The Wind is Rising
An Octoberish Book, Film, TV, and Music List for 2020
I’ve written at length about what October means to me, so I’ll spare you the waxing poetical. Look, it’s been a pretty grim year. As a result, I’ve read and watched a lot more horror lately. This makes sense given my master’s thesis, which explored the idea that horror provides fear we can control (as opposed to all the real-life fears we cannot). However, I apologize to my readers who don’t enjoy scary media and read my Octoberish posts for more in the wistful vein. Hopefully next year, guys.
Unfortunately, I’ve read a lot of bad horror this year, which will make selecting this year’s Most Disappointing Book quite difficult come December’s end. But as you’ll see, I’ve read a lot of great stuff, too.
In the music section of this edition, I was experiencing a stupor of thought. Most of the new stuff I’ve listened to this year is of the peppy, motivational, get-off-your-paralyzed-duff-and-do-something variety. (Example: my ridiculous obsession with BTS’s “Dynamite,” which I’m still not sick of. The original video has almost 500 million views at this point, and I won’t confess how many of those are mine.) Fortunately, two of my genius children came to my rescue and sent me some excellent suggestions.
A note on ratings: I’ve applied the MPAA’s highly imperfect system to the TV series…
