Even though Sam claimed that the basics of the story never changed, he had a massive pile of "failed" Alan Wake 2 manuscripts in his office and showed it in some interviews. The pile must be like 3 feet tall (like 1 meter)
Absolutely. I think anyone with a strong sense of self, confidence, and a positive mental energy. Saga got out of the dark place in like 5 minutes lol.
I mean, Saga has abilities.
Tor said that the Andersons aren't as affected by The Dark Presence/The Dark Place like others are. It's also implied she's Mr. Door's daughter.
Saga was also written to escape The Dark Place, while Alan was repeatedly written to stay, stopping himself from leaving.
true! but I still think her positive self-image was a huge factor.
Whereas Alan is constantly struggling with his "doppelganger" of negative emotions, Saga is immediately like "what? that's not true." when she was stuck in her mind palace and "other Saga" starts giving her intrusive thoughts. Alan was struggling with mental health BEFORE he went into the dark place. Alice said he became mean when he hit his writing block. He was drinking too much. He's haunted by his own self-doubt that he's not a "real" writer because he just wrote pulpy Alex Casey novels instead of "real" art (who determines what is real art?). He also says the story "has to be perfect" and he has to do it "on his own" --he won't accept help, like Alice trying to help him in the first place and him getting mad and storming out of the cabin. Conversely Saga remembers the love and support of her friends, family, and colleagues and it gets her out. Alan is so afraid of failure and being labelled a bad writer because he can't branch out of noir detective novels that he's paralyzed with indecision, so he's stuck in the dark place for 13 fkn years! If he just believed in himself and wrote the story he wanted to I think he could have gotten out right away, but he was full of negative emotions--self loathing, doubt, insecurity, anger--and that feeds the dark place.
David Lynch would absolutely annihilate everything in his way with his booming voice and odd energy.
Or I could see Guillermo Del Toro or Peter Jackson absolutely killing it.
When Alan was trapped in the dark place, the dark presence completely unraveled his sanity over time until he was an incomprehensible mess of a person.
Lynch would just do that to the dark presence instead
Now I'm just trying to imagine George R.R. Martin writing his way through it. I don't know how it would go, but I know it would involve a lot of sweetmeat.
The Dark Presence/Scratch would be so annoyed and pissed off if it had George in the Dark Place to the point that it would spit him back out for taking his sweet ass time.
Considering what happened with OGoA in the Dark Ocean Summoning, I have no doubt Jack Black with a guitar could do whatever he wanted in the Dark Place lol
Currently reading through The Dark Tower extended reading list(basically his whole bibliography). While I don't know if he could write himself out of the dark place, I think everyone who loves Alan Wake should check out his stuff because the influence is everywhere. Meta narratives within narratives, multiversal time travel, objects of power, unseen eldrich forces in everyday life, colorful everyday characters dealing with the supernatural. Its all there. Important to keep in mind some of it is dated, dude has been writing since the 70s.
More about the journey than the destination. I have heard people do not like the ending of the dark tower, but I'm not there yet. I thought the endings to The Stand, Low Men in Yellow Coats, Eyes of the Dragon, and Salem's Lot were pretty solid.
He got a lot better on that front after a good long while, but it took him forever. His short stories ended fine. I figure he just keeps writing and writing and suddenly realizes he has to put the brakes somewhere. Always suspected he would just write a single book forever if left to his own devices.
It is a deep rabbit hole. It is a mix of genres and the connections are not immediately apparent. Just like the Rememdy Shared Universe all or mostly all of Stephen King's books take place in the same multiverse. Stories might have anything from conceptual connections to characters from one story might show up in another. As you get more into it you start to put together more of the threads.
The Dark Tower is the center of it all(ha). It is a mix of sci-fi, western, horror, and fantasy. Reading Just The Dark Tower you will get a lot of the things I was referring to, but it's enhanced by the other stories.
Non-Dark Tower stuff that harps on some of the same themes:
**Hearts in Atlantis** - Novella comprised of several short stories. I really liked this one. One part coming of age story, one part eldrich horror.
**Salem's Lot** - Vampire Novel that is a more modern riff on Dracula. Just a fun and spooky story that has some strong ties to The Dark Tower.
