People often say that if you want to include a didactic message in your fiction story, then you should just write an essay. Which is true—but not because essays are better, or because art can’t have a message. But messages should be put in essays rather than art, more due to the audience of the medium than the medium itself.
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“It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything.” — Oscar Wilde
One of my favorite parts of writing a piece of fiction is coming up with the title. I agree with Oscar Wilde: Naming a work of art is an art in itself and should always be treated as such. The name that is given to a work of art is massively influential on how that work is received. As a result, I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the titles of my books (and the names of my characters, but that’s a topic for another day).
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I have been wanting to read Jung for a while after hearing so much about his work second-hand through podcasts, blogs, and books. Jung has been highly influential on so many writers, thinkers, and artists I admire—and I can see why. His symbolic and mythological approach to psychology is sorely needed in our overly reductionist materialistic world. This book serves as a great introduction to Jung’s work. It features one chapter by Jung himself while the rest are written by his associates. The book also features lots of images to help illustrate the points about symbols because visual symbols are so powerful. Jung writes about the unconscious and the role of the artist:
Zero HP Lovecraft (@0x49fa98) is an anonymous internet poster I originally discovered around 2016 when I was looking at the accounts Naval Ravikant (@naval) followed on Twitter. His name and bio (horrorist) intrigued me, so I read his short story, “The Gig Economy,” which was like a modern cyberpunk take on “The Call of Cthulhu.”
I instantly became a fan and read all of Zero’s stories as they originally came out on his WordPress site (now on Substack), and later assembled in this collection. I had been meaning to re-visit the stories because they deserve (and often require) re-reading. His fiction is like a combination of the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft with the dense philosophical speculation of Jorge Luis Borges and the mind-bending science fiction of Ted Chiang.
I released my list of the best horror movies I watched this past year, and the best older movies, now it’s time for my list of the best newer movies (released within the decade) that I watched in 2024. As always, check JustWatch to see where the movies may be currently streaming.
Burning (2018) directed by Lee Chang-dong
I didn’t know anything about this movie beforehand, other than it was South Korean and highly acclaimed. So it was fascinating to watch while having no idea where it would go—because the film goes to some wildly unexpected places by the end. I don’t want to say what it’s about because any spoilers would detract from the viewing experience, but the only film I can remotely compare it to is The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Dream Scenario (2023) Directed by Kristoffer Borgli
In this super surreal movie, some random guy (Nic Cage) starts showing up in people’s dreams around the world. It has a very Charlie Kaufman-esque tone, sort of like a mix between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich. In fact, Dream Scenario might be better than anything Kaufman himself has done since Eternal Sunshine.
With 2024 winding down, it is time for my 9th annual list of the best movies at least a decade old that I watched this past year. Once again, the list is somewhat random and arbitrary, based on the movies I just so happen to choose to watch (or re-watch) over the course of the past year. (In case you missed it, I made a separate list for the best horror movies I watched in 2024.) As always, check JustWatch.com to see where the following films may be currently streaming.
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My annual list of the best movies 10 years or older (and the list for newer movies I’ve seen) was growing long this year—partially because I watched so many horror movies in October1—so I decided to take the horror movies from those lists to create a new compilation of every horror movie I watched this year. (The films are separated into five tiers and listed alphabetically within each tier.)
I’d been wanting to see this film for a while because it is within one of my favorite subgenres of folk horror. The Wicker Man is one of the original movies of that sub-genre and the best, inspiring later films like Midsommar. A police officer goes to a secluded Scottish island in search of a missing girl, but the townspeople act oddly with weird customs. He comes to learn they are part of a pagan cult, and the girl was possibly part of a ritual sacrifice. The final twist (which I will not spoil) is iconic. What is most impressive is how they were able to make a chilling horror film without any darkness or blood (most of the film takes place in broad daylight).
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In September of 2023 I planned to record an audiobook for my horror novel Trick or Zombie Treat (originally published in 2015) to release for Halloween of that year. However, I soon realized recording an audiobook would take much longer than I anticipated. I also realized the book needed some editing. There were a couple of typos, which were easy enough to fix, but there were other issues—not grammatical errors, but the prose just didn’t flow as smoothly as it should have. Correcting that took a bit more time and effort.
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Season one of True Detective was one of my favorite television shows of all time. I was disappointed by the second season but thought the third was a return to form—not quite as good as the original, but a worthy successor. The fourth season, True Detective: Night Country was no longer being run by the original creator Nic Pizzolatto, so my expectations lowered, though I was still optimistic it could be good. I love the general format of True Detective, with each season being a self-contained miniseries following new detectives who investigate a murder case. I hate TV shows that go on forever, so the best thing about True Detective is you are guaranteed an ending.
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Many people today think America is more polarized than ever due to social media and the proliferation of fake news on the internet. But the country was just as polarized (if not more so) in the 1770s and 1860s when there were major wars fought between fellow citizens on American soil. Those were times before television and radio, when newspapers were the only form of media. The early American era was more akin to the present, with rival sources from each side of the political spectrum giving biased news to their bases. The difference then was political conflicts were more localized. Each town had multiple competing local newspapers, so political attention was more regional, as opposed to a national bipolar culture war between two diametrically opposed tribes. The advent of decentralized mass media on the internet allowed that.
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T.Z. Barry 