I Swear It's Not Just a Pretentious Lewis Carroll Reference

Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome

Once upon a time, I read the book Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It’s an incredible book, though in the almost two decades since its initial release there’s been a bit of backlash. Most of that is because despite a sequel in 2011, he’s not released the final novel to finish out the Chronicle. (Funny enough, it’s the same stretch of time as the latest Song of Ice and Fire novel, and people are still mocking George R.R. Martin relentlessly…)

What Rothfuss understands, though, (and why his work is so time consuming to make) is an innate understanding in how we relate to the world. When we talk to people we know, it won’t take long before we regale them with some story, either ours or one we’ve heard. Giving a beginning, middle, and end is how we understand each other. It’s how we process information and learn about the world. Rothfuss’s novel is essentially a nonstop series of characters telling each other myths, legends, and tales as they grow closer together. There are many conversations without that at the center, but once you notice it, it’s impossible to avoid.

The narratives that make up our day to day lives are the things that define us. Naturally, we live in the most story-literate culture of all time (and those who come after us will be even more so, but I’m not here to talk about them. They’ll find this eventually), and that makes us incredibly aware of how narratives work. Tricks are not as effective as they might once have been. It’s easy for subtext to be so lite as to barely be noticeable, lest audiences accuse creatives of sledgehammering themes and messages they might not like.

But this also also means audiences can have takes that are… incorrect. Self-important. People can take the complete wrong message from something simply because they assume facts not in evidence. Ridley Scott can say Deckard is a Replicant, but that’s not just an interpretation until Denis Villeneuve comes in with a sequel almost thirty years later to cement that text into place. I remember having a conversation with somebody once. He was defending Star Trek Into Darkness of all things, and defending the Kirk/Spock inversion at the end of that movie as deep and rich by making grand assumptions and logic leaps that simply weren’t in the text. And… sure. Believe what you want. Bring an interpretation you want. Doesn’t mean I have to subscribe.

1. But Here’s Why You Should Subscribe To Me

I won’t pretend to have all the answers. What I will bring is my own interpretations, connections, and contexts that help inform whatever’s in my head. I’m sure many, many people have disagreed with the many, many takes I’ve provided over the past several decades of me talking about the lakes of pop culture I’ve gorged myself on. What I always try to bring is a sense of authority and reason to back up anything I speak to.

2. Context is King

Every time I experience some piece of art, I try to evaluate the contexts I have and question if I should know them. Like… if I’m watching a Chris Nolan movie, is it fair to know the title of the movie and use that context even though Nolan himself regularly puts his titles as the first thing his audiences see after he fades to black? Should I assume that the movie knows I’ve seen a trailer before I go in?

We live in a world where the culture has completely fractured. Events like the Super Bowl or a Taylor Swift global tour are the closest things we have to monoculture these days. Big studios nowadays spend upwards of a hundred million dollars to make an audience aware of whatever big release they have coming out. It’s less common for people to go out to the movies not knowing exactly what they’re going to see. The box office at a local theater is this large, curved glass desk, space for half a dozen attendants to process an order from the line of a Friday night rush. It’s empty almost every time I walk past, an empty museum exhibit where no line exists even in lonely scansions. Instead, there’s a couple of kiosks set up, ready for the weird person who isn’t already walking past, tickets pre-purchased on their phone well before they even left the house. Any idea how they knew to show up? Your guess is as good as anyone’s.

All of this, however, is important. I might pretend to not know things as a thought experiment, but it’s impossible for me to ignore the context I might know from compulsive internet sleuthing and decades of industry knowledge and behind the scenes gossip columns. People will ask if these things ruin the art for me. The answer is always no. It sucks that James Cameron was a terror on every film set he was on up through Avatar, but that also makes Titanic all the more of a remarkable achievement in cinema history. No one believed in him, but the mad genius of a generational talent let everyone bet against him and (for like the third time in his career) he churned out a masterpiece.

The pieces matter. Whatever they are. Everyone has their own taste. While standing in line to buy popcorn before a screening of Ghost Rider (bad movie) in 2007, the dude in front of me shared his thoughts on how bad Children of Men was while also repeating jokes from Norbit (which he’d recently seen) and talking it up as the best movie he’d seen in a long long time. Now, I’ve not seen Norbit in the decade and a half since that exchange, and I don’t think if I were to see it I would think it was good movie, but damn if I’d be able to watch it without thinking about that dude the entire time. It’s an experience wholly unique to me, but it would certainly color my perception of reality.

3. Okay… but who am I?

I’m really just a person who likes talking about movies, television, books, games… all of it. And too much. This is somewhat of a release valve of sorts, a place to talk about all the things I’m experiencing (reading, watching, listening to…) in my head and all the weird connections I’m making.