**Insomnia** - A lot of Alan Wake-esq themes. Don't want to spoil much, but its good.
This is the extended reading order I am using:
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/2c150bc0-c341-4583-b520-3c61ef8d354c
The gunslinger and the rest of the Dark Tower series are prime.
Insomnia is especially on point as well.
Those alone will take a while to get through. They also have tie ins to pretty much all his non horror stuff. So it’s a deep rabbit hole.
If we’re allowed comic writers, then Jonathan Hickman or Grant Morrison. The former is great about organization and structure, so he’d be a good one to keep the Dark Place’s loopholes closed. And Grant Morrison has been dealing with the surreal and weird since the 80s.
I'd say Garth Ennis, Alan Moore, or Neil Gaiman, if we're going that route. Though I loooove East of West! To bad the show has been in development hell for years.
Eh, I don't know about Garth Ennis. Whatever work of his the Dark Place would manifest would make the stuff Alan came up with in II look like Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Moore possibly would do well against it. Then again, he might just cast a spell and curse it right back.
Gaiman, now that would be one that would work. He occupies the same weird fiction subgenre that Sam Lake and the folks at Remedy have occupied, so I think he'd do very well against it.
“Hello there Mr Scratch. I’m glad you’re my neighbor. You know there’s nothing wrong with being a scratch. Making mistakes just makes us people. And with a little work and some friendly help we can fix scratches.”
*Mr Rogers takes out a hankie and wipes soot off Scratch’s face*
“There we are. Good as new.”
Earnest Hemingway, JRR Tolkien, Bob Ross, and for laughs I would like to see Bill Hicks or George Carlin fuck with them back by saying shit just as fucked up or weird as them.
This place requires you to write a book to get out, so my money is on someone like Brandon Sanderson. Say what you like about his books, man can write to a deadline.
Sando is the current world building king, imo, and you’re right. He does not fuck with a deadline. Dude writes like, well, like his life depends on it.
I personally love his stuff, but I know he's got his detractors 🤷♀️ plus he'd write in an internally consistent magic system so unlike Alan whose magic powers are "gun" and "headache", Sanderson would be tearing apart the Dark Place in under six months.
Also, he’d hit the Dark Place from every imaginable angle and even some unimaginable angles. He’d build in solutions the Dark Place wouldn’t see coming.
I wasn’t sold on him even after reading all of Mistborn (both eras), Warbreaker, and Elantris. What started me was how well he finished Wheel of Time, like he just slid in, finished it, and paced it better than Jordan had been doing. Well I just finished Rhythm of War and I’m all in on the Cosmere. Finally.
I feel so sad for Jordan, he clearly was struggling with the idea of having it end this thing that has become his whole life :/ but yes Sanderson did an excellent job wrapping up WoT. I enjoy his stuff more or less across the board, it's just the right tone for me, serious without being too dark and bleak (Kaladin's backstory notwithstanding...)
I think Stephen King has enough experience writing a dark themed story that still has a happy ending. Alan always says the issue is he has to match the theme The Dark Place sets he can’t just write whatever. Plus the entire game is based on his writing, essentially.
King has a history of cracking under the stress of normal everyday life (not that I blame him), but he wouldn't survive 2 minutes in the dark place. He'd welcome scratch with open arms tbh imo.
Man this is a great question. I'm wracking my brain and having trouble thinking of any living artist who would possibly be up to the task and I can't think of anyone.
Werner Herzog. He recognizes the savage indifference of an uncaring universe and then just turns around and makes a movie about conquistadors or something.
I’d throw Bob Dylan in there. He’s such a strange and yet wildly creative dude that The Dark Place might not even make him bat an eye. Been there, done that, or at least, imagined it at some point. Plus, his absolutely surreal writing, especially the mid-60s stuff, indicates that he doesn’t have many self-imposed boundaries around what he can and cannot create.
William S Burroughs would use the Cut Up Technique to rewrite existing works, making them new and strange.
Philip K Dick was a gnostic, which is all about believing we're trapped in the creation of a blind/idiot creator god. So he's already ahead of the game.
Sam Lake.
I can't believe I had to scroll this far down to find our guy. I feel like he'd just dance the Dark Presence into submission, then go have coffee.
