/lit/ - Literature

What are some novels I can read on the philosophy that the "mask" you wear is more important than the truth that's inside, because your mask is what has an affect on the world and the way people see you? What is this type of philosophy called? I asked because I recently completed the videogame "Majora's Mask," and that was a heavy theme in it, so I want to do more research on it.

MM is one of my favorite games, but people really need to chill on it. All of the atmosphere and nuances that people read so heavily into are really just the product of a streamlined development process. The reused assets and game engine meant a smaller team of about 40 people could release a sequel to OoT (a game which took around 5 years of development time) in about only a year. The 3-day system was put in place because it meant they could create a more compact game world without betraying the relative depth of design expected from a more "full-fledged" world akin to Hyrule in OoT. Furthermore, the dark atmosphere isn't necessarily as deliberate (from an artistic direction) as people like to believe. The game required an expansion pack because it was originally developed on the 64DD before being ported to the N64. The extra 4 gigs of ram meant that lighting could be more dynamic and post-effects like haze could be introduced. However, in order to comfortably incorporate a greater draw distance and npc count the team had to utilize dynamics to balance out the demand on resources. This meant you had more vibrant colors and effects, often seen through focal objects, but as a result much darker environments were needed to compensate. One way this was achieved was by using lower-res darker textures on scenery objects that weren't necessarily noticeable, balanced out by high-res textures of actor objects and other important stuff. The result is this immediately apparent vibrancy of high-res actor objects surrounded by a rather large swathe of low-res dark surroundings.

Obviously It would be ignorant to try and suggest that Majoras Mask isn't a naturally dark and, to an extent, more "mature" Zelda. But people have made it a habit of taking this general understanding and running the game into ground "blue curtains" style. In interviews given around the time of release, Miyamoto and Anouma have explained that the game was meant to be mysterious more than it is dark. They explicitly said they wanted players to explore the role and function of minor characters and, I'm assuming, that on a grander scale show how each character contributes to the overarching mystery of the game world. People saw this mystery and completely misinterpreted it with respects to the visual context of the game. Looking at the game retrospectively, this is a fairly easy mistake to make, It's easy to so readily compare this to OoT without first understanding the developmental relations. The combination of vague and often cryptic dialogue as well as the dark and foreboding atmosphere can be construed as some massive culmination of artistic intent meant to exemplify an overwhelming feeling of disparity and loss. But at that point you're reading too far into nuances based on assumptions and missing the bigger picture.
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