And as to things I like…? Mostly I’ve been a genre person all my life, mostly science fiction and fantasy. I’m less into stuff that isn’t at least elevated somewhat (be it crime, thriller, etc) and haven’t always been a huge fan of romance or things that are explicitly comedy, though there are tons of exceptions to this.

I’m a lifelong Trekkie and have always been into Star Wars. Read comics pretty consistently for about eight years (mostly Marvel/DC but read a bunch of series Image and others that weren’t capes and tights). The big inspiration for a lot of my taste is (unfortunately now) Joss Whedon, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an insanely formative text for me. It shaped a lot of my understanding of the medium and also happened to be basically everything I like in things. And… well it’s really too bad that he’s turned out to be who he is.

As for specifics… I have tons of shows and films that I like (too many to list). If you want to know what my most recent Top 100 films are, you can follow me on Letterboxd (though I have plans to do an updated list of Top 250 Films by the end of the year).

As for TV shows my top five of all time are currently Doctor Who, LOST, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Wire, and Slings & Arrows.

Books? My favorite book is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but others that come to mind are The Stand, The Way of Kings, The Night Circus, and David Copperfield.

Video games… I’m a huge Monkey Island fan (and Grim Fandango, by extension), but if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be Red Dead Redemption 2. I don’t game nearly as much as I want to, but that’s mostly because I know how easy it is for me to lose myself to literally any game once I get sucked in.

And on and on… you probably won’t have to read much of this to hear me start talking about the things I love.

4. Great… so what’s the plan?

It’s simple, really. I’m gonna write here weekly. The current plan is to write a free entry once a week recapping whatever’s stuck out to me and then to put out a paid one later in the week that’s a bit more robust or in-depth. Lord knows I shouldn’t be putting out a 5,000 word review of the latest Captain America movie on Letterboxd where people aren’t going to spend time reading it. So this’ll be a better place to reflect on such things.

Also lists. I’d love to do lists often because… well… they’re great and it’s fun to have hierarchies.

The focus is going to be movies, television, and books with some detours into games as they come up. My life is also going to bleed into this because of the aforementioned context. More than anything, though, what I’m trying to do is meet whatever I’m experiencing on its terms and try to connect to it through that. This isn’t a place for me to hate on things or hold court as some arbiter of quality, but rather to reflect on it and see what it stirs inside of me.

5. Thanks for joining…

No really. Thanks for it. We live in a world of smart phones and social isolation. America (and probably the world at large) is having a major loneliness epidemic. I’ve felt it and this is an attempt to get out there more, connect with people, and join a larger conversation. I welcome you to do the same and I’ll love to have you on board.

Coming soon…

(This is the place where I’ll preview what is currently on my docket. These won’t always transform into posts or whatever, but I’ll probably end up talking about all of these in some capacity, be they small hits or a larger discussion. If you’re playing along at home, these are ideas of what to do if you’re interested in keeping pace…)

• Blank Check catch-up: Currently going through the films of John McTiernan in my ongoing effort to catch-up on the podcast Blank Check. Hope to have them all watched in the next two weeks or so… The end is in sight!
• 2025 Criterion Challenge: This is an ongoing challenge through Letterboxd. I just hit the halfway point and should be done with the full list by the end of June. Any of these could turn into full posts. Films I’m watching for this week are probably Love Affair and Trances
• Survivor: Season 48 is ongoing and it’s a great cast and a good season so far. Maybe the best pre-merge of the New Era?
• The Last of Us Part 2: Started this over the weekend. I’ll finish by the release of Season 2.
• White Lotus: Caught up aside from this coming Sunday’s season finale.
• The Pitt: Need to start this because everyone’s swearing by it. Also might inspire a full watch of ER?
• The Stormlight Archive: Spent the last year in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere and I’m almost done in my re-read of the last half of Wind & Truth because…
• Sandee Boyz Book Podcast: My friend Chris and I went through the Cosmere last year (most of it a re-read for me, all new for Chris). We’ve already recorded two episodes on Wind & Truth (one after the prologue, one after Day Five) and we’re recording full book thoughts soon. The plan after this is to read The Malazan Book of the Fallen and do regular check-ins on our progress. (But more on this later…)
• Community Rewatch: Rewatching Community with my partner. We just finished season three and are dragging our heels on season four. For obvious reasons.
• Twin Peaks s3: Partner and I are also watching through Twin Peaks The Return for the first time. We’re watching one episode a week and it looks like Episode 12 is tonight. Beyond excited.

Gosh that’s enough for now…

Thank you for reading this far. I appreciate you and welcome you along this journey. It’s gonna be great. Probably. Maybe. Kinda. I’m not overpromising.

Onwards!