Podcast Summary: New Books Network – Kawika Guillermo, "Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games"
Date: September 22, 2025
Host: Rudolf Inderst
Guest: Kawika Guillermo (also known as Chris Patterson)
Main Theme
This episode centers on Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025), a hybrid work blending memoir, cultural critique, and poetic reflection. Kawika Guillermo discusses how his personal journey as a queer, mixed-race gamer, and scholar shaped his exploration of video games—not just as entertainment or escape, but as vessels for community, transformation, and grappling with life's complexities. The conversation delves into the book’s structure, the emotional and social roles of games, and the challenges of writing intimately across academic and creative genres.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Personal Genesis of the Book
- Who is Kawika Guillermo?
- Writes under his matrilineal name (Filipina-Hawaiian background); also publishes as Chris Patterson (author of game studies works like Open World Empire and co-editor of Made in Asia).
- The book grew out of personal questions following previous more academic works.
- On Defining Games
- Guillermo leans into the "indefinability" of games, aligning with scholars like Bo Ruberg:
"Whatever video games are is just the thing that we're calling video games right now." [06:00]
- Prefers non-academic, creative nonfiction for dwelling in questions rather than finding answers:
"Academic writing is more about trying to find answers to things. But I find like non fiction or creative writing is more about... just kind of dwelling in those questions." [06:45]
- Guillermo leans into the "indefinability" of games, aligning with scholars like Bo Ruberg:
2. Memoir Meets Critique: Blending Forms
- Balancing Personal and Cultural
- Guillermo emphasizes the inevitability of personal positionality in scholarship:
"We are always writing from our positionalities... we are already so invested." [08:20]
- Cites the concept of "macphrasis": prose inspired by the machinations of video games (rules, puzzles, emotional resonances), adapted from "machinima" and "ekphrasis":
"I call it prose inspired by the machinations of video games... their emotional resonances." [10:10]
- Hopes this approach will broaden how games are written about—less focus on rigid analysis, more on subjective player experience.
- Guillermo emphasizes the inevitability of personal positionality in scholarship:
3. Rethinking the ‘Gamer’s Retreat’: Community vs. Isolation
- Games as ‘Floating Isles’
- Rejects the notion of games as isolated escapes; even single-player games are communal via shared discussion and storytelling:
"I grew up with a twin brother and a sister... We ended up playing games a lot with my nephew... They just never seemed like isolated things to me." [13:15]
- The term "floating isles" (vs. islands) evokes both adventure and confrontation with real-world issues:
"In literature... isles are kind of, like, mystical things... where we have these adventures, but end up confronting very real inequalities of the world." [15:10]
- Rejects the notion of games as isolated escapes; even single-player games are communal via shared discussion and storytelling:
4. Games as Generators of Both Joy and Pain
-
Growing Pains
- Games process difficult emotions by making harsh realities more approachable:
"Games have this way of... making very painful, like, hurtful, like, truthful, real things in our world... a bit softer, easier to approach..." [16:36]
- Examples such as Cult of the Lamb highlight how games dress up dark themes in approachable aesthetics.
- The concept of “growing pains” frames games as spaces to process loss, grief, and self-discovery.
- Games process difficult emotions by making harsh realities more approachable:
-
Transformative Lenses
- Discusses Morrowind as a site of catharsis during personal hardship:
“I would return to that game because it felt like more real than the real world at times... If you can keep going in Morrowind, then you can kind of keep going in real life.” [18:40]
- Discusses Morrowind as a site of catharsis during personal hardship:
5. Games as Poetic, Ambiguous Artforms
- The Path as Metaphor
- The introduction to the book centers on The Path, a poetic, ambiguous game reinterpretation of Little Red Riding Hood, as both metaphor and model:
“Each of the girls for me represented a different way of seeing games... All of these kind of reminded me of, like, the things that games can do that are special and transformative and somewhat dangerous.” [21:20]
- Games are seen as formative, even risky, experiences balancing ambiguity and transformation.
- The introduction to the book centers on The Path, a poetic, ambiguous game reinterpretation of Little Red Riding Hood, as both metaphor and model:
6. Writing Vulnerably: Rewards and Difficulties
- Challenges of Vulnerability
- Building on prior "anti-memoir" work, Guillermo found writing intimately about games and life rewarding but difficult.
- One standout chapter recounts playing Counter-Strike as a brown person during the War on Terror—narrating the contradictions, exclusions, and community found within a “complicated" gaming space:
“For me that games are really complicated things... we can't really say what they're doing or definitively try to talk about... what was Counter Strike doing at that time.” [26:36]
- Highlights how academic writing struggles to capture the ambivalence and contradictions of gaming experience, whereas hybrid narrative allows for these nuances.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On the futility of strict definitions:
"...Whatever video games are is just the thing that we're calling video games right now. It's just... knowing that whatever we say is probably going to change. And I wanted to lean into that indefinability...”
— Kawika Guillermo [06:00] -
On positionality in game studies:
“We are always writing from our positionalities... I realized I had been doing it from an early age because I've always been writing about games.”
— Kawika Guillermo [08:25] -
Explaining “macphrasis”:
“I call it prose inspired by the machinations of video games. The universes, their puzzles, their social and physical systems of logic, their rules and boundaries, their emotional resonances...”
— Kawika Guillermo [10:10] -
On the meaning of 'floating isles':
"Isles in literature... are adventure, you know, places where we have these adventures, but end up confronting very real, you know, inequalities of the world. Racism, colonialism, enslavement, exploitation..."
— Kawika Guillermo [15:10] -
On catharsis through gaming:
“If you can keep going in Morrowind, then you can kind of keep going in real life.”
— Kawika Guillermo [18:40] -
On the limitations of academic discourse:
“I could never really write that much about Counter Strike... trying to talk about that was for me almost impossible in academic writing, but came forth and I think really feels very rewarding in that I could express things that I couldn’t otherwise.”
— Kawika Guillermo [26:36]
Important Segments & Timestamps
- 01:32 – 03:25: Host introduces Guillermo and context for the book
- 03:25 – 07:50: Guillermo’s background, inspiration, and 'undefinability' of games
- 07:50 – 12:15: Blending memoir with critique; introducing “macphrasis”
- 12:28 – 16:04: Games as social spaces; 'floating isles' vs. isolation
- 16:04 – 19:45: Games as sites for both joy and processing pain; 'growing pains' and Morrowind
- 19:45 – 23:08: Games as poetic, transformative experiences; The Path and formative ambiguity
- 24:00 – 28:18: Writing with vulnerability; rewards and limitations of hybrid narrative; Counter-Strike and identity
- 28:37 – 29:20: Announcement of forthcoming audiobook, read by Guillermo
Final Thoughts
Of Floating Isles offers a nuanced, deeply personal take on how games shape—and are shaped by—our lives, identities, communities, and pain. Guillermo invites us to dwell in the questions, ambiguities, and overlooked emotional resonances of video games, pushing game studies further into creative, vulnerable, and critical modes. The episode provides a compelling case for both academic and non-academic readers interested in how games accompany us through transformation and belonging.
Episode Recommendation:
If you’re interested in the intersections of gaming, culture, memory, and identity, or want a fresh perspective on how games mirror and mediate real-world complexity, this episode (and Guillermo's book) should not be missed. Also, keep an ear out for the soon-to-be-released audiobook, narrated by the author.