3. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie/Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden

Considering not only black metal's absurd darkness and comical grimness, but also its fixation with swords and other medievalisms, you might think I'd bust out the Enslaved for Lord Grimdark himself. Joe Abercrombie, though, is not your average grimdark practitioner. Superficially he seems a lot like Glen Cook, in the sense that they both write about violent mercenary antiheroes in war-torn fantasy worlds, and because they can both be awfully funny in the process. But Abercrombie's approach feels more playful, the humor more overt (and English) and thus distinct from Cook's nightmare absurdism. So corpsepaint and synthesizers just didn't seem like a fitting tribute my favorite of Abercrombie's novels. Rather, when I think of Best Served Cold, the sound I hear is a falsetto belted out above galloping rhythm guitar, from a singer grasping a sword raised high into the air as the pyrotechnics blaze behind him. And that could be mean only one thing: Iron Maiden!

Have a listen...



4. The Company by K. J. Parker/Reign In Blood by Slayer.

The Company is sort of an odd duck on this list, but not because KJ Parker may be a woman (as in, is a gender neutral pseudonym for a person commonly thought to be a woman) writing in a genre dominated by men, or because (s)he is an exceptionally good prose stylist (which (s)he is). Rather, the principle difference is of scale: though The Company centers on mercenaries in a war-torn land, a common theme among our entries, Parker dumps them on an island sandbox and then has them go at it. The result feels like a cross between Lost and the Danny Boyle film Shallow Grave. It's intimate and claustrophobic, like a tightening noose, with Parker studiously refraining from cutting the tension with humor. Claustrophobia and humorlessness combined with technical expertise? That sounds like death metal to me! And though Slayer isn't technically death metal, there would be no such thing without Reign in Blood, which incidentally is also cited by many as the greatest thrash album of all-time. Like Parker's novel, this album works because of Slayer's tight focus on the man-made horrors of war and violence. And because the riffs are just heavy as hell.

Have a listen...



5. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe/Celestial Lineage by Wolves in the Throne Room

The Book of the New Sun is considered by some to be the best fantasy novel/series ever written. Only it might not actually be fantasy. Categorization issues aside, Wolfe interweaves the assumptions and expectations of quasi-medieval fantasy into the fatalistic futurism and stargazing of dying Earth science fiction. Exactly like Wolves in the Throne Room's 2011 masterpiece, which is one of the most complex and challenging records metal has ever produced--I mean, just sit back and let the majesty of "Thuja Magus Imperium" cascade over you. It's ridiculously good. Of course, both Wolfe and Wolves are also distinctly acquired tastes, things that don't gratify quickly as much as reward patience. But that's all part of their appeal to me. And hey, you know what else? Wolves in the Throne Room not only make mesmerizing black metal symphonies, but actually have interesting things to say about life as well. So there's that too.

Have a listen...



6. Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson/In the Nightside Eclipse by Emperor

Though The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire are much more widely read, and though The Book of the New Sun and The Mists of Avalon are arguably more literary, you will never fall short of people making a case for Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen as the most significant fantasy series ever written. Whether that's true or not, the Malazan series (which also includes books written by Erikson's collaborator Ian Esslemont) is certainly one of the most ambitious. Ken from Neth Space once described this sprawling, complex and on-going work as "post-modern and meta-fictional," and I'll be damned if that's not exactly what it is. So what could possibly pair better with that than Emperor's meta-black metal opera In the Nightside Eclipse? Like Erikson's Malazan novels, Emperor delves into the darkness that inhabits the human psyche, human institutions and perhaps most interestingly, the environments humans inhabit. The vast nighttime wilderness of Norway can be felt in every riff and soaring synth pad. Plus it's one of those albums, like The Beatles White Album, that just feels like the definitive iteration of a sound, like there really isn't much else to be said after it's been said so emphatically. And to be honest, until I heard Wolves in the Throne Room and Deafheaven, I openly questioned whether there was anything left for metal to say post-Emperor. I was thankfully wrong, but this is still the most artistic and sophisticated metal album I've ever heard.

Have a listen...



*Now I know these are big hurdles for most people, and I respect that. I personally draw the line at Burzum (the one featuring the dude who killed the other dude and then became a Nazi).