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They played the song all portentously like it really was this magic song out of nowhere that no one knew but went right to your soul…
Yeah, it was the theme from Love Story. The most popular movie of 1970, which most every music box played from then til the 90s https://twitter.com/catvalente/status/1294343658708312066
Yeah, it was the theme from Love Story. The most popular movie of 1970, which most every music box played from then til the 90s https://twitter.com/catvalente/status/1294343658708312066
Things are most mysterious when you don’t know them *but you feel like you do*
This comes from the fallibility of memory. They *had* heard the theme from Love Story before, they just didn’t remember when or why.
The dusting of familiarity is more enticing than the total unknown
This comes from the fallibility of memory. They *had* heard the theme from Love Story before, they just didn’t remember when or why.
The dusting of familiarity is more enticing than the total unknown
I think about this whenever I write horror or dark fantasy, whenever I want to create a tingling eerie thrill rather than a real scare.
The slightly familiar makes it feel more true. Like lies, like history, like songs on the radio rearranging the same chords.
The slightly familiar makes it feel more true. Like lies, like history, like songs on the radio rearranging the same chords.
The void is unmanageably terrifying.
The suburban house teetering on the edge of the void is titillating.
This is actually the definition of the word “uncanny.”
It’s also why the mail disappearing shakes us so.
Without the mail, we live in the house on the edge of the void
The suburban house teetering on the edge of the void is titillating.
This is actually the definition of the word “uncanny.”
It’s also why the mail disappearing shakes us so.
Without the mail, we live in the house on the edge of the void
The election being stolen in front of us is very bad. This familiar thing is being twisted
But the mail is so much more basic than an election. The mail comes every day. It HAS to. It’s the world’s umbilicus, connecting to our door through a metal box that’s suddenly…
gone
But the mail is so much more basic than an election. The mail comes every day. It HAS to. It’s the world’s umbilicus, connecting to our door through a metal box that’s suddenly…
gone
We don’t just need the mail for our paychecks & prescriptions & birthday cards & bills
We need it because it’s never occurred to us to imagine not having it. Being unable to to send & receive is an apocalyptic scenario. That’s what happens when the dead rise & the rivers run red
We need it because it’s never occurred to us to imagine not having it. Being unable to to send & receive is an apocalyptic scenario. That’s what happens when the dead rise & the rivers run red
But the dead haven’t risen. It’s just this scared clown of a man reaching his hungry hand into our lives & taking the familiar away to save himself.
It’s gonna take awhile to get our heads around how hard things can break for us.
How much more familiarity he can take.
It’s gonna take awhile to get our heads around how hard things can break for us.
How much more familiarity he can take.
Since 2016, for a lot of people, Trump has just been an unsettlingly eerie song that makes them uncomfortable.
But we’re all starting to recognize it. A theme song from a long time ago that was once tremendously popular.
We just can’t seem to close the music box.
But we’re all starting to recognize it. A theme song from a long time ago that was once tremendously popular.
We just can’t seem to close the music box.
I promise he can take more than the mail from us.
He can take the shape of life, everything we think must keep happening because it always has
He’ll say we never had it, or dont need it, or shouldn’t want it
Most will agree. He’ll have replaced the familiar, become the shape
He can take the shape of life, everything we think must keep happening because it always has
He’ll say we never had it, or dont need it, or shouldn’t want it
Most will agree. He’ll have replaced the familiar, become the shape
That’s what fascism does. That’s why so much 20th century horror & SF find roots in WWII.
Because fascism is a magic trick that replaces your life with one *almost* just like it, but with the leader at its core
Your old self becomes a just familiar song you can’t quite place.
Because fascism is a magic trick that replaces your life with one *almost* just like it, but with the leader at its core
Your old self becomes a just familiar song you can’t quite place.
This is already happening.
We talk about him all day. Every television & computer shows his face, plays his voice. No one has to ask who “he” is in the phrase “Dod you hear what he did today?”
He has already replaced so much of what we used to do & see & talk about
We talk about him all day. Every television & computer shows his face, plays his voice. No one has to ask who “he” is in the phrase “Dod you hear what he did today?”
He has already replaced so much of what we used to do & see & talk about
We want this to be dramatic, because then obviously everyone would see it & we’d just stop it.
But it isn’t. It’s a million small offenses against the familiar until one day there’s no mail anymore & no flour or beef & you can’t remember what it was like before he came.
But it isn’t. It’s a million small offenses against the familiar until one day there’s no mail anymore & no flour or beef & you can’t remember what it was like before he came.
Remember how the song goes.
It’s not magic, it’s just a cheesy catchy melody selling you a fantasy.
Not Love Story this time, but a fantasy of control & cruelty without consequences.
Both, you need to know, even if you’re too young to remember the original, end in death.
It’s not magic, it’s just a cheesy catchy melody selling you a fantasy.
Not Love Story this time, but a fantasy of control & cruelty without consequences.
Both, you need to know, even if you’re too young to remember the original, end in death.
