This Week
In Chicago, October went out weird: with a day-long snowstorm that left a covering of snow on the ground the next day. So I guess it’s winter now?
Fortunately, it’s always Halloween in our hearts. Last week I wrote about some of my favorite strange horror-ish movies currently streaming on major services. They are good to watch even in November.
Speaking of horror movies, yesterday I sent the monthly essay for paid subscribers and it’s about … horror movies. Specifically how I’ve come to understand what it takes to process and enjoy horror in daily life. Even if you don’t like horror movies, or especially if you don’t like horror movies, you might like my contemplation of the subject.
And it is November, so it is time for my annual attempt and subsequent failure of writing a novel draft in a month. It’s a fun tradition. This is not sarcasm. You get something out of persistent trying, and persistent failing. This year, my fiction writing had an unforeseen resurgence over the summer, so I have a bit more reason to hope I’ll get something valuable out of this attempt. If you are embarking on a similar endeavor, best of luck to you.
Links
This year in Japan’s mundane Halloween costumes.
I am always here to share more about haunted items for sale on eBay, my favorite topic in the world.
Of course it was Halloween week, so here is the annual collection of Jezebel readers’ scary stories. If you click on the category tag link there, you’ll get the collections from years past and be able to while away an entire uneasy evening.
I am a huge fan of Netflix’s The End of the F***cking World series that came out a year or so ago. It’s dark and weird and heartfelt. However, I’m skeptical about how well a second season will go. But I’ll give it a shot.
Twenty films that blur the line between horror and noir.
I have a lot of empathy for this essay about trying to become a writer later in life.
“I didn’t believe in magic and I don’t now. But I believed in the power of believing in magic. I believed that a girl could switch paths, could make trouble instead of find it, if she only had the right set of spells to cast.” Magical thinking for girls.
Reading/Watching/Listening
I saw Robert Eggers’s follow-up to The Witch: The Lighthouse. I’m not sure what to say about this one except it’s great. A strange slice of dark psychological folktale with the strong performances it needs to work.
For a while now, I had Katherine Dunn’s book Geek Love on my list as a book that was supposed to be good and I should read it sometime. Because the cover has a digital-like font and involves the word "geek," I assumed it had something to do with technology, which I have a lot of exposure to and often need a break from. However (and it might be difficult to imagine this kind of situation, there certainly isn't a commonly-used phrase to describe it or anything like that), the cover was not an accurate depiction of the book's content. Now I've read Geek Love and I'm angry I didn't read it much sooner. The saga of a genetically-engineered carnival sideshow family, this story is bizarre and intense and revolves around the question of what makes someone a real “freak.” It's also quite beautiful, which is more or less the meta point.
Halloween never really ends, my friends. Have some Bauhaus.
And a bonus: a mashup of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” with vocal tracks from the Haunted Mansion.
Get cozy. Winter is coming.
Love,
Jen
Connections
Substack archive: https://jenmyers.substack.com/archive
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Essay archive: http://modernadventuress.com/
Website: http://jenmyers.net
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Email: hello@jenmyers.net
Post: P.O. Box 13114 Chicago, IL 60613
This week’s quote is from Sinclair Lewis.