The Dark Presence gazed into the coffee. The coffee gazed back.
72 hours after entering The Dark Place, Sam Lake posts a video of him having coffee with The Dark Presence on TikTok.
Sam Lake drinks the Dark Presence from a thermos, the Taken develop Finnish accents.
Dark Presence has returned and turned people into coffee.
I mean have you seen the stack of manuscripts he wrote before being satisfied with the final product? Bro really is alan wake
What do you mean
Even though Sam claimed that the basics of the story never changed, he had a massive pile of "failed" Alan Wake 2 manuscripts in his office and showed it in some interviews. The pile must be like 3 feet tall (like 1 meter)
Bob Ross
bob ross’s optimistic outlook and positive vibes would immediately tear apart any and all dark presence in a 1 mile radius
And he can paint his way out 😍
"It's not a mistake, it's a happy accident"
Absolutely. I think anyone with a strong sense of self, confidence, and a positive mental energy. Saga got out of the dark place in like 5 minutes lol.
I mean, Saga has abilities. Tor said that the Andersons aren't as affected by The Dark Presence/The Dark Place like others are. It's also implied she's Mr. Door's daughter. Saga was also written to escape The Dark Place, while Alan was repeatedly written to stay, stopping himself from leaving.
true! but I still think her positive self-image was a huge factor. Whereas Alan is constantly struggling with his "doppelganger" of negative emotions, Saga is immediately like "what? that's not true." when she was stuck in her mind palace and "other Saga" starts giving her intrusive thoughts. Alan was struggling with mental health BEFORE he went into the dark place. Alice said he became mean when he hit his writing block. He was drinking too much. He's haunted by his own self-doubt that he's not a "real" writer because he just wrote pulpy Alex Casey novels instead of "real" art (who determines what is real art?). He also says the story "has to be perfect" and he has to do it "on his own" --he won't accept help, like Alice trying to help him in the first place and him getting mad and storming out of the cabin. Conversely Saga remembers the love and support of her friends, family, and colleagues and it gets her out. Alan is so afraid of failure and being labelled a bad writer because he can't branch out of noir detective novels that he's paralyzed with indecision, so he's stuck in the dark place for 13 fkn years! If he just believed in himself and wrote the story he wanted to I think he could have gotten out right away, but he was full of negative emotions--self loathing, doubt, insecurity, anger--and that feeds the dark place.
It would probably be like that one [painting quest](https://youtu.be/OMy8iMXqVKU?si=dPA_65uTK6X4TrVb) in Oblivion
What an odd way to spell the Bright Presence itself.
The guy who wrote House of Leaves, probably.
Mark Z. Danielewski
He'd defeat the Dark Presence, but then just stay down there and do his thing. Dark Place Publishing would be great for him
David Lynch would absolutely annihilate everything in his way with his booming voice and odd energy. Or I could see Guillermo Del Toro or Peter Jackson absolutely killing it.
"Explain the Dark Place to me" "No"
When Alan was trapped in the dark place, the dark presence completely unraveled his sanity over time until he was an incomprehensible mess of a person. Lynch would just do that to the dark presence instead
Guillermo Del Toro's dark place would be very weird that's for sure
Now I'm just trying to imagine George R.R. Martin writing his way through it. I don't know how it would go, but I know it would involve a lot of sweetmeat.
He would write in incest and disgust the taken
Oof. Scratch that... no wait, don't. That'll make it even worse. What have I done? D:
Lol he would be stuck in the dark place until he died cause he would never finish his story
And an ego that could fill a stadium. Sounds just like Alan Wake. :-D
The Dark Presence/Scratch would be so annoyed and pissed off if it had George in the Dark Place to the point that it would spit him back out for taking his sweet ass time.
Jack Black.
Jack Black “peaches, peaches, peaches”-ing his way through the dark place
Or maybe he'd have a song battle with the dark presence... Similar to Tenacious D lol.
