A squirrel confronts the void
This week: the short animated film "The Missing Scarf," in which a squirrel fights nihilism, J.D. Vance's spiritual couch-fuckery, and the philosophy of H.P. Lovecraft
Say what you want about Jimmy Fallon: he does a good Jim Morrison impression.
The Doors’ moody nihilism mixed with bibliophilia feels like a good place for us to start, because this week we’re staring into the void! It’s finally October, which means the spooky season that many of us began in early September is now formally upon us. I have celebrated by filling my house with even more ravens than usual, and I also bought a Vonnegut skull print by the artist Ravi Zupa that I am now happy to shill to everyone I see.
If you’re only gonna do one thing in this article, watch the embedded short, “The Missing Scarf” down below. Otherwise, read on!
Cool links
Last month, J.D. Vance idiotically used the classic Scorsese movie The Gangs of New York to support his anti-immigrant stances, and because we live on a planet where sometimes nice things happen, Rebecca Solnit wrote a response. Solnit dives into the history behind The Gangs of New York, that of the “Know Nothing Party,” a short-lived racist, nativist, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic Party that gained popularity in the years before the Civil War, and how Vance maybe should have figured out that Daniel Day-Lewis’s “Know-Nothing” character was actually the bad guy in that movie.
My article this week only touches on the deeper philosophy of Lovecraft’s work (focusing on his inherent racism), but Lovecraft’s modern relevance has been recognized by more people than Alan Moore, modern heavy metal bands, and Stephen King. In Aeon, Sam Woodward breaks down Lovecraft’s unique brand of nihilism, which has become increasingly popular in the tumultuous early years of the 21st century.
In a recent article in Aeon, philosopher Abigail Tulenko writes that her field has struggled to include philosophical voices from cultures that aren’t white, male, European, and upper-to-middle class. She has an interesting solution: look to folklore. Most societies, she points out, engage with ethics, morality, and philosophy through the stories they tell, in which a character’s ideas are pitted against the realities of life. Stories — especially the spooky, scary, or cautionary ones — are one of the best ways we as humans can engage with life’s big questions.
Lovecraft, J.D. Vance, and the horror of American racism
This weeks paywalled Better Strangers article was about how J.D. Vance’s arrival on the American political scene was fueled in large part by American liberals and moderates who were grasping for reasons as to why so many people in white middle America were taken by Donald Trump.
The impulse, of course, is understandable, but the truth about white middle America is rarely voiced by “respectable” conservative voices, because the truth has a whole lot to do with white supremacy and a uniquely American strand of evangelical Christian fascism. I’m about two years younger than Vance and I grew up 20 miles from where he did, and I can tell you — there are a lot more racists and fascists in suburban Cincinnati than there are welfare queens.
Vance is nicely contrasted with the deeply problematic horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, whose racism was not dog-whistled but effectively shouted through the pages of his most iconic works. Lovecraft has more to teach us about white middle America’s anxieties because, for all his faults, he’s a lot more honest than Vance. Lovecraft’s horror is rooted in a fear of the revelations of 20th century science, which seemed to be uprooting the very foundations of the white supremacy that put people like him on the top of the global heap. You can read the whole article here (I offer one-week free trials, if you want to just read this article!):
I also naturally peppered some Alan Moore in there, specifically in regards to the “couch-fucker” rumors about Vance:
Am I continuing the spread of misinformation? Sure. But remember when the first episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror portrayed a Prime Minister being coerced into fucking a pig on national television? And then like, two years later, it came out that during his college days, Prime Minister David Cameron had actually fucked a pig? I can’t find the interview to give you the exact quote, but I remember Alan Moore discussing this on a podcast and saying something along the lines of “Even if David Cameron hasn’t literally fucked a pig, we all know that spiritually, deep down in his heart, he’s a pig-fucker.”
“The Missing Scarf” and the struggle against the meaninglessness of life
George Takei’s best-ever performance was a voiceover role in a 2013 animated short by Eoin Duffy called “The Missing Scarf.” In it, Albert, a squirrel, searches for his missing scarf, but is continually delayed by other woodland creatures who need his help solving increasingly bleak existential problems. It is 6 minutes long and it is one of my favorite movies of the past 15 years.
When people ask me “how you doing?” I usually want to answer like the bear does, but I’ve found that earns me a (perhaps justifiable) reputation as being “a bit intense.” So instead I usually go with “fine.”
I hope you are all doing fine as well, and have a lovely weekend. Please remember to not spend too long gazing into the abyss, lest the abyss gaze into you.
When people ask how I am, I'm just going to send them the scarf film.