You try hard to go easy on yourself

[sovay]

Rabbit, rabbit! A Warren canvasser just rang our doorbell and startled the cats. Fortunately I could tell him that he did not need to evangelize to me and that he should stay warm on his rounds. The cats were warily prowling when I returned upstairs and were rewarded with treats for being so brave and honest.

1. The Brattle is running a series of religious horror. It's mostly Christian, but I haven't seen any of the movies except for the double feature of The Witch (2015) and The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015), which I should very much like to be healthy enough to attend. Some of the rest look fascinating.

2. I am delighted by Yoon Ha Lee's The Phoenix Recursive: A Combinatorial Experience (2020). Technically it's a classically black-and-white photocopied minizine, but it's also a beautiful little lo-fi semi-poetry chapbook and it could win a Rhysling any day, I'm just saying. Huzzah for Deuce of Gears Press.

3. Courtesy of handful_ofdust: some cute role-reversal leap year cards.

I think I am actually furious about the coronavirus. About the dismantling of protections and preparations. About the denial of reality-responsibility until it is too late to do anything but wring hands and blame scapegoats. It is one thing to die for reasons beyond anyone's control; it's another to die for the insecurity, stupidity, and malice of those in power who laid the groundwork for what will be worse. I don't want to lose my family. I don't, for that matter, want to join the mortality rate myself. In terms of what can and can't be tested for, the situation feels medieval to the point that I am disappointed in the absence of traditionally masked plague doctors. I would like to be able to look back on these thoughts as overreaction. I spend so much time working to stay alive.

Comments

[sovay]

That religious horror series looks wonderful. The Rapture is one of my favorites, though I've never seen it in a theater.

Talk to me about it! It's the movie handful_ofdust compared Frailty to, when I mentioned being interested in that one.

I have seen The Exorcist in a theater, decades ago, and highly recommend it.

I'd like to try for it. I've never seen it and I feel if I'm going to, the big screen is the way to go.

I like The Invitation a lot, but would find it too terrifying to watch in a theater!

That's really good to know!

Yay Yoon Ha Lee chapbook!

It was such a nice thing to have arrive in the mail, especially when I feel crummy.

The sheer irresponsibility and incompetence on display re: the coronavirus is enraging.

I will also be disappointed in modern art if I don't see at least one mural of the Dance of Death featuring members of the current administration in place of the traditional emperor, pope, etc. High and low.

[gwynnega]

In The Rapture, Mimi Rogers plays a world-weary hedonist who becomes a born-again Christian. Things go badly wrong when she tries to interpret some prophetic dreams she's been having. She's right that the Rapture is coming, but by the time that happens, she's ready to tell God to go fuck himself for all eternity. The last minutes of this film are among my favorites in any movie.

[sovay]

She's right that the Rapture is coming, but by the time that happens, she's ready to tell God to go fuck himself for all eternity. The last minutes of this film are among my favorites in any movie.

Okay, that sounds amazing.

[lauradi7dw]

I watched it on video as part of a David Duchovny binge, early on in the run of the X-files. I found myself surprised at how conflicted I was at Rogers's character's reactions. Of course she was right, and yet... There was a lot of "if only" going on in my head.

[gwynnega]

It could be said that she blames God for her own startlingly bad decisions. Even so, there's something magnificent about her final decision, right or wrong.