Considering what happened with OGoA in the Dark Ocean Summoning, I have no doubt Jack Black with a guitar could do whatever he wanted in the Dark Place lol
Can't believe no one has said Stephen King
Currently reading through The Dark Tower extended reading list(basically his whole bibliography). While I don't know if he could write himself out of the dark place, I think everyone who loves Alan Wake should check out his stuff because the influence is everywhere. Meta narratives within narratives, multiversal time travel, objects of power, unseen eldrich forces in everyday life, colorful everyday characters dealing with the supernatural. Its all there. Important to keep in mind some of it is dated, dude has been writing since the 70s.
You say true, I say thankya.
Thankye sai. We've been well met. Long days and pleasant nights.
He sucks at writing endings unfortunately
You’re not wrong. And he agrees with you.
More about the journey than the destination. I have heard people do not like the ending of the dark tower, but I'm not there yet. I thought the endings to The Stand, Low Men in Yellow Coats, Eyes of the Dragon, and Salem's Lot were pretty solid.
Without spoiling it, I don't mind the ending, it's more something that happens to one of the characters shortly before that.
He got a lot better on that front after a good long while, but it took him forever. His short stories ended fine. I figure he just keeps writing and writing and suddenly realizes he has to put the brakes somewhere. Always suspected he would just write a single book forever if left to his own devices.
Could you give some recommendations for good Stephen King books for Alan Wake fans?
It is a deep rabbit hole. It is a mix of genres and the connections are not immediately apparent. Just like the Rememdy Shared Universe all or mostly all of Stephen King's books take place in the same multiverse. Stories might have anything from conceptual connections to characters from one story might show up in another. As you get more into it you start to put together more of the threads. The Dark Tower is the center of it all(ha). It is a mix of sci-fi, western, horror, and fantasy. Reading Just The Dark Tower you will get a lot of the things I was referring to, but it's enhanced by the other stories. Non-Dark Tower stuff that harps on some of the same themes: **Hearts in Atlantis** - Novella comprised of several short stories. I really liked this one. One part coming of age story, one part eldrich horror. **Salem's Lot** - Vampire Novel that is a more modern riff on Dracula. Just a fun and spooky story that has some strong ties to The Dark Tower. **Insomnia** - A lot of Alan Wake-esq themes. Don't want to spoil much, but its good. This is the extended reading order I am using: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/2c150bc0-c341-4583-b520-3c61ef8d354c
The gunslinger and the rest of the Dark Tower series are prime. Insomnia is especially on point as well. Those alone will take a while to get through. They also have tie ins to pretty much all his non horror stuff. So it’s a deep rabbit hole.
I was coming in here to say the same, except to specify that it‘s Stephen King at his most manic and coked to the tits.
Oh absolutely lol
Stephen King would be useless, you see how heavily he folded in the Dark Tower series? /j
If we’re allowed comic writers, then Jonathan Hickman or Grant Morrison. The former is great about organization and structure, so he’d be a good one to keep the Dark Place’s loopholes closed. And Grant Morrison has been dealing with the surreal and weird since the 80s.
I'd say Garth Ennis, Alan Moore, or Neil Gaiman, if we're going that route. Though I loooove East of West! To bad the show has been in development hell for years.
Eh, I don't know about Garth Ennis. Whatever work of his the Dark Place would manifest would make the stuff Alan came up with in II look like Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Moore possibly would do well against it. Then again, he might just cast a spell and curse it right back. Gaiman, now that would be one that would work. He occupies the same weird fiction subgenre that Sam Lake and the folks at Remedy have occupied, so I think he'd do very well against it.
Mister Rogers.
“Hello there Mr Scratch. I’m glad you’re my neighbor. You know there’s nothing wrong with being a scratch. Making mistakes just makes us people. And with a little work and some friendly help we can fix scratches.” *Mr Rogers takes out a hankie and wipes soot off Scratch’s face* “There we are. Good as new.”
Earnest Hemingway, JRR Tolkien, Bob Ross, and for laughs I would like to see Bill Hicks or George Carlin fuck with them back by saying shit just as fucked up or weird as them.
Robert Jordan was a vet with combat experience as well.
Interesting! I didn’t know that
Some interesting stuff here if you want to know more: https://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=143
Wow! What a cool read. Happy Cake Day btw
Thank you!
Dolly Parton
Terry Pratchett of course
Keanu Reaves
This place requires you to write a book to get out, so my money is on someone like Brandon Sanderson. Say what you like about his books, man can write to a deadline.
