23 October 2020
“We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?”
This Week
And we’re back. Thanks for sticking with me through last week’s break.
As it turns out, I am back on the job search. If you’d like to chat about a role, please let me know!
In other news, I’m preparing a massive horror film recommendation list for my website in honor of Halloween and I’ll be sending a special version of it with extra films to paid newsletter subscribers next week. And when I say “massive,” I mean it—I’m currently whittling down from a list of 150+. I’ve ended up categorizing them by subject just to keep them in some sort of order. So if you’re really into that, this would be a lovely time to sign up for a paid subscription.
Links
What are we to do with all this grief.
The united states of Dolly Parton.
An oral history of Tom Petty’s landmark 1994 album Wildflowers.
The working-class cinematic legacy of film noir.
Where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist: Ray Bradbury’s The October Country turns sixty.
Restoring women writers to the history of the ghost story.
“It may even be that the more meaningful jobs, relationships, and creative projects we have, the more we open ourselves up to loss and failure, and the more prone to worry and fear we become. Ultimately, we may need to make a choice between the pursuit of an anxiety-free life, or a life that feels meaningful.” Jessica Dore on how anxiety is inevitable if you want to live a meaningful life.
Patti gives this week’s benediction: “We are in trying times / my friends. Be strong, / be active, be good to / yourself, be good to / one another.”
Reading/Watching/Listening
The Haunting of Bly Manor: While The Haunting of Hill House was scarier, if you watched that you know that this series is really less about scares than transcendent healing. Bly Manor leans even heavier into that while also refreshing The Turn of the Screw and a few other Henry James stories. I liked it, although I still think we’ve got room for a modernized version The Turn of the Screw that truly plumbs the depths of its darkness.
Hey, it’s almost Halloween. Might I suggest you celebrate with Theatre of Blood, in which Vincent Price plays a bitter Shakespearean actor taking bloody revenge on every critic who panned him. Look, you’re either going to be super into Vincent Price spouting Shakespeare while enacting elaborate, theatrical murders or you’re not going to be into it. There’s not much else to it.
New Open Mike Eagle, team. You know what to do.
I wish you all the warmth and comfort you can find. You deserve it.
Love,
Jen
Connections
Substack archive: https://jenmyers.substack.com/archive
TinyLetter archive: http://tinyletter.com/jenmyers/archive
Essay archive: http://modernadventuress.com/
Website: http://jenmyers.net
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jenmyers
Email: hello@jenmyers.net
Post: P.O. Box 13114 Chicago, IL 60613
This week’s quote is from Ursula K. Le Guin.