T-Bone Slim, born on this day in 1880, was an IWW member, working class songwriter, and author. Due to his popular, labor themed tunes, Slim was dubbed the "laureate of the logging camps".
Born Matti Valentin Huhta to Finnish immigrant parents in Ashtabula, Ohio, Slim became an itinerant worker after leaving his wife and family in 1912. It isn't known when Slim became a Wobbly, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), but he first appeared in the IWW's press in the 1920 edition of the IWW Songbook.
Slim became one of the IWW's most famous writers during the 1920s and 30s, and many people would buy the "Industrial Worker" just to read his articles - one ad from the paper read "there's a lot more in Industrial Solidarity and Industrial Worker than T-Bone Slim's columns".
Slim did not presume his working-class readership to be unintelligent people, making use of complex wordplay and experimental writing techniques, playing with ambiguity, satire and surrealism.
Slim was also well-known for his songs, such as the "Lumberjack's Prayer", a parody of the Lord's Prayer about the poor quality of food available for the working class, and "The Popular Wobbly", which experienced a revival among civil rights activists during the 1960s.
In spite of his renown in radical circles during his lifetime, many details of Slim's life remain unclear. During the mid-1930s, he settled in New York City, where he worked as a barge captain on the docks.
In May 1942, Slim's body was found in the East River. His cause of death remains unknown and has been subject to speculation. Following his death, Slim largely faded into obscurity, especially compared to more famous IWW-associated writers such as Joe Hill.
Slim's songs have been preserved, however, re-published in editions of the Little Red Songbook and covered by musicians such as Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, and his own great-grandnephew, John Westmoreland.
Until recently, there was thought to be no surviving photographs of Slim, however, in 2019 two photos were discovered and published by Working Class History in a Newberry Library collection.
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Reading deep into the plot/lore of Marathon and it's pretty crazy that Bungie was doing non-linear storytelling when the most popular game of the era was DOOM.
Maybe the worst part is that they're still capable of it, but their recent games have Marvel tier dialogue for some reason
According to mobygames the story was written by Greg Kirkpatrick (Whose last video game credit was the Marathon franchise) and Colin Bent (Whose last videogame credit was Marathon the game).
I haven't played Marathon or Destiny, but the only person who worked on both is Jason Jones
Yeah, I think it was mostly Kirkpatrick for Marathon. It's just like, gamers™ are going to play your game regardless of how hammy you make the dialogue, so why not go for something more interesting, even with new writers?
I think there's 3 factors. One is video games stories becoming bland due tomarket forces. "A billion dollar project can't risk alienating anyone" is probably a significat factor.
Second anything more complicated takes a lot more work and freedom afforded to writers, who at this point are all basically temp workers or veterans of the industry who became big in the 90s with no inbeween.
Third is that it's just harder to do and do right even when you have the means.