Update to "I Will Set This System Aflame"

...and why it's so easy to turn real people into the "characters" you wish to write

Thanks to a kind reader, I’ve learned that Luigi Mangione’s Substack handle and Substack title, Another Day, Another Play, likely comes from his yearbook quote, which is (less poetic) "Anodda day, anodda play.” The quote is from a YouTuber named “videogamedunkey.” Here is the article substantiating this, which I consider reliable.

This is a great example of why I think it’s important to mention (maybe too many times?) when I’m being speculative and what that speculation is actually worth (nothing). It’s also a great example of how awesome the people who read this Substack are (thank you georgeohwell!)

I was also amused to see that I was kind of disappointed when I learned how pedestrian and, well, adolescent the quote ended up being. I guess this makes me realize that part of me wants a better story, would prefer Mangione to be a “Mr. Rochester” from Jane Eyre who carries around a poem for a decade and uses it as inspiration rather than a “Steve-O” from Jackass who summarizes his life ethos as a graduating senior with some dumbass quote from a YouTuber.

People are complicated and imperfect. They grow and learn, of course, which is perhaps why Mangione’s handle wasn’t annodadayannodaplay but anotherdayanotherplay (unless it was just that the first one was already taken lol). But real people, even those involved in extraordinary circumstances, will never be as “elegantly” composed as a character in a book, who was created by a human mind to serve a very specific purpose. And thank god for that.