Never Be Bored
26 August 2024
Come home, the kettle's whistling
I Saw The TV Glow, 2024 Jane Schoenbrun movie. Our Wives Under the Sea novel by Julia Armfield; 1899 tv show; Piranesi novel by Susanna Clarke.
You have forgotten something very, very important. You are lost and you are loved, you have wandered far and don't know the way back and somewhere someone begs: "come home." This is a story arc that is extremely dear to me.
Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow is an homage to classic horror rendered in gorgeous color, it's a coming-of-age story about transformative media, it's a harrowing allegory for the trans experience with a warning. It begins as Owen and Maddy, teenagers in a small town, tentatively become friends via their shared love for The Pink Opaque, a tv show about the supernatural. As the film progresses, it forces the audience to confront the absolute horror that is never becoming the person you were always meant to be. And when I say force, I mean this movie grabs you by the throat and makes you cry about it. I watched it in theaters twice in a week because I simply could not stop thinking about it.
Of the main character, I have this to say—she's a coward, and she's the bravest person I know.
You have wandered far, and in that wandering, you have changed. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield is also queer horror, but this time centered around a married couple, Miri and Leah, switching between POVs and timelines in deliciously detailed and unsettling prose. Leah, a marine biologist, has finally returned after what should have been a three week deep sea dive stretches out for months; Miri is desperate for answers and wondering if Leah's technical return to land is a return to home at all.
You are lost and you are loved and somewhere someone begs: "wake up." While en route to New York City from Southampton, all the compasses on board steamship Kerberos break—and it just gets weirder from there. Netflix tv show 1899 features passengers and crew speaking a dazzling array of languages at each other, each with their own secrets, all trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Deeply ominous and meticulously plotted, this show will keep you guessing start to finish.
You have forgotten something very, very important, but the House is beautiful, and you are comforted. It is the Fifth Month in the Year the Albatross came to the South-Western Halls, and Piranesi wanders the Vestibules and Halls of the House, documents the Tides, and occasionally meets up with the Other to discuss Secret Knowledge. The story unfolds as you slowly start to realize just how Piranesi came to live in the House—strong contender for best book I've read this year, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke broke my heart.
Never Be Bored is a recommendation blog documenting my journey through my never-ending queue. For each thing I like, I'm recommending things to go with it based on similar themes—not just books for book posts or movies for movie posts, but music and comics too, things you might not see otherwise. Read the archives here. For a permalink to this post, click here.