This is the fifteenth edition of The Voice In Your Head Is Mine. The date is August 24th, 2020. If you're receiving this email and have no idea what's going on, well, fuck. I guess I blew it. Or maybe you blew it. Either way, you're here and this is Zac Thompson's weekly newsletter.
It’s early Monday morning. I’ve been keeping my promise to myself and getting up early to do about 12 km on my bike before even checking my email. It’s positively liberating. Especially on a Monday where I typically wake up to far too many emails to respond to. The brief hour of disconnect keeps me grounded.
It’ll be a short one again this week, folks. I’ve got a pile of things to do and I’m also prepping for a backcountry camping trip at the end of next week. Trying to marathon through a pile of work to earn some communion with the trees.
The Art of Reading
I’ve been thinking a lot about reading. Moreso as it relates to writing. I said something to this effect on Twitter yesterday but if you’re a writer/writing you should absolutely be taking notes when you’re reading. Maybe that’s completely obvious but it wasn’t to me. I used to think I could retain every aspect of every piece of media I consume. But my brain is sadly limited in what it can remember.
I’ve found that taking notes while watching movies/reading books is integral to my process. Sometimes it’s during the research phase and you notice a line of dialogue that perfectly encapsulates what you’re trying to say in your story. But you might not be writing that part of the story for another 2 months. In that case it’s imperative that you keep detailed notes that you can return to when you’re ready.
Just a small aside for me to revisit this in issue #3 of the series I’m currently reading this for.
Perhaps it’s obvious but I’m also quite fond of liberally highlighting pages of books, scribbling in the margins and leaving little pieces of reflection in everything I read. This completely ruins them for other people but without that thinking process captured on the pages I don’t think I could go back and recreate my ideas when I need them.
This is something I’ve been doing for years but it kinda crystalized over the past week. I had a project that was put on pause due to the pandemic that as of two weeks ago is back in production. The only problem was I had done most of the prep work months ago. Luckily my notes, highlighting and annotations in my research material more than made up for the gap.
Also, as an aside, if you’re a writer: read non-fiction. Expand your knowledge base, become an expert in something weird, I promise it’ll help your writing.
Hollow Knight
I know I’m like four years late but I’m obsessed with this game. I’ve always been a giant fan of the Metroidvania style games with a massive map that’s slowly yours to explore. I adore the backtracking and progressive difficulty spikes (much like their modern cousins in the From Soft games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne). But there’s something about Hollow Knight I can’t escape.
The atmosphere and the storytelling are second to none. There’s a less is more approach to the world where you can fill in the details if you’re really looking for them but it just sorta lets you loose on this giant map with no more than a sword. I’ve been having a blast with it and even though it’s been kicking my ass in places, I haven’t had this much fun with a side-scroller since replaying Super Metroid last year.
On A Silver Globe
Took in Andrzej Żuławski's unfinished masterpiece ON A SILVER GLOBE this weekend. For the unfamiliar Żuławski is responsible for one of my favorite films of all time: POSSESSION. Though these two films don’t share much of the same DNA.
Silver Globe is overwhelmingly ambitious and doesn’t try to shy away from it’s complexity. I don’t think I could accurately describe it if I wanted to but here’s my best try: A group of Astronauts land on a distant planet where they begin to age backward. Except one of them doesn’t. As his fellow cosmonauts become a savage tribe, he remembers Earth and becomes a weird messiah. Though that’s only about the first hour of the film. Then it gets even crazier.
It’s a labyrinth of a film with a three hour runtime. It drops you into a complex world filled with astonishing imagery that really has to be seen to be believed. There is so much in here that will stick with me for a very long time. I don’t think I fully grasped the entirety of the plot but the visuals alone are a feast. It’s shot like an Emmanuel Lubezki film on acid.
If you’re looking for something haunting and unlike anything you’ve ever seen, it’s streaming in HD for free right here: http://exmilitai.re/film
Tiny Scabs
The first episode of HBO’s The Vow aired last night. It’s a deep dive into the NXIVM cult that popped up right here in Vancouver. It’s a really fascinating watch, especially in this first idyllic and sunny hour when you know what’s coming.
Wired ran an incredible article about the wildlife reclaiming the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Well worth a read if you dug the HBO show about the disaster: The Chernobyl Disaster May Have Also Built a Paradise.
This week’s podcast, right here.
Goodbye
Another week has come and gone. I hope you’re keeping sane in this weird forgotten year. Shut out all the noise that’s dying to confuse and disorient you. Remind a person in your life why you appreciate them. Make the most of these dying days of summer.
Z