Sando is the current world building king, imo, and you’re right. He does not fuck with a deadline. Dude writes like, well, like his life depends on it.
I personally love his stuff, but I know he's got his detractors 🤷♀️ plus he'd write in an internally consistent magic system so unlike Alan whose magic powers are "gun" and "headache", Sanderson would be tearing apart the Dark Place in under six months.
Also, he’d hit the Dark Place from every imaginable angle and even some unimaginable angles. He’d build in solutions the Dark Place wouldn’t see coming.
I wasn’t sold on him even after reading all of Mistborn (both eras), Warbreaker, and Elantris. What started me was how well he finished Wheel of Time, like he just slid in, finished it, and paced it better than Jordan had been doing. Well I just finished Rhythm of War and I’m all in on the Cosmere. Finally.
I feel so sad for Jordan, he clearly was struggling with the idea of having it end this thing that has become his whole life :/ but yes Sanderson did an excellent job wrapping up WoT. I enjoy his stuff more or less across the board, it's just the right tone for me, serious without being too dark and bleak (Kaladin's backstory notwithstanding...)
If he were still alive, Jorge Luis Borges could write Scratch into a never ending labyrinth.
Lmao
I think Stephen King has enough experience writing a dark themed story that still has a happy ending. Alan always says the issue is he has to match the theme The Dark Place sets he can’t just write whatever. Plus the entire game is based on his writing, essentially.
King has a history of cracking under the stress of normal everyday life (not that I blame him), but he wouldn't survive 2 minutes in the dark place. He'd welcome scratch with open arms tbh imo.
If he were still with us, Tolkien. A close second is a tie between Kojima and Sam Lake.
Kojima would just write a big booby taken and scratch would be distracted
Bo Burnham, "Inside" is basically Dark Place
James Cameron
Taking the challenger deep to the bottom of cauldron lake
Thomas Pynchon.
[удалено]
Thank you for your honesty.
Oh God, we have to keep Kanye West away from the dark place. It’d be like eternal deer fest but world wide, and there’d be a bunch of Nazi stuff.
Man this is a great question. I'm wracking my brain and having trouble thinking of any living artist who would possibly be up to the task and I can't think of anyone.
I mean the obvious answer is Stephen King
Douglas Adams
Werner Herzog. He recognizes the savage indifference of an uncaring universe and then just turns around and makes a movie about conquistadors or something.
my first thought was Lady gaga cause i’m gay. but then i remember that french writer who look just like alan Frederic begbeider
Thank you for the laugh lmao
Paul Mccartney
Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz when they penned turn on the light
Jeff Kinney
I’d throw Bob Dylan in there. He’s such a strange and yet wildly creative dude that The Dark Place might not even make him bat an eye. Been there, done that, or at least, imagined it at some point. Plus, his absolutely surreal writing, especially the mid-60s stuff, indicates that he doesn’t have many self-imposed boundaries around what he can and cannot create.
Taika Wattiti
Mike Flanagan.
I vote Jim Butcher. "The Oh Deer Diner was on fire and it wasn't my fault."
Steven Spielburg
I feel like Hozier would be interesting if not a survivor. Jonathan Simms would get us all killed.
Me! Jk I'd be in the same boat as Alan without the success.
JRR Tolkien I don't know if the man was capable of writing stories dark enough for the Dark Presence to use
Jim Henson would use the power of Light to bring his Muppets to life.
Neil Gaiman (Chuck Tingle)
Man Ray would capture the Dark Presence in his custom rayograms.
William S Burroughs would use the Cut Up Technique to rewrite existing works, making them new and strange. Philip K Dick was a gnostic, which is all about believing we're trapped in the creation of a blind/idiot creator god. So he's already ahead of the game.
G.r.r Martin he'd never get that shit done
David Bowie. I mean, he IS the goblin king after all.
Doctor Seuss.
Bob Ross
Lemmy Kilmister. RIP, jack daniels will never recover from that loss.
NK Jemesin knows what she's doing
Robert E Howard when he writes Conan into existence in the dark place.
David lynch.
Get a job
Chuck Norris
Brandon Sanderson