70. Yes
I.
In the 1960s, John Lennon visited an exhibition by the artist Yoko Ono. He climbed a staircase into a room and picked up a magnifying glass to read the word written in tiny letters on a piece of paper above his head. ‘Yes’, it says. A huge relief, Lennon later said of it. A positive message. “It didn’t say ‘no’ or ‘fuck you’, it said ‘yes’.”
The artwork shows that you can find hope and positivity, even if you have to look hard for it. We could all do with that mindset, both offline and online. Negativity always gets attention and it’s easy to go along with it. I read this week on Jay Springett’s blog about how he consciously tries to resist it. Much of what’s on the internet is negative, he writes. “But it’s unhealthy to be nothing but negative. I don’t want to be that sort of person, in real life or online.”
Exactly.
Like Springett, I decided at some point to blog more. If you want to know what’s on my mind, you can read these posts on my own little corner of the internet. “I don’t want to be part of a negative internet, so I choose not to contribute to it,” writes Springett. “Cynicism as a product has no value. Instead, I share posts that I think will benefit both my readers and myself.”
That’s why I enjoy reading other people’s blogs. In your own circle, you’re more likely to share what you like rather than what makes you angry. That enthusiasm is contagious. That’s why it’s great that writer Warren Ellis recently shared a number of blogs he reads. That’s how I came across Springett. But also { feuilleton }, The Casual Optimist, Uses This, Ganzeer.Today, The Pen Addict and Notebook Stories. I’ve also put together a list before, but more tips are always welcome. Because I’m always on the lookout for the ladders that lead to a ‘yes’.
II.
A new game from developer The Chinese Room is cause for celebration. Earlier titles Dear Esther (2012) and, in particular, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (2015) were beautiful, mysterious stories that you piece together yourself. You wander through a world, taking it all in, and by the end (if you have the patience and are open to it) you’ve experienced something beautiful.
Almost nine years after Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, there is finally a new game from the British studio, called Still Wakes the Deep. You play as Caz McLeary, a foul-mouthed Scot who flees the authorities by taking a job on an oil rig in the North Sea. After the drill hits something strange on the seabed, the game drags you from one disaster to the next.
Although the gameplay is once again rather basic (walking, flipping a switch, swimming), The Chinese Room guides you at breakneck speed through a heart-pounding horror thriller. Still Wakes the Deep is reminiscent of the first Alien film, but set on Earth. With a friendly crew you get to know in an opening scene, an oil rig as a spaceship, and an evil on board that you don’t always see, but constantly feel.
The game is a five-hour rollercoaster ride, with a story that often feels oppressive and hopeless. The eerie audio gets under your skin. Still Wakes the Deep isn’t as good as the developer’s earlier work; the story is simply more straightforward. Yet this story, too, left me feeling somewhat subdued.
---III.
I watched Signs again, the science fiction film by director M. Night Shyamalan. It turned out to be a very different film from the one I remembered. The last time I saw it, I was at secondary school. In a friend’s attic room, we analysed the moment in the film when you see the first alien in full regalia. Excited kids at a window. Swelling strings. Bam. There he steps out from behind a bush into the frame.
In Signs, you don’t see the aliens very often. I reckon there simply wasn’t enough money for convincing CGI. Sometimes you catch a glimpse of them in a reflection, sometimes just an outline. The moment you see the alien in full was terrifying at the time. We watched it frame by frame. That’s how we realised the green creature had been standing behind the bush for quite some time. Once you know that, you can already see its skin through the leaves before it takes a step.
Signs is still quite thrilling, but only now did I see the film’s true message. It’s not just about an alien invasion, as I thought as a child, but mainly about rediscovering God after losing your faith. That’s laid on very thick. Speaking of Signs, there are some signs you don’t pick up on as a young viewer. Just like the dreadful dialogue. At that age, the thrill of the unknown takes precedence.
---PS.
The idea for starting this blog began with a tip from my friend Lars. He sent me a video essay on Yoko Ono’s influence on The Beatles, by filmmaker Lindsay Ellis. Ono is often blamed for the break-up of the band. Even now, 55 years on, whilst it is now clear that Ono had nothing to do with The Beatles’ split. The video below makes this crystal clear and branches out into interesting tangents, with examples of how the partners of famous men are often blamed when their careers are ruined. Yoko Ono, now 91, has weathered it all. It is truly inspiring how she always stayed true to her own path and managed to brush off the criticism.
---“We’ll be going through those doors shortly, and you’ll feel as if you’re stepping into a Tintin comic,” said one of the spokespeople when I visited Airbus in Oegstgeest. He had a point, in a way. Components for the Ariane 6 rocket are being built in the workshop. I saw gigantic domes there that will be heading into space in a few years’ time. A bizarre idea. The Ariane 6 is the major new launch vehicle that will finally allow Europe to carry out its own space launches again after years of inactivity. Last week, it made its maiden flight. I wrote about it on NU.nl.
Author Tonke Dragt has passed away. As a child, I naturally enjoyed her best-known work, The Letter for the King. My personal favourite remains The Seven-Step, which has been made into a brilliant children’s series. You can find the whole series on YouTube, by the way.
Film journalist Bor Beekman wrote a beautiful obituary for Shelley Duvall. Her gruelling role in The Shining traumatised her. In later life, the actress struggled with problems, both mental and financial, although she eventually came to terms with the staircase scene from the film. Director Stanley Kubrick made her do it 127 times. Unbelievable, when you see the intensity with which she plays it. “It was difficult,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “But in the end, it was one of the best scenes in the film. I’d quite like to see it again.”
---Journalist Evan Ratliff delves into the world of voice cloning. With artificial intelligence, just a few seconds of a voice are needed to create a clone that is almost indistinguishable from the real thing. You can then make that clone say anything. You can even turn it into a chatbot and have it make phone calls on its own. That is exactly what Ratliff has done in his podcast series Shell Game, the first episode of which is now online. Funny and scary.
The first trailer for Gladiator II is out, featuring Paul Mescal facing off in an arena against a man on a rhinoceros.
---Yet another example of how artificial intelligence is eroding journalism. Writers from The Unofficial Apple Weblog, an old website featuring Apple news, suddenly find their names appearing under new articles generated using AI. Ridiculous, of course, but it does result in an interesting report from 404 Media with the best headline of the week: Hocked TUAW.
Thanks for reading! I’d really appreciate it if you’d subscribe to this newsletter. Every Sunday, I’ll send you a new edition free of charge.