Psychedelia Gothique

I set out to write a nice light post about the first episode of the new season of Wynonna Earp , the movie The Colour of Space , the first season of HBO’s Perry Mason and the first season of Warrior Nun.  But I ended up in a bit of a diatribe about how the entertainment alternatives that seemed so numerous and satisfying before the pandemic, now seem inadequate to fight off the ennui and despair that continues to undermine us during and in the wake of the first wave of the pandemic. Maybe it’s a stress thing; we find it harder to cut loose and enjoy anything in the lower functioning state most of us have adopted. Sports teams are playing weird, shortened seasons for remote audiences. TV, the music industry and publishing have all stalled out. There’s very little new entertainment coming out and most of us have finished watching, reading, and listening to work we would be naturally inclined to enjoy. We’re panning for gold in places we wouldn’t ordinarily be inclined to look for ...

Television has always been filled with one hour dramas featuring the full range of modern heroes: doctors, nurses, police, firefighters, soldiers.   Most of them don’t reach too high. I can’t count the number of times I’ve watched a show like Criminal Minds or Castle , only to realize partway through that I’d seen it before. Or the number of times I thought I’ve seen it before only to figure out that it was actually new, but the plotline was so tired and overdone that I’d might as well have seen it. Frankly, the lack of imagination bores the hell out of me. Historical dramas are somewhat better. The best ones find ways to pump new life and new insights into old stories. And stories set in the French court, Victorian England, colonial Africa or the dawn of humankind - depict cultures I’m not overly familiar with. I get a bit irked when someone gets into bed in a medieval castle and their bed linens look like 300 threadcount sheets from WalMart - . Part of making a good histo...

Having seen the movie, The Witch , over this past weekend - I was impressed by its evocation of the 17th century - especially its depiction of how our faith governed every aspect of our values, our perceptions and our approach to life. With no real knowledge or access to knowledge, those early pioneers were awed by and afraid of everything. Imagination blossomed and flourished in that garden of ignorance. Not knowing what was possible and impossible - made everything possible, everything real. The sum total of individual knowledge was contained within our minds and within the pages of the one book most people in the new world had any access to - the Holy Bible . Civilization gradually changed all that. A proliferation of books from a huge range of experts and gifted scribes constantly set new limits and defined the boundaries of possibility. Humanity's growing knowledge base gradually eroded the power of religiosity and ignorance and finally brought our imaginations into check...